Cloak as Red as Blood

Chapter 20: Evil Comes a Knockin'

Once again we were back to traveling in the moving cottage. Since we lost our ride, we were 

back to finding the sea ourselves. Puss and I were in the kitchen practicing my divination skills 

with the tarot. The boys were upstairs in Hunter's room, trying to figure out where we should 

head next. As I looked at the cards my mind went back to Madame Poe's circus. Who had she 

been really? Why did she hold particular disdain for my family? "Puss?", I asked my familiar. "Yes 

mistress?"  "The people in my family, besides Granny and Mother, what were they like ?" Puss 

tilted his head like he didn't understand the question. "Everywhere we go, it seems that other 

people know  more about them than I do. I learned from my Granny's memories that we fought 

against the humans in the Dark Era, plus I've met an Incubus and a Lamia who my compendium 

says shares my bloodline. Is my family tree nothing but leaves of people who let their power 

turn them to darkness?" "Magic has always run strong in the blood of the Chesshire clan. Some 

across the generations take to it more than other. You and your Mother are one of the few to not 

let the magic corrupt you. And just because we've run into people with bad stories of the 

Chesshire family doesn't mean there are not any good ones out there." He was obviously 

avoiding my questions, but why? 

"Why ask these things of me Mistress? Does something way heavily on your heart?" "It's just that 

I'm afraid I'll end up succumbing to the darkness. My Mother's letter said the power in our blood 

has a strong pull to the dark. What if I become like Madame Poe, or any of the other villains 

we've faced so far?" "Mistress I believe that your worries are needless. You have expressed a 

strong will up to this point. Learning what you have accomplished so far in the short amount of 

time takes an extreme amount of determination and strong will. The likelihood of you 

succumbing to the darkness is very slim in my eyes." I smiled at my familiar suddenly feeling a 

lot better. My relief however was short lived.

The cottage began to shake violently. It was as if the ground beneath us was having an 

earthquake. But that couldn't be, with my earth magic I would have felt the vibrations in the 

earth change. I gripped the edge of the table to maintain my footing. Puss fell off the table with 

a yowl, landing hard in the floor before scampering to someplace safe. As the house continued 

to shake I could do nothing but try and remain still. Eventually the shaking stopped and I heard 

the boys running downstairs. "Skylar are you okay?", asked Hunter picking me up off the floor. 

Suddenly it felt like we were falling. I quickly cast a shield around the place to keep the entire 

cottage from collapsing. "Children are you alright?", asked House Gothle after we had hit the 

ground. It had been a while since I had seen the house spirit. She must have been so busy