Revenge : Book 2

Prologue : Hope Where Have You Gone

He was so young. Her precious little prince. She resented the world for cursing him with such an infliction. No doctor in the world could diagnose it, no one could tell her what was wrong with her son. That was the worst part, the uncertainty. She needed to know; if there was any hope of saving him, she needed to know. The mortal world had failed her. Which meant she had to turn back to the one place she swore she would never return, but for her son she'd do anything.

Marcus was everything to her.

A couple of years ago she had contacted an old friend. And she used the term "friend" loosely. Evelyn Bridge was not the kind of woman to have friends. In fact she was one of the most despised witches from their coven. She was a traitor, a criminal, a selfish being who only cared about herself and gaining power.

Normally Melissa would never even consider approaching Evelyn but she was desperate, her son was dying. She needed magic, magic only Evelyn could provide.

Magic had it's rules just like anything else in this world. Natural magic, the one practiced by the coven, harnessed the power of the goddess. The goddess gifted each child of magic with power, power they could all access. But to perform bigger spells they could call forth the power embedded in each of the four elements.

There was an order to magic, what lives must die and what dies must remain dead. There were no cheat sheets. Asking the council would be pointless, to them the child was already dead. They believed with an illness like that, one so far progressed there was no way to save him.

However natural magic wasn't the only type of magic. There were others, forbidden crafts. Dark magic, for instance. A magic form that relied on sacrifice. The kind of magic that could do just about anything. However there was a limit to what one could do with it without paying a fetal price. Saving someone who was dying, extending their intended time, required a tremendous amount of magic, thus a tremendous price to pay.

Melissa was ready to do anything to make sure her son had a future. She was willing to lay her life on the line if that was what it cost. She was a mother. Her life meant nothing if it was what it took to save Marcus.

The sun had only just set when Evelyn had called informing her that everything for the spell was ready. Evelyn hadn't quite explained the specifics of the spell but she had assured Melissa that it would work. Melissa hated that her last hope was someone so untrustworthy but there was nothing to be done about it now.

Marcus had been getting increasingly worse over the last few months. The doctors had confirmed that he didn't have long now. This had to work. It just had to. She was putting everything she had into this.

She gently tapped the mahogany door with her knuckles, her left hand holding up a mug with a special tea she'd brewed. She received a grunt from behind the door assuring it was okay to come in. She slowly drew the door open, swallowing something thick caught up in her throat.

Sitting at his desk, which was covered in paper was her husband. He had been locked up in his office all day. David Nelson had always been a workaholic, a trait he inherited from his father. Running a multi-million dollar manufacturing company wasn't easy. He had to put in the effort to make sure everything ran smoothly. This was his family's legacy, after all. The company had been in business for nearly a hundred and fifty years, and he would insure that it ran for another hundred and fifty years.

He pinched the bridge between his eyes as he huffed in annoyance. He was having issues with the supplier, they were considering switching to a competitor, claiming they were offering a better deal.