The Opal Witch: Prophecy (Book Two)

Chapter Eighteen

Lux

It was strange seeing Percy without his usual arrogant smirk. Even now, it tried to bubble up whenever Lux stopped shouting long enough to draw a breath, but whatever success it managed was quickly destroyed by her renewed tirade. Neither Calum nor Declan stepped into stand up for the man, and only after she plopped down on a kitchen stool with a red-faced huff did she allow him to speak.

"You're sure they didn't make some mistake?" Percy asked Declan with raised brows.

Lux crossed her arms. "That's really how you want to start?"

He exhaled and stretched his meaty arms in front of him, his countenance sobering. "No, it's not, but I don't know what I can do. The woman I wronged died years ago, and it looks like my son's family turned out alright. This is basically like asking someone's great-great-grandfather to apologize to someone. Travis and I are barely related at this point."

His tone did not match the calloused words he spoke. Whatever he might want others to believe, the discovery of an abandoned family disturbed him, but Lux couldn't deny there was some grain of truth in what he said. It wasn't as though Travis was actively hurt by what happened over a hundred years ago. It was simply a sad story his family passed down. They had moved on and forged their own path. Still...

"Travis carries enough of your DNA to be a Guardian, and he's having to learn everything on his own."

Percy and Calum straightened at the same time. Calum's inky black hair was wind swept from his walk, and his cheeks were ruddy with the cold. But his blue eyes, normally icy and flat, glittered with excitement.

Addressing Declan, the serious Guardian asked, "But didn't you say they died like humans."

"I said his family did, and you both said it could happen if they never activated their Talents."

Lux jumped in. "Travis showed no signs of abilities until our Circle came into our power, and there was also..."

She frowned as the thought recoiled from her and refused to form on her tongue. She tried again, but the harder she fought to finish that sentence the more muddied her mind became, and then the shadow of memory was gone all together.

"Lux?" Declan pressed, his hand gripping her shoulder in concern.

"I'm fine. I just..." she pressed her hand to her head. "There was something else but it's gone now."

"It must be tied to the memory spell," Calum said, pacing the room as his eyes turned inward, sifting through hundreds of years of memories. "This just feels too coincidental. No one knew Adrienne and Alina better than Naomi. Now, we find out that they have cast a spell to cover up something around Alina, and you just happen to be best friends with Naomi's grandson, and he just happens to be the first person in his family to possess Talents?"

"But what does something that happened over a hundred years ago have to do with what's happening now?" Lux asked, regretting the question as soon as she asked it.

Declan laughed. "As much to do with everything as your great-great aunt and grandmother had to do with you now."

She grimaced. "I figured that as soon as I said it. It's just crazy that all of this happens in Sweetwater, Mississippi. Is there something about this place?"

"The First Gateway is here," Declan answered, chewing on his lower lip. "It would definitely attract a lot of magical energy."

"But the people we're talking about now are human."

Calum scrubbed a hand over his face and through his hair, making the wayward strands stick out even more. "After the Uprising, the rebels were cast into the underworld, and they created the Gateways to lock them in-"

"We know that," Lux said, getting up to get a drink. She felt like they were talking in circles.

"But what you don't know is the Gateways weren't chosen at random. Each one sits on a Nexus- the place where ley lines meet."

Nexus. Ley lines. Both terms sounded familiar to her. Something she'd read during her studies but had given little thought. Sensing her confusion, Calum continued.

"There's a lot of debate about ley lines in the human world, but this is the truth. The gods created the Fae before humans, and the places on the earth where the first of their kind appeared are hotspots of magical energy. When humans appeared, they feared and worshipped these places. Even with their weak senses, they knew there was power there. After the Uprising, the Nine Fae Queens knew it was time to leave the world of man behind, so each went to a Nexus and cast out their power to their sister, connecting these spots. These lines are ley lines."

He held his hands in the air, palms facing down, one above the other. Moving the bottom hand, he explained, "Using the power they gathered, they created the Underworld. It's tethered to earth at each Nexus." Moving the bottom hand to the top, he said, "Then they created a second dimension. You know it as Avalon, and the Nexus you guard is the point where the Fae Queens and all those loyal to them crossed over into Avalon."

Condensation formed beneath Lux's finger where she gripped her coke can. The metal slipped, landing on the counter with a dull thunk, but she barely noticed. Her mind was struggling to comprehend. She'd genuinely imagined the underworld as being underground and Avalon as an island. To think they were just planes of existence that overlapped this one...

"So," Calum continued, "It's entirely logical to think the people living in this area might be more than just humans."

Declan nodded, a calculating gleam filling his brown eyes. "Being around that much power would definitely change people over time, and it explains why the Circle here has always been so much stronger than others."

"Exactly. It's part of the reason we came here all those years ago," Percy said, one wary green eye pinning Lux as though he was afraid his voice would set her off again. "If anything is going to go down, it's going to happen here. Morgan knows this is the only place she can attack if she stands a chance of winning."

Lux sighed, imagining the looks on her sisters' faces when she revealed this news to them. Sarah Elizabeth would protest with her usual snark. Brooke would say something about this being proof of the devil. Ruby would probably say nothing- she might nod stoically, and Audra would whip out a sharp object and ask when the fight started.

"Well, it's a good thing the Circle is back in business," she said, grinning faintly. "Morgan won't get into the Underworld while we're on guard."

Calum's lips flattened, and she knew she would not like what he said next.

"That's a start, but I'm more worried about her getting into Avalon."

"How does she do that?" Lux asked, feeling panicked. No one told them anything about protecting Avalon.

"By finding the key and the one person who can use it. Trust me, you'd rather fight the demons."