Hidden Magic

Truth

Their joking stopped for a few moments as Shane just sat there and stared at her. Rosie was confused why the laughter and fun, and overall up-lifting of spirit had suddenly stopped. “Oh, man,” he mumbled, and rubbed his forehead as though he was thinking hard about something.


“What?” She asked.


“This is probably the worst time to be saying this, but, how would you feel if I told you we have a lead on Amy?”


“What?” Rosie stared intensely at Shane, as if that would make him answer her faster. “Where? How?”


“Don’t get too excited,” Shane said softly, and turned his body to face her. “But she was spotted.”


“Where?” She asked urgently.


“Here.”


“Here?!”  Rosie clumsily rushed up to her feet. She was just about to take her first step back towards the huge forest when Shane grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to the grass. “Hey!”


“Don’t go running off out there. It’s not all rainbows and meadows, you know? There are real dangers if you go deep enough.”


“I don’t care!” She yelled, thrashing to get free of his strong grip. “Let go! Shane, let go! She’s my sister!”


Shane’s voice got deadly serious. “Yes, I know she’s your sister, and I and Amber will do everything in our power to save her. But doesn’t it tell you something that I won’t go looking for her?”


“No!”


“It should, because if I could I would go right now, but I’m not powerful enough. Neither is Amber or she would have gone when she saw it.”


Rosie swallowed and blinked away the salty tears that threatened at her brown eyes. “What did she see?”


Shane’s iron grip loosened on her arm and he gently took her hand in his. “Amber was here the other day. She said she had to come here after your fight to clear her head. That’s when she saw it. Down the other end of this forest is a dark path. You’ll know when you see it, trust me. It’s very dark and very dangerous.” He looked warningly into her eyes as if already sensing her thoughts to run. “There were two male vampires there. Amber said she recognised them from the house we visited not long ago. But that’s not the weird thing, and that’s not why Amber and I can’t do anything. The reason why is who was with them. Amber said the person looked female, and she was wearing a black cloak that covered her body and face, but what Amber didn’t miss was the dark power that radiated around her.”


James said Charles must have had a witch helping him. That’s got to be her... Oh god, no...


Rosie’s breath was shaky and she had to hold on to Shane’s hand for dear life not to scream out and run... run anywhere but here and this life. This terrible and complicated life.


“What does that mean?” She asked warily.


“I don’t know,” Shane admitted.


“Does anyone ever know?”


Shane furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”


She shook her head, and turned away to stare at a faraway pear-tree. “Nothing.”


“Rosie, I can tell you’re lying.”


“Reading my thoughts?”


“No, of course not.” Shane squeezed her hand lightly, and she felt her heart wrench at his kindness. “But do I need to?”


She shrugged. “Maybe. Then at least it wouldn’t techniqually be my fault.”


“What wouldn’t?”


“Telling you.”


“Telling me what, Rose?”


“The truth,” she whispered, a late tear running a hot track down her cheek. She cried way too much lately. “About a lot. Where I was today, what I found out about my fate, and Amy’s, how terrified I am.”


Shane let go of her hand and put his arm around her and pulled her to him as the tears rained from her sad eyes. He stroked her chestnut hair like he’d done the day he’d given her the amulet, and didn’t ask any more questions as they sat there in the beautiful silence.


She reached up to touch the necklace. It felt warm and alive on her fingers. She looked down and saw it glowing. Shane looked down with her and gently stroked her fingers where they were on the amethyst stone. “Must be the meadow making it glow. It only glows if the person wearing it has magical capabilities. Well, it only glows by magic for the Goddess, but this meadow was made by her. This meadow holds her power in it. But the amulet will still glow and protect you if you’re being attacked,” he said. “It’s an amazing necklace, really. Has it done that before?”


“No, not yet.” She smiled to herself as she realised she’d been in James’s presence all day and the necklace hadn’t glowed to warn her of danger once. Maybe she could trust James. “Why?”


“It might help us to identify who’s to be trusted and who’s not.”


Rosie gave him a long look, and then nodded in understanding. “Lorraine.” He nodded. “You want me to test it around Lorraine.” He nodded again, his expression looked grim.


“And James if we can.”


“Yeah,” she agreed, although she already knew the answer to that one. “I agree. We should definitely test it on Lorraine.”


“And...” Shane’s voice was hesitant, but he took a deep breath and said words he looked like he regretted the moment they left his lips. “Maybe we should test it around Amber too.”


“What?”


He pulled back and looked down at his blue converse as if he were ashamed. “It’s not that I... Look, I love Amber. She’s more like a sister to me than a cousin, but I’d be stupid to ignore the fact that she has a dark side. I know you haven’t been ignoring it.”


“No, I haven’t,” Rosie confessed. “But I believe that the good in her overpowers the darkness when it’s most important. I know. Anyway, it doesn’t glow around Amber.”


Shane let out a long sigh of relief. “Good. Good... I was worried.”


“You’re just being a great cousin. Amber’s lucky to have you.”


Shane smiled understandingly. “You have a family, Rose. People who really do care about you. Your mum loves you to bits, and so does Amy, even though she seems like the type of stubborn girl to never admit it. Like you in a way, I guess.” Rosie let out a small laugh. He was right. I hate that he always is. “And so what if your dad’s not in the picture right now? It doesn’t matter, because the people who count are. The ones that cared enough to stick around. Amber and I will always be there for you whenever you need us.” He cupped her chin and met her eyes directly. Where his skin touched hers it felt warm and alive. “I’m not just looking out for Amber; I’m looking out for you. And that’s why you’re not going into those dark forests right now, okay?”


Rosie sighed. “Okay. Fine. But I’m not just going to sit around here and not do anything. I’ve been doing too much of that lately. Somehow I’ve let Amy slide, Shane, and that’s awful.”


“I know,” Shane said, and let go of her chin, leaving her feeling surprisingly tired and empty without his tingling touch. “We won’t. But promise me you won’t come back here on your own.”


“I promise.”


“Okay then. Good, because now that you’ve seen the Forest it’s now uncloaked to you, so you could come back at any time if you wished. Before that would have seemed safe to me, but now it’s not.”


“I understand.”


“That’s because you’re smart.” Shane grinned. “And I trust you to stay smart.”


She rolled her eyes. “I will stay smart, Shane. Don’t you worry.”


“Good. So in being smart you should tell me what you were talking about before.” All hints of the smile were washed from his face, leaving him looking serious and concerned.


Rosie could have sworn her heart actually stopped beating for a second as the fear of what would happen ran through her head. “No... noth... nothing,” she stuttered quietly.


“Tell me. It doesn’t matter how bad or how dangerous. Whatever it is you can tell me.” She hated how kind and forgiving his voice was, and he didn’t even know.


“I don’t want you to get hurt.”


Shane frowned. “I’m not going to get hurt.”


“You will. He’ll hurt you, and it’ll all be my fault.”


He took her hand and stared into her eyes. She looked into the pure beauty of his dark, chocolate brown eyes and felt like she could just fall into them forever and ever. But reality was too close and too daunting for that. “There’s this guy who’s coming for me,” she whispered, hoping he wouldn’t hear.


“Guy?”


She swallowed. “Called Charles. He’s an ancient vampire.”


Shane looked away and shook his head, but didn’t let go of her hand. “How do you know all of this?”


“I... I’ve been receiving these notes from him. I told Amber once, but I think she forgot through all of the madness.” She took a moment to catch her breath, just talking about the notes terrified her to her core. “Then I received another one, and he threatened me. If I spoke to anyone about it again, there would be consequences. Bad ones.”


“Oh god, that doesn’t sound good. Do you know what he wants with you?”


“I wish I knew.” She pushed hair from her face with her other hand. “I think he’s behind Amy’s disappearance too. Well, that’s what me and James think.”


Shane’s expression turned cold at the mention of James. “James? You’ve been talking to him?”


“The note said he’s the only person I was allowed to speak to,” she said quickly. “I had to get answers.”


She could feel all of Shane’s body tense where she held his hand. It took a minute before he let out his breath and blinked a few times. “What did you learn, exactly?”


“That Charles will come for me and that he’s got a witch helping him, whose been helping him get inside my dreams, and a spell you apparently cast on me.” A wave of realisation swept across Shane’s handsome, yet stressed face. “And that we might not have long before he comes.”


He closed his eyes. “I don’t understand why.”


“Me neither.” She squeezed his hand lightly. “This sucks.”


Shane let out a small chuckle. “Talk about an understatement.”


“Yep.”


He finally opened his eyes and looked across at her. “I’m sorry about the spell we cast on your memories. Before it was risky, anything could have happened. But thank you for accepting us, even after everything.” Rosie nodded. He looked relieved she wasn’t mad and carried on, “I guess our date but not a date is over. I should take you home. I need to tell Amber too.” He didn’t give her a chance to speak. “We need a plan, and we need more information on this Charles’s guy. Find out exactly what we’re dealing with here, and how petrified we need to be. And we need to think how we’re going to get Amy out of this, and who that witch is.”


“We have a lot to do,” Rosie said, and let him pull her to her feet. Her legs felt numb and wobbly from the amount of time they’d been sat on the grass. Suddenly the meadow around them didn’t feel so magical. It felt like a place too breathtaking for them to enjoy right now. It seemed worlds away. “I want to tell Amber about Charles, if that’s okay?” He shrugged and nodded. “And I know you hate him, but we do need James. Trust me.”


“We can’t trust him, Rosie.”


“Maybe not, but still, he’s our closest thing to answers right now. He might know how to lead us to more answers, or at least where to even start on finding them.” She patted his arm. “I’m not a china doll. I don’t break that easily. I don’t need a body guard all the time.”


“I know. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”


“Hey,” Rosie said, and shoved him playfully. “I don’t want anything to happen to you either. That’s the whole reason why I didn’t want to tell you. But you got it out of me, Shane White. So you better be ready for what might come.”


“I’ll fight for you.” He smiled tentatively and stroked her cheek. “No doubt about that.”


Before she could find the words to speak, he took her hand protectively and led her out of the meadow and back through the Forest.





Shane dropped Rosie off outside Amber’s house and went off back to his house to see if he could find any clues about Charles or the new witch in his parents’ old books.


Rosie walked up to the front door. It was just a few short hours ago that she’d been here last. She’d never intended on telling Amber and Shane any of this, for their own safety. She would have just disappeared silently. It would have been okay with her as long as they were safe. Now that was all messed up.


She rang the doorbell, and heard Amber shout from inside, “Come on in. It’s open!”


Rosie pushed open the front door and followed the direction of the voice into the living room. Again she was struck by how dark it was in there, and how creepy the dark Forest on the picture looked. She couldn’t imagine anyone being able to fully relax in here.


Amber was sitting on the leather sofa with a laptop perched on her knee as she feverishly jotted down notes on a piece of paper. She smiled at Rosie, but there was something behind it. “Ugh, I hate History projects. They suck! So much research...”


She couldn’t help but smile. There was nothing Amber hated more than trying when it came to school. Rosie sat down next to her on the sofa, and tried to ignore the unease the room gave her. It might have had something to do with the fact the last time she’d been in this room she’d almost died. That was all thanks to Amber’s mother, Lorraine.


“I haven’t even started mine yet.”


“Maybe that’s because you weren’t at school to get it. Mrs Rawson handed it out today, after you bailed.”


“Oh yeah, I remember that.”


“Yeah, and I know you’re not going to tell me where you went, but it would be a good idea to.” She put a hand out to stop Rosie from speaking. “And I really just wanted to say that I am so, so, so sorry about earlier in English. I honestly don’t know what happened. I lost my temper. It’ll never, ever happen again. I swear.”


“Okay. It’s fine, really.” Rosie smiled, hoping it would lift the anxiety that had spread out across Amber’s face. “He had it coming anyway.”


“Still, I was crazy.”


“Everyone is these days.” She looked behind her, half expecting to see James stood there. He was a pretty good definition of crazy. “Hey, where’s James?”


“You mean our new vampire best friend?”


Rosie shrugged. “Ugh, I guess so?”


Amber laughed at her puzzled expression. “I don’t know. Either hiding in the study or the spare room upstairs. He hasn’t really got much choice. He’s kind of flammable, you know?”


She looked over at the late afternoon sunlight coming in rays from the window. It was strange how it didn’t light up the room more; it was a massive window. “Oh,” she said. “So it’s true vampire’s can’t go out in the sun?”


“Theoretically.” Amber sighed and shook her head as if she disapproved of the concept. “There are ways they can become more heat proof. Like the older the vampire, the more tolerance they have to the sun. And there are things witches can do too. For example rings, rituals, etc. To me it seems like it’d be much better if they just blew up when the slightest light touches them.”


“Oh, cool.” That doesn’t sound good with the possibility of avoiding Charles in the day. Ancient usually means very old, so that means he has a better tolerance to the sun. Plus, he probably had his witch spell him so he could go out in the day.


Amber raised her eyebrows. “You okay, Ro?”


She pulled herself from her grim thoughts, and shook her head. It was time to tell Amber. “I have something to tell you, and you’re not going to like it.”


Amber knew when something was really important, and put the laptop aside. She pulled herself up and crossed her legs on the sofa, giving Rosie her full attention.


Rosie took a few breaths to prepare herself. “Okay. Do you remember when I first received that weird note a while ago?” Amber nodded. “Well, I got another one telling me that I was in trouble for telling you, and that if I spoke of it again to anyone but James there would be serious consequences. So earlier today I came here to talk to James and find answers.” Amber’s eyes grew wide. “And I found out the notes are from an ancient vampire named Charles, who is going to come for me soon for some unknown reason.”


Amber blinked, and opened her mouth, but no words came out.


She carried on, “I think he’s behind Amy’s disappearance too, and behind that dark witch Shane told me you spotted Amy with. I’m not supposed to be telling you this, and the consequences could be very dangerous, and I’m really sorry...”


“Charles.” Amber’s voice sounded strangely calm and steady. “I’ve heard that name before.”


“Where?”


Amber looked up at her. Her eyes were hard and cold, and filled with something else Rosie couldn’t quite describe. “My mum.”