The Unseen
Mia felt Dino’s grip instantly slacken. Her stomach flipped.
‘Liar!’ she screamed at Tol, her grey eyes smouldering with resentment.
Tol guffawed spitefully. ‘You are just as I imagined. Pure. Nothing like my son.’
‘You’re my father,’ Dino murmured.
‘Surprised?’ Tol asked lightly.
‘Don’t listen to him!’ Mia cried. ‘He’s lying! Our father could never be a monster like that!’ Looking into Tol’s loathsome face, she saw only evil – not the wholesome man that she had always pictured to be her father.
The man whom she had dreamed of had gone away on a covert mission, which kept him from returning to the family home. This wonderful, imaginary man would one day return wearing a tweed suit and carrying a leather briefcase. He was worlds apart from the creature she saw before her now, his face so warped with malice that he was barely human, let alone a father.
‘Mia,’ Dino whispered, ‘he’s not lying.’
Everything started to make sense. Of course Tol had wanted Dino for his coven. What greater asset was there than the direct descendant of Tol’s very own blood – Tol’s heir?
‘I’m shocked that your mother never spoke of me,’ Tol taunted them. ‘I wonder why she chose not to?’ He laughed wildly.
Mia gawped at Tol in revulsion. ‘You make me sick!’
‘Mia, calm down,’ Dino implored her. His arms remained sealed around her, although now it was more for comfort than containment.
Colt watched the scene in wide-eyed bewilderment while Tol’s two minions stood motionless, hidden beneath their dark robes.
Mia grimaced. ‘You know, I always wondered why you never tried to contact us, or why you never sent me a birthday card. Now I know it was because you were too busy plotting my death!’
‘You’re of no interest to me,’ Tol said icily. ‘It’s the boy whose powers I seek.’ He cast his eyes upon Dino. ‘My son, join me.’
‘No!’ Colt shouted. ‘He’s got into your mind somehow! He’s tricking you into thinking you want to become a Hunter…’
Tol threw a spear of light at his antagonist. Colt dived out of the way, but it was a near miss.
‘Has he taken your blood?’ Colt asked Dino quickly. ‘Think!’
‘Quiet!’ Tol roared.
Dino tentatively ran his fingers over the raised scar across his jaw line.
‘You see?’ Colt responded to Dino’s unspoken thoughts. ‘You don’t want to kill your sister. You’re being possessed. He’s probably working all sorts of magic on you…’ His sentence was cut short. A powerful burst of light exploded into him, lifting him from the ground and hurtling him through the air like a rag doll.
‘No!’ Mia cried as Colt’s body collided with a tree trunk and plummeted down to the ground.
‘Dead,’ Tol sneered in satisfaction. ‘Now we can proceed.’
‘No!’ Mia screamed again. She pushed away from Dino and ran to where Colt lay unmoving on the forest floor. She dropped to the ground, shaking him, but his head hung limply in her hands.
‘Now!’ Tol barked. ‘It is time.’ He scowled at Dino. ‘Bring her back,’ he ordered.
Dino froze. ‘Why don’t you bring her back?’ he tested with caution. It had suddenly occurred to him that, even with all of his power, Tol had never directly approached Mia. Tol was keeping his distance from her, just as he had done with Dino – until Dino had inadvertently accepted Tol’s offer, that was.
‘It must be you,’ Tol spat.
‘Because you can’t touch her,’ Dino guessed. ‘She’s magically protected from you. And so was I until I invited you in. You’re in my mind, aren’t you? The Hunter was right – you’re controlling me.’
‘You belong to me,’ Tol snarled.
Dino glanced at his sister, who now lay buckled over Colt, crying breathless, heart-breaking tears.
‘Mia,’ Dino murmured. He heard the screech of her pain like no sound he’d ever experienced – or would ever wish to experience.
‘This isn’t real,’ Mia choked. She repeated the words over and over again until they distorted into nothing more than earth-shattering sobs.
Dino didn’t know if it was her words, her tears, or his own consciousness breaking through, but something changed within him. He was guided by a new energy now. It was as though his mind was reborn to him at long last. He focused his concentration on blocking Tol’s power, just as he had done with Wendolyn so many times before.
In a counterattack, Tol’s determination hardened as he desperately fought to retain his influence over Dino.
With a strained breath, Dino stepped out of the ceremonial diamond and raced to Mia’s side. For once, he ignored every reflection and emotion that crossed his mind and only thought of her. He dropped to his knees and grabbed her shoulders.
‘Please forgive me,’ he begged her urgently. He pulled her into him roughly, rent by his own ragged sorrow.
‘Let me go,’ she wept. Even when enveloped in Dino’s hug, Mia’s fingers remained coiled around the collar of Colt’s shirt. Her fingertips touched his skin as though their connection gave him a link to a life force.
Tol and his incomplete coven watched this display of human passion with heartless curiosity.
‘Come on,’ Dino said in a gentle yet imperative voice. ‘We need to get out of here.’ He took her elbow, urging her to leave, but she shook herself free of him, clinging to Colt’s lifeless body.
‘No!’ she cried
Dino bit his lip. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Grief-stricken tears were her only response.
Tol let out a deafening bellow. ‘I may not be able to touch her, but you, on the other hand, are fair game.’ His eyes bore into Dino vengefully.
‘Mia, please,’ Dino rasped. ‘We have to go.’
‘I can’t leave him here alone,’ she whimpered. ‘I don’t want him to be alone.’ With one of her hands, she protectively shielded Colt’s serene face. ‘You go,’ she said to Dino briefly, looking up at him through her blinding tears.
Dino crouched over her. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I won’t leave you.’
With his coven looking on impatiently, Tol stepped away from his post and lunged towards his victim. But his opening assault was not on Dino. Instead he grabbed Colt by the scruff of the neck and hoisted him upright. Colt slumped forward, his eyes shut and his body limp.
‘No!’ Mia screamed, as Colt was ripped away from her.
With astonishing ease Tol tossed Colt aside, hurling him into the thick of trees.
Mia fell back, dismayed.
Next, Tol moved on to Dino. Backed against a tree, Dino had nowhere to run. Tol gripped his throat and lifted him to his feet.
Dino wheezed as Tol’s knife-like fingernails pierced his skin. Their eyes met, and slits of ruby-red blood began to appear on Dino’s throat as his attacker’s nails penetrated his flesh.
Mia retched at the sight. With tracks of tears staining her face, she staggered to her feet. As Tol wrung the life from Dino, Mia turned her palms down to the ground. The earth beneath her feet began to rumble, shuddering in an underground eruption. Mia’s earthquake.
The shaking ground jolted Tol off balance. He stumbled backwards and dropped Dino to the ground.
Mia looked at her brother, whose blood was trickling down his throat and on to the lapel of his T-shirt. In a profound moment, the siblings locked eyes intently, communicating by instinct rather than words.
Without missing a beat, Dino sprung to his feet. Taking Mia’s hand, he began to run. They darted through the maze of trees, racing at full pelt through the forest, driven by the knowledge that Tol would be upon them at any moment.
A rusty blue station wagon pulled up to the dark courtyard. The purring engine let out a final splutter before cutting out entirely. Now only a ghostly silence engaged the courtyard.
‘Cassie,’ Madeline said from the front passenger seat of the car, ‘before we go insi
de, I want to promise you that, whatever happens, we’ll get through this – just like last time.’
‘It can be nothing like last time, Maddie!’ Cassandra exclaimed, her slender hands still resting on the steering wheel. ‘Last time we lost our brothers to Tol. I will not lose my children, too,’ she said adamantly.
Madeline held up her hands in submission. ‘That’s what I’m saying – we’ll find a way. We’ve stopped Tol before…eventually.’ She scraped her mane of red hair into a high ponytail, letting it bob at the crown of her head.
‘Yes, we stopped him,’ Cassandra agreed, fixating on the positive, ‘and we will do it again.’
‘Sure,’ Madeline flipped down the vanity mirror and inspected her appearance. ‘And look how well that worked out,’ she added dryly.
Cassandra glared at her. ‘It worked for sixteen years, didn’t it? I’d say that’s a pretty successful spell.’
‘He must have found a loophole,’ Madeline muttered, twisting her head from left to right to get a thorough look at her attractive profile.
Irritably, Cassandra pushed the vanity mirror back into its place, regaining her sister’s focus. ‘I imagine he’s searched many years to find a way around our curse.’
Without her reflection to distract her, Madeline was suddenly re-energised. ‘And now he’s taken baby Dino!’ she shouted, outraged.
Cassandra chuckled in spite of the sombre mood. ‘How much longer are you going to call him baby Dino? He’s seventeen years old. That’s practically a grown man!’
Madeline pouted. ‘He’ll always be a baby to me. I liked him as a baby – he was cute. As a man he’s sullen and petulant. Just like his–’
‘Madeline! Don’t you dare say, just like his father, or so help me God…’
‘Easy, mama bear,’ Madeline gave her an aloof sideways glance. ‘I was going to say, just like his mother.’
‘Oh!’ Cassandra retracted her claws. ‘I’m not sullen,’ she slipped in as an afterthought.
Before another word could be exchanged, the castle door lurched open and Wendolyn bustled into the courtyard, followed by Kizzy and Blue. The rain had stopped, but the ground was still damp and puddled in places.
Cassandra and Madeline unfastened their seatbelts and hurried out of the car to greet the newcomers.
Wendolyn, still in her nightwear, hugged and kissed the two women.
‘How can I show my face to you?’ she sighed remorsefully. ‘You trusted me with your children and I have failed you.’
‘Oh, nonsense!’ Cassandra exonerated her immediately. ‘You are most certainly not to blame for any of this.’
‘That’s absolutely right,’ Madeline chimed in. ‘Besides, I think we all half expected Tol to return sometime.’
Blue peered at the women fearfully. ‘So, you knew that T-Tol would come f-for Dino?’ he asked meekly.
Cassandra and Madeline looked at Kizzy and Blue as though they had only just noticed them standing there.
‘Well,’ Madeline shrugged, ‘it was always at the back of our minds. I suppose it was only a matter of time.’
‘What does he want with Dino?’ Blue asked her. He fidgeted tensely, shifting his weight from left foot to right.
Madeline took the floor to explain. ‘I’m a Seer,’ she pointed to herself, causing her array of colourful bracelets to clang against each other noisily, ‘and when Cassandra was pregnant with Dino, I foresaw a powerful heir. Of course I told Cassandra and Tol about their unborn child…’
Kizzy and Blue gasped in unison.
‘Tol’s child?’ Kizzy repeated, her blue eyes as wide as saucers.
Cassandra and Madeline shared a private glance.
‘Tol is Dino’s father,’ Cassandra confirmed with a tight expression. ‘Mia’s, too.’
‘Anyway,’ Madeline went on, skipping over the stunned silence, ‘Tol became obsessed with Dino’s imminent power. He wanted to raise the child in the dark arts, but we didn’t know it at the time. You see, Tol wasn’t always evil. I mean, personally, I never liked him–’
‘He was a Hunter,’ Cassandra interjected, ‘but he was noble and I fell in love with him. I was young, and so was Tol. But the idea of having such power within his grasp turned him for the worse. It drove him insane.’
‘Of course, he hid it well,’ Madeline jumped in. ‘It was almost two years before we began to notice how sinister he was becoming – by which time Dino was a toddler and Mia was a newborn.’
‘Everything about him changed,’ Cassandra said, speaking directly to Wendolyn now, finally able to unload the burden that she had been carrying for years. ‘His voice, his appearance, his manner. Everything. I loved him so dearly, and it broke my heart to watch. But Tol – my Tol – was gone, and what was left was a shell, driven only by greed.’
‘So, we did what we had to do,’ Madeline spoke softly. ‘We performed a binding spell, banishing Tol from our land and protecting the children from him.’
Cassandra smiled sadly. ‘And the irony of it all is that Dino isn’t the powerful heir that Maddie saw – Mia is. Of course, Tol doesn’t know that.’
Kizzy and Blue looked at one another, bewildered.
‘And now he’s got them both,’ Kizzy concluded quietly.
Cassandra flinched at the remark.
Madeline draped her arm over her sister’s shoulders. ‘Not for long,’ she assured Cassandra. ‘All we need to do is find a binding spell and–’
Wendolyn stopped her. ‘Madeline,’ she said delicately, ‘Cassandra, there’s something you both should know.’
The women regarded her carefully. Their matching almond-shaped eyes clouded.
Wendolyn took a breath before continuing. ‘Tol is ascending.’
Cassandra let out an involuntary cry.
‘Wait!’ Madeline raised her hand, her fingers bejewelled with chunky rings. ‘Ascending, or ascended?’
‘As far as we know, he hasn’t ascended yet,’ Wendolyn filled them in. ‘He needs a complete coven to execute the ritual. That’s why he has taken Dino.’
Madeline frowned. ‘If Tol needs Dino for his coven, then it’ll require a sacrifice of humanity. He needs Dino to sacrifice Mia!’ She pieced together the information with grim logic.
‘He won’t do it!’ Cassandra blurted out. ‘I know my son, and he will not harm Mia. He cares too deeply for her.’
Nobody dared challenge her statement.
‘If Tol hasn’t yet ascended,’ Madeline went on, brainstorming ideas, ‘then he is still manageable. What if we upped the game and did a power-stripping spell?’
‘We’d need a strong coven for that,’ Cassandra pointed out.
The three elder witches looked dubiously at the two youngsters.
‘They’re not ready,’ Wendolyn said, confirming what they had all been thinking.
‘But we need a fourth!’ Madeline wailed. She placed her hands on her hips. ‘Why have I never managed to hold onto a full coven?’ she sulked. ‘It doesn’t make sense. I’m beautiful, I’m powerful, everybody loves me…’
‘Be quiet, Madeline!’ Cassandra snapped.
Madeline pouted.
‘There is one way,’ Wendolyn interrupted, mulling a thought over in her mind. ‘But, Kizzy and Benny, we will need your help.’
Kizzy and Blue agreed without question, but they shrank back all the same. As young witches, they were way out of their league.
Wendolyn cleared her throat and straightened out her shoulders. ‘We must raise my husband, William Wix.’ She stood tall, her long white hair spiralling over her shoulders like a coat of armour.
Kizzy grimaced. ‘Raise him from the…?’ She couldn’t bring herself to utter the final word.
‘What a fabulous idea!’ Madeline clapped her hands in glee. Then she eyed Kizzy and Blue uncertainly. ‘You have raised a spirit before, haven’t you?’
Again, Kizzy and Blue looked dumbfounded.
‘Uh…no,’ Kizzy answered on behalf of them both.
M
adeline waved her hand casually. ‘Oh, it’s easy. And it’s great fun. In fact, it’s to die for!’ she giggled infectiously.
Kizzy and Blue smiled politely before swapping a nervous glance.
‘So,’ Cassandra said, forming a plan out loud, ‘the three of us will find Tol, while you two work on raising William. With any luck, by the time we get to Tol, our coven will be four and we can perform the power-stripping spell. But we’ll have to move fast. If he already has Dino and Mia, then every second is vital.’
Wendolyn nodded in concurrence. ‘We should head into the forest. As a guess, I’d say that he’s somewhere along the borders.’
‘That forest stretches for miles!’ Madeline shrieked. ‘It’ll take us hours!’ She looked down at her designer high-heeled shoes with a mournful sigh.
‘Then we are already wasting time,’ Cassandra said stiffly. ‘Let’s go.’
The three women spun around and marched away from the castle, leaving Kizzy and Blue alone at the entryway.
‘Wait!’ Kizzy cried. ‘We don’t know how to raise William Wix!’ She clung to Blue’s hand in sheer panic.
‘Stay calm,’ Wendolyn called back soothingly. ‘The ritual spell is in a book kept in the library, Gateways of the Spirit World.’
‘I know the book!’ Blue shouted back.
‘Good,’ said Wendolyn, smiling warmly at him. ‘The spell you will need is called The Crossover. William is buried in the Glass Castle cemetery. You will need to light four candles around his grave, which will act as a portal. Chant the spell once the candles have been lit.’ She eased a silver chain from around her neck, displaying the amber pendant hanging from the end. ‘This amulet will draw William’s spirit to me. All you need to do is say the spell.’
‘We can do it!’ Blue assured her in a hoarse voice. Behind his curtain of sandy blond hair, his complexion was ashen.
‘And if we can’t?’ Kizzy called out timidly to the departing women.
‘Then we’ll all die,’ Madeline chortled. ‘Just kidding! Who knows what’ll happen. It’s anyone’s game.’ Something about her amended sentence was even more alarming than the original statement.