Crest (Book #2,Swift Series) Read online

  When Abby and I took our seats I noticed there were a few containers beside us, each of them holding different substances. I leaned over, peering into each of them, trying to figure out what they were and wondering how they pertained to today’s lesson.

  “Come on, no peeking. You’ll find out what each of them contains soon enough.” She bit her lip, trying to hide a smile. I immediately wanted to question what she meant, but before I could get the words out, she began her explanation.

  “Okay, you will really have to concentrate on this one. Learning how to block out the different aspects of dark magic can be complicated, but once you have it down, resisting it will become instinctual.”

  My nerves caused my stomach to squeeze. It was a feeling I got almost every day we started a new lesson. Abby always made everything sound so easy, but I guess teachers are kind of known for that—making it look easy, building up your confidence, watching you fall flat on your face, then giving you a good job pat on the back as you try and pick up the pieces of your ego that are scattered around you. Well, that’s how it went with Abby and I anyway. She was always so positive when I didn’t get a spell down right away; telling me to just keep practicing and that I would get it eventually.

  “Okay, so let’s start with closing our eyes and picturing a large stone wall.” Her voice was soft and soothing, making me feel a little more relaxed.

  I took in a deep breath, closed my eyes and pictured the wall.

  “Now, in your mind, build that stone wall to be the tallest, strongest wall that you can imagine. Let it wrap around your mind, your thoughts, your insecurities, your weaknesses. Let the wall block out anything that tries to penetrate it—don’t allow anything through—push against the fears, the doubt and the negativity.”

  I took in a deep breath and attempted to focus on building the stone wall in my mind. I allowed it to grow until it couldn’t grow anymore. I pushed out any negative thoughts and weaknesses; not allowing anything but positivity through. This wasn’t so bad, I thought to myself. Maybe, just maybe, I could learn a spell on the first day and master it.

  Or, maybe not.

  Out of nowhere something cold splashed on my face. It left me gasping and trying to catch my breath. “What the hell was that?” I exhaled loudly, staring at Abby.

  “Hey, don’t look at me. You did it to yourself.”

  I looked down at my right hand that was now holding an empty container.

  “You got pretty confident there, but you let your wall slip, leaving it easy for me to penetrate. I just made you pour a glass of cold water over your head, but imagine what dark magic could get you to do. You can never let your wall down when dark magic is around. They will seek it out, wait for you to be at your most vulnerable and then they will attack.”

  “Let’s do it again.” I huffed, gritting my teeth and wiping my face clean.

  “Dammit!” I shouted. “Why can’t I get this?”

  Four hours later, it felt like I hadn’t made any progress. My head felt like it would explode if I concentrated any harder on putting up that stupid stone wall.

  “Meredith, relax. You’re doing great.” Abby paused, looking at me with sympathetic eyes. “Maybe Blake is right.” Then she stopped and shook her head in disgust. “Eww… I really don’t like how those words sound coming out of my mouth, but I’ll go ahead and admit it. Maybe he’s right; maybe I’m being too hard on you and he’s definitely right about you being too hard on yourself. ”

  I knew that they had been arguing about me this morning, but Blake couldn’t be more wrong. I couldn’t afford to waste any time when I quite obviously couldn’t even get simple spells right, yet. Most witches found out about their destiny and started training at a much earlier age than me, so I already felt way behind. That coupled with being an Astoria put an immense amount of pressure on me, one that I took very seriously.

  I moaned and rolled my eyes. “Seriously, Abby. Stop. You’re right, Blake’s wrong. Look at me. I’m struggling here. I’ve been at this for hours and you can still penetrate my mind. You can manage to make me do all sorts of horrible things to myself with no problem at all. Apparently, my mind is weak and is open for any kind of attack!” I took in a deep breath, striving for patience. It wasn’t in my character to get this frustrated so easily, but when it came to perfecting spells and learning my craft, my patience was limited.

  “Not that I don’t love hearing you say I’m right and Blake’s wrong, but I think you need to give yourself a break. You’re way ahead of most students. I know you feel this pressure because you’re an Astoria, but it will take a while for you to come into your powers. You still have to learn like everyone else. Just so you know, you’re doing an exceptional job.”

  There she goes again; being a good teacher and building my confidence back up. Deep down I knew that I was putting too much pressure on myself. Deep, deep down I knew that if I just let up a bit, allowed myself to relax, that I would probably perform better, but saying and doing were two totally different things when it came to that theory.

  “How about we take a break on this one and go back to what we were working on yesterday?” she offered.

  I swallowed my panic. “The sensing spell?”

  “Come on, don’t look so nervous, you did very well yesterday.” She stood up and dusted herself off.

  I stood up beside her, trying to remember everything she taught me yesterday.

  “Now, do you have any questions or want me to go back over anything before we get started?”

  I shook my head.

  “Okay then, close your eyes.”

  I closed them.

  “Now, wait a moment and let me get into position.”

  I took in a deep breath and focused. The sensing spell was supposed to teach me to sense other witches—good and evil. Abby’s job was to hide, my job was to find her by sensing her energy, trusting my instincts, and not by using my sight. Essentially, it was a game of hide-n-seek for witches.

  I counted to sixty in my head, just like we’d done yesterday. When I opened my eyes, I forced my body to relax and used my instincts to guide me. The feeling was similar to an electric current, the closer I got to other witches’ energy, the more intense the feeling. I took a few steps forward and then stopped, the strong pull of energy I had sensed, was gone. Now I felt it somewhere behind me. I turned around and walked a hundred feet or so and the energy grew stronger with each step. When my entire body began to tingle, I knew she must be close. A few more steps and the energy was overwhelming. She should be here, I thought to myself. Yesterday, when I sensed this type of energy, I always found her nearby—crouching behind a tree. Since we were in Steer Swamp, our options for hiding were limited. Twirling around, I slowly eyed the area, wondering if maybe I just missed her... but there was no sight of her.

  Then, out of nowhere, I heard a soft chuckle. The noise was coming from above. I arched my neck and saw Abby sitting in the tree, directly above me.

  “Sorry, I was getting tired of hiding behind trees.” She chuckled louder. “Plus, I wanted to change it up a bit. I originally started out over there,” she said, pointing across the swamp to the area I had started in, “but I flew over here, wanting to see if you could sense my change in direction and, of course, you picked up on it right away. Amazing job, Meredith.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled, feeling like I had done something right for the first time today. “Let’s try it again.”

  After six more hours, the day’s training was beginning to feel like torture. Even though I would’ve never told Abby that, she could see that I was wearing down and neither my body nor my mind made any complaints when she called it quits for the day. I had doused myself with cold water more times than I could count, eaten dirt, and drank something that looked like it came out of Steer Swamp. On a positive note, though, I had found Abby eight out of the eight times she hid—a huge improvement from yesterday.

  “We’ll pick back up here tomorrow morning,” she said, smiling.
“You did great today!”

  For the first time since I had become a witch, I felt like I had made a lot of progress.

  We were just a few steps from the clearing when I felt a strange sensation come over me. It was something I had never felt before. “Abby.” I swallowed hard. “Do you feel something weird?”

  Her head turned in my direction. “No. Do you?”

  I tried to shake it off. I didn’t want to come off as paranoid. “Um... It’s probably nothing. I think I’m just tired from the day.” With each step we took, I tried to convince myself that the feeling was just my tired body overreacting, yet with each second that passed, I realized I couldn’t ignore the strange sensation surging through me. Call it intuition, call it paranoia—but it was certainly something.

  “You sure?” she asked, looking at me with a concerned expression. “You don’t look like it’s nothing.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I nodded my head and smiled, trying my best to look like it was no big deal. The last thing I wanted was for Abby to worry and end up telling Blake. That would just open up a big can of worms and cause him to be even more protective over me... If that was even possible.

  We were coming up on Beacon Street and I knew we were only minutes from the estate. The strange feeling was still with me, but I hoped it would diminish when I saw Blake. He gave me so much comfort when he was near me. It could be the fact that he was my protector and I knew that he would either protect me from harm or die trying. Whatever the case, being near him was more than just feeling protected and safe. We had a connection that I knew could never be broken. That’s how I knew we would find our way back to each other again, whether separated by time, the council, or any other paranormal source.

  Then, out of nowhere, I felt a rush of the strange sensation once more. Without even trying, I began to sense a strange presence near us. Turning my head, I glanced back and saw a man trailing just a few feet behind. There was nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary about him. His head was down, reading a newspaper. He wore a top hat that slanted a little to the right side, covering most of his face. He was tall, thin, and was dressed in a casual grey jacket with black slacks. He seemed innocent enough; I mean, all he was doing was walking in town and reading a newspaper. I looked forward again, shaking my head and smiling that my crazy paranoia was getting a little out of hand. Maybe Abby and Blake were right, maybe I was pushing myself too hard.

  A minute or so passed and then there was an internal pull somewhere inside me, telling me to look behind me, back towards the man. I wanted to ignore it and not give into my weakness, but the feeling won out. As I turned my head again, the man glanced up at me, his grey eyes holding mine and a look of shock crossed his face. I could now see a large scar across his right cheek that stretched from his eye all the way down to the corner of his lips. Our eyes were locked together for a split second before he lowered his head back towards his newspaper. A chill ran over me. There was something in those grey eyes that I didn’t quite trust.

  “Abby,” I whispered through my teeth.

  She didn’t answer me.

  “Abby,” I said a little louder.

  She flinched, startled by my tone. “Oh sorry, I was just going over the lesson plans for the rest of the week.”

  “The man that’s behind us... Does he look familiar to you? Or do you sense anything strange about him?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low, not wanting to draw too much attention.

  Abby turned her head, glancing over her shoulder. “What man?”

  “The man… ” I stopped walking and turned around to nothing but an empty street. “There was a man walking behind us. He was reading a newspaper.” My voice sounded strangled.

  Abby’s face turned to stone as she scanned the area around us. “When did you see him last?”

  “I don’t know, maybe a few seconds?” I turned towards her. The seriousness in her face was beginning to scare me. “Abby, what is it?”

  She shook her head and turned to look at me. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it. First, you said that you felt something weird and then you said you saw a man that just so happened to vanish into thin air. Something isn’t right.”

  It was then that I realized the weird feeling I felt had vanished. Was I just making a big deal out of nothing? Even worse, was I pushing my paranoia onto Abby?

  “Blake is going to kill me for letting my guard down. Let’s get home and see what the others think.” Abby grabbed my arm and began to tug me forward. “You can try your best to explain this feeling you had and describe the man you saw.”

  We began to walk, but at a much quicker pace. The guilt washed over me. Maybe it was just a man taking a late afternoon walk. Maybe he turned and took another street. He didn’t seem to pose a threat to us, or try to hurt us. Maybe it was nothing.

  “Abby, let’s not mention anything to Blake or your parents about the man... or the weird feeling, ok?”

  She stopped walking and stared at me like I was from another planet. “Meredith, it could be important. We need to tell them.”

  I shook my head, trying to play down the situation. “No, let’s just keep it between the two of us for now. It’s probably nothing. If you tell Blake that I saw someone and that you’re suspicious, he’ll insist on being with me twenty-four seven. It’ll be hard for me to concentrate on my training with him there, watching over me like I was—”

  “Fine. I get it.” Abby interrupted my rant. “I know my brother can be a little overbearing at times, but you know he’s only doing it for your protection. He cares for you deeply, as we all do. He only wants to keep you safe.”

  I smiled at her sweet words. “I know, and I promise, if we ever see that man again, or if I get any other crazy, weird feelings, then I will tell you and we can tell Blake together. Deal?” I gave her my best pleading look.

  She sighed, contemplating the choice I had just given her. “Fine, deal, but if anything, and I mean anything, weird happens—even the slightest thing—we’re going to tell him.”

  She continued to stare at me with a pointed look, expecting some sort of agreement. I nodded vigorously, trying to give her some reassurance that we were on the same page. “Yes, totally, even the smallest thing.”

  We continued walking and after a minute, I began to feel guilty for asking Abby to lie—well, it wasn’t really lying, just avoiding the truth—but it still felt wrong for me to ask her to do it. It was also a part of her job to keep me safe.

  “You have any plans for tonight?” I asked, hoping to get her mind off our little agreement to keep silent.

  She laughed at my question. “Yes, my plans are planning out more lesson plans for you. A teacher’s job is never done when her students go home. We’re constantly working or trying to think of ways to improve and preparing for the following day. Don’t get me wrong, though, I’m not complaining. I love my job.”

  There was a large part of me that was thankful to have a teacher like Abby. She was so dedicated and patient with me. Sure, she pushed me hard and left me exhausted at the end of each day, but that’s what I needed and wanted, and she knew that. I do wish that she had more of a social life, however. She was young and beautiful, yet she spent her days and nights dedicated to her job—to me. Ever since I had met her, I felt extremely protective over her. I wanted her to be happy more than I’d ever wanted it for anyone. She had risked and given up so much for me and, for the most part, she didn’t get the appreciation she deserved.

  “So what about you and Blake? Any special plans this evening?” she asked.

  I couldn’t hide my smile. “I think so. He’s been telling me all week that he wants to take me somewhere special tonight, but he won’t say where.”

  “That sounds nice.” She smiled back. “It will be good for you to get away, take your mind off all of this magic stuff for a while.”

  Yes, it would be nice if I could stop thinking about magic for just a few minutes, but what Abby didn’t know was that I
thought about magic constantly. There were the rare times where Blake would distract me for a few seconds and I wouldn’t think about how much I botched that one spell, or how I still couldn’t fly more than a hundred feet without issues; however, for the most part, magic was constantly on my mind. Internally I sighed, knowing that magic had taken over my life. It was the very thing my mother had tried to avoid happening to me. While being a witch and welcoming my destiny was great, it also led to a life full of worry and fear. There was never a moment when I wasn’t fearful of something; dark magic... losing the people I loved... or something happening to them because of the powers I possessed… or, the most terrifying, being separated from the Harpers. The constant ache of worry kept magic firmly on my mind, I had to be able to protect myself and the people that I loved.

  My mind was distracted with those unhappy thoughts until we were back at the estate. Blake, Annette, and Samuel were sitting on the front porch when we arrived. Blake smiled at me as we approached and immediately, my worrisome mood lifted.

  “How was training today, Meredith?” Annette asked.

  “She was wonderful,” Abby responded too quickly for me to say anything. “We made a lot of progress today and I’m certain that she will have it down completely by tomorrow.”

  “What was today’s lesson?” Samuel asked, intrigued and looking directly at me.

  “Resisting mind control, but we also worked on the sensing spell,” Abby was quick to respond again.

  “I’m sure Meredith can speak for herself, Abby.” Blake glared over at his sister.

  “How are you feeling, Meredith? You look exhausted.” Annette asked, clearly trying to distract her children from an impending argument. “I know how difficult it can be to learn how to resist mind control. It’s one of the most difficult, yet one of the most important lessons to learn.”