Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
But how did that help me if the mysterious door was appearing here in the house? What was I supposed to do—lure the spirit of Milas James out the back door and through the backyard to edge of the water? And even if I got him there—then what?
I went on reading, hoping to get more clues on what I was supposed to do, but there were only a few more lines—very sad ones.
“Until the Natural Witch comes, we must Endure. I weep for my John and I Pray to see him again some day in the Afterlife…”
These last words were blotched, as though my ancestress had been crying when she wrote them and the tears had made the ink she was using run. Poor woman! I wondered how long she’d had her own Heartmate before he was taken from her?
A bigger question was, was the prophesy talking about me? Was I a “Natural Witch?” But even if I was, how was I supposed to defeat the evil spirit of Milas James? I didn’t know and I was afraid for Rath. What if something happened to him? What if Milas James came through the black door and drove him crazy or killed him somehow?
I went back to the front of the book and looked at the family tree. Under the names there were dates. My heart sank all over again when I saw that the men in my family had all died young.
My Grandfather had been forty when he died and my own father had only been thirty-eight. He and my mother had been together about five years before he passed, I remembered. And it was shortly after that she’d had my magic bound and asked Baba Yaga to put the memory spell on me, so that I would forget my Grandma and all of Hidden Hollow.
I remembered now that Madam Healer had said that my Mom had just lost my Dad when she’d made that decision. She must have been half-crazy with grief and had decided that she would do everything she could to keep me away from the magical world in an effort to keep the Curse from affecting me.
But Grandma didn’t agree with her. She believed that I could break the Curse. Rapidly, I counted the names and lines. Yes, I was the eleventh generation removed from Mercy Pruitt. But was I really strong enough to take on the evil spirit that had been tormenting and killing my family for centuries?
I didn’t know but I was afraid that very soon I would have to find out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
That night I dreamed of the black door again. But this time I could see the doorknob turning and the door beginning to open. In the dream, I did my best to stop it. I pushed on the door—leaned on it with all my weight. But there was nothing I could do to stop it. The door kept opening and as the crack widened, I could see a blazing red eye staring at me from the darkness…
“Mmmmrow! Mmrow!” Sebastian woke me by sitting on my chest and meowing directly in my ear.
“Huh…what?” I blinked and looked up to see his furry, whiskered face looking anxiously into mine. “What is it? Was I having a bad dream?” I asked him.
His “mmmrow!” was a definite “yes.”
“Okay, well I’m up now. Thanks for waking me,” I told him.
I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. I could still remember the baleful red eye staring at me from the open door, though. The dream hadn’t faded as most dreams do when you wake up. It was still lingering like some kind of warning.
It made me so nervous that I left my bedroom and went to look at the end of the hallway. Sure enough, the corner was back and when I looked around it, I saw the black door with the red X.
Seeing it made my blood run cold. Was I dreaming again? I pinched myself hard and gasped as my fingernails dug into my skin, nearly drawing blood. So I wasn’t dreaming after all. And now my nightmare had come to life!
I watched the door cautiously, but unlike in my dream, the knob didn’t turn. Still, I had a sense that the thing behind it was waiting…but waiting for what?
“This is no good—we need to get out of here,” I told Sebastian. “Come on—let’s go downstairs.”
Casting a baleful eye over his shoulder at the black door, Sebastian made a hissing sound and followed me down the stairs.
Over a bowl of instant oatmeal for me and a can of tuna for Sebastian, I tried to decide what to do. I looked through the Grimoire again, hoping to see some kind of spell I could work to keep the evil spirit that lurked behind the door at bay.