Kanti Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Free Prequel

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Beneath the Willow

  About JR Erickson

  J.R. Erickson

  www.jrericksonauthor.com

  .

  Kanti

  Born of Shadows Book 3

  by J.R. Erickson

  Copyright © 2017 J.R. Erickson

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Chapter 1

  Abby watched the fire grow and then ebb away. It spoke to her. In the flames, she saw Kanti's dark eyes observing her and the girl, more like a woman, whispered things that Abby could not hear, but the life inside her stirred in response. She shook her head to banish the strange images that often came unbidden to her mind.

  "How's my beautiful goddess?" Sebastian asked, startling her as he approached from behind. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck.

  Abby sat, with her legs tucked beneath her, on their living room floor. Outside snow fell in gusts.

  "I got you a present," he whispered and moved around and knelt before her on the lush burgundy carpet.

  He wore a heavy wool sweater and torn blue jeans and his hair, now shoulder length, fell into his eyes. Abby brushed the hair away from his face and leaned into him. She pressed her face into his chest and felt a bit of the pressure inside her subside. She had been lying to everyone. No one knew of the child within her and in two days, they would go to the Coven of Ula, and she feared that the elder witches would immediately sense the baby.

  Sebastian reached into a small purple bag and pulled out a tiny, intricately carved wooden jewelry box. He lifted the lid to reveal a glowing moonstone ring embedded in red velvet.

  Abby's eyes grew wide and she looked at Sebastian, who watched her intently.

  "I asked Helena before the ball to find it for me. I needed a little magic for the perfect ring."

  Abby reached out and ran her index finger along the shining stone. It felt cold to the touch, and the coolness rose through her arm and into her body.

  "I had a dream at Sydney's house, before all of this really began," he continued. "I dreamed of giving you this ring and asking you to marry me. In my dream, I knew that the moonstone was a source of power for you and that it would protect us."

  Abby's breath caught in her throat and a flood of emotion rose from her diaphragm. Tears filled her eyes and spilled over and Sebastian shuddered, hard, as her energy coursed through him.

  "Will you marry me?"

  Abby wanted to blurt out the truth or run from the room. More than all of that, she wanted to say yes, but she could not open her mouth. She pressed her lips together and nodded.

  Sebastian laughed and pulled out the ring.

  "Whew, you scared me for a minute there."

  He slid the gothic silver band onto her finger. The delicate twists and ridges fit her finger perfectly, and she threw her arms around him and cried into his shoulder.

  He rubbed her back and then pulled away, looking into her face. He wiped the streaks of tears from her cheeks.

  "What is it, Abby?" He looked unsure.

  Finally, her lips obeyed her, and she spoke.

  "I'm happy and it scares me. I just love you so much and I believed I had lost you and now..." She gestured to the room, but meant to encapsulate everything, the new house and the new life they had been given.

  "It's okay to be happy, but I understand, I do. Sometimes feeling happy has seemed a bit like tempting fate. The gods will seek to balance the universe by destroying our happiness, but that's superstitious, right?"

  "Elda would say that the universe finds balance through love and more love raises the consciousness of the world. You deserve to be happy, Sebastian. I want that for you."

  "You deserve that too, Abby. You realize that, right?"

  "Of course." Abby kissed him. It felt like a little white lie, the kind that everyone tells. Did she deserve to be happy when so many people in the world suffered?

  Sebastian pulled her into him and Abby wrapped her legs around him, hugging him with every piece of her body.

  "Marriage, huh?" She laughed, settling back into the sofa and admiring the beautiful ring. "You know we only met a few months ago. You sure you want to sign up for a whole lifetime with me?"

  "Yep, not a doubt. My dad proposed to my mom after three weeks, so we're way behind the game." Sebastian smiled, his eyes dancing over her. "Plus, I want the whole world to know that I'm devoted beyond forever to you."

  "Beyond forever? How long is that exactly?" She laughed and tugged at his curls. He kissed her again.

  "We can't even fathom it," he whispered against her cheek, and then he scooped her up and carried her to their bedroom.

  ****

  Lydie sat on the end of the dock and stared into the rivulets of slate-gray water. The cold had stopped having an impact. Enough time in any environment and the body adjusted. Max had taught her that, but she couldn't think about Max. Max made her cry. But, of course, it was too late, and she started to cry; her tears caused the cold to touch her face and she wiped them away angrily.

  She and Oliver had been staying at Abby and Sebastian's new house. They had gone there after Sorciére, after the day in the Vepar's lair when the whole world flipped upside down and never got righted. The day that Lydie realized why her parents, both witches, chose life outside the coven. It wasn't their fault, the witches of Ula, but tragedy seemed to follow them. Now Max lay dead in the ground and an evil spirit haunted them all.

  "Kanti," Lydie said the name angrily. Kanti had killed Max and the others. Lydie hadn't known Adora or Thomas or even Rod, the two witches and the human who'd died that day. But Max, she'd known Max, and she'd loved him. Max had treated her like a daughter, a granddaughter and his friend. He had loved her unconditionally.

  Kanti hadn't killed them directly, of course. Evil spirits couldn't kill on their own, but she acted through the Vepars. She helped them create the walking dead who had attacked her and Oliver and Sebastian. The fire that burned the lair came at the request of Kanti. Lydie knew it did. She hated Kanti. She didn't care what had happened to her as a young woman that made her mean, that inspired her to curse generations of witches after her. She wanted to hurt the spirit, but how do you hurt someone who's already dead?

  ****

  "Do you think she's going to be okay?" Abby asked, startling Oliver, who stood in the kitchen watching Lydie on the dock. He had watched her for more than an hour, second-guessing himself every time he considered going to her.

  He shook his he
ad and sighed, leaning into the one-armed hug that Abby offered him.

  Since Sebastian's return, Oliver's time with Abby had grown less frequent, and he dared not admit that he missed the weeks while Sebastian was missing and they were solving the mystery of the curse. He had also started to entertain another vision of him and Abby, but that too had begun to disappear. When Lydie returned to Ula, Oliver would no longer be able to stay in Abby and Sebastian's new home. They would never cast him out, but it was common sense. Lovers wanted their privacy, and he abhorred the thought of playing third wheel.

  "What are you thinking about?" Abby asked, hoisting herself onto the counter and sitting cross-legged.

  "Ula," he sighed. "I can't seem to put myself back there. I keep trying to imagine waking up in that bedroom again." He shook his head and shrugged. "I really don't get it, but there it is."

  Abby nodded her agreement.

  "You can stay here with us, Oliver, I mean it. I know you think that you have to go back, but this house is huge."

  He smiled and patted her knee.

  "I'd love to stay wherever you are, but the truth is that you guys need your alone time right now. You know it as well as I do. I also can't leave Lydie behind."

  They both turned their gazes back to the young witch who sat motionless on the dock beyond.

  "I just can't believe we only have two days. These last few weeks have flown."

  Abby too had noticed how quickly the previous several weeks had passed. Though busyness could do that. From searching for and then buying the new house, to assembling all the materials from the curse, and adjusting to the mostly sleepless nights where all four of them regularly woke from nightmares, the days passed in a blur.

  In addition, Abby's fear surrounding the secret she harbored accelerated time all on its own. She felt like the universe was rushing her toward some big unveiling and she was helpless to stop it.

  "Are you scared?" Oliver asked, noticing her silence.

  "Yes. I'm scared of this curse and I'm scared for all our recovery and I'm scared when I think about Tobias and Alva and where they are right now. I want to be strong and fierce and ready to fight, but most of me is just plain scared."

  She laughed and rolled her eyes.

  "Who knew this witch stuff would get so complicated."

  "Not me," Oliver added. "But I know now that I was living in the dark. I think Faustine and Elda preferred it that way, maybe believed the old adage that what we don't know can't hurt us. Guess the joke's on them."

  "Not a very funny joke."

  "Nope." Oliver shook his head sadly and thought of Max. He still couldn't imagine sitting around the dinner table at Ula and not seeing Max's jovial face at the other end.

  "Where's your partner in crime?" he asked, needing to change the subject.

  "Buying a snowblower." Abby laughed. I'm sure there's some spell I could learn to wash the snow into the lake, but I'd rather let him do it. We need normal, and if blowing snow helps Sebastian feel human again, then so be it."

  "Ha," Oliver chuckled, "well I don't blame him there. I had the most intense dream last night about changing a tire on my Jeep. Mind you I haven't had to change a tire in ten years, but in the dream, it felt like the most natural thing. I woke up wishing I had a flat tire."

  ****

  "I want this space to reflect Lydie's dreams," Helena insisted. "This sand feels too gritty."

  Demetrius rolled his eyes in exasperation and looked at Elda, who only grinned and shook her head.

  "Here, let me try something," Bridget offered.

  Since returning to Ula, Bridget's previously restrained demeanor had shifted. Eager to take the initiative, she participated in nearly every new spell placed on the coven. Additionally, she offered her suggestions to Elda and Faustine about how to rebuild the coven as a thriving community and refused to return to the status quo.

  Bridget took a handful of the sand and whispered into it. Then she went to the case of elixirs sitting on the floor and pulled out a large bottle filled with dark green powder. She sprinkled the powder into the sand and then flung it into the dune that ascended to the ceiling of one of the tower rooms. Previously the vacuous space had held only stone slabs and crystals for purification and divining. Faustine had offered it as a special place for Lydie.

  Demetrius had enchanted the tower to mimic Lydie's childhood home. The sand dune was real sand that Lydie could run up and down and sink her toes into. Holographic trees, like those at the Coven of Sorciére, rained colorful flowers onto the floor. A huge, living oak tree grew out of the stone floor. The branches extended and disappeared into the ceiling and the castle walls. Nestled within the branches was a duplicate of Lydie's childhood home as it had been before the forest took it back. Except this version was a tree house with a wooden spiral staircase for entrance. The room's floor was enchanted with real grass and hordes of tiny yellow flowers.

  "Yes, perfect," Helena chimed, sinking her hands into the sand.

  Helena had not made a full recovery from the attack at Ula more than three weeks before. Her body still ached and she had strange ghoulish visions that sometimes made her woozy and filled with panic. She often used a tall wooden cane that Faustine had carved for her. He had formed the top into a beautiful wolf with two shimmering emerald eyes. Though Helena loved the beautiful cane, it upset her every time she wrapped her fingers around it, and more so when she had to put her weight against it because her legs could not seem to hold her up.

  Elda pushed open the heavy castle door and gasped when she saw the room.

  "Oh my." She took her hand to her throat and shook her head in disbelief. "It's amazing."

  "Isn't it?" Demetrius asked, grinning. "And that cloud up there is a door."

  He pointed to the space above the sand dune where the wall looked like a blue summer sky.

  They had cast a spell so that the ceiling reflected the weather outside the castle. A fluffy white cloud was placed exactly at a door that opened out of the castle, where they had continued the sand dune all the way to the lagoon. Helena imagined Lydie flinging open the door and tumbling to the lagoon edge to swim in the summer.

  "It's absolutely breathtaking," Elda continued. She laughed as Garfield, Lydie's fuzzy orange cat, poked his head from a bushel of leaves far up in the oak tree.

  "We thought it might be time to bring more animals into the castle," Bridget said, calling to the cat who immediately began a laborious descent to get his ears scratched. "They sense things after all, and frankly, I miss them."

  Helena nodded vigorously. "I fully intend to move from this wolf," she held up the cane, "to a real one very soon."

  "Of course," Elda replied. "It is not as though I banished pets from Ula."

  And that was true. After the great tragedy of 1908, which they now understood as part of the curse linking Dafne and the Vepar Tobias, many of their pets were dead. Some of the animals were killed the night of the attack, and others had died of old age long after the incident occurred. However, no one at the coven had brought another animal in since Kissy, the fat gray tabby that Oliver had found abandoned during a Vepar hunt.

  "Animals are powerful," Demetrius agreed. "Galla's parrot foretold of a sinister stranger visiting Sorciére and less than a month later, a dark witch from Galla's past appeared on our doorstep."

  "Yes, animals have also communicated great dangers to us here at Ula," Elda agreed and Helena gave her a sad smile, both remembering another time.

  As if on cue, the fat orange kitten dove from the tree and sailed right through a holographic butterfly at Helena's elbow.

  ****

  "Back to Ula," Lydie commented absently as they walked the enchanted dock into the icy waters of Lake Superior.

  The witches of Ula had built the dock a week before, bewitched so that it only appeared if a witch of the Coven of Ula called for it. Oliver had spoken to the lake and the dock had gradually materialized.

  "Just think, Lyds, Bridget has probably whippe
d up some crazy chocolate thing that will give us a stomachache for days," Oliver teased, hugging her.

  "Hey, there's Victor and Kendra," Abby announced as they stepped from the woods where they had parked their car. Abby waved at them.

  "Damn it's cold," Victor bellowed, walking down the dock and blowing into his gloved hands.

  "Victor and Kendra, this is Lydie and Sebastian," Abby told them.

  "The infamous Sebastian." Victor grinned, shaking his hand.

  "Good to meet you, man," Sebastian offered. He gave Kendra a quick hug. "Abby has said you're her new best friends."

  "Excuse me?" Oliver joked, poking Abby in the sides.

  "I have many best friends," Abby promised.

  "Nice to meet you," Lydie told them, watching the distant form of a boat moving toward them.

  Faustine picked the six of them up in a large steel, military-style boat. He ushered them into the cockpit where the glass was reinforced, and an array of weapons hung from one wall. Abby introduced him to Victor and Kendra.

  "A corvette, huh?" Oliver asked.

  "Yes," Faustine said seriously. "Can't be too careful."

  "Isn't a corvette a car?" Lydie asked, settling onto a wooden bench and hugging an orange life preserver against her chest.

  "Yes," Faustine told her. "But a corvette is also a fast military warship, and that's what you're riding in now."

  "A warship?" she asked, and her voice trembled.

  Oliver sat next to her and pulled her against him.

  "Just for extra safeness, Lyds, but those Vepars aren't stupid enough to attack us out here. We're way better swimmers."

  Lydie didn't respond, but her eyes darted back toward the trees as they pulled away from the mainland.

  In the sleek and fast ship, the trip, to the island, passed in a blur.

  As they entered the black tunnel that bore them into the lagoon outside the castle, Abby noticed that the passage seemed quite a bit larger than the first time she had sailed through it.