The Raven Saga Box Set

Chapter 11

There was a knock on the door. “That'll be Rose,” he said as he stood up.

“I'll get it,” said Wyatt as he stood and went to open the door. “Hi, Rose. Thanks for coming,” I heard him say. She whispered something, and I heard him respond, “yes, she knows everything up until Serena's death.”

“Oh, the poor dear,” I heard her say.

Rose walked in then, removing her warm fur coat and throwing it accurately on the coat hook on the wall. “Darling, Lilly,” she said as Gabriel and Meredith gave her room to embrace me tightly.

She said nothing for a few minutes. We just sat in silence while the tragic news sank in, making my heart feel so heavy. The sound of the kitchen clock could be heard ticking, almost in time to the beating of my heart. To the beating of all our hearts.

Rose looked at me then. She really looked at me as if she was looking deep into my soul.

“You are my sister's daughter,” she said nodding. “Yes, Serena was my darling little sister. She was the most wonderful person, Lilly. Everybody loved her. When she was born, she was a little miracle. That's what my parents and I had called her. 'Our little miracle'. My parents were getting on, you see. They never thought they'd have another child so when she appeared, it was a huge shock... a wonderful shock, of course, but a shock nonetheless,” she said smiling.

Gabriel laughed then, and I thought what a lovely face he had when he laughed. I hadn't seen much laughter in him since my arrival.

“It was a shock to the whole community,” he said. “Your mother was nearly seventy,” he chuckled as he spoke to Rose and they shared a smile together.

I was amazed too. A woman of nearly seventy had given birth, naturally, to a healthy baby girl. Not something you heard much of these days, I thought.

“She was embraced by everyone here,” said Rose, “and I raised her as my own after mother and father passed away nearly ten years later. I was happy to do it though, with the... absence of children of my own. Serena wasn't your average ten-year-old. She was so mature and bright. She and Jack were the best of friends from a very early age. We all knew that they were soul mates, so when they told us they wanted to get married, we were overjoyed. It was the most natural thing in the world for them both. She was nearly sixteen, and Jack was nineteen.”

“She became pregnant with Neleh almost immediately, and they loved that child. They doted on her. Neleh was exactly like her mother... your mother...” she said, nodding at me, “she was headstrong, beautiful and intelligent. Everybody loved her. So when the cycle started to repeat itself again, nobody was worried. Neleh and Sammy seemed like soul mates too. They had wanted to get married themselves and start a family at a very early age. We didn't worry. We thought it was the most natural thing in the world – Neleh following in your mother's footsteps,” she stopped then and asked Meredith for a glass of water, who quickly poured her a drink and passed it to her before she continued.

“Sammy Morton was a very well-liked boy here. He was an orphan, raised by a foster family in town. We really thought he and Neleh were well suited. What went wrong between them, we don't know, but that day when he carried her lifeless body back into town, he just looked different. He didn't look like the same person. He looked crazed somehow. And everybody just started believing that he had murdered her. He disappeared that day, and nobody has ever seen him since. Some people say he still lives in the forest, some people say he is dead and haunts the forest. Whatever happened, he disappeared within that forest, Lilly, which is one of the reasons Gabriel doesn't want you to ever go in there.”

“But what happened to his foster parents? Didn't they want to find him?” I asked.

“They couldn't accept what had happened and so they left Powell River a few weeks later.”

I found it hard to believe that his foster parents would just up and leave like that unless they thought he was guilty too.

It was so much to take in that my head began pounding harder and harder, and the sound of blood pulsing through my veins became louder and louder until I could barely hear myself think. I felt hot and uncomfortable, and I just needed a moment to myself. I excused myself for a couple of minutes and went and splashed my face with cold water in the bathroom.

As I stood there, I looked at myself in the mirror, but I couldn't see myself. All I could see were the morphing faces of Neleh and my mother.

Again, I recalled the dream I'd had in the forest. The woman that had tried to speak to me in my dream had been Serena. Had my mother been trying to tell me something? I suddenly remembered Gabriel's words to Meredith that morning: 'I guess I have no choice now but to tell her the truth. I had hoped the dreams wouldn't have started until she was at least eighteen. I understand now that it is a sign. She must be told'.

Were my dreams real signs? I thought of Oliver, and the feral cats and a cold shiver ran down my spine.

As I returned to my family, they were whispering among themselves. They quietened down as I approached them and sat down.

“I know there is more... so please go on,” I said bravely, although I didn't feel so brave.

This time, Meredith spoke. “Lilly, what we are going to tell you now might sound fantastical and surreal, but we need you to keep an open mind, okay?”

I nodded.

“When your father left us and took you away to live in England, we believe that he did so against his own will. We believe that a witch cast a spell on him,” she said nervously.

It was like an epiphany to me, and it was then that I knew they were talking about Vivian.

“Vivian was a witch. Yes, it makes sense to me now,” I whispered.

I could feel a weight being lifted not only from my shoulders but from those around me too. I could hear sighs of relief. I thought once again to that strange black room and Gabriel's words: black was a magical colour.

“Lilly... why does this make sense to you? Did she ever do anything to you? Did she ever hurt you?” asked Gabriel.

“She never laid a finger on me, but she did hurt me in other ways. She stopped my father from spending any time with me. She tried to stop him from loving me. Although he withdrew from me, he would never have stopped loving me, would he?” I said. A few more tears fell down my cheeks as I began to see Vivian in a totally new light. The truth hurt.

“Of course not, Lilly. You mean the world to him. I'm sure of that,” said Meredith.

“How did you know that Vivian is a witch? What did she do?” I asked, wondering how it had all begun.

Between them, they explained how my father had met Vivian at the hospital when I was born and that she had not left his side after my mother had died. My father, apparently, had changed instantly and it wasn't the kind of change that happens after the death of a loved one. It was an inexplicable change. A change that could have only occurred through some kind of skulduggery. In this case, they believed that skulduggery to be witchcraft. And the person responsible was, undoubtedly, Vivian.

“She somehow stopped us from seeing you, and Jack,” said Wyatt. “We did everything we could to see you both, but there was some kind of physical force preventing us from doing so.”

“We spent a lot of time at Serena's graveside, hoping that we would see him there but he never appeared. Not once. That wasn't the Jack we knew. And before we knew it, we found out that Vivian was taking you both to England. When we confronted her, she became so angry, she threatened us. She said if we ever tried to come after her, she would... she would hurt you,” said Meredith.

“That's why we've never been able to see you or why we never tried to call you, sweetie. God knows we wanted to. We desperately wanted to, but we couldn't risk it. We couldn't risk losing you for good. We managed to track down your address and wrote to you, but we're sure that Vivian disposed of the letters before you ever saw them.”

“So you've not seen my father since my mother died?” I asked.

They shook their heads.

“That must have been so awful for you all... and now we don't know if we'll ever see him again,” I cried.

“We have no idea what has happened to him... or to Vivian, but I sincerely believe that they are both still alive. The fact that they vanished without a trace suggests more witchcraft though. We have been doing everything we can to find Jack, and we have reason to believe that they are somewhere in Canada,” Gabriel said.

I asked him what they have been doing to try and track them down and why he felt they were still alive, but before I could get an answer from him, Rose spoke instead, and I certainly wasn't prepared for what she was about to tell me.

“Lilly, dear, for us to answer that question, you need to learn the truth about who you are.”

Confused, I nodded.

The truth turned out to completely change my view of the world.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The things that I had only read about in fairy tales turned out to be far from fantasy. According to Gabriel, these things were very real, indeed... a secret world that I had no clue really existed until my family began to unfold the truth...

Werewolves, werecats, vampires, witches, ghosts... you name it, it existed within this world. A world that seemed so alien to me that would soon become my everyday life.

I was told all about my father's side of the family, that they were descendants of ravens and actually could morph into the bird. Not just that, but my mother's side of the family could morph into cats.

“Okay... this is just sounding ridiculous... how is this possible? Surely you're joking with me now? How can a human being become an animal? It's impossible.”

Rose shook her head slowly and told me that it was very possible. She said that it was very real and that there was a strong possibility that I had the gift myself.

“W...what gift?” I asked gingerly, afraid of what they might say.

Gabriel and Rose both glanced at each other sideways, before telling me that it was possible that I had the ability to change into either a cat or a raven... or even both.

Clearly, the idea was absurd to me, and I told them so as I stood up abruptly and paced up and down the room shaking my head.

“Lilly, these dreams you've been having are the strongest indication so far that you can change into both animals. Remember you told me you changed into a mountain lion and a raven? Well, it appears that may be true. Your subconscious has been telling you so,” said Gabriel softly.

“Well, can you change, Gabriel? Can you?” I asked, defensively.

“And what about you, Wyatt? Meredith? Rose? We're all related... surely you can all change too?” I said, my body shaking as I spoke.

There was silence for a moment before Rose stood and took both my cold hands in hers. “I can, Lilly. I can change into a lynx. Your mother wasn't able to, and sadly we never knew if Neleh had the ability as she died before she became of age,” she said softly.

I could tell she was telling me the truth by her eyes, those black eyes that became the brightest blue in different lights. I remembered the day that I'd met her. She'd known I was there without even looking, her sense of smell and her sense of hearing were both incredible, just like a cat. I'd even thought she'd looked feline-like at the time. Her home was full of cats and they'd all gravitated towards her as if she was one of them.