Enchanted Flames: Chapter Six

Casey leaned her head back and slowly rolled her head from side to side, listening to the way the bones in her neck rubbed against each other. She had spent another hour with Ash, explaining to him what he wanted to know without compromising him or herself. She had still come up empty with trying to find a reason as to why Aiden would want him. She stared into the empty house. She had made a few calls to agents in Metropolis City in order to get her furniture shipped to her. They were expected almost an hour ago, Casey didn’t know what was taking them so long. She really didn’t want to have to spend another night in the hotel. Somehow she felt as though she was overstaying her welcome at the multistory building. She walked into the empty space she would soon call her living room and stared out the window at the men working out on the stables. 1

She had been thinking about her brother the entire afternoon, the house no longer gave her the rush it did when she began working on it. Now, she just wanted to get it out of the way so she could concentrate on a way to find her brother and figure out what Aiden wanted with Ash. She always came so close to finding him but as soon as she got close he fell off the face of the earth. Casey rolled her eyes. 2

Whispering a silent prayer, she ran her fingers over the wall as she walked over to the kitchen. She looked down into the room and grinned, this was the only room in the house that she had overdone herself in. She wasn’t the least bit worried, she spent most of her time in the kitchen anyways. Whether snacking or cooking, bent in the fridge with her behind dancing, she was always in the kitchen. She had made it lower than the rest of the house, there was a two step decline into the kitchen, it made it seem a lot bigger when you looked down at it although it was big. Both the upper and lower cabinets were painted black and their doors and drawers were stainless steel. She had imperial red granite countertops along with tan tiles for the backsplash. The floor tiles were gray to add contrast to cabinets. She wasn’t troubled much by it because the island took the attention away from the floor. The fridge, the stove and the dishwasher were also stainless steel and by the time they were installed, and the under cabinet lighting working to her standards, she’d be in heaven and that’s where she wanted to be when she stepped down into this room. 3

She turned and looked out the living room window when she heard the engine of a vehicle, believing it to be the wood that had been ordered for the stables. When she didn’t see the truck drive around back she turned and walked towards the front door, opening it to catch the co-driver’s hand in mid air. He slowly returned his hand to his side before giving her a blank expression. Casey raised a brow, “What?”4

“Am nothing, this just seemed a whole lot smaller from the outside. Where do you want us to put the stuff you ordered?” he said curtly. Casey gave a half laugh before pointing over her shoulder, “Put the furniture in the living room the kitchen appliances go through the door on the left of the house.”5

A yell followed by running footsteps caught her ear. She looked down to find Ashley running up the stairs and jumping into her arms. A breath escaped from Casey as the force in which Ashley jumped onto her had her stepping back to regain her footing. The dark haired girl clung to her like there was no tomorrow, with her face buried in her shoulder. Casey hugged her back and lifted her onto her left hand. Moving out of the way so that the workers could unload the truck, she walked down the stairs and waited until Keilyn reached her. For some reason she kept looking over her sister’s shoulder in search of her mother. 6

“I’m sorry about popping up like this but I swear mom’s brain was going to burst if Ash asked another question about you. She can get so stubborn sometimes.” Keilyn said glaring at a giggling Ashley. Casey’s gave her a lopsided grin, “And who do you think she gets that from?” 7

Keilyn rolled her eyes then looked up at the house, “Dad would love what you did to this, can’t say the same for mom though, she’d freak.”8

Casey half shrugged, “Not so sure I’d be bothered. How did you know where to find me?” 9

She had made it a strict rule that no one make mention of where they were working or who they was working for. Subconsciously, she was aware of what extents her mother would go to just to get the house from her hands. Memories were something that could haunt someone forever no matter where they went. She had learnt that the hard way. Guiltily, she had mailed home every day, and after a month of no replies, she had just stopped sending them. That was until she found a box outside her door with all the letters she had sent along with a letter from her sister explaining that she had hid the letters from her mother. The woman had been frantic after she left and sent the police searching and after a year of hearing nothing, she had accepted that she was either dead or didn’t want to come home. When Eric showed her the note she’d left for him, her mother threw things at him and told him to let her rest in peace. When Casey read those words something in her died and she hadn’t responded. She didn’t even turn a blind eye to the other letters Keilyn had sent. It was only after seeing the picture of Ashley that she snapped out of wherever she was, and she’d responded to every letter since then even sent money home every week. 10

Keilyn had never told her how but after many unanswered attempts at finding out Casey knew and it was then that the guilt started to eat away at her again. She stopped asking and she only sent letters when Keilyn sent her some. She was determined that only after she had found her brother she would return home. Somehow she didn’t believe that she face her mother knowing that she knew about Jevaint and hadn’t said a word.11

She glanced across at Keilyn realising that she’d been talking while her mind was thousands of miles away. 12

“Hmm?” she asked after she was finished. Keilyn stared at her in shock but repeated herself, “I said I went to the hotel and they told me you weren’t there so it was either here or at Eric’s.” 13

Casey shook her head, noting the way she had said the last word quietly and turned herself around to look at the house, but she had heard her. She whispered something in Ashley’s ear and the girl nodded in excitement. She glanced across at Keilyn, “Are you coming?”14

She glared at her, “What you think?”15

Casey readjusted Ashley in her arms and let the young girl down. She yanked at her hand telling her to hurry. Casey smiled down at her, “Impatient are we? How ‘bout you relax and I just might let you ride my horse.”16

“You have a horse, Aunty Casey,” she asked grinning widely. The end of Casey’s lip twitched with a smile, it had been the first time she had heard the young girl call her such but that wasn’t why she was smiling. She held on to Ashley’s chin to keep her face steady, “When did that happen?”17

“Yestherday.” Ashley answered sticking her tongue through the space in the front of her mouth. She was missing both of her front teeth. Taking the little girl’s hand she looked back for Keilyn but found that she had already walked on ahead and was waiting for them just outside the orchard. Casey sighed and walked over to her, “What has she done with the money?”18

Keilyn looked at her, whispering something to herself before stating plain as day, “Bought that rundown café on Doughlin, the one that ugly bearded guy owns.”19

Casey knew what she was referring to, it was the same very café Ash worked at. It was weird because she couldn’t picture her mother working the café. She let Ashley go on ahead counting the apples she saw on the ground after warning her not to take any up. Keilyn watched her go before walking behind her herself. 20

She remembered the number of times she fell in this orchard running away from Casey, a smile crept unto her face, “I was a troublesome one wasn’t I?” 21

Casey answered her with a raise of her eyebrows whilst sneaking a peak at the giggling Ashley. She had found a young bird hopping around at the base of a tree and was chasing it wherever it went. 22

“What is she going to do with Dad’s store? “ Casey asked after Keilyn had remained silent for a few minutes.23

She shrugged and rubbed her fingers against rough bark, “She doesn’t tell me anything not since-“24

“You’re going to have to talk about that sometime you know.” Casey commented after she cut her loose again. Keilyn stopped dead in her tracks, “What difference does it make?”25

Casey looked back at her but kept on walking. She could read the fear in her sister’s eyes but she wasn’t about to force her into telling her, “It doesn’t.”26

Keilyn let out an exasperated breath and slowly started walking behind her. They continued walking behind Ashley in silence. Taking in the scent of apple along with a small hint of sawdust, Casey leaned against a tree and watched Ashley play with the bird. 27

“She hasn’t told me anything about the store since what happened six years ago.” Keilyn finally whispered. Casey didn’t look at her, “I’d have done the same thing so I don’t blame her.”28

“I don’t understand it, nor why he did it, I mean we considered him as close as family,” Keilyn grumbled. Silently, Casey thanked God that her gift had fine tuned her senses and allowed her to concentrate them on any one thing if necessary. Keilyn was almost inaudible. “She had needed help with balancing the books and some other paperwork, somehow it had managed to pile up even more with him around. I’d snuck out and gone to help her because she never brings her paperwork home. He was there, he said he had had the same idea as I did work while everyone else was asleep. We finished close to two and he offered to walk me home. I should have known something was up from the moment he put his hand down my back.” Keilyn continued voice raising to nothing more than a whisper, “We had decided to go in the back way cause it was shorter so we cut through the alley. That was when he held on to my hand and started kissing me. I tried to fight him off I did, but I only made him angry and he snapped and slapped me across my head. I stopped fighting after that. I just stood there and let him do as he wished. If I hadn’t been out it wouldn’-“29

“Don’t even go there, K.” Casey interjected pulling her close to her, “It’s not your fault you hear me, you need to stop blaming yourself for it. You were trying to help mother. You could not have known he was going to,” 30

She drew in a breath, just as that heavy wave of guilt washed over her. All of this happened because she had refused to come home. She bit down her tongue. She could only feel half of the pain her sister was going through and after six years, even though she couldn’t why she still carried that night with a heavy heart, she understood why her sister was always wary of her surroundings. She looked down into teary amber eyes and almost herself began crying. She couldn’t bring herself to say that he had raped her. The one person her father had trusted for years, who had become like family, had turned against him and raped his daughter. Casey tore her eyes away from her sister’s before finishing, “You couldn’t have known.”31

“I’m afraid,” Keilyn said wiping the tears that streamed down her cheeks. Casey turned back to look at her. “I’m afraid that he’ll get out and come looking for me or worse try to take Ashley.”32

Casey pulled her into an embrace, “You have nothing to be afraid of. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere and where going to face your fears together. You hear me? Just like Dad taught us how.” 33

Keilyn broke the embrace still wiping her eyes. Casey allowed her her chance to regain her composure. She turned and gave a low whistle before bending to pick up an apple. Moments later the black stallion trotted through the orchard, thrashing his head. He came to stop in front of her lifting his head so that it rested against her shoulder. She petted his forehead and watched as Ashley ran up towards her. 34

“Ey, walk around.” Casey said to her, motioning for her to move from behind Shadow. She obeyed and came to a stop beside Casey. 35

Casey handed her the apple, “Now you gotta do this right, not your whole hand is going to end up in his mouth and your mother will kill me if that happens.”36

She demonstrated to the girl how to do it before allowing her to feed the horse. Ashley giggled and pulled her hand away when she felt Shadow’s breath on the palm of her hand. Casey shook her head and rubbed Shadow’s neck. She glanced back at her sister. Keilyn locked eyes with her and gave her a feign smile. Casey shook her head, “I’m going to let Ash ride Shadow back out to the stables is that okay with you?”37

Keilyn nodded and stuffed her hands into her pockets before staring off into the distance. Casey raised a brow but said nothing. 38

She lifted the young girl unto the horse before gripping onto his mane and pulling herself up, “Next time I’ll remember the saddle.”39

Twenty minutes later, she returned with Ashley on her back, giggling and laughing like a maniac. Keilyn, who was leaning against a tree, looked back at the two of them. 40

“She has such a wild imagination,” Casey answered seeing her sister’s questioning look, “Come on you, time to get down.”41

Ashley slide down and ran over to the tree where she had left the bird. Casey leisurely walked back to her sister, “You okay?”42

She nodded and locked eyes with her. Casey nodded in approval glad that her sister had finally opened up to her. They spent another ten minutes talking about Ashley and anything else that came to Keilyn’s mind. By the time she announced she was going home, Keilyn’s face was beaming with a smile and her mood had gone from sad to ecstatic. 43

Casey was glad. She hadn’t intended to bring up Keilyn’s rape but she wanted to at least be at peace with her sister, if not herself. She didn’t know if she would be alive after she had found her brother and she would rather die knowing she had at least made it right with her sister. She breathed out sharply and allowed the calm façade she had worn while talking to her sister to peel off of her. Her nerves were rattling and ever so often she had kept glancing over her shoulder or darting a quick glance to the left or to the right. 44

She had felt the presence of a levagne, at least she thought it was only one, but she had yet to see it. She was overly grateful that it hadn’t attacked while her sister and niece were there and that it hadn’t gone after them. She would have lost her edgy nerves had it done so. Convinced that her eyes didn’t deceive her, she said to no one in particular, “Stop hiding, I know you’re there.”45

She was hoping that it would at least move to help her locate it but she got nothing. The ruckus laughter of Hartcoe’s stable hands along with the low scraping of the drivers offloading the truck was all that filled the air. 46

Well if it was going to attack it would have done that already, Casey thought taking a step forward not letting her guard down as she moved. 47

She had only managed to pass three trees before she heard movement behind her. She turned almost immediately and stared into the black eyes on the creature sitting on its hind legs. Something about this one made her stop in her tracks, he just seemed different. Fear mingled with curiosity travelled over her. 48

Its eyes had more of a spark to it than any other she had ever seen, and although she could be mistaken because he was sitting, his build and body seemed a lot bigger as well. 49

“I request only one thing from you.” It said baring its teeth as it walked towards her one step at a time. Casey began whispering the words for her casting spell, she wasn’t caring for what he had to say no matter how much of an impact his words had on her. It stopped just as she started her retreat, “I’ve only come to warn you about Aiden.”50

Then it snapped and she stopped in the middle of her chant. That was why he seemed different. He wasn’t under the mind control of Aiden. The spark in his eyes was that of the soul that was within his body. She had only encountered one or two levagne where the soul had withstood the power of Aiden’s mind control and that soul had to be one that was strong mentally. 51

“It’s you, isn’t it? The one that saved him.” Casey said folding her hand into a fist. It nodded and eased towards her before coming to a stop at her feet. She raised a brow, “How long have you been here?”52

“Long enough, I was waiting until I got you alone.”53

Casey nodded in understanding and folded her hands about her chest. He turned his head and breathed out loudly, “I guess you’d first want to hear that they are alive.”54

Casey cocked her head to a side and raised her brows in approval, “That and how you managed to evade Aiden all this while.”55

“You’ll find out sooner than you think.” He said lying down and looking up at her, “By coming here I fear I’ve already set his plans in motion and there is nothing neither you nor I can do about that. The fault in his plan is that he doesn’t know all the exact details. What his plan is I cannot tell you either, only that he is experimenting with a dangerous part of the gift and I’m afraid if he succeeds there will be nothing that you can do. He knows that you will be looking for him so he’ll change his location every day or two.”56

“Tell me why I should believe you, you could be leading me into a trap,” Casey said hands on her hips. 57

“Because I’m the closest you’ll get to finding your brother and your father,” it growled throwing its head back. Casey’s mouth fell open and she stared down at the wolf creature in disbelief, “What?”58

“Why are you so surprised? You had suspected it. This should come as no news to you.” 59

Casey shook her head, “Suspected and knowing are two different things altogether.” 60

She had indeed suspected that her father was still alive, but after hearing what her grandmother had said about those without the gift being able to stand up to the torture of the levagne, she had shoved the thought into the back of her head and never brought it back out. And now after seven years of believing he was dead, she was being told different. 61

On first instinct she decided to let her mother know but quickly shoved the thought from whence it came. If she did tell her mother, she’d have to tell her everything. From Jevaint back down to the how and when her grandmother was killed, and she couldn’t risk that. Her mother would demand to know how she knew such and telling her everything she knew wasn’t in Casey books right about now. 62

She would hold off on telling her until the right time was right. 63

“As I said, I’ve more than likely put his plans in motion,” Lionheart continued, “What I would not advised it that you go looking for him. He needed Ash to act as a lab rat so if you go looking for him, he’d just use you instead then you wouldn’t be much help to anyone. The only way I can help you I’m afraid is by telling you that the only person who knows how to kill him is his brother.”64

Casey looked at him with questioning eyes, “Armani is dead. How is that even possible?” 65

Lionheart snorted and bared his fangs, “When the time is right you will know, I have to go. There is one more thing I need to do before I leave this vessel.”66

Before she could protest he had already sprung from before her and was heading through the orchard. Casey stared after him in disbelief wondering what to do with the spilt milk on her table. 67