Page 37 of Spellbound
“Rosalyn.God help me, but I really think it has to be Rosalyn who has done this.”
Asher fell down beside me.“What?No, that can’t be true! But why? Why would she do this?”
“It makes a kind of horrible sense if you think about it. And it’s not just this. If I’m right, then this might go way back—all the way to the time of your mother’s death, and even before that. Rosalyn was a powerful practitioner until she became so ill with cancer when she was in her forties. The radiation treatments burned away great swaths of her power—a known risk for practitioners developing a psychosis afterward. And it had to be a huge shock to her. I think it must have broken her mind. Soon after that her husband was diagnosed with ALS. I believe she began to siphon off his power then, and since he was so ill, he couldn’t even fight her off. He couldn’t speak so he couldn’t tell anyone what she was doing to him. In effect, she was slowly killing him or hastening his death. And all he could do was watch her kill him.”
“But that’s unthinkable.”
“She had motive, means and opportunity.”
“He was her husband. The father of her kids.”
“He also once had a lot of power. It would have taken her a while to drain all that away for herself. Plus, it wasn’t long after he died that she began to volunteer in hospitals and nursing homes, when she’d never done it before. That could mean she found a way to keep her supply going. She’s an opportunist and managed to keep power flowing long after it should have been completely gone. I often wondered after her dementia diagnosis why she never seemed all that affected. She was holding it off with power.She was stripping mortals of their lives. She turned fully warlock.”
“No, Ben, that can’t be true. That’s my great aunt you’re talking about, my grandmother’s sister! You’re saying she turned warlock and what? Killed people? Her own husband? Helpless people in hospitals and nursing homes?”
“I think she was also the one who killed your mother, Ash. She would have known about Opal making a bid for your power because Janet told her about it. She thought it might just be possible to strip you, because you were so young, so she came to help Opal do it. She’d never have shared it with your mother though. She must have planned to kill her all along.”
“Oh my god.”
“Even my father’s death is suspicious, now that I think about it. The Council told me he died in the line of duty, but she was partnered with him that day—she was supposed to be backing him up. What if he’d found out what she was doing? What if she suspected he knew? What if he was trying to stop her or threatened her with exposure?”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“I think she’s been trying to kill you for years. She couldn’t that night she killed your mother, because you were too strong for her. It was all she could do to manage to escape. But then later, after your magic was bound. All those accidents, including the waterfall accident and then most recently the one at thefootbridge at her house. She even tried to get you to kill yourself by climbing on that waterfall. Maybe that’s what she was doing with your thesis. She clouded your mind with a spell so you wouldn’t see what you were doing. She hoped that when you realized it, you might get so depressed and upset that you might just end it all. And she’d be around to help you decide that.”
“But why?”
“She has to prevent you from exposing her. The Council will put her to death for being a warlock. Maybe that’s why she was so out of sorts tonight at dinner. She knows how I feel about you, and she’s afraid I’ll figure it all out now that we’re getting so personally close. That and all the talk about ghosts. She must have more than a few wanting to take their revenge on her.”
“But she has cancer. She’s sick!”
“I don’t think she’s quite as sick as she’s making out. She always had strength and cunning. Maybe she’s never been as incapacitated as she wanted all of us to believe.”
“But she’d have to be a monster to do all that. A devil!”
“Exactly. And that’s what I’ll have to keep in mind when I go after her.”
“Do you think she knows you might be catching on?”
“It’s hard to say. She was angry tonight from almost the moment we arrived.”
“She’s there with my grandmother! What better way to get at me than through her!”
“That’s her sister.”
“If she drained the life from her husband and her partner, then why would she care about that?”
I jumped to my feet. “We have to get back there. Now!”
Chapter Twelve
“Just try and stay out of my way. Just try! I’ll get you, my pretty…”
~The Wicked Witch,The Wizard of Oz.
Asher
I barely remember the trip racing back down the mountain to the Cromwell home. I was trying the whole time to get my grandmother on her cell phone, but there was no answer. I told myself she might be taking a long bath, like she loved to do.
