Wicked (The Drake Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  Ever since graduating he would spend endless amounts of time in the back shed, working spells and attempting to decode a journal that the two had uncovered in their mother’s belongings. The initials N.A.D garnished the black leather-bound journal but they had no clue what they stood for

  They had to keep the journal from Mason. They wanted to wait until they were ready to show it to him because of how protective he was of their mother’s things.

  Mason had always been extremely vague about their lives before the mortal world and Ethan and Emma never really understood why. What was so terrible about Elsmere that led them to come here?

  The doorbell resonated through the house, startling Emma and waking Ethan from his never-ending slumber in the home’s library.

  Emma raced down the staircase, the wood paneled ground as cold as ice. Mason liked to keep the house temperature low for the library’s sake. It contained an enormous amount of elderly books, some even from the fifteenth century.

  She made it to the door in time and saw through the lightly frosted glass window that it was a boy, about her age, and he was carrying a package.

  Ethan, groggy and irritated walked up behind his sister and sat his chin on her shoulder.

  “He’s cute. Open the door,” Ethan said into her ear. Emma laughed, shaking her head. With a deep sigh she opened the door to the strange boy.

  Chilly air trickled out from the house and it was then that Emma realized that she was still wearing her light pink, almost see-through, camisole. She quickly crossed her arms over her chest and felt her cheeks turning hot pink.

  The boy smiled and held out the package to her.

  “Hi, this came by my house by mistake. I’m Logan Hardwicke, I just moved into the house next door.” The boy’s eyes were entrancing to both Emma and Ethan; they almost looked silver.

  There was something off about him, and it intrigued them both. Emma took the package from him with one hand and smiled brightly. He was stunning and reminded Emma of a boarding school student, polished.

  “Thank you, I’m Emma Drake and this is my brother Ethan.” Emma gestured behind her with her head. Ethan gave a lazy wave and walked off into the tea room.

  Logan stiffened at the mention of their names, eyes widening. Emma wondered if he was okay, maybe the frostiness of the house was bothering him.

  “It was nice meeting you,” Logan said as he turned to leave. But as if something were pulling him back, he turned to Emma again. “Do you happen to know if there are any book stores around here? When we moved I couldn’t bring my books,” Logan explained as he leaned back and forth on his heels.

  He was a short boy, maybe an inch taller than her. His sandy blond hair hung in jagged layers at the bottom of his ears and he had just a bit of gold stubble on his cleft chin.

  “I don’t read much, but Hilda’s Book Bin is near the community college on Crest Street. It’s cheap and my brother works there on weekends,” Emma said as she held the package against her chest.

  She left out the tiny part about half of it being a witchcraft book store, since that was the sole reason Ethan worked for the owner.

  “Great, thank you.” Logan smiled as he walked off of the porch.

  “You’re welcome,” Emma laughed softly and watched as Logan made his way down the wet driveway and onto the sidewalk.

  She stood in the doorway like an idiot for a while before she closed the door behind her and headed into the tea room, where Ethan was flipping through a book about Spiritual Possessions.

  “Did you know that a penis can become possessed?” Ethan looked over the top of the book at Emma.

  “That’s just- I don’t want to know that, Ethan.” Emma sat the package on the coffee table near a tall, gold lamp.

  Ethan looked up from his book again, his knitted dark eyebrows casting a shadow over his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair and closed the book with a snap.

  He sat the book down on the table and leaned back into the chair he rested in, Mason’s favorite chair.

  “He was cute but he’s not human. At least, not fully,” Ethan said suddenly as Emma peered down at the address on the package. The box was addressed to Emma and Ethan Drake.

  “Shut up, Ethan. And if Mason sees you in that chair he’s going to turn your ass into one,” Emma snapped as she reached for a pair of scissors on the desk.

  The lounge looked extravagant, complete with two burgundy and gold loveseats, a large cherry wood desk, a gigantic, looming black tiled fireplace, and a reading corner, fit with a large rose gold lamp, looming over Mason’s chair.

  The ceiling was high and had a mural painting of a blood-red dragon devouring a baby hellhound; the large wings of the dragon took up half of the ceiling. It was one of the most stunning parts of the home, next to the library.

  Emma sliced open the box and pulled some crumpled newspaper free.

  “He’s like us, I think. I felt this vibe, and I’ve felt it before like when that hellhound attacked you-”

  “-Logan is not like us, Ethan.” Emma cut her brother off with an ice cold glare. She didn’t understand why she was so quick to defend Logan, she didn’t even know him.

  Ethan looked taken aback.

  “I don’t have to convince you of anything, I’ll just find out later on.” Ethan stood up from the chair and was beginning to walk away. But before he could cross the threshold of the room, he was stopped dead in his tracks.

  He turned his head and saw Emma with her palm held out toward him, keeping him in place with her power.

  Ethan began to levitate above the ground and he was growing furious. He felt as if he was in a bubble and he couldn’t move a muscle below his head.

  She was using a freezing charm.

  “Leave him alone. You can kill him with that kind of spell. You can’t toy with people like that, Ethan. Do you remember last year? What you did.” Finally Ethan turned around completely and stared directly at Emma, his eyes glazed over with something fierce.

  “We promised we’d never talk about that again, Emma.”

  Emma took a step back; he shouldn’t have been able to move or even speak. Instantly she felt her heart beating heavily in her ears and her blood roaring. It was Ethan; he was doing something to her. But she had never felt this before, it felt dark and sinister.

  Emma’s arms went limp and she looked up into his eyes. His stare was cold and heavy, as if someone else had taken over her brother’s body.

  Ethan felt as if fire was roaring through his veins and he could only hear the sound of his heart beating and the faint resonance of what sounded like static.

  The last time he’d felt this way, it was last year, when he nearly compelled the swim team’s captain to stay under the water before Emma had stopped him.

  The fiery feeling subsided and was replaced with a cool sensation and he could feel the power growing in intensity. He looked at his sister’s face as it began to turn purple and he instantly tried to make it all stop.

  Emma’s arms quickly regained feeling and she clutched her throat. Suddenly she couldn’t breathe.

  In a flash, she collapsed to her knees, the pain dispersing. She breathed in and out heavily, her eyes bulging from her head.

  Ethan landed on his feet, scrambled to the ground and grabbed his sister by her waist to hold her steady.

  “What the hell was that?” Emma croaked.

  “I don’t know,” Ethan said and he meant it. His power was greater than hers moments ago. It was horrifying but he couldn’t deny that it felt oddly incredible at the same time. “I swear I don’t know what happened. It was like something had taken over me.”

  He looked down at his sister and wanted to cry. He would have never hurt her and just a minute ago, he had nearly killed her. Emma looked at her brother and saw the pain in his eyes; he really didn’t know what happened and that scared her beyond belief.

  “I’m okay. We’ll just talk to Mason when he gets back. Maybe our powers are growing because our birthday is g
etting close,” Emma said and picked herself up from the ground.

  Suddenly a ticking sound came to life in the room and Emma looked over at the package. It was coming from within the box.

  She looked back at Ethan; he had heard it too. The two siblings slowly made their way over to the box, wary of whatever lurked within.

  Maybe Ethan had been right about Logan, they had never ordered anything off of the internet and they knew no one that would send them anything.

  Annoyed, Ethan marched up to the box, grabbed it, and turned it over on the table. A silver ball, the size of a plum, rolled across the table, heavy with carved symbols in the metal.

  They had never seen anything like it before and just as Ethan was reaching across the table to retrieve the mysterious ball, the front door flew open with an eardrum busting crash that sent Ethan and Emma on a fit of surprised screams.

  Mason King rushed through the door and turned into the room, his hand outstretched toward the table. Emma and Ethan jumped back as the ball rose into the air and a yellow beam of light shot out from all sides, igniting the entire room in a blinding blaze of illumination.

  Emma and Ethan yearned to become an elder witch and warlock. It meant their power would be greater. But they still had to wait until their eighteenth birthday to become full witches, which wasn’t even close to being an elder.

  Their birthday was only a few months away and Ethan couldn’t wait. Emma on the other hand was scared, afraid of her power growing and letting it take over her life. But she was the strong one, and she rarely used magic to begin with.

  She would be able to remain as normal as possible, she thought. If she could get rid of her powers, she’d do it in a heartbeat.

  Emma held onto her brother as a strong gust of wind ripped through the room like a hurricane, knocking lamps, trophies, and them to the ground. After a few moments, the noise ceased, and Mason still stood in the entrance of the room, the ball now in his hand.

  “I pulled up and felt something was off. So I run inside and find you two, ready to open a Crilix. I thought I taught you both better,” Mason’s voice boomed about the room.

  Mason was tall, dreadfully lean, and had long silvery hair that was always tied up into a sloppy ponytail. He was rugged and almost always wore flannel over-shirts. He often reminded Ethan of a malnourished lumberjack.

  “We didn’t even know what it was, Mason.” Emma got up from the ground and helped Ethan to his feet. “You never told us about it.”

  “You’re right. I don’t think I’ve ever explained what a Crilix is.” Mason stared at the ball and moved it through his fingers like a toy. “I apologize.”

  “It was in a package and addressed to me and Ethan,” said Emma.

  “And what is a Crilix anyway?” Ethan added. In all the books he had read he never saw anything about an object like that. He was extremely curious.

  “In our world, it’s a message holder. Someone wants you two to know something, and only you can open it. I thought it might have been something else, so I checked it for dark magic,” Mason explained as he walked over to the coffee table and sat the ball down.

  He turned to Emma and Ethan and told them to open it. They walked in unison over to the table, Emma’s heart still in her throat from the commotion Mason had just caused. Who had sent this to them?

  “Now, both of you put one finger on the ball and when you hear a click, take your fingers off or you’ll be electrocuted,” Mason commanded. Ethan and Emma gave each other a nervous look and then gingerly placed a finger on the small ball.

  Between their fingers, blue sparks shot free and when the dreaded click came, the siblings ripped their fingers off of the device as if it had already electrocuted them.

  The ball fell open like a sliced up piece of fruit and out came a white silhouette, swirling like a disembodied ghost into the air.

  The silhouette fully formed and stepped down from the table, glowing and hissing softly. Emma and Ethan had never seen such a thing before, and it was truly astounding.

  For a moment Emma wanted to reach her hand out and touch the figure, but held her curiosity back. She didn’t know what it would do to her if she came near it.

  Mason, Emma, and Ethan moved away from the figure as it walked to the middle of the room, its hands folded behind its back. Before Ethan could ask what it was, the figure began to speak in a low and dead voice that sent chills down Emma’s spine.

  “I have a message for Ethan and Emma Drake. I am not pleased to inform you of your Aunt Katherine Drake’s death. This is a belated message considering a funeral has already been held and the body has been buried in Arndell cemetery. In her will, she has left you both her grimoire and a message...”

  A spark buzzed from the tip of the figure’s finger and a large purple leather-bound book appeared on the coffee table, the pages deckled and yellowed with age.

  The figure cleared its throat and began to speak in a husky female voice that made Mason take a step back. He looked truly upset.

  “My darlings, I am sorry that I couldn’t have been a part of your lives. Your mother asked me to keep away from you both, since you are the spawn of my late brother, Nicholas Drake. He loved you both very much, and though he made awful decisions, he was still a splendid father.”

  “My grimoire holds spells created by Drake’s and it would make me happy if you’d at least experiment with them. I love you dearly and I will always be within your hearts. Mason King, I know you are listening. Do me a favor and tell my niece and nephew the truth. You’ve held onto it for too long. Goodbye, my loves.”

  Just then the room erupted in a bright turquoise light and when their visions adjusted, the room was empty except for Mason, Emma, and Ethan. Even the Crilix had vanished.

  Emma took a couple of steps back from the middle of the room and held onto Mason’s chair. She didn’t want to believe what had just happened. Her father had a different name, his real name, and she had an aunt who had just died.

  All of this was kept from her and Ethan and all she could feel was hurt and disgust. Just then, Ethan picked up his book and hurled it across the room, barely missing Mason’s head.

  The man kept his head down, clearly sobbing. Ethan was beyond hurt, he was enraged.

  “When were you going to tell us? We thought our entire family was dead. You lied; you kept this all from us. Why?” Ethan yelled across the room. Mason’s shoulders shook and he wept out loud like a hurt child. “ANSWER ME!” the entire house shook as if an earthquake had been conjured.

  Mason abruptly stopped sobbing and looked up from the ground to Ethan.

  “That is why. You and Emma have dark blood. I didn’t want to burden you with all of the chaos your father created. Your mother, before she died, was going to bring you here to the mortal world and raise you as normally as possible. She was never going to tell you who your father was. I did this for her and for you.

  “You can hate me all you want but do not let your dark blood become dominant. If you do, you’ll kill; you’ll be like your father and corrupt our world. Luckily he was put down before he found a way to ruin everything. You cannot take after him. You are both better than that,” Mason explained, looking back and forth between the siblings.

  Ethan was speechless, but it made him think about what he had done to the swim captain and to his sister just before Mason had arrived. Was that a part of his dark blood? For now, he was certain it was.

  He turned to Emma and before he could say a word to her, she collapsed to the ground like a crumpled piece of paper.

  2

  The interior of the shed was lit by candlelight and a skinny fluorescent lamp that stood in the back of the room buzzing softly. The shed smelt of burnt paper and old, musty books and looked ordinary to any mortal person. But to Ethan, it was a place of curiosity, discovery, and magic.

  It was also the only place that Ethan felt comfortable, besides his bedroom. Ever since they had moved into the house years back, Ethan felt a connection
to the shed and when Mason had converted it into a spell room, Ethan could be found either nose deep in a book about a variety of creatures or causing a ruckus with spells that he’d never attempted before.

  It was his sanctuary.

  In the middle of the wooden shed sat a drawing desk, complete with a stool and a crooked lamp that was no longer working. On the walls, circles were drawn onto the wood with white spelled chalk, warding off strangers that were not allowed inside unless invited.

  Finally, a large bookcase took up one side of the shed, while a cork board, various knick knacks, and a black futon bed swallowed the rest of the interior.