Chapter 70- Whispers In The Wind

“You have failed. You haven’t given the Lady of The Forest an heir. You refused your new husband. One that I hand selected for you. And now you are telling me I cannot have Crystal,”
Jeanette kept a firm mask on her face. Inside she was shaking. Her very being was crumbling. Everything she had worked to achieve had gone.
“Damon. I need Crystal to open the door so that I can have the curse reversed that has been placed on me. While ever I have the curse still in place I cannot bore a boy,”
“Then you shall suffer,”
“Damon please? I just need more time,”
“Your time is up,” Damon vanished in a puff of black smoke. Jeanette’s hands shook from fear. What was she going to do? She feared the consequences of her actions. She wasn’t ready to die, nor did she want to become a ghost of the forest. She was out of options. She had to convince Seth to move the wedding forward and open that gateway before Damon could carry out what ever twisted plan he had in mind. She got up from her bed and with shaky legs she made her way downstairs to Seth’s study. What worried her the most was that she would have to confess all to Seth. To have him look at her like the idiot that she was. She knew that he would never look at her the same way he did Mary, the most she could have ever hoped for was to be gazed upon like an equal. There was no chance in that now. The mistake she had made was too great.
She knocked on the door and took a step back composing herself.
“Come in!” his voice boomed and with trembling hands she opened the door.
“Now what do I owe this pleasure? If you have come to moan about Mary, then I suggest you walk right back out. I have had enough of you two and your childish arguments,”
“No Seth this time it is not about Mary,”
“Good take a seat you look like you have seen a ghost,” Seth placed the papers he held in his hands on his desk and leaned his elbows against the cherry wood.
“It’s okay I would rather stand,” she said looking past him and out the window to the well-maintained lawn.
“Very well,” she knew he was waiting but her tongue felt like lead in her mouth blowing out a deep breath she began, “We need to bring the wedding forward,”
“And why is that? Crystal will be at her strongest on her eightieth birthday,”
“Seth, I messed up I made a deal with a demon and…”
“Oh, come on. Did you really think that we didn’t know? We all know, you made a deal for a husband,” Jeanette averted her eyes from the window and looked into Seth’s. They held no feelings at all. They were cold and uncaring.
“Yes, the deal was I would bore the Lady of The Forest an heir then Enchilada…”
“You did what? You foolish idiotic woman!” Seth banged his hands on the table and the entire room shook installing fear like no other in Jeanette.
“I was unable to give them what they wanted because of the curse,”
“As soon as any of your offspring have a boy then it will be taken and the Lady of The Forest will be free,” he snapped.
“The child does not have to be born from you,” Seth rose and began to pace.
“Who is she?” Jeanette had never given her much thought before.
“Pure evil. That’s what she is. She was trapped in that forest for a reason. The oldest of gods more powerful than you could imagine. If she gets out. We are all dead,”
“Please help me,” she whimpered.
“I am afraid I can’t. No one can stop what you have done. The only way is to kill all your offspring and you yourself. We will bring the wedding forward. But you do not breathe a word of this to anyone. Do you understand?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she whispered with her head bowed.
***
“Rose are you Okay?” Crystal asked a girl that was from her coven. Her clothes and hair were damp, and her cheeks were flushed.
“I don’t feel so good,” Rose sat on the stairs that led to the second floor. Crystal put her hand to her head and pulled it back in an instant.
“Rose you’re really hot. I mean like fire hot. You need to see the healer,”
“I am fine just a fever. Where witches remember? We don’t get sick,” Rose tried to joke.
“It isn’t funny Rose,”
“Fine, I will go home now,”
Crystal watched her stagger and stumble out of the school building. What had happened? She was right witches didn’t get sick.
By the end of the day a number of the Starlight coven students had gone home with the same fever. Crystal hoped Levi had an explanation, but he just shrugged and looked as confused as she did.
They were both silent as they made their way back to the manor. Both unsure what new disasters had been thrown their way.
When they stepped into the manor, they could feel the tension. Slowly they made their way to the drawing room.
“Oh gosh. I am so glad you two are okay,” Mary gathered them both into a hug and kissed their foreheads.
“Where fine mum. We don’t have a fever,” Levi said as Crystal looked around the room at the leaders and elders of all the covens.
“You know about the fever?” Mary asked.
“A few came down with it at school today. I don’t get it. We don’t get sick,” Crystal voiced her thoughts out loud.
“That’s what we are trying to figure out,” Mary’s gaze turned to her husband who was glaring angrily at Jeanette who looked guilty.
“What did you do Jeanette?” Crystal asked her in a slow daunting voice.
“I am your mother, and I would prefer you to refer to me as such,”
“It takes more than blood to be a mother. You haven’t earned the right for such a title,” Crystal snapped.
“Why don’t you too go grab something to eat while we take care of this matter,” Mary suggested while Crystal stared daggers at her mother. The look of guilt on her face told Crystal that she was the one who caused the mess.
Spinning on her heels she stormed out of the room and marched to the kitchen.
“She’s done something,” she directed at Levi who stood with his arms folded.
“We don’t know that”
“The look on her face says it all,”
“Maybe, maybe not. We don’t even know what is happening,” Levi gave her a sideways glance. Crystal could feel it in her bones. Something terrible was about to go down and her mother was the reason for it all.
***
“Mum, things are going to get worse,” Jeannette looked at her daughter Pearl with annoyance.
“I didn’t call you here for your seer skills. How much worse can things get?”
“Mum, people are going to die and…”
“Then there is nothing we can do about that right now. What I need you to do is get all your sisters here. The wedding will take place this Saturday,”
“Do you really think that opening the portal will fix the deadly plague that is spreading amongst the witches?”
“Pearl, it won’t stop it I am not a fool, we need a boy. The curse that Enchilada has put on us has prevented that,”
“What about Ruby? I can’t see anything about her. When I try it is just a black void,” Pearl looked deep into her mother’s eyes in a way that made Jeanette feel uncomfortable.
“Ruby as let the darkness in and is now lost within the shadows of her soul,”
“But you still need her?”
“Yes, Pearl, I will need you all. If we are to survive what is coming, I need all my daughters,”
“Then you better be prepared for the worse as it is yet to come,”
“I am always prepared,” Jeannette muttered as she watched Pearl go, she had hidden her other daughters in a place no one would ever find.
The poor souls were like blank canvas. A body that only moved on command, she wished that the potion had worked on her other three children. Life would have been less complicated and stressful. Her daughter the seer. For years she had hidden her ability. After all seers were slaves to the demons. Yet Pearl was in a league of her own. Plagued by images of the future. She had dealt with her power well and had been her best advisor as the leader of the Starlight coven.
“Jeanette!” she heard Seth’s voice boom throughout the manor and groaned. Something had gotten him wound up. Following his voice, she walked into his study.
“Rose is dead. Along with three other witches. The plague is spreading fast,”
“I have my best men working on a cure,” Jeanette responded. What more could she do?
“At this rate we will all be dead within a week!”
“Three days and we will be going home. All those infected or been in contact with the infected will be left behind,”
“You Jeanette Hudson are the lowest of the low. Get out…. I said get out!” Jeanette stared dumb founded. Seth Carmichael the man who tied up his own son and tortured him for going against his rule had just called her the lowest of the low. How did he have the cheek?
“You are just as bad as me and you know it. Sacrifices have to be made,”
“No, Jeanette everything I do is for the good of my people. You on the other hand it is all about power,”
“Imprisoning your son was for the good of your people?” she raised one brow and when Seth growled, she knew she had hit a nerve.
“Levi was foolish. Letting that murder go. What do you think she did once she was free not even out of the state?” Jeanette shrugged it wasn’t like she cared.
“She murdered Beth. The young woman who had risked everything to save her mother. Levi needed to learn a lesson,”
“She did what?” Jeanette turned to see Levi drip white standing in the doorway.
“I am sorry son. She murdered Beth. I have people still looking for her,” Levi turned and walked away with his shoulders sagging. He had turned into a different man in the last few months. One he was more than proud off. Gone was his cocky ways and arrogant manner.