Chapter 106: Research

I walked the stairs all the way down to the study. Liam finally stopped my march at the bottom of the stairs.
"Beloved?"
I brushed his hands off. "I need to figure this out. Why did they take Kezia? Why did they take Amy?"
Liam shook his head. "Kline said they wanted you or Kezia. It must have something to do with the witch blood."
I shook my head. "Kezia is inside the Veil. It must have something to do with the Grey bloodline." I looked around at the books. "What if I can find a spell that has to do with family bloodlines?"
I scanned the shelves pulling random books and setting them on the table as I walked.
"Do you really think this is going to help?" He asked.
"Do you have any other ideas?"
"We should gather all the brothers and attack them."
"Where? Do you know where their underground base is?"
"We know an entrance at Grocer Outlet. We could attack there."
"Well, we could, but if we enter through their tunnel entrance, they will pick us off one by one. I've been down there. That's not a good fighting place."
Liam grumbled something.
"I'm sorry. I want to attack them, too, but I don't want to risk everyone's lives to do it."
"Why don't you just use all those crystals then? Blow it up. You have the power. You have the witch blood. I've seen you!"
"It's not that easy! I can't just go blam and take out Grocer Outlet. What would that even do? Kill some people? That won't kill their boss. That won't take out the darkness!"
"So, you're just going to sit in here and read books?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do until I figure something else or you come up with a better plan."
Liam growled and disappeared up the stairs. I slammed a book down on the table. I was feeling just as helpless as he was. I wanted to go in and fight, just like him. But the darkness was smart. It always had a plan, and if I didn't understand what it was up to, it would be a slaughter.
I shuffled through a bunch of books. The languages and runes rushed through my mind. I focused on just looking for blood at first and then on family relations. There were just so many spells. This would be so much easier if it were digitized. I whipped out my new smartphone and searched. The spells I came across where mostly bullshit made by people pretending to do magic. The spells that looked legitimate didn't need family blood. I continued back with my search through the books.
At some point through the night, Cherry joined me. She was just suddenly there at my side, looking over the mass of open books in front of me.
"Do you really think this is going to help?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
"I think there is a better way of doing this."
"And how is that?" I asked without lifting my eyes from my book.
"I think you need help."
The room filled with people behind me. I looked up. Brothers crammed in.
"What are we looking for?"
I scrambled for a piece of paper. I wrote runes and words in several languages. "These things. Anything that looks close to this would be helpful."
"Alright. Pass it around. Take a book and pass it on. Let's get everyone we can on this. When you find something, bring it back here."
Books disappeared from the shelves. They passed from hand to hand, disappearing upstairs. My heart filled with appreciation of the strength of this brotherhood. I refocused on the book in front of me with renewed effort.
It didn't take long before books started coming in. I laid them out in front of me. The spells varied. There were pregnancy spells, summoning your dead relative spells, changing time spells, and bringing someone back for the dead. The biggest question was, which one was the darkness up to?
My finger ran over one line in a book. "This one here. It takes six blood relatives and ten thousand souls."
"What's that one do?" She asked.
"It's an immortality spell."
She shook her head. "Not likely. Immortality is a myth. You'd have to be a god to do that. Is the darkness a god?"
"I don't think so."
My eyes shifted through more of the books. They all had one thing in common: the need for a blood relation of the person casting the spell or the person they were summoning.
"So, If not immortality, then the darkness must be summoning a Grey. Are they trying to summon my mother?"
"Did she have witch blood?" Cherry asked.
I nodded.
"Would she still have that power if they summoned her?"
"It depends. If they summon her as a contract, then, no. But if they summon her back from the dead..." Cherry shrugged. "It's anyone's guess. It's not like I've seen a lot of this stuff done."
"How do you know so much about it?" I asked.
"I... a... well, my mother was really close to that witch that took over Utah. She had me researching all sorts of stuff for her. I learned a ton, but when things went down, my mom died. I got out of there. The place was a mess, and the faction broke going to war."
"I'm sorry."
She waved her hand. "It's not like you had anything to do with it. It's all water under the bridge now."
I dipped my head back down to the book. I really hoped she couldn't read my mind. "Okay, well, it has something to with Grey blood. But what about Amy? She doesn't have Grey blood, but they wanted to trade for me or Kezia, so was she just a bargaining chip?"
"Mmm-hmm." Cherry nodded as she looked at her own pile of books.
"The biggest question is... which one? Which spell is she plotting?"
"What has it done in the past?" Cherry asked without looking up.
"It brought my mother and me back from Limbo. Before that, my mother tried to sacrifice me for power, and then the last spell, I merged."
"Back from Limbo? Isn't that death?"
"Sort of. But it's not the same as this resurrection spell. In this one, it brings you back from complete death. It takes one thousand souls of power, be performed on an equinox on a major node, and a person of your bloodline. To bring Isabell and me back from limbo, she used Mila and Matei."
"Isabell?"
I nodded. "That's my mother."
"And she was a witch?"
I nodded. She was starting to catch on. There was no use in denying it. That would only make me feel worse. "But I killed her. She dead, dead."
"Well, then maybe the darkness is trying to bring her back."
"And she needs a Grey to do it." My heart sank. I didn't want to have to kill her all over again. It was hard enough the first time.