Fate's Path
Counteract

I had been pacing from the moment we found a reason to stay put. Hex couldn’t walk or teleport while counteracting the spell. Eric watched her moves curiously, everyone else avoiding me and the nervous energy radiating from me. Marcus and Leo hadn’t made it through with the rest of us when we jumped. I swear both of them had been near me. Now, as I thought of them, I became more and more stressed. I wondered what they could be doing. Responsum had installed a fail safe so that if anyone got separated from the group they could replace their way back, but that didn’t evaporate the worry.

Piper, a voice spoke inside my head. Instinctively, I looked at Eric but he was still watching Hex closely. I slowly walked away from the group, far enough that I would be out of earshot for any of them. The voice repeated my name again, this time louder. Piper. I jolted, confusion flashing across my face.

“Who are you?” I asked, my voice steady as I scanned my surroundings for anything that was out of place.

I cannot tell you my name quite yet, but I can tell you how to replace them.

“Them? Max and Maxine? How?”

The journal. Your friend won’t be able to reverse it. Celene made the spell so that the only one able to counteract it is Connor. It’s a small hint, but will definitely help.

“Why is the journal so important?”

It contains a map and way of tracking everything that Max and Maxine do. It even has pages that are like surveillance, and invisible camera following the twins around and putting the footage live in the book. Connor can’t even read this part yet.

“Why can’t you tell me who you are?”

You wouldn’t believe me if I did. You have to see for yourself.

I fell silent. I didn’t recognize the voice, but I did know it was definitely female. Her voice reminded me of the tone of a warrior princess, almost. I smiled at the irony when I thought of myself. “Are you still there?” I asked the voice but she didn’t answer. “Hello? Miss?” My voice grew more persistent, slightly panicked as I wished she would speak to me again. I mainly just wanted her to tell me her name, however, since she was a voice in my head and not in front of me, I couldn’t use violence to make her speak again. I let out a long sigh when it was quite obvious she was done talking.

I turned to walk back to the others, freezing for a second when I heard leaves rustle behind me. I almost ran after the noise. Maybe it was her, but I thought better of it when I saw the thorns and winced at the memory of how painful those things were. With another sigh, I trotted back to the group.

Hex growled in frustration. “Dammit! It isn’t working!”

“Maybe if Connor tried?” I suggested, making it seem like it had been my idea. Hex barely spared me a glance before looking at Connor and shrugging.

“That could work. I mean, if it is a blood spell. It might only react to those that shared blood with Celene.” Hex grabbed Connor’s hand and yanked his arm so he sat beside her, nearly toppling him over from the strength of the girl. She grabbed a knife out of a small bag at her side and pulled Connor’s arm to her. I flinched, looking away as she dug the knife into the skin on his wrist.

“Ow! What -?” When I looked back, Connor was staring, mesmerized, as Hex used his blood to draw a pentagram on the front of the journal. He seemed to forget that his wrist had just been cut before pain suddenly flickered across his face and he yanked his arm away. “Why there?” He snarled.

“Because, you need a clear pentagram and the wrist gives a strong blood flow, making it easier to bold the lines of it,” Hex said, not looking at him, likely because she could feel him glaring at her. I watched as all the blood lifted from the journal. Connor’s blood mixing with his mother’s in a larger pentagram in the air barely above me. Everyone else was low to the ground but I couldn’t move. I felt fingers wrap around my wrist and pull me down, right before the blood sent out a pulse that would have hit me. I blinked then looked over at who had pulled me.

“Thank you, Chris,” I coughed and he nodded.

“Us siblings have to look out for one another, don’t we?” He was looking at me like he knew something. Had he heard the voice, too? If so, maybe it was the twin thing? He gave an extra small nod and I sucked in a breath. So, he had. Strange. Peculiar.

“Yeah.”

I saw Eric laying, unmoving on the ground. “Eric?” I scrambled to get to him. Thankfully, his chest was still rising and falling and his heart was beating, but it was weak. I moved him so he was on his back. “It’s okay. I’m right here.” As his heartbeat got stronger, I looked at Hex. “What in the hell happened to him?”

“The spell, it targets kids that are under the age of fifteen, and uses their energy to lift the spell. He’ll be fine.”

“After you promised to protect him, and yet, you still let this happen?” My voice started to raise but I quickly lowered it again. “Why didn’t you at least warn me?”

“I knew you wouldn’t let me do this if I told you. Besides, I knew he wouldn’t die. However, he may be pissed with me when he wakes up.” Hex tossed the journal to me and I caught it. “It can be read now.”

Eagerly, I sat back down next to Eric and flipped over the newly clean, and seemingly polished, book. I turned the pages slowly, my eyes skimming each page. The information burned into my memory, because I knew I would most likely need it later. I stopped at a page that had a moving picture, above it were the words Important Memory. Curiously, I watched it, even smiling at what I saw. A little girl, no more than seven, playing with a boy the same age. Both had fiery orange hair, and bright, sky blue eyes. My smile faded when I recognized the boy. Obviously, he looked a lot different, but there was no mistaking him. Max. I assumed the girl was Maxine, and she was actually adorable at that age, but I couldn’t see Max as being adorable. Not after what he did to Chris.

Hex leaned curiously over my shoulder. “What does it say?” She asked, her eyes focused on the picture. “Is that…?”

I nodded slowly, watching the two kids running around on the page. “Max. Maxine.”

Hex grew silent, then Chris spoke up. “Why would they be in there?”

My mind traveled back to the voice, and judging from the realization suddenly dawning on Chris’ face, we had the same thought. The voice. What had she told me? She said the journal was important. Is this what she meant? I turned the page and there was another memory. This time, Maxine was getting beaten a few years later. I watched as Max defended her. He looked so much different, not as insane. His eyes were focused on one task: keeping his sister safe.

“Wow… I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like that before.” Hex’s now quiet voice was still behind me as we watched the scene proceed. “Have you?” She turned her head towards me, tearing her eyes away from the book.

“Well, I’ve only seen Max once,” My voice suddenly turned into a low growl, hatred within each word. “And that was when he nearly beat my brother to death.” Logan and Connor had surrounded us as well, but the moment they heard my voice, they practically jumped away. I flipped a few more pages, my eyes taking on a look of curiosity. The anger left my voice as I said, “There is a map. And I’m pretty sure this is their location. It’s in an old version of Latin, I think.”

Hex nodded. “Yeah, that’s definitely Latin. And if this is a map of their current whereabouts, then this could be a huge leap for us. But, even if it is, don’t you think this is a little too easy? There’s got to be some kind of complication, here.” Her eyes narrowed at the page. “Could you read out loud what it says, Piper? That could help us get at least some kind of head start.”

I bit my lip slightly, my eyes running over the words. “I can. The only thing is, there are a few words that will take me longer to figure out. It might take an hour or so to translate it.” I was already searching for the words I did know, trying to fill in the blanks.

“Okay, as long as we can get this figured out.” She looked at Chris, Connor and Logan. “You guys might want to settle in. It could possibly be a rocky trip.”

Eric stirred and I turned to check on him, his face was a picture of pain. “Hex, can you try to help him? I know you said he would still awake and all, but I don’t like seeing him in pain.”

She gave me an understanding smile. “Yeah, of course. Just try to focus on the journal, and I’ll do everything I can to help Eric, okay?”

I smiled and nodded before turning back to the book and pulling out a pencil and paper from my bag. First, I wrote the words I knew, which was most of them. I was only missing about ten. “Chris. You took a semester of languages in history last year, right?” I looked up at my brother.

“Yeah, but I only remember some of it. You need help?” He sat beside me, looking at the journal.

“Yes, I bet you remember more than me of that class. I slept through most of it. How many classes involving languages can one girl handle listening to?” I sighed in slight frustration as I crossed out a few of the words I had written.

He shook his head, smiling. “You shouldn’t have slept through those. At least I didn’t.” He wrote down a couple of the words I couldn’t remember, then glared at the others. “Damn… I can’t seem to figure out those…”

I huffed. “First off, I didn’t want to take that class. I was told I had to or else I wasn’t allowed to take Latin! Second, I might actually be able to figure this out. I didn’t realize it until you wrote those. Most of these are cognates. They look similar to the Latin I learned.” I jotted down the last of it. When I read it, my expression fell. “No...”

His eyebrows pulled together. “What?” His voice was wary, as if writing down two words in a notebook had aged him.

My voice shook as I stood up. I looked at Connor, then Chris again. “We have to go! It’s the school!” I whistled and Seymour came bounding to my side.

Hex looked up at me. “Do you want me to stay here with Eric or do you want me to carry him?”

“Well, it looks like he might wake up soon so just bring him with. Seymour, take us to the others. We have to get them, or else we have no chance of winning. If what I translated is right, we are going to need all the people we can get to help us.” My voice wasn’t as shaky now, returning to its normal ‘leader’ tone.

She nodded. “What did it say?” She asked cautiously.

“There is at least a large pack of wolves. Number, unknown. But that isn’t all. Vampyrs too. In other words, bad vampires that grew addicted to the taste of all creatures. They aren’t ‘vegan’ vampires. For example, I’m considered a ‘vegan’ vamp because I only feed on blood that has been drawn from people. Vampyrs treat blood like it is a drug, vampires drink it when they have to.” I explained, walking with Seymour in the direction we had originally arrived in the field.

Hex nodded again. “That makes sense. But you’re definitely right, we’re going to need a lot of help.”

Worry flashed across my face again. “Shit! Okay, you and Logan go back to Responsum’s house. Connor, Chris and I have friends to save.” My hands shook as I walked up to a portal that Seymour was making. He stood half in and half out. Connor and Chris stood behind me and I turned to yell one last thing to Hex before we jumped through, tossing the book to Logan. “Send Kiera the second you get there!” Then we were through and everything was chaos.