To Claim A Crown Book One: The Half-Blood King (Complete)

11.

Naomi pushes the door open and she stumbles into the door with Sarah following closely behind her. Naomi sets the plastic bags on the counter and Sarah sets the large pinboard down beside her. Sarah pulls the grimoire out her purse and drops it onto the counter. After dissecting the book through-out the morning Sarah decided she wanted to delve further into it, with Naomi's help of course.

They opted for an emergency stationery shopping trip that ended in a coffee date and processing trip. Naomi didn't mind. She knew that Sarah needed to process, sooner rather than later. Sarah became emotional talking about her grandmother, they were close. Naomi gathered that Sarah felt betrayed because there is a whole part of her life. She felt sad for her grandmother for having to hide her truth too.

The grimoire explained that Sarah is a descendant from a long line of witches, powerful witches. The book explained that there are three primary forms of magick and the magick that runs through Sarah's veins is something called 'balancing magick'. There's a 'blood map' dating back to the first balancing witch. The original balancing witch. Sarah told Naomi that the more she read the grimoire the more she felt as if parts of her memory were opening up, everything felt more and more familiar.

Sarah pulls the plastic cover off the pinboard and sets it down on the counter top. Naomi digs through the bags and pulls out a stack of coloured paper and matching coloured markers. She opens the coloured paper and flips through it pulling out all the green paper, red paper then white paper. Naomi starts folding and tearing the paper into smaller pieces. Sarah pulls open the markers and on the green paper scribbles 'Earth Magick' and on the red paper scribbles 'Blood magick'. She pins each paper on opposite sides of the board.

On a piece of paper under Earth Magick Sarah pins down the word 'protective' and under Blood Magick she pinc the word 'offensive'. Sarah steps back and Naomi stands beside her. They examine the board arms folded. They stand in silence frowning, looking from the grimoire to the board, not sure where to go from the current point.

"Okay," Sarah says, "so we know for sure there are three types of magick. Earth, blood and balancing. And according to Grandma J I'm from the lineage of balancing witches."

Naomi shakes her head and Sarah frowns.

"No Sarah, you're a balancing witch. I think we should get into what that means first. What are you meant to balance?"

"Well I'm guessing I'm the balance between earth and blood magic. I mean look...They're two different magick styles right? I'm willing to bet that my magick is a combination of the two."

Naomi nods her head slowly and walks to the counter top where the grimoire is sitting. She picks it up gently. Sarah peers over her shoulder as Naomi turns the page from the blood map. She begins reading what seems to be a story that is written in old almost faded ink. The page is entitled 'The History of Magick.' Naomi and Sarah settle back onto the stools and hunch over the book reading intently and scribbling notes on pieces of paper.

The task lasts several hours and by early afternoon both Sarah and Naomi are exhausted. They both had become so immersed in the grimoire. The initial pages mapped out a brief history of the origin of magick. From what they could gather it seems an ancient God, a trickster spirit, tricked sisters into turning on each other and then creating two unnatural species. Vampyres and Lycan.

Naomi felt an uneasy feeling settle within her the deeper she dived into the truth about her best friend. Sarah lingers over a page about magick aimed at dreams. She turns to Naomi who is shoving a handful of chips into her mouth. She raises an eyebrow, chewing loudly, and she leans over to look at the page Sarah is settled on. Naomi chokes on her snack and coughs it down with Sarah delivering some blows to her back.

"Why would you show me this Sarah?"

"Maybe I can help?"

"With what Sarah?"

"Your nightmares Naomi?"

Naomi exhales a big breath and nods. A part of her thinking that in her new enlightened state Sarah somehow became aware of the fact that Naomi had been dreaming about Jackson and in those dreams Jackson was telling her everything that is in the grimoire minus the spells and witchy history.

Naomi nods slowly, the prospect of a full night's sleep and waking up feeling refreshed.

"You're right Sarah. I'm keen to give this a go. What do we need?"

Sarah examines the book closely.

"Okay so it looks like I'll need something personal of yours that you use when you sleep. Maybe your pillow?"

Naomi nods and jogs to her room to get her pillow. She grabs it and jogs back to the kitchen where Sarah is digging through the herbs and spice containers. Naomi drops the pillow on the counter top and watches on. Sarah produces a small bottle of dried lavender that Naomi sometimes used to make tea before bed. Sarah pulls out the cutlery draw and pulls out a small knife with a black handle. Naomi swallows down her discomfort.

Sarah walks round to the pillow. She pulls it out of the pillow case and flips it upside down. On the underside she places a sprig of lavender. She motions for the grimoire and Naomi holds it up so Sarah can read it. She scans over the words then brings the tip of her index finger with the knife and squeezes a drop of blood onto the sprig of lavender. There's an incantation in latin alongside the instructions and Sarah begins reading it out loud.

At first their words sound off and foreign but the more she reads it the better the words flow, sounding as if she had been practising saying those very words her whole life. Naomi feels chills run down her spine and the blood drop seems to seep into the lavender piece. Sarah falls silent with a look of intense concentration on her face. She opens her eyes then turns to Naomi.

"Do you think it worked?"

"I have no idea. I was expecting something to happen?"

"Something like what?"

"I don't know..."

"Well I'm a witch not a magician. I guess we'll find out in the morning."

Sarah rolls her eyes and lifts the pinboard and carries it to her room. Naomi gathers the stationery and puts everything in the plastic bags. She picks them up and hands them to Sarah who is coming out of her bedroom. Sarah gathers them both in one hand then holds the other arm out and embraces Naomi in a big hug.

Naomi walks into her room. She puts her phone on charge and opens the message from Jackson which simply says 'follow the thread'. Naomi frowns at the message then closes the app. Absent-mindedly she starts undressing and putting her pyjamas on. Naomi frowns as she reaches for the door handle. She shakes her head and walks back to her bed. Naomi pulls the covers back and settles into bed.

Naomi's eyes flutter open and she's in that strange room again but Jackson isn't beside her. Jackon is pacing at the foot of the bed. Naomi tries to lift her head but she's too weak. Panic radiates through her and she tries to steady her breathing. Jackson turns to her with a deep sense of panic.

"No no you're not supposed to be here Naomi. Didn't you get my text?"

Naomi is too weak to respond.

"You need to wake up! You need to follow the thread! Wake up Naomi damn!"