Concealed (Unbound, Book 4)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

After Calin put the groceries away for Islene, the three of us sat at the table, Islene on one side as I sat beside Calin on the other. She'd made us all a cup of tea. I watched as the steam rose from the mug, unsure of what to say. Calin had told me that she didn't usually share her visions, so I was confused as to whether Islene was stating a fact—she had a vision—or if she planned to explain what she'd seen.

"Do you have the Book of Shadows from Devland with you?" Islene finally asked.

"No." I shook my head.

"Did you give it back to him?"

"No, I still have it. He doesn't know I realized it was spelled, so after we talked, I wrote another entry to try pacify him for a while."

She leaned back in her chair. "Who else have you told about it?"

I shrugged. "Just you guys."

"Not even Maible?"

I pursed my lips and shook my head. "I haven't even told Nancy."

"Okay." Islene nodded and leaned forward, cupping her mug in her hand. "That's good."

"Mom, you said you had a vision," Calin said and put his hand on my thigh beneath the table so that I would stop tapping my foot.

"I did, yes." She nodded again.

"Are you going to tell us what it was about?" he asked.

"Well, yes, or I wouldn't have mentioned it," she said.

"Was it about whoever bound Maible?" I asked.

"Sort of, I think." Islene leaned back in her chair again, this time bringing her cup of tea with her, holding it close to her chest as she looked at us. "I was having trouble deciphering it. I saw when Maible's parents found out that she didn't have powers."

"I feel bad for them," I said. "It must be hard to learn that their child will be in an outcast in a town like Wickenton."

"That's just the thing," Islene said. "It wasn't."

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Well, when they found out Maible didn't have abilities, her father was incredulous. Her mother, however, didn't seem surprised at all," she said. "If you knew the woman, you would know that that is out of the ordinary."

"So she knew?" Calin asked.

"In my vision, that's how it appeared."

"Could her mom have bound her?" I asked. It wouldn't be unheard of given how I'd grown up.

"No, she would have had to have help from someone more powerful. I'm not even able to bind someone on my own."

"Then who?" I asked and bit my bottom lip. "I mean, the only person I know powerful enough to do it on their own is my mother."

"And your father," Calin said quietly and squeezed my leg as though that would take the sting from the meaning of his words. "Or maybe your mom did it before she died."

"No." I shook my head. "Her power died with her. That's how I became unbound, though I don't know why the Larkin's didn't suddenly become more powerful. The spell she placed on them would have diminished with her death, right?"

Islene shook her head. "Depends on what kind of spell she used and if it was tethered to something other than your mother."

"Like?"

She shrugged. "Anything, really. Fire, earth, an object. The possibilities are endless, but your mother would have tied it to something other than herself, which means the spell would have remained in effect even after she died."