6 years. Sam watched, helpless, as Mitch cried silently. He felt his pain and knew that if he lost Caitlyn the same feeling of loss and helplessness will run his life as well. Subconsciously, he started counting the months. His eyes widened as he realized that he only had a month left before the 6th year anniversary of Caitlyn's death. Oh my God! His brain shouted. He wanted to turn back time, wanted so much to go back in time and tell his former self this very vital information. But all he can do was look at Mitch and think that he only had a month before he lost Caitlyn again…but without any magic, it would be forever.
He knew that no magic would be able to bring her back again. And how could it? He had no magic, and seeing Mitch, knew that magic would not come back once Caitlyn died. What can he do in a month? It took a Brown 6 years to find the answer. What did he know? Logic was screaming at him, loud and clear, that this was meant…that Caitlyn was meant to die. That he was tricked into thinking that he could change what was. But the heart…his heart…just could not accept it. After all the hardships, all the sacrifices, just to end up losing her forever was just too heartbreaking to think about.
"What did you find out?" he blurted out, panicking inside. But he did not get a response from Mitch. The guy was still drowning in agony. He felt a surge of energy go through him. He walked towards Mitch as if he could walk a thousand miles and pulled him up on his shirt. "Tell me what you found out, damn it! I only have a month before her 6th year death anniversary, I need to know what you found out that could save Caitlyn's life!" He shook him hard which triggered a response from Mitch. And the response was a fist in the jaw.
"Do not ever touch me again," Mitch hissed at him.
Sam sobbed. He just couldn't help it. He went down on his knees and begged. "Please…just tell me…is there anything I can do?"
Mitch looked at the man on his knees in front of him and felt pity. He sighed and shook his head. "Don't you get it?" he asked, sarcastically. "The epic drawback of all of this is that there is no magic cure to death, just or unjust. There is no cheating fate. What the witches never told us was that you can prolong when the person may die but once death has decided to take a life, then life it will take."
"Then what's the point of all of this? What was the point of suffering through this? What was the point of our sacrifice?"
Mitch laughed then. "That's the ultimate punishment, don't you see? There is a reason why dark magic is forbidden. There is a reason why we should never trust a dark witch, a reason why they became dark in the first place. It's not because they've used dark magic that they have become dark like what they told us as children," Mitch shook his head and smiled a wicked smile. "It's their heart, Sam. The constant disappointment of using dark magic to satisfy their immediate need only to have fate or God or whoever take it away from them over and over again because it goes against everything in nature. That addiction…of going back to the same magic that has constantly hurt and disappointed them just to get an immediate fix. That constant pain and hurt can make a heart hard, until it turns calloused. Until the only relief you can feel is seeing other people feel that same kind of pain," he sneered. "You know what they say, misery loves company."
"But how? How were they able to do it again and again? Magic doesn't return when the curse is lifted, you don't have magic…do you?" he narrowed his eyes at Mitch.
Mitch smiled. "Fire is the first magic learned." He went near a candle, mouthed the words "insidio" but nothing happened. "No magic."
"So how could they have been addicted? How could they have called on dark magic over and over again? And how do you know so much about this?"
"Have you ever been to a point when you would do anything, absolutely anything to get what you want? When you would compromise everything you believe in just to get what you need?" He walked over to the many picture frames and touched one at random, remembering, Jess, his Jess. "You don't need to have magic to perform the ritual remember? You just need a dark witch. Not everyone can perform dark magic, you need to study it, understand it, and those who succumb to their power are what we call dark witches. You also don't need to be the one summoning the dark witch, they know who wants to summon them and they understand who they can trick. When you've come to a point of desperation, you will be willing to sacrifice anyone, threaten anyone. I was a Brown, still am, with or without magic. Research was my life. My heart desperately wanted to reach out to a friend and have her summon the dark witch again regardless of the consequences to her, to force her to do it, but I needed to be sure. I needed to understand what happened, why it did not work? I needed to be sure what to do the next time I call another dark witch.
I followed the same line I was following when Jess died. I thought I was nearing a discovery but that's when I found out what happened to Logan, then Adrianna and the original dark witch. Do you know what happened to Logan?"
"What I know of him was that he died. I never bothered to research him since he meant nothing to me."
"The strength of the Bradford was in their ability to learn magic very quickly. Not only that they know how to use magic to get the best out of every spell. That's why they are legends because they were the family that was always called to protect the magical realm. If anyone knew magic, it would be the Bradford and Logan Bradford was one of the most promising Bradford there was. Logan, unfortunately, was orphaned at a very early age and was raised by his aunt since he was just a babe. He loved his aunt like she was his mother. She trained him and taught him how to harness his powers. One night, a very unfortunate night, he went down to get some water to ease his dry throat. That's when he heard the shouting. It was his uncle, his father's sister. He was arguing with his aunt and in the middle of the argument he saw magic was used, but it was used not to help but to harm another. He met his aunt's eyes before she died. He saw her mouth his name before she crashed to the floor and took her last breath. At that time, his uncle turned and saw him and prepared to attack. Logan knew he was no match for him so he fled, used his magic to go hide. Heartbroken, angry and desperate, he spent 2 years searching for answers and learning to be stronger. He wanted to kill the person who killed the only person he recognized as a mother and he wanted, desperately, to bring her back.
He found out about the oldest dark witch and how it might be possible for her to help him. So he learned how to summon one and summoned Agnes. He thought he could trick the keepers of magic, if he didn't kill anyone, then he wouldn't be punished. He made a deal with Agnes, to kill his uncle at the time when he killed his aunt. This would've prevented his aunt from dying at that time. There was a price of course, there was always a price. With Logan it was his magic. She would not take his magic away from him but he was required to do all that she wanted. She promised to not get him in trouble with the keepers of magic but when she called, he needed to answer. It seemed simple enough to Logan but he found out too late that when you were dealing with a dark witch nothing was simple.
He eventually became her slave at night. She made him read up on dark magic and when he questioned the magic he was studying she would just brush it off that no magic was dark or light. It was how you used it that made it dark or light. He needed to practice of course, she would disguise animals into inanimate objects at first before escalating to humans and other witches. The magic he was learning was very dark and each time he practiced his hands were tainted red more and more from all the blood he unknowingly spilled. In the morning, he spent all his time with his aunt. The more he spent with her, the more he loved her and cherished her. On the 6th year of her anniversary, when Logan was 22, he heard rattling on the door of his aunt's house. He was so tired that he didn't think anything of it. Apparently, his aunt also woke from the sound. A loud bang was heard and in came his cousin, the son of the uncle he had killed. When he heard the bang he ran to the stairs to see what was happening and then he saw his aunt, killed once more, by the same blood that killed her the first time. But it seemed like it was way worse this time around because he loved her even more when he finally got her back again. The grief was too much for him and he ran back to Agnes again, for help, and help Agnes gave. But this time, she taught Logan how to do the spell instead of her doing it for him. Second time always required a sacrifice, she said, and he was willing to sacrifice anything and anyone. He cast a spell to kidnap his cousin who killed his aunt and sacrificed him to get his aunt back, and it worked. But only for 6 years. The second time he did it, the keepers of magic were on his tail. But Agnes taught him how to hide.
Every 6 years, he would do the same ritual, sacrifice more people. Until on the fourth try his heart became as cold as ice. At this time it seemed like time has also stopped for him. He stopped aging at the age of 34. He also didn't care about resurrecting his aunt anymore, he just wanted to see other people suffer, witches preferably. He wanted them to suffer like he did, time after time. This was Agnes' goal and on the fourth try, she saw that she was successful. She taught him how to know which witch is suffering and how to answer summons. Logan became more and more powerful and more and more in tuned with the dark. He became so powerful that he didn't see the need to keep Agnes with him any longer. So one fine night, he murdered his mentor. At that point, Logan had become more powerful than Agnes, but once dead, he now had the chance to gain Agnes' powers as well, increasing his own." He paused, looked at Sam. He told a long story but it needed to be told, he had that desperate look in him and Bennets were next to Bradford in the strength scale. He had that look in him, that desperate look that he imagined Logan had as well. "There's more to tell, come, let's be comfortable and sit by the fire. He looked at the clock and saw that he hasn't been talking that long. Sam still had 30 more minutes.
Sam followed him to the sofa and sat. "What about Adrianna? Who was she?" he urged.
Mitch sat and sighed. "With Agnes dead, Logan started to grant the desperate wishes of other witches. Agnes wanted companion, Logan just wanted power. This was when the sacrifice for him to grant a witch's wish became more than just grief, it evolved to grief and magic. Each time a witch would request something from him they had to give up their powers and their magic, he would consume. That's why even when the curse is lifted it does not come back, because the giving up of magic is never really part of the curse. Logan made all that up so he can be more powerful. He was doing this happily for over a number of years until he met Adrianna. Do you know what family Adrianna came from?"
Sam looked at him, clueless.
"You really have no idea? What attracted you to her? I'm sure something did when she appeared."
"I thought she cared."
"And that, my friend, is the magic word. She was an empath. A good one at that. She came from…"
"A Winston? She was the long lost Winston daughter who was rumored to have eloped with a werewolf?"
"Bingo, that would be her. More than an empath, Adrianna was beautiful. It still pains me to see someone kind and beautiful be corrupted by that much evil. But that's exactly what happened. Logan saw her and wanted her, lusted for her. So he sent another witch to kill her precious werewolf so he could go to Adrianna and pretend to be a friendly witch, willing to help. The timing needed to be perfect and the crime as well, he needed that desperation. And so it happened, her werewolf was killed, Logan came and in desperation, Adrianna asked for his help. Adrianna became a bird, that was Logan's curse for her. One thing though, he did not take away Adrianna's powers. The reason is he wanted her as a mate, not as food for his powers. Every 6 years Adrianna would see her partner die and each time she would call Logan in desperation, to have him bring him back to life again, until the time when Adrianna didn't care about her werewolf anymore, she just wanted power. That was when Logan took her in, and the rest as they say, was history," he stopped and looked at Sam, waited until it all sunk in.
"Why didn't you call them again? To get Jess back again?" Sam asked silently.
"Haven't you been listening to my story? Do you think I want to succumb to that stupidity? I may be desperate Sam but not stupid and the reason I am telling you this is so that you don't succumb to that stupidity too. There is no hope Sam, there is no fighting what nature sees as fate. Once nature has decided there is no magic, dark or white, powerful enough to reverse that decision. Any attempt to do so would just get you deeper and deeper into the dark, and then what? Without power, without anything, the dark would just kill anything inside of you that is still alive. Then what would be the point of all this if you can't even feel love? Don't do that, Sam. You know better than to do that. Look, you're a Bennet, magic is nothing to you. If you wanted to, you could learn any magic in just a snap and teach it to another witch to perform anything. But is it worth it to see your Caitlyn die over and over again? To see her full of life then in an instant see it taken away from her? I'm not a masochist, and I'm not a sadist, I wouldn't have myself endure that grief again and again and have her live that kind of life over and over. It's just not right. Don't make the same mistake that Adrianna and Logan did. They were good witches but desperation got the better of them. There are just some things, Sam, that are better left as they are."
Anger surged through Sam's body. Who did this person think he was, telling him what to do and what not to do? He didn't know how he felt. "You have no idea how I feel about Caitlyn, no idea that life is nothing without her. It is easy for you to sit there and tell me to not see her again forever. If you don't love your woman that much, which I can now see that you don't because you can just give up on her, then don't think you and I are the same. I love Caitlyn, and there is nothing in this world I would not do to keep her alive. So don't pretend to know me or how I feel." Sam angrily sneered. He saw the clock then turned to leave. "Thank you for your story, I'll see myself out."
When the door slammed Mitch touched the ring hanging on his neck and looked at the closed door. "I may not know you, but I know how you feel. You have no idea how much I know." He closed his eyes and prayed to all the gods that Sam does not get desperate enough to do the stupid.