“I enchanted the vision within the crystal so that it could be brought forth when needed.”
“So that I could see?” Cordelia asked.
“That was not the intended purpose, but so I could share it with my sister so that we could try to undo what had been done to you.”
Cordelia nodded.
“When we failed, we knew the day would come and you would need to see for yourself.”
“To what purpose?” Damon demanded. “Hasn’t she been through enough pain?”
Cordelia appreciated his concern and protection, but this was necessary. “I need to see the whole of it. I need to fill in what is missing so that I can finally understand myself.”
“I’ll get the crystal.” Madam Boswell stood and climbed the steps to her vardo.
Chapter 24
“Areyou certain you wish to do this?” Damon asked Cordelia.
“I must.”
He couldn’t imagine what had happened that day to send her into such a terror and panic that a witch was needed and wasn’t certain he was prepared to see it for himself. But he must. She was to be his wife and he needed to know so that he could help her.
Madam Boswell placed the large crystal in the middle of a table and sat Cordelia before it. Damon stood behind and rested his hands on her shoulders so that she knew that he was there to love and protect her through this. Lynwood, Edward, and Adriana gathered beside them. It wasn’t Madam Boswell who brought the vision forth, but his mother, the witch who had enchanted it in the first place.
Damon took a deep breath, as did Cordelia, for he could feel her shoulders rise beneath his palms. They both slowly blew out at the same time as fog in the crystal began to clear and showed the two little girls running along the beach and playing in the waves. It was just as Cordelia had described. Their feet would get wet then they’d race back to the sand as a wave rolled in. Both were laughing and splashing water on each other.
He found himself smiling and wished the memory would stop there but knew that it wouldn’t.
When Adriana decided that she wanted to swim, he felt the tension fill Cordelia’s shoulders as she prepared for what was to come.
Again, what he saw was just as she’d recited, of Adriana disappearing, Cordelia calling, indecisive about going in, then running back to the manor and calling for help and her grandfather running for the beach.
“Get back to the manor and wait for me in the library. This is your fault,” he barked.
Cordelia did exactly what she had said, but watched from the window, hopeful and scared, crying.
The child Cordelia pushed her hands and face against the glass, hopeful, then the vision of her grandfather carrying Adriana to the manor. She had rushed out of the library to greet her grandfather to make certain her sister was alive.
“I told you to wait in my library,” he barked, then handed Adriana off to a footman and instructed him to take Adriana to the nurserymaid to be taken care of.
“I don’t think I need to see this any longer,” Cordelia said.
Damon’s mother waved her hand over the crystal and the vision stopped as if it were a painting of a terrified little girl.
“Only you and your grandfather knew what happened after, until I saw it in the crystal,” Madam Boswell said. “You don’t wish to remember, but you must.”
“I remembered enough when I was on that boat,” Cordelia argued.
“No, dear. Had you, you wouldn’t have come to me demanding to know the truth.”
“I’ve changed my mind.” Cordelia began to rise.
“You must watch this Cordelia,” Madam Boswell said. “Nothing bad will happen. You are safe here, surrounded by family and love.”
“I know I’m safe, but I no longer wish to remember.”
“You must,” Madam Boswell insisted.
