Samantha had at first been shocked to hear a servant speak so, but when she listened to the music, she only heard some tension that came from wanting everything to be perfect for the different celebrations and happiness that everyone was at Nightshade Manor.
However, Samantha took the housekeeper at her word and avoided any room where a servant may be and spent much of her time out of doors.
“Is it true?” Maia asked when she found Samantha in the Witches’ Garden.
“Is what true?” Samantha returned.
“That you cannot hear Cassian’s music.”
“I never have,” she admitted. “At first, I feared that he did not have a soul.” She laughed. “But when Mother explained that the same had happened to her, I grew less concerned.”
“There must be a reason,” Maia insisted.
“I am just as certain there is not.”
“We should search the vault,” she offered with excitement. “We might find something there. Maybe his music has been hidden and if so, then it must be freed.”
“We read every journal in the vault not long ago and if there was a spell, we would have read it.”
“Yes, but none of us knew that you couldn’t hear his music.”
“It does not matter,” Samantha insisted, though she would like to be able to know if his words and expressions were truthful.
“It does to me,” Maia insisted and pulled her from the garden. “Let us go to the vault.”
“I am not certain that we should.” Samantha hesitated. Yes, she had wanted to know if what Cassian said and his expressions were true but at the same time, what if he really did not care for her, then all hope would be dashed.
“It is about the only place we can be, if not outside, or the servants will scold us,” Maia reminded her. “It is why my brothers and male cousins are in the billiards room. It is where they have been given permission to go and stay out of the way.”
“Do not the women have a room where they could gather?” Samantha asked.
“Yes. The vault.”
The vault was beneath Nightshade Manor and held magical items and journals explaining the uses and warnings. There were also spell books that dated back to before the Drakos family had arrived in England, as they were taken from Greece when the family sailed. Each completed book had been added to the shelves over the years.
“Where is Petra? I assume Antonia is with her mother, or parents.”
“Petra is in the stillroom working on her spells.”
Samantha had never really cast her own spell. There had never been any reason to do so. She assumed that since one of her gifts was passive, in that she heard music, she was warned if danger was near and could simply leave. Not that she had ever experienced real danger to herself, or anyone close to her.
She had taken part in spells and read the books, just never created her own.
“Maybe I should help Petra.”
She should learn more about spells in how to cast them, or the ingredients needed. One never knew when it might be necessary.
“No, we should go to the vault,” Maia insisted. “If not for me, then the others.”
“What others?”
“Gretchen, Larisa and Selene, my younger cousins, have been down there making a list of every item on the shelves and the spells in books with short descriptions of what each is used for.”
“Why?”
“So that there is one reference for a witch in need,” Petra answered as if it explained everything. “Remember how we had to search everything in that vault when Antonia needed her two spells because we did not know all that it contained or what many of the items were used for?”
Samantha nodded. It had not been so long ago, and something that she was likely never to forget.
