The Seventh Life of Aline Lloyd by Robert Davies

Author:Robert Davies
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dark fantasy, occult fiction, witch & wizard thrillers, witches, witchcraft, wales, contemporary
Publisher: BHC Press
Published: 2019-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

FOR weeks we waited and watched, but there were no visits from the police and no further contact with Andre Renard. Though she offered an escape on two occasions, I didn’t need to be saved and each day put more distance between us and the moment she showed me what she was. It would take some time before I would be allowed to see who she was, but I was at least smart enough to go at a slower pace and take things as they came.

As the days wore on, I found myself wondering about the nature of her strange power as curiosity and fascination with the impossible finally overran the shock and confusion of knowing it even exists. I learned not to refer casually to any of it as “magic” and invite the immediate nuclear response, and the skill became more valuable when details began to emerge slowly. I asked her if she could make people see and think things not necessarily for the purpose of warning or punishing them. When she demanded to know what I meant by it, I stupidly pointed to our own relationship and the way we interact.

“I’m not saying you need to,” I began, “but if you wanted, could you slip inside my mind and shape the thoughts to steer me in a particular direction?”

She eyed me warily for a moment but I think she already knew where I was going.

“Which direction are you talking about, exactly?”

It seemed harmless enough, and with that first powerful, lurid dream in mind, I went in with a hopeful smile and the innocence that once kept me happy in my ignorance.

“Well, romantic things, I guess. If you were in the mood, for example, could you invade my mind and make me desire you so powerfully nothing else would matter?”

“I shouldn’t have to!” she replied at once and I knew I was sailing blind into dangerous waters. “And anyway,” she said, pouting, “I don’t remember you putting up much of a fight whenever the urge arrives.”

She was right, of course, but I wanted to experience something she could do that wasn’t painful or horrifying—an experiment, I suppose, but one that wouldn’t put me on the floor in agony.

“Yes,” I persisted, “and that’s all true, but I just wondered what it would feel like if you decided to pull the strings for something other than making me regret pissing you off; a better sort of demonstration, maybe?”

“It’s not a silly carnival ride, Evan!”

I held up a hand in silent capitulation; if she found my questions ridiculous and immature, I understood at least enough to know leaving it alone was my best course. She looked at me for a while and I thought she was preparing for another round. Finally, she sat beside me and said, “Very well—if you absolutely have to know…”

It took a few moments but when it began the sensation was beyond my expectations. There was no sudden increase in temperature, the way the movies seem to suggest

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