Page 52 of Guardian

Charles looked over his shoulder. “Come, I’ll explain everything. I won’t do anything you don’t agree to. Deal?”

Slowly she nodded, then followed him down the stairs. It smelled a little musty, but the smell quickly dissipated when she approached the door to another room. From there, different smells emanated: spices, herbs, perfumes.

When she reached the open door, she stood there for a moment and looked inside the large room. It was a witch’s lair—if “lair” was the right word. Maybe they called it a brewhouse. After all, there was a large caldron in one corner and lots of large mortars sitting on wooden shelves. Glass jars were filled with various herbs and spices, and bottles with different colored liquids lined several shelves. A low fire was burning in a hearth. In another corner, there was a desk with several old books lying open on its surface. A bookcase on the wall held even more books, many with titles printed on their spines in languages she couldn’t decipher.

Wesley stood hunched over a bowl, mixing different herbs. He raised his head. “Hey, you made it.”

Winter walked into the room. “Hi, Wesley.”

“Hey, Wes,” Logan said. “Nice setup you’ve got here, Charles.”

“Thanks,” their host replied. “Keeps me busy and out of trouble while Roxanne saves the world.”

Wesley shook his head. “Charles likes to pretend that he’s the tame house husband. Don’t be fooled. I’ve learned a lot from this guy. He’s a very powerful witch.” He looked at Winter. “And he’s found something that we believe will help you with your visions.”

“Charles said you’re going to do a spell,” she said. “What kind of spell?”

Wesley looked to Charles, who nodded and explained, “Right. Here’s the gist of it. Normally you would have been guided by the person who passed the gift on to you. Like a mother or father, or grandparents. Or an aunt or uncle.”

“I have no relatives. My parents died in a car accident when I was young. My grandmother raised me, but she’s dead now too. There was nobody else.”

“Well,” Charles said, “in cases where the psychic didn’t get a chance to learn about his or her gift from a relative, it can often be misunderstood—like in your case, so Wes tells me. It’s not uncommon to experience the visions as nightmares. How long ago did you experience your first vision?”

“Maybe eighteen months ago.”

“Hmm. Enough time for your mind and body to form an automatic response. You conditioned yourself to reject the visions, because you feared them. By knowing that you’re not dealing with a nightmare, but a vision, you’ve already made one step in the opposite direction. Eventually, you’ll train yourself to accept the visions as normal. But retraining yourself takes time, and I understand that you don’t have a lot of it.”

“We have even less now,” Logan interrupted. “Less than twenty-four hours.”

“What?” Wes asked. “What the fuck happened?”

“Manus found us. He’s given us twenty-four hours before he turns us in. I have less than a day to convince the council that Winter will be a great asset to us, and to do that we need to prove that she can control her visions. I need to give them something.”

Charles let out a breath. “Well, we’d better get this show on the road then.” He paused for a moment. “Winter, here’s what this spell will do. Think of it as a time lapse spell. What it’ll do is to make your brain believe that a lot of time has passed since you found out that your nightmares are really visions. Your mind will adjust to this new truth and new neuropathways will forge in your brain, allowing the visions to be processed without your conditioned responses blocking them. Next time you have a vision, you should be able to guide it in the direction you want to explore.”

“Guide it how?”

“Let’s say, you have a vision about, I don’t know… what have you seen before?”

“I’ve seen a cave with demons.”

Charles nodded. “Okay, let’s say you see this cave again. With your new control, you should be able to walk inside the vision, a little bit like an avatar. You know what that is?”

She nodded.

“So you’ll be able to walk in the direction of where you want to see more. For example, if you want to see what’s behind a demon, or you see a door and want to know what’s behind it, you’ll be able to go and open it. But be careful. Don’t go too deep into the visions, or you can get hurt. The longer you stay inside, the more of yourself goes into the place and the things you see, and the harder it will be to come back. Do you understand?”

She wasn’t sure if she should nod or not. She understood his words well enough, but did she really understand the implications? Was she ready for this? There were so many more things she needed to know.

“Will I be able to force a vision?”

“At will? No. The vision will come whenever it comes. But once it’s there, you’ll be able to guide it.”

Winter looked at Logan. “What if I don’t have a vision that’ll help you to convince the council by tomorrow?”

“We’ll figure it out somehow,” Logan assured her.

“I’ve heard that sometimes it helps to touch an object or a person, and a vision about that object or person emerges. It’s by no means foolproof, but on occasion, it helps,” Charles mused.