Chapter 1
Angel
Angela Merriwell—more commonly known as Angel—wiped the sweat from her forehead as she gathered all the cleaning supplies and exited her youngest sister’s now-clean room. Even though she was still annoyed with Alyssa that didn’t mean she’d let her return home to a musty and dust-covered room.
Their middle sister Amara was picking her up at the airport in Oakland. It was for the best since Angel and Alyssa could never get on the same page. Alyssa was the definition of a wild child growing up and her taking a gap year rather than going to college showcased how irresponsible she still was.
She’d left not even a month after their Grams’ funeral last year, stating that she needed to “see the world” before going to college and figuring out her future. Now that the fall semester at Windfil University was about to start in a few weeks, she was finally returning home.
Angel began scrubbing the already-clean counters of the kitchen, waiting for Amara and Alyssa to return home. They’d inherited the manor from their Grams when she died and it had been in their family for generations. The furniture was a bit dated, but Angel and Amara hadn’t dared change it, liking how it reminded them of their Grams. They had to replace the fridge and stove, but other than that, it remained the same. Well, other than some minor repairs since it was an old house and such needed some updates.
The front door opened and closed, followed by Amara calling out, “We’re home.”
Releasing a long sigh to prepare herself, Angel removed the dish gloves and pulled her dark brunette hair from its topknot. Alyssa and Amara were in the entryway placing their wet coats on the hooks and placing their wet shoes on the mat. A suitcase and backpack was all Alyssa had with her.
Despite being the youngest, Alyssa was the tallest of the three, which she found hilarious especially since Angel was the shortest at 5′5". There were only two and a half inches total between her and Alyssa, but she’d always said that was enough.
“Hey, sis,” Alyssa said with a small smile, such a casual greeting as if it had only been a week and not over a year. Her brunette hair was always a few shades lighter than Angel’s but was even more so now that she had some new highlights. She didn’t have brown eyes like Angel and Amara, but a bright green that came from their absentee father that Angel refused to ever think about.
“You look well.” Angel’s response was just as overly casual, not wanting to ruin the reunion by interrogating her or chastising her for being so irresponsible and having no care for her own future. Despite all of her flaws, Angel loved and missed her reckless sister.
Rolling her eyes, Alyssa dropped her bag and came to give Angel a tight hug that lasted longer than a normal hug, but they hadn’t seen each other in over a year. Before this, the longest they’d ever been apart was a few months.
Alyssa’s gaze immediately dropped to Angel’s left hand which used to contain an engagement ring until a month ago when Angel broke it off since the guy was an asshole. It took her a long time to realize it, but once she had she knew she could never be with a guy like him.
“I never liked him anyway.” Alyssa casually shrugged and strode past her to take in the house. “It’s so good to be home. You wouldn’t believe some of the places I stayed in. I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say I’ll never take my bed for granted ever again.”
Angel and Amara shared a look. Amara’s look was full of warning, telling her not to say anything. Letting out another sigh, Angel decided she’d let this go, for now. She’d rather their first night back together not end in an argument.
The sisters went off to do their own thing. With Alyssa going upstairs to unpack and shower. Amara was busy making dinner, putting her chef skills to work. Angel headed down to the basement where her dark room was to develop the pictures she had taken today. Both for her work at the magazine and a few she had taken for fun. She was hoping to get a few of her pictures in a gallery soon.
Time melted away and soon, Amara was calling down to her telling her dinner was ready.
Dinner was basically a catch-up for them, even though they’d semi-regularly texted over the past year—Amara had been better about staying in contact with Alyssa than Angel had—there was still so much to say that couldn’t be fully expressed over long-distance. Angel wasn’t able to keep her mouth shut the entire time and a couple of moments of chastisement came through. Before any arguments could break out, Amara was jumping in, smoothing everything over, ever the middle sister.
After dinner, the sisters were sitting in the sunroom in the wicker chair surrounding the glass circular table, sharing a bottle of wine. They’d ended up reminiscing about their Grams who had raised them since their mother died fifteen years ago. Alyssa had put Grams through the wringer, but then again, she hadn’t been the only one as Amara pointed out, bringing up the car incident.
“Whatever happened to that old picture album?” Alyssa asked after draining her glass and adding more wine. She was referring to the picture album that contained the rare pictures of all three of the sisters and their parents. Which was something Angel really wasn’t in the mood to see. Not only did she not want to think about their absentee father, but she also didn’t like thinking about their mother too much.
Amara’s face scrunched up the way it did when she was deep in thought. “I don’t know, I can’t remember the last time I saw it. With our luck, the damn thing is probably in the attic,” she said with a low sigh.
“I’ll go check.” Alyssa pushed her chair back and made to stand up.
“Don’t bother. We haven’t been able to open the damn door over this past year.” Angel took a sip of her wine, thinking back on how she had almost hired someone to come and try to pick the lock so they could finally get in there.
Alyssa’s eyebrows pulled together as she stared between her older sisters like she was waiting for them to say, Just kidding, but they didn’t. “What do you mean it’s locked? Didn’t Grams have a key to it?”
“She did.” Amara nodded as she tucked her feet under her. “But we didn’t find it when we cleaned out her room.”
Alyssa pushed out of her seat and made her way out of the room.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Angel called out to her, nervous about what she was up to.
“We’re getting that door open, one way or another.”
“Oh no.” Angel groaned, dropping her face into her hands. “She’ll end up breaking down that door.”
“Probably,” Amara confirmed, pushing back her chair. “We should join her to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Right behind you,” Angel muttered, downing the rest of her drink before following Amara back to the entryway and up the stairs. The attic took up the entire third floor of the manor and was a room they’d never been allowed in. Angel was pretty sure it was only used for storage and that was why it was off limits.
Alyssa stood at the top of the stairs, debating which tool would be the best for the job when Angel arrived. Alyssa placed her hand on the doorknob and said, “Before I get started, let me just check to see how locked it is.”
Angel rolled her eyes and waved her hand toward the locked door. “Go for it.”
Angel’s mouth gaped open when the door knob twisted under Alyssa’s hand and the door swung open. A gasp came from Amara and she looked just as stunned as Angel felt. There was no way that door should’ve opened. They had tried multiple times over the past year to get that door open. It didn’t make any sense. Unless Alyssa was screwing with them.
“You already picked the lock before we got up here, didn’t you?” Angel accused, crossing her arms over her chest.
A frown pulled at Alyssa’s face as she shook her head, still staring at the open door. “I swear, I didn’t do anything.”
Angel didn’t believe her for one second. It was the only reasonable explanation.
Just as Alyssa reached for the light switch, a crack of thunder boomed outside and the power went off, leaving them in darkness. Amara screamed and most likely jumped, while Angel sighed. Damn storm.
Being the responsible older sibling, Angel made her way down the stairs, using the wall as her guide as she headed toward her room where she kept a flashlight. Once she had her flashlight, she returned to the attic, where the other two had waited at the entrance, not wanting to enter the unknown space without light.
Angel led the way into the attic and was surprised by what she found. Yes, it was a storage space as she’d thought, but she thought it would be filled to the brim and hard to move through, but it wasn’t. All of the storage lined the walls, leaving the center open. From what she could see, the furniture up here was even more dated than downstairs and was covered in dust. She passed a book podium that sat empty and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why it was here or what book it once held.
In front of the stained glass window that overlooked the front yard was a wooden chest that pulled Angel’s attention and not just hers. Amara and Alyssa were just as curious about this as her. The lid was heavy and Alyssa joined her in opening it. Inside there were a bunch of random items, but none of them held her attention, other than the thick leather bound book covered in dust.
Alyssa reached inside and retrieved the book, blowing the dust off of it, revealing a Celtic symbol with three interlaced loops and a circle going through the loops. “A triquetra,” Alyssa murmured, brushing a finger of the raised design.
“A what?” Amara asked as she reached out and tried to open the cover, only to discover the clasp holding it closed. She tried to open it, but the clasp refused to budge. It didn’t make any sense. There wasn’t a keyhole on the clasp, so it should’ve opened.
“Let me try,” Angel murmured and took her turn at trying to open it. She’d expected it not to work since it hadn’t budged before, but that wasn’t the case. The clasp opened with a click that sounded loud in the quiet room.
Alyssa opened the book, revealing a title page handwritten in a nice looping font: The Book of Shadows.
The following page was written in similar handwriting. Before Angel could lean down to get a closer look at what it said, Alyssa began reading it aloud until Amara cut her off. “You’re not supposed to read aloud from a book you find in an attic. Haven’t you ever seen a horror film? We shouldn’t even be up here. It’s like we’re asking to be murdered.”
Alyssa let out a short laugh. “You’re being ridiculous. Grams wouldn’t have anything dangerous up here.”
Angel wasn’t sure that was entirely true. While she thought Amara was being ridiculous, there was the fact that Grams never wanted them up here. She’d just always assumed it was because Grams had been afraid of something falling on them.
Alyssa continued reading aloud and Angel wasn’t too sure she liked what she heard. It sounded like a spell, like witchcraft. Not only that, but it spoke of calling upon powers and three sisters, and considering how she was up here with her two younger sisters, she wasn’t a fan.
When Alyssa finished with the spell, Angel waited with bated breath, as if she’d been expecting something to happen. Which was ridiculous since magic wasn’t real. “Next time you read a spell book on a full moon, don’t include the rest of us,” Angel said with a sigh, feeling annoyed by this whole bizarre situation.
Alyssa shrugged unperturbed by Angel’s chastisement and tucked the book under her arm. “We’re fine. As you can see, nothing bad happened.” She headed toward the door even though Angel still held the light. Amara followed her and after a couple of seconds, so did Angel. She shut the door behind her and momentarily wondered if she tried reopening the door would it suddenly be locked once again.
When Angel joined her sisters on the first floor, the strangest thing happened. The chandelier above them lit up, with a blue light that shone down on them, before going dark once more. No other lights in the house had flickered, meaning it hadn’t been the power momentarily turning back on.
“What the hell was that?” Amara squeaked as she warily observed the chandelier.
“It was just the power, it’s nothing,” Angel said. She was trying to convince herself as well as her sister.
The truth was, she didn’t know what just happened.
