SWNOVELS Chapter 44
My breath catches, knowing she's about to talk about the day she died. Or, rather, didn't die.
"I still didn't really understand my magic, but I knew that I was part of this prophecy, and so were you, and it was too much to bear. I didn't want you to suffer the way I and your nanny had."
"So to ease my suffering you faked your own death?" I ask bitterly, on the verge of losing the battle to control my sorrow and anger.
She shakes her head. "I tried to cast a spell, just before you turned twelve. I wanted to protect you. I just... I wanted you to be safe forever."
""What happened?"
"I almost killed you," she says, wiping away more tears wetting her cheeks. "I put my baby girl in a coma. Nanny had to pull out some deep, dark magic to bring you back."
"Wait, when I was eleven? I don't remember any of this." Even if I didn't remember the coma, wouldn't I have at least remembered all the magic spell stuff leading up to it? Wouldn't I have any memory of missing school? Wouldn't AJ remember something this big? "Tilly took care of your memories," she says.
"What about school? Friends? AJ?" I ask, shaken to the core that my kind old Nanny messed with my brain.
"It was summertime, and Nanny handled the rest."
The rest being AJ. Jesus, what kind of family do I belong to?
My mom continues, seemingly oblivious to my own horror at learning all this. "She tried to tell me it was okay, that you would be okay and I should forgive myself, but I couldn't. I couldn't look at you after what I'd done. So..." she forms a fist with her hand like she's trying to hold in all the pain as she speaks. "I decided you would be safer without me. I chose to end my life."
I exhale, letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Except you didn't," I point out.
"I tried," my mom says, sounding even more remorseful than before. "I threw myself off a cliff into the ocean."
I shiver as the memories I keep carefully suppressed come rushing back. Finding her suicide note. Searching the shoreline for her body. Friends with fishing boats patrolling the coastline day and night. Her body was never found. She was presumed dead. After all, how could anyone live through that fall?
"How did you survive?" I ask. "And where have you been all these years?"
She sighs and looks away, her gaze lost in the darkness of the surrounding trees. "I woke up here, in this very forest, staring into my mother's face."
That's actually something I can imagine quite readily, though her circumstances were a bit different. "So what, this is like some weird recreation reunion for you?"
"No. But I wanted you to understand why I did what I did. Why Nanny did what she did."
My heart skips a beat. "What did Nanny do?"
My mother stands and approaches me, then kneels down and takes one of my hands into hers. "She stole your magic to bring me back from the dead."
My throat goes dry and a cold sweat covers my skin as I yank my hand from hers. "What do you mean, stole my magic?"
"I didn't want her to. I never meant for any of this to happen. I didn't consider what it would do to a mother to lose her child. She snapped, even before she absorbed too much power. The grief turned her into someone else." My mother rocks back on her heels, her eyes, the same deep blue as my own, locked on mine. "She used dark magic, blood magic, to pull your power from you and then harnessed it to find my body and bring me back. When I woke up in this forest, I was yanked from the afterlife. The use of that much power made her crazy."
"That's why she lost her mind? Why she's in the hospital now?"
My mother nods. "It is. Magic. Power. It isn't natural. It's always been a curse, causing more problems than it solves. And those monsters who are living with you, they are born of the oldest magic, and they are using you, and your daughter, to empower their own races." "I already know what they want," I say, impatiently. "I know why they came. But it's more complicated than that."
I think back to all the shared moments, the private conversations, the memories I've already made with each of them. Complicated definitely describes my current relationship status.
My mother smiles sadly, then stands and waves her wand over the fire. The golden-red flames turn blue, like our magic chairs, and begin to dance against the night sky, forming shapes that tell a story.
"They told you what they wanted you to know. They used their powers of mental manipulation and seduction on you."
As I watch, I see scenes played out from my life with Darius, Rune and Zev. Private moments none other were privy to.
"Did they tell you what they will do with the child, once they have her?" she asks, the form of a baby appearing in the flames.
"They need her to save their people," I say softly, feeling sick to my stomach.
"That much is true," my mom says. "But there's much more to it than that." With another flick of her wand, the flames change shapes once more. "Each race believes they understand the prophecy of the Last Witch. And each believes they know what must be done to save the magic flowing in their veins, giving life to their race."
A wolf appears in the flames, several wolves, in fact, surrounding the baby laying on the ground. The wolves then descend upon the child, ripping it apart. I turn my head from the gruesome scene, but cannot erase it from my mind.
"The wolves would eat her, consuming her flesh and bones in order to take in her magic and save themselves."
I glance back at the flames as they
shift again, this time to the fae, who lay the baby in a hole dug in the ground. "The fae would put her to earth, burying her alive so that her blood bones, and final breath can become part of the nature they worship, so that she will become one with the Great Tree and give
them their lives and magic back."
I clutch Rain tighter to my chest. "Stop this," I whisper, anger and fear and disgust boiling in me.
"You must see the truth, my daughter. You must know, otherwise, I cannot save you."
The flames dance again, this time bringing forth the vampires. The baby in the fire is strapped to an altar, her blood drained as the vampires feed on her. My mother doesn't need to explain this one. It's all too clear.
She circles her wand a final time and the flames die down, turning back to their normal color. "You see? They've been using you. They don't care about you, or the child, only their own immortal selves. They were never meant to exist. Not in the world of humans. Not anywhere. They aberrations and they must never get their hands on the Last Witch. We
must keep Rain safe, for her sake and for the sake of all of humanity."
"So you've been trying to kidnap her to keep her safe?" I ask.
My mom smiles, relief in her eyes. "Yes. Exactly!"
"And what about Joe? Why did you kill him?"
She flinches. "That was out of my control. Joe found out about Alex, and he..."
She drifts off but I press on, needing info faster than she seems prepared to give it.
"And Nanny? Why send Order members to her room?"
"To keep her safe," she says. "The Order has been watching over Nanny since her mind went, trying to keep other creatures away from the powers stored in that frail body. Like that vampire who nearly killed her before Alex arrived." Except... that's not what happened. Nanny had been relieved to see him. Happy. Or was that just what Darius wanted me to see?
I rub my temples, a massive headache forming. I don't know what's real and what's not. Who to trust and who to fight.
"Then why not come to me yourself earlier? Why all the theatrics? You put me and Rain at risk."
My mother sinks back into her fire
chair, looking slightly defeated. "I wanted to. Sunshine, I've wanted to come see you every day since I disappeared. Being so close and yet so far has made life almost
I
unbearable. But how could I explain myself? How could I tell you
anything and still keep you safe? I wish I got to you before those monsters did, and now I'm trying to
fix this, I swear it."
I close my eyes, squeezing through tears as I try to find the truth in my heart, when a voice invades my mind.
Bernie, do not trust her. It's not what it seems. I'm coming to save you both.
My breath hitches. Darius.