“I don’t want to. I want to stay here. I want to mourn. I want to build roots. I want...I want...” She took a breath and finally shifted her eyes so they locked with mine. “I don’t want to go to the magical realm. At least, not right now.”
“I don’t either,” Bella said in a low voice. “But... if you don’t want to stay, we can’t force you to.”
My voice caught in my throat as I began to imagine the possibilities. If my sisters were safe, then I really could begin my life how I’d always wanted to.
I wished they would want to come with me, though. I wanted them to learn everything about who they were. But Bella was right, we couldn’t force each other to do things we didn’t want to. No one was Mother. Mother was gone now.
I looked around the field where we sat. How could we do this?
I wasn’t sure how long we could feed on our magic before running out. Was that why Mother had become sick and died so much earlier than she should have? Because her magic ran out? If that was the case, why wouldn’t she have told me?
“Do you think that’s why Mother died?” I said aloud. I decided to voice my concern because the last thing I wanted was for us to keep anything to ourselves. I feared that if that were the case, it would be too late by the time we realized what was going on. “Because she used all of her magic to feed us, clothe us, house us?”
Bella looked up from her book, grimacing. “It is possible,” she admitted. “I’ve read about witches who create their own worlds before, and the results were always.... disastrous in the end. But I’ve never dived too deeply into the subject because I didn’t realize how applicable it was to our life.” She stared across the empty feel. “I didn’t realize magic was our life, literally.”
I nodded. “Then we cannot do this for too long,” I said. “I will help you create a small home here to keep you safe, then I will journey to town and find someone who might know about the magical realm and how to cross over.”
“What about Aunt Alison?” Courtney asked. Her voice was softer than I expected it to, given she had the nature of a wrecking ball.
I looked over at her, only to find her eyes distant and her skin pale, probably from crying so hard.
Aunt Alison was a good idea.
I sat up, moving my hands through the air and conjuring up a table, three glasses of water, and some fruit. I was inspired. My heart beat with incessant excitement. Before, I had been exhausted, having used more magic than I’d expected.
My tongue was dry and sore. My head pounded with unresolved emotions. But energy ran through my body and my lips curved up in a hopeful smile.
“What about her?”
I gestured to the table. My sisters picked up a glass each and drank the water until there was no more.
I waved my hand over the glasses, and they were full once again. After the use of magic and the trauma of everything disappearing, I wanted to ensure we weren’t dehydrated. I even forced myself to drink the first glass and then the second, just to make sure my magic kept up. The last thing I needed, especially right now, was to be depleted over a simple protection spell just because I hadn’t had any water to drink.
How had my mother done this for so long? How long had she done it for in the first place? Years? Had someone helped her maintain our existence? Or were our entire lives a creation inside her mind? If it was, was she really that powerful?
Bella crunched on a grape. “She’s Mother’s sister, is she not? Maybe she could help. Maybe she could at least teach us things we need to know.”
I hadn’t seen Aunt Alison for years. As for her being our biological aunt... no, I didn’t think so. I think she and mother were close, perhaps the
y even came from the same coven and it was just easier to tell others who were not magical that Alison was her sister rather than something else. People were always suspicious. Then again, the only people who were really in our lives were the servants, and since the servants had been false, it made me realize that there was a good chance the lie was more for us than for them.
I frowned. “No, she isn’t our actual aunt... more a close family friend. I barely remember her,” I admitted. “And I don’t think she was our actual aunt. It was more a term of affection. I’m thinking she and Mother knew each other before Father, before we came into the picture, and instead of having to explain the complicated nature of their relationship, she simplified it.”
Bella nodded. “Even if she’s not, at the very least, it’s a good place to start, Ava.”
She was right.
I nodded. “True. We don’t have any other clues to go on, do we? No grandparents, no friends. No one besides Father, and we have no idea where he is.”
“Or if he would help us at all,” Courtney put in.
I bit my lip. She was right, of course. But there was something inside of me, something that insisted to try for him if only to figure out this other part of me that I had been searching for my whole life. I didn’t want to dwell on my sad existence. I wanted to change it. And with Mother gone, I had the opportunity to do just that.
Courtney inhaled sharply, excitement threading through the air.
“Imagine if you found our grandparents!” she said, her voice quivering.
Bella sighed and took another sip of her water. Her book rested in her lap, but instead of her finger, she created a bookmark to save her page.