Courtney glanced between us.
I paced the kitchen. I wasn’t sure what I should tell them and what I should keep to myself. Was Mother was just keeping our secret because she didn’t want the others to know. But I was also worried that something had happened to her. Something had taken her away from me.
Again.
“When was the last time I heard her?” I asked myself, hands thrust behind my back. “In the human village? No... earlier. Back in the Fae realm.” I stopped suddenly. “Oh, no!”
I whirled around, nearly slipping, and stared at my sisters.
“Oh no... what?” Courtney demanded, her voice somehow insistent and flat at the same time. She furrowed her brow.
I continued to stare at them, my heart tight and worry pulsing through me like a heated storm.
“I think she’s gone,” I said. I tried to find the right words to figure this out. “But not like, properly gone. I think...” I chewed my bottom lip and shook my head. “But how...?”
Bella reached out and took my hand.
“Come and sit on the couch and tell us what’s going on,” she said in a gentle voice.
I swallowed hard, forcing the lump down my throat, and wobbled my way to the couch. I couldn’t lose her again, I couldn’t. We had our issues certainly, but that didn’t mean I wanted her gone. I had come to rely on her advice. A lot of times, I didn’t agree with her, and there were times she still needed to understand her role in my life. She didn’t have the same ability to control my every move the way she had when she was alive, but she could still help me when I needed her help.
And I still needed her help.
I began to shake, and Bella wrapped a blanket around my shoulder and sat next to me. Courtney sat down in the arm chair opposite us, her face pinched with worry. Both had puzzled glints in their eyes.
I took a few shuddering breaths and held tight to the blanket around me. I had to stop panicking. I needed to be strong for my sisters. Despite the fact that they had no idea what was going on, I needed to show them that all was well. If I unraveled, they certainly would, and the last thing we needed was to completely fall apart.
Calm yourself, Ava, I told myself. This may not be a bad thing.
“Okay,” I said slowly, picking my gaze up from my lap so I could look at them. I hoped my voice wasn’t as shaky as it seemed. I hoped I showed them a cool resolve. “I don’t know how this is all going to come out, so please just bear with me.”
“Alright,” Bella said, and Courtney nodded.
A tear escaped my eye and I wiped it away. The stress of the last month was finally spilling over.
“I... ah...” I swallowed, trying to get some control over my emotions and body. I needed to find the right words so they would understand. I didn’t want them to think I was keeping something from them, but at the same time, I needed to be honest with them as well.
“When Mother was dying, she took my locket, held it, then handed it back to me moments before she passed,” I said. “At the time, I had no idea what she’d done, and she didn’t tell me. I just thought it was her being her normal, mysterious self.”
Bella gasped, her hand covering her mouth. One look at her and I knew she knew. Of course, she did. Bella knew everything, thanks to all the books she read.
“Did she instill her essence in your locket?” she asked, her eyes wide as she let her hand fall to her lap.
“Yes, she did.” I nodded once. “I didn’t even know something like that was possible. When she spoke to me the first time, I nearly had a heart attack.”
Bella put a hand to her heart. “Oh, my god.” She shook her head, as though she didn’t believe what I said. “So, you’ve been talking to Mother.”
“Yes, I have been,” I said. I dropped my gaze to my hands, picking at the denim of my jeans. How was I supposed to tell them what happened to her when I didn’t even know? I sighed. I needed to be honest, I reminded myself. They deserved to know the truth. “But she... I don’t know where she’s gone now. Ever since I returned, I haven’t been able to contact her, and I’m not sure why that is.”
Bella held up her hands and straightened her spine. “This magic is very powerful, but also quite limited,” she explained. I didn’t know how Bella could be so self-assured right now. I could barely stop myself from shaking. “So, let’s start at the beginning and see if we can work it out. When was the first time you heard her voice? In the human realm?”
“I...” I pressed my lips together, trying to let the memories come back to me. Why was it so difficult to remember something so simple? Was it at Aunt Alison’s house? “No.”
“Okay,” Bella said, her voice still soothing. “Where do you think you heard it?”
I looked off to the right, towards the kitchen, trying to remember. I chewed my bottom lip. My entire time with Alison was spent in silence. At least, I didn’t remember hearing the locket whatsoever. However, once I went through the portal...
“It was straight after I’d stepped into the magical realm,” I said, my words tumbling over each other. “I’d barely walked a few feet down the road when the locket began to heat and when I touched it, her voice filled my head.”