Chapter Thirty-Four #2
“I don’t understand.” There were rivulets of tears streaming down Brianna’s face. “Why wouldn’t they have told me this?” she asked in a voice that was hardly more than a whisper.
“Because,” the wolpertinger said, “they did not want you to know you were a witch. They were afraid that you would embrace your magic if you knew the truth, and so they let you believe you were cursed.”
I supposed I’d been hoping for a slightly less selfish answer, because this kindled an explosive anger on Bri’s behalf. “That’s a terrible explanation!”
“It is no explanation, Willow Stokes. It is the truth.”
“If my mother is a witch…” Bri trailed off, allowing the wolpertinger to finish her thought.
“It was her own magic that caused her accident, not yours.”
Finlay and I held our breath at this terrible revelation.
“Did she know?” Bri whispered.
Marcail had warned me that a witch concealing her magic would face the consequences, so I wasn’t entirely shocked when the wolpertinger replied solemnly, “Yes.”
Bri collapsed against me, looking so broken I could hardly bear to see it. I wrapped my arms around her, wishing I knew how to comfort her, or that I could at least murder someone on her behalf.
Every single thing I learned about Bri’s parents made me despise them more, but this was the worst betrayal of all.
Her father had told her not to come home unless the curse was broken, knowing all along that she wasn’t cursed in the first place.
In essence, he’d sent her away, forever, not even allowing her to say goodbye to her mother.
And Bri would never heal, because she hadn’t been broken to begin with.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before, when Bri showed up in my shoppe?” I asked the wolpertinger. “You could have saved us all an inordinate amount of pain!”
“You never asked me,” the wolpertinger replied, a tad defensively.
I held Bri closer. “So now what? Bri is doomed to turn everything she touches into magic forever?”
“Of course not,” the wolpertinger replied. “A wish can remove her magic entirely. Or restore her full witch powers.”
“Then I wish for that. I wish for Bri to have whatever it is she wants.”
The wolpertinger sighed. “Child, you have no wishes to use.”
I almost hurtled it across the room. “Why the hell not?”
“Because a family line can only claim one wish from me, and I’m afraid your father has already used it.”
I blinked, once again at a loss for words. I’d spent more time in the past two days flummoxed than in my entire life.
“What are you talking about?” Finlay asked for me.
It sighed again, clearly ready to be finished with the lot of us.
“After his wife’s passing, Edward Stokes traveled to a far-off land with all the money he possessed to purchase me.
A man he’d once considered a friend, Oliver Wexley, was on the hunt for a powerful witch’s bones, and he knew that his only daughter held such power.
He also knew that Wexley would discover it for himself soon enough, now that your mother wasn’t here to protect you.
So he made a wish, his one wish, that you, Willow Stokes, would be safe. ”
“But I’m not safe!” I protested.
“Of course you are,” the wolpertinger said, its patience starting to wane.
“Because of the wish, your magic was suppressed, just like Brianna’s mother’s, so that Wexley would not detect it.
Aware he’d been foiled but not exactly how, he tried to buy the truth from Alfred, who refused and was poisoned as a result.
Wexley later scheduled a meeting with your father, supposedly regarding a trade, though the real purpose was to blackmail him.
Wexley would pay off his debts in exchange for your mother’s ring, which he believed was what was keeping your magic hidden.
Your father refused, and Wexley poisoned him and stole the ring. ”
Bri straightened a little, perhaps sensing that I was no longer capable of holding up both of our weight, as I’d just felt my entire body go numb.
“Still, your magic did not emerge,” the wolpertinger continued, “but Wexley was watching you closely, biding his time. Your father’s wish sent Finlay Barrow, so that you would not be alone.
When you were in financial despair, the wish brought you Brianna Hargrave, who helped save your shoppe.
Their friendship allowed you to be safe enough to come into your powers, because you are now capable of protecting yourself. ”
“But why?” I shouted. “He had one wish. He could have used it to protect himself, and instead he wasted it on me!”
“Your father did not see it as a waste, Willow Stokes. To him, there was no greater treasure in the world than you.”
I was weeping openly now, viewing everything with new eyes that hurt to see through. I’d give it all back—Finlay and Brianna and my stupid magical powers—to have one more day with my father.
Would you? a voice asked in my head. Not the usual annoying know-it-all version of my own voice. This was the wolpertinger speaking, only to me. Because I can make that happen.
How? I asked it back. You said I couldn’t make a wish.
Wolpertingers are not malicious spirits.
We want our wish receivers to have what their heart most desires.
If and when a wish fails, we always offer to undo it.
If you would rather have a few more months with your father, I can make that happen.
But it will not prevent him from being poisoned by Mr. Wexley.
You will not remember any of this. You will never meet Finlay Barrow or Brianna Hargrave.
So I ask again, would you like me to undo your father’s wish? This is the last time I will make this offer, so consider it carefully. I’ll wait.
I looked at Bri and Finlay, expecting to find them watching me, but they seemed frozen in time, suspended where they’d been the moment the wolpertinger began to speak to me.
I stepped toward Bri, whose eyes were still full of tears at the revelations the wolpertinger had shared—not just for herself.
For both of us. If I undid my father’s wish, I might never know what it meant to have a true best friend, someone who loved me, warts and all, in the purest way.
Someone who had my back at all costs, even to herself.
Someone who would ride with me into danger or die trying.
And Finlay. I turned to him, my eyes falling on the soft lips that hid his perfectly crooked tooth.
His twinkling blue eyes that brightened even my darkest moods.
The person who made me want to be a better person, just to be worthy of his love.
I thought back on the last two years without my father, what I would have become if I hadn’t had Finlay to distract me from my own self-pity.
Again and again and again, he had shown up for me, despite my commitment to grief and misery.
I thought I’d pulled myself out of that deep well, but looking back, I could never have done it without him.
It was no wonder I couldn’t confront that truth before now. I had only seen two paths, then: the one where I stayed alone, put my head down, and survived; and the one where I had someone else to love, someone to rely on, and they inevitably let me down, even if they didn’t mean to.
But Bri and Finlay had shown me a third path, a new way forward.
One foot in front of the other, even if it led us off the edge of a cliff.
Because we would always be there to catch one another.
I loved both of them so much. Not in the same way I’d loved Da, perhaps, but in a way I wasn’t willing to risk losing, not even to see the person I would always love most of all for one more day.
“I don’t want to break the wish,” I said finally, firmly. “I don’t want to lose what it brought me.”
If I’d hoped for some kind of confirmation that I was making the right choice, I was disappointed.
The wolpertinger simply twitched its nose, and then time was normal again.
I touched my cheeks, where the tears were still fresh.
I turned to my friends, who were both crying as well.
My greatest treasures, just as I had been to my father.
“Now,” the wolpertinger said to Bri. “Brianna Hargrave, if you would like to make a wish, I am at your disposal. You may unwish the magic you possess, the suppressant spell holding it back, or you may wish for anything you want. A castle in the clouds, if that’s what you’d like.
Though I recommend against clouds. Rather insubstantial things, really. ”
I wanted to bite my tongue, but keeping my mouth shut had never been my strong suit.
“Listen, Bri. Whatever you decide … if you want to go to Carterra, I’ll journey with you, if you’d like the company, no matter how seasick I get.
But if you want to stay with us here in Ardmuir, you have a place for as long as you want it. ”
I held my breath, not even entirely sure what I hoped for. If she removed her magic, she could go back to her parents and be the daughter they always wanted. She would never have to deal with magic again, if that was what she preferred. I wouldn’t understand that decision, but I would respect it.
If she kept her magic, she’d be a witch, like me. We could run the shoppe together again. But no matter what she chose, she’d never be able to have the love she so desperately wanted from her parents, what she deserved: their unconditional acceptance of who she truly was.
Life, I’d learned these past months, was a series of choices, and even the smallest ones could have the most profound effect: let a customer leave without a sale, as you’ve done your entire life, or go after a girl in an oxblood cloak; let a storm pass instead of risking death, or allow a life-saving touch to awaken dormant powers; let the boy you’ve always loved go, or tell him everything, consequences be damned.
If Brianna chose to leave Ardmuir, I’d never know what a life with her would look like, but I found myself missing it already.
“I wish to remove the suppressant spell,” Brianna said.
I exhaled loudly, the words “Ohthankgoodness” leaving me in a rush.
The wolpertinger hooded its gaze and glared at me.
“Sorry,” I said, ducking my head and aiming a sheepish shrug at Bri. “It’s just that I’m absolutely worthless without you.”
“Are you sure this is your wish?” the wolpertinger asked Bri. “You will have the full powers of a witch. You will have to learn to control them, as Willow does, but you will not be at the whims of your magic as you have been.”
I grabbed Bri’s hand, capturing her attention. “Look, just because I want you to stay doesn’t mean you should. Your parents—”
She raised her chin, putting on a brave face despite the tears still clinging to her skin.
“My parents made their decision a long time ago,” she said, squeezing my hand.
“I thought if I could break the curse, they would finally love me. But all this time, they knew the truth and still couldn’t find it in their hearts to accept me.
They hid me, punished me, and tried their hardest to make sure I never experienced love.
I’m glad I know what I would be returning to if I wished away my magic, because I’m certain it’s not remotely worth what I’d be giving up.
” She turned back to the wolpertinger. “I’m sure. ”
“Then your wish is granted.”
There was no grand gesture, no shift in the atmosphere.
We didn’t even get an explosion of glitter.
But I could feel the change in Bri from where our hands were still connected.
When I looked at her, it was as if an invisible weight had been lifted from her, making her even more buoyant than she already was. She smiled, radiating joy.
“Hey,” I said, leaning in to embrace her. “Welcome home.”