Chapter 29
29
Sonny
J onah doesn’t get his way.
Ava leads us a couple blocks away, to a cute coffee shop that has clearly seen better days. They have a full menu of cheap homemade meals and copious amounts of espresso options, so we ordered food and stayed for lunch.
After stuffing our bellies and boxing our leftovers, we started back toward the park, where we could get a taxi back to campus.
“Ooh! Matilda’s is open,” Beatrix squeals, grabbing my shoulders to redirect me across the street.
Jonah rolls his eyes and groans. “Now, we won’t make it back for another two hours.”
“Shut up,” Beatrix bites back. “I know exactly what I need.”
Ava and Jonah share a skeptical look, but follow closely as we approach a store with an array of wind chimes hanging from different sized hooks, singing in the wind. The paned windows are cloudy and blocked with tall shelving pushed against them, offering little to no insight as to what could be inside. Beatrix cracks open the wooden door labeled Matilda’s Parlor of Curiosities and gestures for me to go first.
Fruity incense burns my nose the moment I step into the crowded store. Beatrix rushes in past me and makes a beeline for a rack off to the left while Jonah and Ava hang by my side in the entryway.
“I just need a deck for my purse. I forgot mine at home,” she mumbles as she goes without bothering to check if anyone is listening to her.
After a moment, Jonah and Ava stalk behind her and chit chat while I admire every square inch of the peculiar showroom. Bookshelves are scattered all around, packed with well-loved novels of every genre you could think of—though most appear to be spiritual. A modest collection of signed vinyl records is spread across the walls beside random knick-knacks that seemingly have no place, and crystals strung onto long fishing wire hang from the ceiling. The floors are creaky and worn, obviously original to the building, and each table looks like it’s been purchased secondhand. They’re all covered in loose crystals or baskets full of herbs.
“There are my skeptical friends,” a hoarse, low voice greets from somewhere in the back.
My head swings in that direction just as a tall and slim, older woman makes her way past all the displays. A long, geometric maxi skirt brushes against her bare feet and midriff peaks out beneath a blue, cropped T-shirt.
“Hey, Matilda,” Ava greets sheepishly as the woman pulls her in for a side hug.
“And you brought a new friend.” The woman eyes me up and down in quiet appraisal with a contradictory smile, then turns her attention back toward Ava.
“That’s Poppy,” she introduces. “This is her first time in Nocturne Valley.”
“Is it?” Matilda asks skeptically, her voice raising pitch.
I feel the strange urge to defend myself.
“Matilda is one of the few people here in Nocturne Valley who doesn’t treat us like we have the plague,” Ava explains.
“You said the same thing about Miss Kay,” Jonah points out matter-of-factly as he grabs up a handful of an herb marked cardamom.
Ava frowns and shrugs her shoulders. “I thought she was.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I say to Matilda, holding my hand out for her to shake. She looks at it, then drags her eyes back up to meet mine.
“You as well. Though, we’ve already met once before. I helped your mama with a little shielding spell quite a few years ago.”
My hand lingers awkwardly in the air as I open my mouth to assure her that can’t be true when Beatrix interrupts me. “I’m looking for one to use every day, but nothing is speaking to me,” she complains from the floor, drawing our attention to her. “Any suggestions?”
“You know as well as I do, I can’t answer that for you,” the woman admonishes, turning away from my completely. I have a feeling she enjoys being cryptic just to get a reaction from people.
Beatrix frowns. “I was really hoping to find something today.”
“I’ve got a few more back here that I haven’t had a chance to add into my inventory, if you want to take a look,” Matilda offers, waving her hand toward the other end of the store. Beatrix climbs to her feet and shuffles behind her.
“She’s kind of out there,” Ava whispers, eyeing Matilda’s disappearing form.
“You can say that again,” Jonah scoffs, swiping his hands across his jeans.
We start in the direction Beatrix disappeared in, unsure what else to do.
“How did she immediately know who your mom is?” Ava asks me with a curious, raised brow, as if the comment she made earlier has only just now hit her.
“No idea.”
Surely, Aunt Divina wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like this—even if she did spend four years at Ravenshurst. And if there were some off chance she was referring to my real mother, I still don’t believe it. You couldn’t pay her to ever step foot back into Nocturne Valley after they cast her out for good.
Still, the woman seems so sure. I’m itching to know more.
We walk to the back and find Beatrix settled in an office chair, rifling through boxes as Matilda warms water in an electric kettle.
She offers us tea, but none of us take it.
“I heard what you said about Miss Kay before,” she begins, carefully lifting her mug to her lips. The three of us share a nervous look, and she chuckles when no one has the guts to explain.
“Well, I’m not going to bite your head off for it. I agree, many people in town are not acting like themselves lately.”
“She was just warning us. She seemed genuinely concerned,” Ava rationalizes.
Jonah scoffs. “And out of her mind.”
Ignoring him, Matilda keeps her attention fixed on Ava, eyes squinting. “Warning against what, exactly?”
“Dr. Whitlock.”
Her face flickers with understanding as she sets down the hot mug to pace across the room, toward a bookshelf.
“Of course.” Wiggling her fingers in the air, she mocks, “The cursed family.”
“Why are they cursed?” Ava prods. Beatrix has stopped her rifling to listen, and I can tell she hangs onto every word that Matilda speaks.
The woman thinks for a moment, clicking her tongue when she finally finds the book she was searching for and pulls it off the shelf. Turning back to fully face us, she holds up the cover to reveal The Odyssey.
“Have you read it?”
We all nod. “In high school,” Ava confirms.
“Then, you know the story with Helios.” As she speaks the name, her eyes flick over toward me knowingly, lingering long enough to confirm my fears.
Helios: Greek god of the sun.
And with that tiny, subtle message, I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that she knows. She knows I’m not Poppy. She knows my real name is Sonny. She knows who my mother is. She knows everything.
Somehow, she knows.
Even though we confirm we’ve read it, she goes on to tell the story, anyway. “Despite his warnings and against his better judgment, Odysseus’ crew stops at the island Thrinakia for a bit of a breather and they get stuck. During their unexpectedly long stay there, they find Helios’ precious herd of cattle. They had originally promised not to touch the herd, but the days were growing long as they waited out a storm that Poseidon was punishing them with, and they were eventually influenced to slaughter and eat them. Helios was furious. He insisted that Zeus punish the crew for what they had done, and Zeus complied. When the ship finally departed the shores of Thrinakia, it was hit with a thunderbolt of Zeus’s lightning, killing everyone but Odysseus.”
She looks between the four of us with a tight smile, noting the confusion on our faces, then continues. “There’s unrest within Nocturne Valley. The worker bees are growing tired. They no longer want to blindly comply with whatever scraps they’re thrown to survive. To be punished for following the rules while the leaders gorge themselves on the cattle without a single repercussion.”
“What does that have to do with Whitlock being cursed?” Jonah asks.
“Every story needs its villain. The Whitlocks have taken on that role for over one hundred years for the sake of protecting the innocent.”
“I’m not following,” Beatrix admits.
Neither am I.
Matilda looks back toward me, her smile turning sad. “He’s a distraction . . . a sacrifice, if we’re being honest. We’re waiting on our Helios to beg Zeus to punish them. For the thunderbolt to strike down the greedy and reward those who have staved off their appetites. Only the innocent will survive. They just don’t know it yet.”
Silence.
None of us know how to respond or wrap our minds around what she’s saying—especially me. With her reference to Helios and his relation to me, it seems like she’s suggesting I’ll be the one to start whatever anarchy she’s talking about.
But I don’t have the slightest clue how that could be.
Holding her palms out in front of her, she shakes her head and laughs. “I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s just hard to stay quiet sometimes.”
Mercifully, she drops the subject and we each stay quiet the rest of the visit. Beatrix finds a tarot deck shortly after, and we quickly get out of there the moment she pays, just like we did at the dress shop.
“What the hell is in the water here?” Jonah laughs as we break into a jog and cross the street. We each agreed not to make any more stops, which I’m grateful for because I don’t think I can carry this dress around much longer without ruining it.
He was right. Somehow, we wasted two whole hours in that shop, even though it felt like we were only there for a few minutes.
“It definitely seems like Nocturne Valley is having some technical difficulties,” Ava agrees, twisting her lips to the side.
Jonah casts a glance over at me. “Why was she looking at you so weird?”
Shaking my head, I sigh. “No idea. I’m ready to hide out in my dorm for the next six months.”
“Laugh all you want,” Beatrix grumbles from my left, fighting her new box of tarot cards into her backpack while keeping up speed. “But Matilda has never been wrong. Ever .”
My skin tingles with goosebumps.
“That may be true, but it obviously had nothing to do with us, so why did it seem like she was trying to scare us?”
“Maybe she’s lonely. It can’t be easy being the village crazy lady,” Ava laughs, earning a scowl from Beatrix.
“She seems gifted,” I point out. A Valeria woman, if I had to guess, based on her empathic nature. “I thought you said no one in Nocturne Valley has gifts anymore.”
Ava shakes her head. “I said most people don’t. Matilda is one of the most obvious exceptions. She’s a Luminara. I don’t think many people like her because of it.”
So, not empathic. Psychic.
“Doesn’t seem like she cares,” Jonah observes.
“No, she doesn’t. Why should she, when she can think for herself and they’re all still running around like little hamsters on a wheel?” Beatrix’s tone is much more combative than usual, and her words give me pause.
“Let’s just get out of here,” he says, ignoring his sister’s scowl at his dismissal.
Me and Ava don’t put up an argument. We walk in silence to the town’s center with me dragging my gown and Beatrix swinging the plastic bag full of tarot cards and crystals she threw in while checking out. No one speaks the entire drive when we take the first taxi who finds us back into Ravenshurst.