Chapter Twenty-Six #2
‘Nothing that can’t wait.’ I waved away the things she didn’t need to worry about until morning. ‘How do you feel?’
Her face softened as she stared off into the middle distance and the corners of her mouth tilted upwards in the smallest smile.
‘Amazing.’
Lydia looked around the parlour like she was seeing it for the first time and I watched the clouds pass overhead, songbirds flitting from branch to branch and the leaves of the trees swaying with a breeze only she and I could feel.
‘How do you feel?’ she asked. ‘Now you’re officially my magical mentor. My supernatural sherpa. My—’
‘Yeah, I think I’ve got it,’ I cut in, smiling as I laced my fingers through hers. My best friend. My sister. ‘I feel proud to know you, same as ever.’
‘Good, because I’m going to need your help. Unless Virginia has been holding out on me, I don’t think she has quite so much knowledge about all this stuff as Catherine had.’
My mouth puckered into a pout but I said nothing. Her grandmother might not be a witch but I was certain the Powell family knew more than they were letting on. Lydia squeezed my hand and it felt like a tiny electric shock.
‘We’ll get to the bottom of it,’ I promised. ‘I can’t pretend I understand what’s happening but, even though I didn’t expect this, it does feel—’
‘Right?’ Lydia cut in, her wide eyes meeting mine.
‘Right,’ I agreed. ‘I feel stronger than I did. More connected to the blessing.’
And I did. There was a new clarity in my mind, a new depth to my awareness.
When I looked around the room, the paintings on the walls looked sharper, new details revealing themselves to me, their colours more vivid, the brushstrokes finer than ever before.
‘Em, did those birds always move?’
I had to suppress a laugh when a flock of watercolour bluebirds fluttered over to investigate the new witch.
‘You’re going to be noticing a lot of new things,’ I advised my friend. ‘Not just in Bell House, everywhere. It can be overwhelming but I’m here, I’ll help you.’
A current passed between us, something crackling and alive, not quite like the invisible string that tied me to Wyn but something more fundamental. Wyn and I were bound together. Lydia and I were sisters. I wasn’t alone in my magic anymore.
‘I don’t know about you but I am destroyed,’ she declared, stretching as an enormous yawn possessed her entire body. ‘I’m too tired to go home and deal with all of that. Can I sleep here?’
‘You are sleeping here,’ I replied, also in no rush to explain this to her mother and grandmother. ‘Let’s get you up to bed.’
‘No, I mean here-here.’
She curled up into a ball, positioning a throw pillow under her head in place of a pillow. ‘As in, get your ass out of this and turn off the lights because I love you but I’m about thirty seconds away from complete lack of consciousness.’
‘Understood.’
I hopped to my feet as the lights turned themselves down low, the house listening in on our conversation and acknowledging the new witch in the family.
It muffled the closing of the door when I stepped out into the hallway, meeting Jackson, a full glass of fizzing soda in his hand, complete with ice and a slice of lemon.
‘She’s sleeping,’ I said, blocking the door. ‘Sorry.’
He held the soda out to me, but I declined.
‘This feels like a dumb question, but is she going to be all right?’
‘She’s a witch,’ I replied, leading him back down to the kitchen where Ashley was searching through the pantry for the perfect herbal tea blend. ‘That’s all I can tell you.’
Looking every inch exhausted and defeated, he placed the glass of soda on the kitchen table and wiped a palm across his tired face.
‘Em, you said—’
‘I know what I said,’ I replied. ‘I was wrong.’
He considered my statement in silence then slowly shook his head as though he could see no point in arguing. There really wasn’t anything else I could say.
‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t feel great about it,’ he replied. ‘So far, this magic stuff hasn’t exactly been kind to us and regular Lydia is already enough to worry about without her suddenly turning into a witch.’
‘Nothing sudden about it.’ Ashley opened a jar of pungent culantro leaves that made him gag. ‘If Lydia is manifesting magic then she was already a witch. Her abilities may have been dormant but they were there.’
‘And there’s no way to stop it?’
‘Maybe you should ask her if she wants it stopped,’ I suggested lightly.
‘And while you’re at it, ask your mom and your grandmother why they never mentioned any of this to y’all before,’ Ashley added over the sound of the tea kettle whistling on the stove. ‘They’re going to have a whole lot of questions to answer tomorrow morning.’
He groaned, rubbing his eyes with both hands.
‘Twelve hours ago I was on vacation,’ he said, sliding off the stool and stretching tall. ‘Now I’m covered in my friend’s blood, running away from werewolves and my sister’s a witch.’
‘Just an average Thursday night in Savannah,’ Ashley commented. ‘Go to bed. You can have the couch in my room, Lydia can have the bed. I’ll bunk up with Em.’
‘Lydia’s already out for the count in the parlour,’ I replied. ‘But you’re stuck with me anyway. It’s too late to make up the guestrooms, Wyn and Jackson will have to fight over who gets your bed and who gets the couch.’
Ashley and Jackson exchanged a look.
‘What?’ I darted a glance between the two. ‘Did I miss something?’
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized what was wrong with this scene. A very vital piece of our puzzle was missing and I couldn’t feel him anywhere in the house.
‘Where’s Wyn?’ I said, scrunching up my hands inside the cuffs of his shirt.
‘He didn’t tell you?’ Jackson asked innocently.
‘Tell me what?’
‘Wyn went back to Hilton Head to hunt the wolf,’ he replied. ‘He’s gone.’