Chapter 20 #2
I look at her, still with tears streaming down my face to match my mother’s. “But it didn’t, did it?” I sob.
She laughs, tears still spilling over her cheeks, and shakes her head.
“Of course it didn’t because you, Harriet, are something more than I could have ever imagined.
You’re special, you are everything good a witch can be and, most of all, your story was not mine to write.
That part is up to you, and I have come to tell you I’ll support you, whatever you choose. ”
We sit in silence for a moment. A lot has been said. My mother wipes her tears and pulls herself back onto the armchair and sips her now cool tea that sits beside her on the table.
“If I don’t marry Greg, I put us all in danger.” My voice is full of sorrow.
“We would find a way. I have spent too long trying to protect you from things that actually make you who you are. Whatever you choose, you have us all. I will do whatever I need to do to keep you and our family safe.”
I stare at her for a moment. Her face has softened. Her shoulders relax after telling me the truth. I can see through her plastic surgery and thick makeup to the girl she was. Is.
I had never taken the time to look at her properly before, that underneath all of this facade there was a woman who was doing everything to protect me.
Before I stop myself, I scramble from my place on the floor to her feet, grasping her legs, sobbing uncontrollably and shaking.
She pulls me up to her lap and holds me tight, sobbing in unison.
I hear the door creak open, and Granny and Aradia come in to join us. They both kneel next to us on the floor and hold us closely. All of us together. The Chattoxes.
Aradia pulls away first followed by Granny and me. I stand and compose myself, taking myself back to the sofa to sit. Aradia sits by the fire and Granny next to me, all of us wiping our tears and smiling. This has been a long time coming, for all of us.
Granny breaks the silence. “Right, now I’m sure that Harri has questions and it’ll take her some time to process this.
” She turns to me, placing her hand on mine.
“Everything we have done was to protect you. We made some wrong choices through that journey but I promise you, it was all out of love.” She looks at Aradia and my mother who nod in tandem.
“I know,” I say groggily, and I do. If I have learnt anything from my family it is that they really do love one another, deeper than I can ever understand. And being angry is not going to change the past, or the future. Granny smiles and taps my hands.
“Does Sam know we’re twin flames?” I ask, still confused on how it all works.
“No, darling, that boy just loves you for you. Yes, the twin flame aspect has a part in it. Your souls are destined to be together, but what you feel with him is pure.”
“And how is our power entwined?” I question, interested in how it works.
Aradia clears her throat. “Normally a ceremony, like a wedding, is completed by the oldest witch in your bloodline once you both choose that of course.” She points at Granny.
“But it’s all on your terms. You can be bound to Sam, marry Greg or run away from all of it all together and never look back. We’re here no matter what you choose.”
I nod, taking it all in. “It’s a lot.”
“We know, love.” Granny squeezes my hand.
I look at my mother. “What will you do?”
She smiles sympathetically. “I have to return home, Harriet.”
My face screws up in disappointment and annoyance that she would even consider going back there. “After everything you said?”
“Darling, I understand it’s a lot for you to take in, but I made my choice, all those years ago.
And my place is there. Your granny and aunt have tried everything to get me to change my mind, but this is the life I am used to.
The life that keeps my family safe. If you choose to stay here, it might buy us some more time with me going back as normal.
This is my choice, Harriet, just like you get to make yours. ”
I can feel a lump in my throat but enough crying for today. If I know Granny and Aradia like they do, they would have put up a hefty fight to try to get my mother to stay. And she is right. It is her choice. I just wish I could change it.
“Do you have any other questions for any of us, Harri?” Aradia asks, warming her bare feet by the fire.
“You said the Belfours use magic from witches they take. What happens to them?” I look at Aradia, Granny and then my mother, all of them silent. The air is thick with sadness.
“The Belfours have ways of making people disappear. They are enormously powerful and very wealthy. So, whoever they hire will know this. The magic is used by them and the witch normally sent on their way with money, but with less witches in the world, normally they will be… well, used until they have no more.”
Sickness fills my throat. I turn to the coal bucket by the side of the fire and vomit. Aradia catches me before I fall, helping me to the floor beside her.
“I know this is a lot, Harri. Maybe we should stop for a little bit,” she says soothingly, concerned for my weak stomach and her living room rug.
I wobble a little and grab a glass of water that is sitting on the coffee table and glug it down. I wipe my mouth with my sleeve and sit back against the sofa on the floor. “No, no, I need to hear this.”
She nods. “They will use witches without families or ones far from home with families too poor to look for them, or too scared. They will spend as long as they need learning all about them, knowing every detail of the witch. The Belfours use witch hunters whose families have been around since we have. Quiet, nameless hunters who are not even known by the government. They are born off grid, with no trace of who they are. I doubt the Belfours have even met them in person. For most witch hunters, that we are aware of, it’s more a hobby, a copycat, they tend to be sloppy and money orientated, easy for our kind to suss out and avoid.
“But the people the Belfours use, they have as much power as we do. They know how witches think, how we move and where to find us. Sometimes even using normals to keep an eye out for anything suspicious in exchange for money. They are the problem. These faceless hunters are the ones that have been killing off our kind, slowly at first but from what our contacts in London have said, it’s ramping up increasingly.
It’s why I could not find anything about them straight away. ”
“This is awful.” I pull my knees to my chest. It hits me: little Lola. I can’t imagine anything or anyone hurting her like that just because of who she is. My heart races. I can feel my stomach churn once more but this time I catch it before it surprises me and breathe through it.
“It is.” Granny sighs. A single tear rolls down her cheek for her fallen kin. “But here you are safe, here we are safe and with twin flame power. Maybe, just maybe, we can find out who they are and end this once and for all.”
“I need to see Sam. He doesn’t even know, and this is just huge,” I mutter, the breath finding it hard to leave my lips. I can feel the tingle of magic around me swirling alongside the mixed emotions that are now rushing around my brain.
“Maybe take a moment first,” my mother says quietly. “Just to let all this sink in. Sam will already know the dark history and present we are facing. He just doesn’t know that you are his twin flame.”
I can’t believe I did not see it. He spoke about witches all the time.
Was he testing me? Trying to see my reaction?
I feel completely drained. My mother is right.
I need to have a clear head to see Sam. “You’re right.
I’m pretty mentally exhausted.” I let out a long slow breath before pulling myself up. “I think I’m going to go and lie down.”
“Did you want any of us to go with you?” My mother stands with a worried look on her face that I might pass out again.
“Thank you, but I think I need some time alone.” I smile to reassure them that I am OK. My mother relaxes and sits back down.
I make my way out of the living room and up the old staircase to my room.
I shut the door behind me and make my way over to my bed.
I lie down, gently breathing in the fresh clean smell of the cotton bedding and wrapping myself in the duvet.
I make myself into a burrito so that every inch of me is swallowed by the white mass of comfort.
It makes me feel small and safe. Like everything that has just happened didn’t.
But it did. All of it. I sob silently into the soft material. I sob until I do eventually pass out again.