CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
It’s time to wake up now, Nyssa.
The familiar cadence of Lisabeth Hawthorne’s voice was like an anchor in the darkness.
Nyssa instinctively turned in the direction the sound had come from, where a bright, warm glow had begun to flicker against the shadows.
And within it, the faint outline of a figure Nyssa never thought she’d see again.
Grandma?
The figure didn’t reply. Instead, they held out a glowing hand in a silent invitation that Nyssa didn’t hesitate to accept.
Light exploded from Lisabeth’s form the moment Nyssa made contact, so bright that Nyssa was forced to close her eyes against it.
It was just a flash, there and gone as quickly as the feeling of Lisabeth’s magic flooding through her, and Nyssa knew that when she finally opened her eyes, both that light and her grandmother would be gone.
The thought might have scared Nyssa if it weren’t for the fact that she could feel the presence of someone else. A different kind to Lisabeth’s, but equally familiar and growing stronger by the second, bringing with it the scent of fresh grass and warm, spring air.
‘El?’
She opened her eyes to find the elf sitting beside her, eyes wide and filling with tears as she stared at Nyssa for a long, silent moment.
Nyx, who had been curled up on Elowen’s lap, let out a loud meow and promptly jumped on to Nyssa’s pillow to rub her head against Nyssa’s cheek.
Nyssa didn’t even try to fight the tears that flooded down her cheeks at the sight of her familiar and Elowen, healthy and here, and before she knew it, her entire body was shaking with unrestrained sobs.
Elowen’s hand found Nyssa’s, her touch so gentle it felt like spiderwebs against Nyssa’s skin, as if she was afraid of hurting her.
And it did hurt – every inch of Nyssa was in pain – but in that moment, she didn’t care.
She would take all the pain in the world if it meant being able to feel Elowen’s touch again.
‘It’s all right,’ the elf whispered when Nyssa interlocked their fingers. ‘I’m here, we’re all here. Everyone’s safe.’
Nyssa slowly looked around her bedroom. It didn’t take long for her gaze to settle on her family grimoire, safely placed on her chest of drawers and, thankfully, seemingly undamaged from its time in the lake. ‘What … what happened?’
‘About half an hour after you left, Nyx started kicking up a fuss again.’ Elowen reached out to stroke Nyx’s head with her free hand.
‘She started yowling at the tavern door until we let her out, and then she ran off in the direction of the cottage. Alaric stayed at the tavern to keep the others safe, but Li and I followed her, we’d just reached the edge of the grounds when these huge bursts of light started to light up the sky.
Elowen’s voice shook slightly, and her grip on Nyssa’s hand tightened.
‘We ran as fast as we could to the lakeside to find you and Morven out there, him firing those balls of lightning at you. We tried to help, but you were too far away for our magic to reach you, and the fog was so thick … but it turns out you didn’t need our help.
Whatever spell you cast … it was powerful enough to be felt across all of Nighthaven. ’
Nyssa’s cheeks heated, but beneath the embarrassment was something else.
Pride.
‘I had a little help,’ she said, warmth flooding her chest at the thought of her grandma. ‘Turns out the story about familial ley lines really is true. If you’d never told me, I wouldn’t have had the idea to try and combine my grandma’s power with my own.’
‘You’d have figured it out.’ Elowen’s smile was the most radiant thing Nyssa had ever seen, and Nyssa leaned into her palm as the elf cupped her cheek.
‘Afterwards, when you fell from your broom … it was the most scared I’d ever been.
Once you were out of the water, Li and I managed to carry you the rest of the way inside and get you warm and dry, but my magic wouldn’t heal you.
We just had to wait. It was … terrifying, honestly. ’
‘I’m sorry for scaring you.’ Nyssa rubbed her thumb against Elowen’s knuckles in what she hoped was a soothing manner.
‘It’s all right. You’re here, you’re alive. That’s all that matters.’
The way Elowen was looking at her made Nyssa feel warm all over. She leaned forward, her heart thrumming wildly against her ribcage as her lips parted—
‘A-hem.’ Alaric leaned against the bedroom doorway, lips pursed in barely concealed amusement. ‘I hate to break up such a tender moment, but I thought we said to come and get us as soon as our favourite witch awoke from her slumber? Or did she require a kiss to fully break the spell?’
Elowen’s entire face turned red as she pulled away from Nyssa to throw one of the chair cushions in the druid’s direction.
He caught it easily, his laughter as infectious as ever, and once again Nyssa found her eyes filling with tears at the sight of another of her friends alive and standing before her.
He wasn’t completely unscathed, though. There was a nasty scar on his jaw that looked sickeningly like a claw mark. ‘Ric—’
He interrupted before she could continue. ‘It’s just a scratch; some of the creatures from Familiars started causing trouble in the town a little while after you left, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. They turned right back into clay not long after your lightshow.’
‘Ric, I’m so—’
‘NYSSA!’
Liora came barrelling into the room before her apology could form.
Nyx let out an indignant mewl as she was forced aside by the bard flinging her arms around Nyssa’s neck, an action that made every nerve in Nyssa’s body feel as if she’d been set on fire.
Still, she did her best to hide her wince of pain as she brought her arms up around Liora’s back and breathed in her familiar scent.
‘I’m so glad you’re okay,’ Liora murmured into her neck. She pulled back to search Nyssa’s face with those wide, owl-like eyes. ‘You are okay, aren’t you?’
Physically, she was absolutely wrecked … and yet sitting there, surrounded by these people – her family – her chest swelled with a happiness she never thought she’d find.
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I’m okay.’
Liora almost sagged with relief. ‘Thank goodness. We really thought we’d lost you when you fell into the lake – I had to hold El here back from wading in after you!’
Elowen’s cheeks flushed a deeper shade of red. ‘I’m glad you did hold her back,’ Nyssa admitted, ‘but … how did I get on to the lakeside?’ When she’d fallen, she’d been directly above the centre of the lake.
‘Oh, it was amazing!’ Liora said, practically vibrating with excitement.
‘El and I were trying to figure out what to do when the creature appeared! At first we thought it had come to kill you, being that it had you in its mouth and all, but Nyx didn’t seem worried – if anything, she seemed excited.
That’s when we realized the creature wasn’t eating you – it was carrying you!
Admittedly, that thing is even more horrific up close – those teeth are gnarly – but it was so gentle with you.
Set you down right at the water’s edge so El and I could get you back on dry land, and by the time we had picked you up it had vanished! ’
Of all the strange things that had happened over the months Nyssa had been in Nighthaven, that was surely the strangest of all.
‘I … don’t know what to say. I knew the creature would go for Morven if it saw him as a threat, but I never expected it to …
save me?’ It felt almost too ridiculous to say out loud.
Her grandma had said it would never harm a Hawthorne, but to go out of its way to save her life?
Had the creature recognized her as an ally after all the summers she’d spent in Nighthaven?
Had it somehow known she’d been trying to protect their shared home?
Either way, Nyssa was beyond grateful that it had come to her aid when she needed it most. She sent a silent thank you out to the creature, hoping that it would somehow be able to feel the gratitude warming her chest.
Alaric shook his head. ‘I don’t know why either, and honestly, I don’t care. I’m just glad you’re safe, and that this nightmare is finally over.’
The back of Nyssa’s neck tingled. ‘I … don’t know that it is. Before I managed to tap into my grandma’s magic, Morven told me he wasn’t working alone. That he had allies, and they were going to destroy the covens. I don’t know if he was telling the truth, but if he was …’
‘Then we’ll deal with it,’ Elowen said firmly. ‘Together.’
The nods of agreement from Alaric and Liora helped to soothe Nyssa’s growing dread, and for once, she actually felt … hopeful. Hopeful that she could defeat any threat that came their way as long as her friends were by her side.
‘Speaking of together,’ Liora began, ‘a delegate from your coven arrived a few days ago.’
Despite the fact that Nyssa had spent so much time telling herself she did not need her former coven’s approval any longer, her traitorous heart still skipped a beat. ‘What did they want?’
‘They heard about your fight with Morven, and the absolutely epic spell you cast, and they came to, and I quote’ – for this, Liora switched into a rather pompous, mocking tone – “Offer Mage Hawthorne her place back in the coven, effective immediately”.’
Nyssa didn’t miss the way Elowen’s shoulders stiffened, and Nyssa made sure to put as much sincerity into her voice as she could when she said, ‘I hope you told them to stick their brooms up their arses.’
Alaric and Liora burst into laughter, but it was the twitch of Elowen’s lips, the relief in her beautiful eyes, that filled Nyssa’s chest with warmth once more.
‘We didn’t have to,’ the elf said, stroking Nyx’s head. ‘Nyx took the official invitation and tore it up right in front of the mage, and when he tried to stop her, she yowled so loudly that he actually recoiled. It was quite a sight.’
Nyx let out a chirp and hopped off Elowen’s lap to once again bump her head against Nyssa’s hand. ‘That’s my girl,’ Nyssa said, her voice thick with tears once more as she scratched under her familiar’s chin. ‘I think she knew the truth before I did.’
‘What truth?’
The shine to Liora’s eyes told Nyssa the bard already knew the answer. That like Nyx, she – and Alaric and Elowen, too – had known it long before Nyssa had.
But Nyssa still felt she had to say it out loud. Not just for them, but for herself.
And for the spirit of Lisabeth Hawthorne, who had known the truth before anyone else.
‘That Nighthaven is our home.’