Chapter 33 Rosie
Rosie
Jack and I spent the night making up for lost time, reveling in the new bond without the panic of time breathing down our necks like the last time.
It was perfect, and even though there’s a lot for us to figure out and continue to talk through, I feel more lightness in my heart than I think I ever have.
That’s enough for me to know that Jack and I are going to be just fine.
We slept in, waking in each other’s arms before making love again and finally rolling out of bed before heading to grab a late breakfast at Violet’s and bringing treats back to my place to get the full story from Phillip, where he told me that in his afterlife, he saw the threads tying Jack and me and decided to play a bit of ghostly matchmaker while getting something for himself.
I should have been angry, but by the time I got the full story from him, I was blissed out after a night back with Jack and couldn’t find it in me to be too put off.
On Saturday night, my sisters and I sit in a much larger salt circle, a smoldering bowl of herbs before us, and five lit white taper candles surrounding us at the five points. We hold hands, repeating the same name over and over: Sarah Mayfield.
It happens just like last time, the chill moving through the room, the candles flickering, the creaking of the old floorboards before one candle goes out and an achingly familiar form is before us.
Our mother.
Her long dark hair is pulled back, and she still has some of the lines on her face, though she looks slightly younger now, like the burdens of everyday life have been lifted and she’s a bit freer.
Confusion washes over her face before it clears as she takes in my sisters and me.
My eyes water, and my sisters’ hands in mine tighten.
“Well, hello, my sweet girls,” she murmurs with a soft, mournful smile, and I let out a small, choked sob.
“Mom?” Poppy whispers and when I turn to her, tears are running down her cheeks. Vi’s eyes are watering, but tears don’t drop, and I wonder if, now that she’s a bit older, she can see the resemblance between herself and our mom.
“Hi, my babies. What am I doing here?” she asks with a small laugh.
“We, uh,” I say, sniffling and trying to snap myself back into the task at hand. “We summoned you.”
She nods, then looks around the room. “Oh!” she shouts when she sees Jack, clearly startled, and the flames flicker a bit with her surprise. “You, uh, you brought company.”
I almost forgot he was here, but then a part of my chest lights up, knowing I get to introduce them.
“Mom, this is Jack. My…” I realize that I don’t know what to call Jack. My friend? My lover? My—
“Her boyfriend,” Jack finishes, filling in for me and sending a wave of warmth through me with his words. “Lovely to meet you. I’d have brought flowers, but…” his words trail off, and a blush blooms on his cheeks. Poppy lets out a musical laugh as she wipes at her cheeks, and Vi snorts.
“But you’re dead, so you know. That would be hard,” my middle sister says. Our mom smiles at her and my chest swells.
My mom is here.
Holy shit.
“Well, it’s lovely to meet you, I suppose. Now, can I ask why you three went against everything I’ve ever taught you and summoned a ghost? The danger, girls!” our mother says, turning to me with wide, disapproving eyes. “Rosie, what did I—”
“All’s well that ends well,” Phillip says, floating through a wall. Percy comes prancing in through the door and just like last time, he walks right over to Jack’s salt circle and lifts a paw.
“Percy! No!” Vi says. The cat looks at her, glares, then walks away without messing with it, instead stepping into our circle and into Poppy’s lap.
“He did this last time too,” I grumble, though I’m not really that worried about his safety now that we aren’t actually summoning anymore, and Mom is relatively harmless.
“Last time?” our mother asks, raising an eyebrow in my direction.
“This isn’t Rosie’s first time doing it,” Poppy tattles, and our mom’s jaw goes tight.
“Last time she did it alone. Summoned Jack’s grandpa,” Vi says with a smirk.
“Snitch,” I say, shooting daggers at Violet.
“You’re the idiot who—”
“Girls. Girls!” Mom says in her firm voice that I haven’t heard in years, the one that gets all of our attention. “Enough. Are you three going to explain what’s going on here and why you’ve been summoning ghosts?”
“Are you going to tell me why you made me believe there was a curse on our family almost my whole life?” I ask in response. Mom floats there, shocked and confused for long moments before speaking.
“A family curse? Why would…” Her words trail off before her eyes go wide with understanding.
“My goodness, Rosie.” The sound that leaves her is soft and disbelieving.
“Tell me you didn’t believe that all this time?
” Silence fills the room for a beat before Mom starts laughing.
Laughing! Full laughs that shake her entire body, laughs that have her wiping tears from her eyes and taking in a few deep breaths to steady herself.
“Are you done?” I ask deadpan when she settles, raising an eyebrow and fighting irritation.
She nods, letting out one more breath before leaning forward and smiling softly.
“You thought there was a family curse,” she says, and it’s more statement than question, so I hold her gaze and don’t respond. “A heartbreak curse that afflicted all of us.”
“In my defense, that’s what you told me,” I say.
“At a very impressionable age, might I add. And when it seemed to come true, I had no choice but to believe it.” I don’t add that she was already gone by then, so I couldn’t easily ask her about it, but she knows all the same, giving me a soft smile, humor still at the edges like even though there’s a bit of guilt, she still finds the situation funny.
“And when I got tired of the years of heartbreak, I summoned a ghost who I believed cursed us, made a deal with him, and went on a quest to brew a potion for him.”
Our mother gasps in shock and horror. “You made a deal with the dead? Rosemary Mayfield, I cannot believe you!”
“Again I say, you told me our entire family line was cursed! I wanted to fall in love, and I surely didn’t want my sisters to suffer in the same way. I didn’t think I had many choices!”
“Well, let me correct myself now: there is no family curse. Not a heartbreak curse or any other one.” That would have been great to know years ago, but I don’t say that.
“Why did you tell her there was one?” Vi asks, curiously, a question I’ve wondered myself.
“I told Rosie that when she was sixteen because I knew that Daniel boy was no good and was going to break her heart. She was so hung up on him, and the last thing I needed was for her to give him her virginity and then he’d break her heart, or worse, get her pregnant.
” I stare at her in shock, but she shrugs like she has no regrets.
“So I told you there was a family curse to try and put the fear of magic in you.” She looks at me a bit more, assessing before adding with a bit of a grimace, “It seems I should have told you it wasn’t real at some point.
In my defense, I thought you were under the impression it was just a tall tale and then, well, you know. I died.”
“I mean, I did think it was fake at first, but then I started to believe it,” I explain, still at a bit of a loss. “All of my relationships ended absolutely horribly.” Mom shrugs like it’s no big deal.
“That’s what happens to relationships that aren’t meant to be, Rosie, especially for witches.
The balance of magic means that once it determines someone isn’t for you, it begins to work against you, making that increasingly obvious,” she says.
“And no offense, but you are absolutely terrible at choosing men.” Jack lets out a snort, and I turn to glare at him.
“Present company excluded, I’m to believe. ”
“I’m on a mission to prove myself worthy, ma’am,” Jack says with a charming smile, and I turn to him, aghast as my mom falls for it hook, line, and sinker.
He looks at me with a knowing smile then, and I can almost hear him saying, I told you I can win women over.
I roll my eyes instead of speaking, and when I turn to our mother, there’s a wide, pleased smile on her lips like she’s thoroughly entertained by our interaction.
“We begrudgingly approve of Jack,” Vi says.
“No, we love Jack for Rosie,” Poppy says, elbowing Violet hard. Vi rubs at the tender spot and glares at our baby sister.
“I would hope so, since they’re a perfect match.” Our mom confirms what Phillip already told Jack and me.
“I knew it!” Vi says, and for some reason, she turns to Jack, giving him a wide smile that he returns.
“So, are you going to explain what is going on? There has to be a reason you summoned me against your better judgment. Or should I ask Poppy?” Poppy because my youngest sister was always the one to spill the beans to Mom.
I can’t even begin to remember the dozens of times Vi and I had put spells on her to bind her to secrecy, especially when we were teenagers.
It never worked; unfortunately, Mom was far too smart and talented for our early powers.
I roll my eyes, but begin to explain. Quickly, I tell her about my most recent disastrous relationship ending and my decision to try and find the warlock who cursed us.
I explain how I found the spell in my grimoire and performed it on my own against my better judgement, but that it ended up just fine.
“Rosemary Luna Mayfield!” Oof, she broke out the middle name. “I cannot believe you summoned the dead! And without assistance? What if something went wrong?” Through her irritation and outrage, I don’t miss the glint of pride in her eyes at the fact that I managed to do it all my own.
“I had a salt circle,” I say, though I don’t tell her about Percy breaking it or how it was vacuumed up long ago, Phillip continuing to stay in my place.
“Was it blessed salt?” our mother asks, and I look away.
“It was… pink?”