Chapter Thirty-Two
‘Why have you called me, witches?’ Hecate asked. She sounded so different, so much less angry than she had been when she had spoken from within Luke or Calista. Now she sounded small and unsure.
‘We summoned you to ask you to stop your revenge on the Moonbeam Hollow Fall Harvest Festival,’ Blair said.
‘Why?’ Hecate asked.
‘Innocent people will be hurt,’ Bianca said.
‘You are witches, why do you care about the people in this place? They harm our kind.’ There was emotion . . . pain in Hecate’s voice.
‘None of the people here today have harmed you,’ Belinda said.
‘They have,’ Hecate said. ‘They will harm you, too. It is their nature to fear us.’ Her voice was getting louder. Bolder.
‘They won’t harm us,’ Belinda said. ‘Moonbeam Hollow is our home. We are accepted here.’
‘Moonbeam Hollow murdered my sisters! They murdered my love!’ Hecate paused, anguish in her voice. ‘They murdered my child!’ Her pain was almost tangible. It was as if she’d spent the last one hundred years mourning everyone she’d loved, unable to move on. Blair’s heart broke for the woman.
‘That was a century ago,’ Calista said. ‘The people here, including the witches in this circle, have done you or your family no harm. Please, we urge you to stop hurting Moonbeam Hollow. Stop hurting the people we love.’
‘Moonbeam Hollow was built on a web of violence,’ Hecate said, voice going from anguish to anger. ‘They exterminated our kind. And then celebrate the death and destruction with a festival! This festival is grotesque! It is shameful! It is cruel!’
‘You are right,’ Blair said. ‘The origins of this town and this festival are shameful. The past will have to be reckoned with. It will have to be acknowledged. But this is a safe place for us now. All of us here have lived in Moonbeam Hollow. Have thrived here.’
‘They accept us here,’ Belinda added. ‘Our parents came from a country far away – a place where witches are at daily risk. But our parents were accepted and loved here. They raised their family here.’
‘Love!’ Hecate screamed. ‘What do people here know about love? I had a love! A husband! But they killed my love! He was a gentle soul. A healer. But they killed him, anyway. And killed our child.’ Hecate’s voice cracked.
‘My beautiful daughter. An innocent infant! They killed my family. They killed my legacy!’
‘She didn’t die,’ Belinda said. ‘Your daughter lived.’
‘She’s right,’ Blair said, remembering. ‘Your daughter survived. She lived nearby. Had a family here.’
‘She died!’ Hecate yelled. ‘My Shirley was with me in the fire!’
Wait . . . Shirley?
‘She was my grandmother,’ Calista said. ‘Shirley Caldwell. She was adopted and raised by other witches. Shirley taught me to weave spells and brew potions. She made sure my siblings and I knew the true history of Moonbeam Hollow. She passed away fifteen years ago. She was loved.’
Shirley, as in Shirley’s Sugar Mountain had been a witch?
‘I was fifteen when she died,’ Luke added.
It was the first time he’d addressed Hecate.
‘She taught me the words we used to summon you today – I didn’t know what they meant until now, but she told me when I was ten years old that I would need those words one day.
And I have not forgotten them. Or forgotten my great-grandmother. ’
Blair’s breath hitched in her throat. She squeezed Luke’s hand. This was Belinda’s prophecy. He is the key. Luke was stopping Hecate from destroying everything because Hecate’s own daughter gave him the tools to do it twenty years ago.
‘You are my legacy,’ Hecate said, voice softer.
‘I am,’ Luke’s voice broke with emotion.
‘All the witches who survive and thrive in Moonbeam Hollow are your legacy,’ Calista added.
‘Please allow us to continue to thrive here,’ Blair said.
‘Please let me live here as a witch with my love,’ Luke added. He squeezed Blair’s hand.
It was silent for several long moments. Blair could hear nothing but her heart beating in her ear and feel nothing but her sister’s hand on one side and Luke’s hand on the other. Finally, Hecate spoke softly. ‘How can I trust you, witches?’
‘You can trust us because we are your family,’ Calista said. ‘Your legacy.’
‘We will make sure you are not forgotten,’ Blair added. ‘None of the witches who died here a century ago will be forgotten anymore.’
Everything was quiet. Blair had no idea if they’d succeeded in convincing Hecate to stop.
Finally, Hecate nodded small. ‘I will trust you, witches. Ensure those who lived here before you are remembered. Give us back our innocence, our dignity and our honour, and we will have peace.’ She looked directly at Calista and Luke.
‘I am grateful to learn my daughter lived,’ she said, voice emotional.
‘I am happy she survived and was loved and created her own legacy. Be well . . . family.’ Her voice quieted as the solid body that stood in the middle of the circle faded to nothing. Blair’s eyes involuntarily closed.
‘Thank you, Hecate Stormvale,’ Blair said. All the others echoed Blair in thanking the witch’s spirit for communicating with them.
Everything was still. The wind. The sounds around them. Finally, Bianca’s voice broke the silence. ‘She’s gone.’
Blair opened her eyes to see Luke looking at her with a small smile on his face.
‘I should have known you were a witch, Briarwood,’ he said, that Luke Caldwell mischief in his voice.
Blair laughed. ‘It takes one to know one.’ She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.
‘I love you,’ Luke said in Blair’s ear.
‘I love you, too,’ Blair said, hugging him tightly.