Chapter 6
“What just happened?”
“I’m sorry, Simone.” Brianne was at my side, though I hadn’t seen her get up. She shoved a plate of cookies in front of me. “The sugar will help. The Twins don’t always have respect for our Board Meetings.”
Lydia and Lyra managed to look sheepish, almost wilting under Brianne’s mom voice.
I lifted a cookie, breaking it in parts and shoving a small piece in my mouth.
Nothing made sense. Not the shifts in my sensations or the casual talk about dying fur and druids.
I wanted to believe Agatha had been treating mass delusions when she died, and they were all a part of it, except I’d have to question my own eyes.
“We were just testing the waters.” Lydia’s formerly lilting voice held an edge of defensiveness. “She’s supposed to be able to fight it.”
My throat closed over the cookie I’d been fighting down. A sort of righteous anger burned inside me. My stomach soured with it. What was I supposed to be able to fight? Magic? Spells? I didn’t even know they existed until twenty minutes ago.
Looking at the Twins now, they were still lovely, but the glow was gone. Their features appeared sharper to me, and the colored skin seemed faded. Just two more mean girls, magical or not.
Everyone was staring at me. I wanted to stick up for myself. I wanted to reassure them that Agatha knew what she was doing when she left everything to me. But how could I do that? I didn’t believe it myself.
Whatever was going on, I was on the precipice of my entire world being upside down. Again.
They had doubts about me. I could understand that. But messing with me in a professional setting was a cruel way to express them. Did I have authority over them now? I thought back to the words I’d been compelled to say at the start of the meeting: Ephemeral Supreme.
I may not have known ephemeral, but I knew supreme. It was the leader of a witches’ coven.
The thought tightened the knot in my throat. Did they believe I was a witch? Were they witches? Was this a coven?
I hovered in this state of believing everything I’d seen and none of it, all the while a table full of people and one empty chair sat and waited. And yes, I believed the chair was waiting for me to respond. As if it could read my thoughts, it gave a little jiggle.
My throat clogged deeper. My mouth was drier than the desert. I took a sip of water, hoping to release the pressure building within me. It didn’t work. I’d just have to trust my words. I took a deep breath.
“I don’t understand what is happening. I’m not sure if I’m awake or alive or what.” I turned my attention to the Twins. “I’m pretty sure you two can snap me like a twig without even breaking your nails.”
Their smiles grew sly, telling me I was correct about that. Yikes.
“What I can say is that we’re all in unfamiliar territory here. None of you know me or know who I am, beyond some girl from high school who hasn’t been to Treater’s Way in thirty years.”
I took another sip. Whatever was coming up seemed like too much for me to handle. I couldn’t swallow it down, nor could I bring it to the surface. I kept rambling.
“I grew up here, though. My mother ran this place the whole of my childhood. So I must know something, right? Surely, I couldn’t have been raised here and not seen, um”—I gestured around—“this before?” I turned to Ethan. “Right?”
Ethan shifted in his chair and glared at his fingernails. For an aggressive lawyer, he really didn’t like confrontation. Same, dude. It was Lauren who spoke for him.
“What do you remember, Simone? Anything?”
“Honestly, it’s all a distant memory.” The clock I hadn’t seen gonged, and my ears buzzed. A flash of something ran through my mind. Water and trees. A small park bench. Me, a hair over eighteen, crying until I was empty inside. Boiling rage. An uttered oath.
But as I tried to grab the memory, the rage simmered, and the image faded. The clock gonged again, and Brianne shifted in her chair.
“I’m sorry, but we really must continue the meeting. Can we move on for now, Simone?”
Her voice was tight. I didn’t understand why continuing the board meeting was such a big deal.
I mean, in general, meetings were a lot of saying stuff that could be handled in an email anyway.
But she was one of the only people actually making me feel welcomed here, and I didn’t want to add to her stress.
“Yeah, sure, in one minute. My point is that I’m going to need all of you to show me grace. And patience. I’m not going to strut in here power-hungry and change everything. I just want time to understand what the hell is going on. Agatha gave me thirty days. Can y’all give me that as well?”
“You got it, Simone.” Gumbo, who I’d already forgotten could freaking talk, hopped onto the table and rubbed his head against my shoulder.
His cute kitten voice and loud purr put me at ease.
He sauntered back to his seat, but when the chime happened again, he cast a nervous glance at the empty chair.
It wriggled closer to the table, so I pointed at it.
“Who’s sitting there?”
“We’ll discuss it after the board meeting.” Ethan gestured toward Lauren. “For now, can we continue?”
Why did they keep asking me? They’d started the meeting without me, hadn't they? I was mostly sitting there with my big dumb mouth hanging open.
“Simone?” Brianne had returned to her chair. She reached across to the space in front of the empty table and patted it, as if a hand were there. She’d placed a spiral notebook there as well. Huh. “We need your words to continue the meeting.”
“Oh.” Well, that was interesting. I looked down at my own packet. I’d forgotten where we were. This was why I hated meetings. “Lauren, it looks like you’re next.” I gave her my best I’m a professional and not at all on the verge of a nervous breakdown smile. “Please continue the meeting.”
“Right, thank you, Simone.” Her return smile held an approval that soothed a bit of my nerve.
This was definitely not the bully queen bee from high school.
Maybe she really was on my side. I wanted to believe that.
But then again, a physical therapist had just screwed my husband, and even if I didn’t want to be that person, part of me unfairly held that against Lauren.
Oops. She was talking about important business things that I should have been paying attention to.
“... but we’ll see how they feel about that in August. Y’all know how difficult trolls can be.”
There was a collective chuckle of appreciation around the table. I smiled like I was totally in on the joke.
“In other news, the charmed injury recovery treatments are showing promise on our test clients. There are some muscles we can’t get into with dry needling or cupping, even with enchanted equipment.
The fae in particular have deeper aches and bruises.
” She winked at Lydia and Lyra, who let out twin titters.
“Thankfully everyone in Illusion Square has recovered from The Battle, and they are rebuilding. I heard someone is opening a craft store on one of the top floors. We’ve got a strong community because of them, and lots of opportunities for town growth.”
“What’s Illusion Square?” I felt bad interrupting the flow of the meeting, again, but it felt important that I know.
“It’s the shopping center that surrounds the Mighty Oak at town center. Ana built it to feed our tourism industry.” Lauren paused to see if I was following. We had a tourism industry in Treater’s Way? Huh. “Do you remember her, Simone? She was the librarian when we were kids.”
“Vaguely,” I said. Like most things about the town, it was a distant memory.
Still, the name Ana brought a warm feeling to the pit of my stomach, like she was someone safe.
I needed to explore the town when I was less overwhelmed.
Maybe it would spark some familiarity. Then again, what other surprise magic would I find if I revisited my past?
They were all watching me, waiting again, so I waved a hand at Lauren. “Thanks. Go ahead.”
They all turned the page, and I followed suit. A fresh new horror engulfed me when I realized I would be expected to talk about the Magnolia Mental Health Division. I barely heard the rest of Lauren’s talk. What would I say? My heart pounded in my head.
I’d been on this soil for all of four hours. I’d spent several of those asleep. Now I was supposed to give a report about a company I barely knew?
A company that, I was beginning to see, was much more than it appeared on the surface. Apparently, it catered to werewolves and fae and who knew what else. Which begged the question … what kind of clientele could I expect?
Was I going to become a therapist for the supernatural?
What issues could the supernatural have? Would I be counseling vegetarian zombies or narcissist vampires?
Oh, God. Lauren was done. It was my turn.
What had Agatha been thinking? I couldn’t run a company. I had no idea how to run an entire organization, let alone a single division. I’d driven my own practice into the ground. Hell, I hadn’t even had a cup of water to offer Ethan when he visited.
I was spiraling. Big time. And they all sat and waited while I did it.
I glared at Ethan. This was his fault. He hadn’t prepared me for any of this. Even taking out the supernatural element, he hadn’t been clear about what I’d inherited. The walls were closing in on me. I was struggling to breathe. I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t even sure I believed any of it existed.
I opened my mouth to speak, just to fill the silence, hoping words would magically form. “I don’t …”
The empty chair beside Lauren lifted off the floor, halting whatever nonsense I was about to spout.
It lifted over the air and hovered over the table, twirling until it faced me.
I was staring at an empty chair, but it didn’t feel empty.
I squinted my eyes at the chair, barely able to make out the shape of a female.
As I strained, she came into sharper focus.
Long, stringy gray hair. Harsh lines on a wise face.
“Agatha.”
Her eyes warmed and she smiled at me. It was funny how seeing her brought more of her memory into focus. It had been Agatha who’d encouraged me to become a therapist. Who had consoled me when my mother died and looked after me until I finished high school.
Who’d understood when I had to leave and supported me. Right before I’d left, she’d told me something.
I couldn’t remember what she’d said. It was right there for me, but I couldn’t grab it.
Whatever it was, it felt important. Agatha had always believed in me. That was why she’d left me her business.
I had to believe in myself or at least fake it until I did. I had literally nothing to lose.
I took a deep breath, centering myself, willing my shoulders to soften.
As if she knew I was getting it, she gave me an encouraging nod.
The chair returned to its place, still empty.
No one looked at it, so I wasn’t sure if I was the only one who’d seen her.
Even so, the interaction with her, even if it was in my head, calmed me.
This wasn’t a hardship. This was an opportunity.
My whole life had been pulled out from under me just last week.
I’d caught my husband with his hands in the cookie jar.
I’d gotten into an argument with my son and said words he may never forgive me for.
I’d retreated to an empty office and the practice I’d barely mustered the energy to maintain.
I didn’t want to go back there. Sure, I didn’t understand what was going on here. Not fully. And I had more questions than answers. But one thing was certain. I sure as heck wanted to know more. So, I let my voice guide me.
“First, my condolences to each of you on the loss of Agatha. My memories of her are distant, but I remember her empathy and kindness. Even when she was staunchly set in her ways.”
Small chuckles echoed through the room.
“I assume Agatha has left case files for me?” I waited for the dual nods from Ethan and Brianne.
“So, I’ll be reviewing those before I start to see clients.
I also need to familiarize myself with the town, which seems to have changed a lot in thirty years.
And I want to understand our business better. ”
I swallowed a few times, letting the clog in my throat relax as I found my words.
“I didn’t know the supernatural existed. Part of me still thinks maybe I’m having a stroke or lucid dream. I have a lot to learn. And only thirty days to do it.”
The chair rumbled again, all four legs lifting and slamming back to the floor.
“I get the feeling a whisper of Agatha is still holding on, probably until she believes I can confidently operate as both a division head and, um, a Supreme.” I let my eyes land on the Twins at the end of my statement.
Though their faces were expressionless, Lyra lifted one eyebrow.
“What I will say is that, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to have to do it my way. ”
I was just as surprised by the words that had come out as the table.
Lydia cracked the smallest of smiles. Standing on my own two feet would win their respect.
And though my default core desire was to please others, that hadn’t exactly been working for me as of late.
So, I just let myself continue talking without overthinking.
Apparently, my voice knew it was time to make waves.
And my voice was the only thing I had, so I may as well trust it.
“I can’t speak to the second quarter earnings.
I’m going to defer to Ethan who likely received instruction from Agatha about the meeting.
I’m going to absorb as much as I can, and give myself permission to let it all settle in.
Then, we’ll move forward, and I assure you I’ll either be ready for our next board meeting”—I closed the report in front of me—“or not here anymore.”
I stood up, my legs barely holding me in place. I had to get out of here. I needed to find a place to breathe and process.
“This may or may not be my place, but I’m adjourning this meeting.”
I didn’t give them time to argue or correct me. I turned tail and ran out of the boardroom, trusting my feet to take me somewhere safe.
I should have known where I was headed.