I shook my head. “Still, I shouldn’t have said those things to you. I’m sorry.”
She lowered her gaze. “It’s Nicholas,” she whispered. “He does this to you. I see how he makes you act.”
I pulled away. “Don’t,” I warned her, shaking my head. “Please… please just don’t.”
Ana stood up, her lips taut, and smoothed her long, silver hair away from her face. “I’ll be right back. Please stay here.” She headed across the room toward the far side of the house.
As soon as she was gone, Sophie and Lily jumped up and rushed to my sides.
“Are you okay?” Lily asked, putting her arm around me.
“I just can’t believe that stuff about your mom,” Sophie said. “I mean, to think she’s been alive this whole time while you thought…”
I ignored the stern look Lily gave her. Sophie was right. My mom had been alive my whole life and never once bothered to come find me…see me…even make sure I was okay and not starving in a freezing shack. I felt my heart breaking all over again.
I shrugged, feigning indifference. “So what if she is still alive. Ana’s right. She’s dead to me. That’s all that matters.”
I choked back the tears, and Lily and Sophie gave me sympathetic hugs as we huddled on the couch. I tried not to think about what was happening right now…right outside those double doors at the end of the foyer. Where Nicholas would be arriving with Justin, and a Council Watcher would take him away. And who knows what will happen then…
Suddenly I jumped up. “I just can’t!” I sobbed. Lily and Sophie were hot on my heels as I raced across the house to the double doors.
Chapter 24. Beginning of the End
I ran across the side yard and rounded the corner to the south garden. Justin was standing beside a tall figure whose identity was concealed beneath a long, black cloak. Nicholas and Ana stood off to one side. “Wait!” I called out.
The group turned to us. “Wait…don’t do it!” I cried again as I got closer.
“Calista,” Ana’s voice warned.
“Please, just wait a minute,” I begged. I came to a stop, Lily and Sophie right behind me. “Where are you taking him?”
I felt Justin’s sudden hope…and his fear. I looked at Nicholas, but he seemed confused.
“Please…” I shook my head. “If something goes wrong, it will be all my fault. I’ll never forgive myself.”
Ana put her hand on my arm. “Calista, this is out of your hands. This is the Council’s responsibility now.”
“I’ll be okay, Callie, I promise…” Justin gave me a brave smile. “I’ll know you’re my friend. No stupid spell will ever make me forget that.”
The hooded figure placed his hand on Justin’s back, and suddenly they were gone.
“Justin!” My legs gave way, and I sank down to the earth. I buried my face in my hands, consumed by guilt and regret. “What have I done?” I moaned.
Sophie and Lily knelt beside me. “We all knew this was going to happen, Callie.” Sophie gently patted my hair.
“It really is for the best…there’s no other way,” Lily murmured.
I looked up and caught the concerned look on Nicholas’s face. Ana looked at me, then at Nicholas. Her displeasure was evident.
“I think it’s time to say goodnight to your friends, Calista. It’s late and you have classes tomorrow.”
Right. Like I give a crap about school right now.
“Goodnight, Nicholas,” she added pointedly. I bristled, but I bit my tongue and quietly walked over to him.
“I’ll see you later,” I whispered as I stood on my tiptoes to give him a quick kiss.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly.
I nodded, our eyes exchanging silent promises before his body wavered away.
I turned back to Sophie and Lily.
“I think it’s best you girls get home now, too,” Ana suggested. “It’s been a long day.” Her tone was noticeably kinder than it had been with Nicholas. “Lily…you can drop Sophie off at her house?”
Lily nodded. “Of course.”
“Are you okay, Callie? Want us to go back to your room instead?” Sophie thought to me.
I paused for a second, then shook my head. “I’m okay…go ahead home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Lily lifted her hand before they faded into the night.
*****
Ana watched them leave. “Well, it’s late, and you’ve had a difficult day. Would you like Henri to escort you back to the cottage?” She started walking along the brick path that led back to the house.
I fell in step beside her. “No, I can manage. But I want to talk to you.”
She glanced over at me. “It’s late. Maybe tomorrow when you’ve had some rest and cleared your head some.”
“Please, it’s not that late. I’m not tired, and I have some questions. Please,” I repeated, more firmly.
Ana sighed and pushed open the doors to the grand foyer. The three fireplaces danced with roaring flames, and my mind flashed back to Saffron…how she’d given me those spells created from her magical inferno.
All for nothing. I couldn’t use her spell to help Justin, and I already had my other questions answered. My mom was alive and had spent my whole life not only ignoring me, but making sure that everyone else did, too.
The question was…why?
Ana made her way to her favorite chair, the one that reminded me of a throne. She crossed her legs and smoothed her long silk dress, then picked up her cup and saucer from the coffee table. “I imagine it is quite a shock to find out that your mother is alive after all this time,” she murmured, and took a small sip of her tea.
Actually, the shock of my mother’s possible existence had already begun to wear off. Now it just sorta made sense. Like deep down…really deep down…I already knew. Saffron had been right. I’d always known.
I shrugged. “Like you said, she’s dead to us. But what I want to know is why. Why would she fake her death and abandon me and Dad? What was she running from? What was she afraid of?”
Ana closed her eyes and rested her hands in her lap.
“I believe now, as I have always believed, that she was trying to protect you. I think she faked her death to throw off whoever was after her, and cast the cloaking spell on you to protect you from harm as well.”
“But who would be after her? Why would they want to hurt her, or me?” I pressed.
Ana shook her head. “I don’t exactly know, Calista, and that is the truth. I’m very sorry. Whatever happened after she left here…I can only go by my instincts. What my heart tells me.”
“Okay…what about before she left. What was the big problem with the Triple Star coven?” I asked. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest. “Why are they so bad?”
“Other than the fact that they corrupted Gabby and murdered Arthur?” She lowered her eyes and sighed. “I already told you. They practice a different theory of magic than we do. They believe in using magic for their own selfish purposes, to dominate and rule, while we believe it is only to be used for the betterment of society and to help man, not enslave him.”
I raised my eyebrows. “So…you’re saying that all the Triple Star witches are bad? There aren’t any good ones?”
Ana looked at me strangely. “I do not know all of them, so I cannot make that assessment. But what I do know is that if they didn’t share their beliefs, then they wouldn’t carry their brand.”
“Their brand?”
“Each member of the Triple Star has a brand…a mark of their affiliation somewhere on their bodies. It’s just how that coven does things. We receive our Rings when deemed worthy, and they receive their brands. But like our Rings, their marks are invisible to those outside their coven. Only those sired of their blood can see their markings, much the way no one outside our Triple Moon can see our Rings.” She waved her palm over her knuckles revealing her bands of precious jewels, then waved it again, causing them to disappear. “It was why Gabb
y was duped into falling for James. She didn’t know who or what he was until it was too late.”
I shook my head. Wait, wait…back up a minute. No one outside their bloodline can see their mark? My mind raced. It wasn’t the Triple Star brand after all! Nicholas must have just gotten some tattoo on his own…something that happened to look similar.
I let out a huge sigh of relief. I knew he was good, and now I felt foolish for thinking otherwise, even for a moment. I was letting Ana’s paranoia rub off on me. “I wish I knew what happened to her. Why she ran away and why she was afraid.”
Ana lowered her head. She was quiet for a long time. “Gabby used to keep diaries… journals,” she murmured. “I discovered them only after she left. She’d placed a spell on them so no one could read them but her, but eventually I was able to break it.” She sighed and took several sips from her cup. “I’ve looked them over hundreds of times… thousands…looking for any clues…any answers as to what went so wrong and how I might fix it. And I have yet to find those answers.” She looked up to meet my gaze. “Maybe you’ll have better luck.”
I caught my breath. “You’ll give me my mom’s journals?” The thought of reading my mom’s innermost thoughts…her secret dreams and fears… Did I really want to know? Hadn’t I already learned more than I wanted to know about her?
Ana nodded. “They are all upstairs in the third floor room, in the book case. You’ve probably seen them a dozen times.”
“I want to read them.” I rose to my feet. But Ana remained seated.
“Not tonight. Tomorrow…after school. Come back, and we’ll look at them together. You need me to lift her spell so you can read them. And I’m sorry, you may not be tired, but I am. This old lady needs her sleep.”
I gave her a small grin. “You aren’t old. But you’re right. I probably should get some sleep, too.” As if that were even possible after everything that had happened tonight.
I gave Ana a quick hug before heading back to the cottage. I had failed to help Justin, but for the first time, I felt a glimmer of hope. Nicholas wasn’t part of the Triple Star coven, and my mom had journals that chronicled her life. Even though Ana said she hadn’t found anything in there that would explain what happened to her, I felt with every fiber of my being that I would.
I’d get to the bottom of all this, once and for all.
*****
I crossed the faintly lit gardens and quietly opened the sliding glass door to my bedroom. I knew Dad was asleep in his room on the other side of the house, but I still wanted to be careful.
I walked into my room and grinned. “Why am I not surprised to see you guys here?”
“Well, duh, of course we’d come.” Sophie sat up on the bed. “Did you really think we were going to leave you alone after everything that went down tonight?”
Lily sat on the floor in front of the mirror twisting her long hair in a bun. “Don’t pretend that you’re not upset by what happened. How could you not be?” She rose gracefully to her feet and crossed the room to join Sophie on the bed. They both looked at me with concern. “We’re here for you if you want to talk.”
I shook my head and changed out of my jeans. The spells Saffron had given me were still in the back pocket, and I made a mental note to get them out later when I was alone and put them in a safe place.
“I’m fine…promise.” I pulled out some sweats and a t-shirt from my dresser. “I’m just processing it all, but I’ll be fine.”
“But your mom…”
I pulled on the sweats, took my hair down and started to brush it out. “Yeah, she’s a big liar. A big death faker. A dark witch who obviously never wanted me. She didn’t love my dad, and we’re better off without her,” I said with false bravado. My throat locked on the last words, and it felt like a fist was clenching my heart and squeezing it tight. The tears came before I could stop them.
Sophie and Lily were by my side in a flash, their arms around me as I sobbed freely into their shoulders.
“Shhh, it’ll be all right,” they whispered. “It’s okay, Callie…let it out. We’re here for you.” They gently patted my back and smoothed my hair.
From somewhere deep inside, my years of frustration, confusion, hurt, and finally anger boiled to the surface. And with it all, an empty sense of abandonment. My tears flowed unchecked. I’d never cried over my mother. Ever. Now I wondered if I’d ever stop. How was it possible that someone I didn’t remember, someone who didn’t care for me at all and wanted nothing to do with me…how could this person have the power to make me feel this unbelievably devastated?
A lifetime of grief came pouring out in one heartbreaking, gut-wrenching moment. Pain I never knew I had in me.
I don’t know how long I sat on the floor and wept in their arms, but eventually I felt drained of tears. Lily wiped my face with a tissue, and Sophie handed me a glass of water.
“You okay?” Lily asked as I took a sip. I closed my eyes and nodded.
“Yeah…I guess. I just needed to get that out,” I whispered. “I’m sorry…I don’t know why I got so upset. It’s stupid—”
“Callie, come on. Of course you have every right to be upset. How could you not be?” Sophie said.
I staggered to my feet and headed to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face. I stared at the mirror. Only it wasn’t my face looking back at me...it was hers.
“Why did you leave me?” I whispered, and reached out a hand to touch the glass, tracing her features with my fingertip. “Do you know how much I hate you for what you did to us?”
Suddenly the mirror cracked, shattered, and fell in tiny pieces to the floor.
“Cal? What happened? You all right?” Sophie and Lily came rushing in.
I stared at the shards of glass at my feet. “The mirror broke,” I mumbled.
“Don’t move…you don’t have shoes on,” Sophie instructed as she levitated a few feet off the ground and sailed over to me. She wrapped her arms tightly under my shoulders, then lifted me off the ground and safely out of harm’s way.
“You know, for someone so small you’re pretty strong,” I said as she set me down.
She shrugged. “It’s easy when I’m flying. People feel as light as a feather.”
Lily made quick swishing motions with her hands, and I realized she was sweeping up the broken glass all over the floor…from five feet away.
“Why did the mirror break?” she asked as her hands moved back and forth. “Did you bang into it or something?”
I shrugged and moved over to the bed. “Dunno,” I mumbled, and curled up on a pillow. Suddenly, I was exhausted and wanted to sleep forever. I rubbed my eyes and glanced at the clock. I was surprised to see it wasn’t even midnight yet. So much had happened. I just wanted to close my eyes and forget it all… Australia, Saffron, Justin being taken away, the truth about my mother. Thank God at least I had been wrong about what I had seen on Nicholas.
Nicholas…he said he was coming back over tonight. Would he stay away if he saw that Sophie and Lily were here? Or would he come anyways after they’d fallen asleep and whisk me away to Druantia again? Or would we just meet in our dreams?
“Scoot over,” Sophie said as she crawled in beside me. Lily swished off the lights and crawled in the other side.
Lying there in the dark, for a moment I almost felt all right. So what if my mom had abandoned me without a second thought. I was now surrounded by more love than I’d ever hoped for. Even if she didn’t think I was worth loving, other people did. Nestled between my Morningstar sisters, I was smothered in a protective, unconditional love that transcended the boundaries of mere friendship. Our connections were deeper…on a spiritual level. We were one connected entity in three separate bodies.
“You know, tonight has probably been one of the toughest I’ve had since…well, in a while,” I whispered in the darkness. My tears had dried and my voice was back to normal. Sophie rolled over on her side and Lily propped an arm under her neck. “I just want to thank
you guys for being here for me.” I shook my head and sighed. “You being here with me is saving me right now. Your friendship is stronger than all this other stuff.” My throat closed up again.
“Of course we’re here for you, Callie,” Lily whispered. “We’re always here for you…for each other.”
“That’s what we do…who we are,” Sophie finished.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Don’t mention it, silly.” Sophie smiled and fluffed her pillow under her head.
“I have to mention it. I have to tell you how much I appreciate you. You guys mean so much to me…the world. I feel so lucky… so blessed to have you in my life. I’d never have made it through the past few months without you, and I just want you to know that I am beyond eternally grateful for our friendship every single day.”
They were quiet for a moment. “Um, if you’re trying to get a job at Hallmark, you’re hired.”
“Sophie,” Lily admonished.
I smiled. “It’s okay. I know I’m being totally corny and overly sentimental. It’s just that I’m realizing how lucky I am right now, even though things couldn’t be crazier. I just couldn’t let another day pass without saying how much I appreciate you guys.”
“We appreciate you too, Calista,” Lily whispered.
We lay there quietly for a while. I didn’t know if the others were watching the stars, but I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts. I was still haunted by Justin’s fate, but I knew that all I could do now was just hope for the best and see what happened.
But my mother…my mother was still alive…out there somewhere this very moment. Where was she? What was she doing? Was she thinking of me? Could she somehow feel that I knew the truth about her? Did she even remember me at all?
And Dad… poor, poor Dad. Grieving her death for all these years…suffering in agony the guilt he still carried, feeling he was responsible.
Anger threatened to consume me once again. I didn’t want to think about how much I hated her…hated her for what she did to me and Dad. How could she have been so selfish? So unbelievably cruel?