"I would like that very much," I said. "More than anything in the world. It feels like my first days with Kinsley have been so trying. I feel like I've neglected her so much."
"Brighton, you've had her attached at your hip the entire time. She's a newborn. Being close to you is all she wants and needs. You're doing great," Amelda said.
“It’s good to hear you say that,” I said.
Amelda was right. All of the Skeenbauers in Coventry showed up for Brody’s funeral.
Even Annika and Gunner came. That surprised me. Gunner looked good considering that he'd died on us. He offered me a reassuring smile as I walked to my seat for the funeral.
Amelda had a witch from a nearby coven come to the funeral and say a few words. They were more directed at me finding comfort than they were about Brody.
I appreciated it, and it made sense. What could anyone say about Brody? I didn't even know if anyone ever really knew him. Baelora might have, but then again, I couldn't imagine my baby brother being a totally evil person. There had to have been some goodness in him. I refused to believe there wasn't.
When I looked out to the edge of the cemetery and into the trees, I saw Maude. She offered me a soft smile and a wave. I halfway expected to see Brody walk up behind her from the forest, but he did not join her.
Amelda followed my eyes and saw what I was looking at. "I guess she's sort of your guardian now."
"That's good, right? She never got to have a family while she was alive. Now, it seems that she gets to be here for all of the important stuff in my life," I said. "But she didn't get to be there when Kinsley was born."
"She was."
"I didn't see her," I said.
"I didn't see her either, but I felt her there," Amelda said. "You probably couldn't because you were busy with the business of having a baby and all, but she was there for you. I think she will be."
I liked the idea of Maude's spirit watching over me. I just hoped that if she ever wanted to move on, she would.
When the funeral service was over, I stood up with my family. We started to leave, and I saw my mother and grandmother.
They must have snuck in after it started and I watched them slink off the moment it was over. Neither one of them said anything or even looked at me. It was probably best that way.
One Year Later...
It was another unseasonably lovely winter day. The weekend had come, and Remy and I decided to take Kinsley out for a walk after breakfast.
I was in the kitchen making bacon, eggs, and pancakes for me and Remy. I'd also cut up some bananas into tiny pieces for Kinsley. She was learning to eat solid food, and bananas and Cheerios was one of her favorite meals.
Meri wasn't too happy about her food choices. She dropped a lot on the floor, but it was nothing he wanted.
"When is this creature going to get started on bacon?" he'd groused one day.
I was putting the pancakes and bacon on a plate when Remy called out to me. "Brighton, come here. You've got to come right now!"
My heart just about leapt out of my chest. I set the pan down and wiped my hands on my apron.
Expecting there to be some sort of emergency, I was floored by what I actually saw.
"She's going to do it," Remy said. "She's just about to take her first steps."
Kinsley had pulled herself up to standing. She'd been doing that for a couple of weeks, but as of yet, she hadn't taken a step. She'd just stand up and then fall right back down.
I could tell Remy was right, though. Kinsley was far steadier on her feet than she'd ever been before. Tears filled my eyes as she stuck out one foot and stuck the landing. Kinsley giggled at her accomplishment, and then took off running. She toddled through the downstairs of the house, and we all had to chase behind her.
After a couple of loops around the living room, dining room, and kitchen, Kinsley found herself at the bottom of the steps.
“Oh, no, not yet, young lady," I said.
But Kinsley had other ideas. She lifted right off the ground and began to float up the steps on a little pink cloud. It would have been completely adorable if not for the fact that my one-year-old was flying.
"Looks like we're going to need a bracelet upgrade," I said.
"I'll call Amelda," Remy responded with a laugh.
Three Years Later...
Remy and I hadn't been out on a date for a while. We also hadn't seen as much of Annika and Gunner as we would have liked. Normally, if we were going to go out, we'd ask them to watch Kinsley. But that particular night, we wanted to go out on a double date. So, we did what any parents would do and hired a babysitter.
Angela wasn't just a regular teenage girl, though. She was a witch from the coven and came highly recommended from the other parents in town.
It was our first time going out and leaving Kinsley with a babysitter, so we didn't want to go far. The four of us decided to meet at the diner for dinner. I didn't mind because at least we were getting out of the house. Remy and I agreed that if things worked out with Angela, perhaps we could go somewhere a little fancier, and further away, the next time.
After we ate, Gunner and Annika were going to drive over to the next town to see a movie. I wasn't used to being away from Kinsley just yet, so Remy and I decided to go home.
It was a good thing that we did.
The first thing I noticed when we walked through the front door was that all of the furniture was on the ceiling. Meri was running around chasing what appeared to be tiny pink trolls riding purple unicorns.
Angela was somewhere upstairs calling out for Kinsley. There was also some sort of blue smoke hanging in the air. It would have concerned me more except that it smelled like blueberries.
"Angela!" I called out.
"I'm up here, Mrs. Skeenbauer."
I rushed up the steps with Remy behind me. Angela was in the hallway, and the blueberry smoke was much thicker.
"What is going on?" I asked.
"I told her it was time for bed," Angela said. "She wanted to watch one more episode of that show... the one..."
"The one with the little pink trolls that ride unicorns," Remy offered.
"Yeah," Angela said.
"Trolltopia," I said.
"Yes," Angela confirmed. "She wanted to stay up another half hour, but you guys told me her bedtime. I insisted that it was time for bed. She tried to bargain. I wouldn't budge. I babysit for a lot of kids. I have since I was thirteen. Whatever the parents say is bedtime is bedtime. Anyway, it escalated to this." Angela waved her arms around wildly. "Meri kept those little trolls she conjured from getting me. I think I owe him extra bacon for that."
"So she's hiding up here somewhere?" I asked.
"Yes. I told her that she needed to go to bed. She actually came up here and brushed her teeth, got into bed, and I read her a story," Angela said. "It was all an act. A few minutes after I went back downstairs, those trolls on unicorns came down the steps and almost charged me. Meri intervened, like I said. He's been chasing them for a while. He mentioned something about blowing them up, but I asked if he could not do that. Then, this blueberry smoke filled the house."
"I'll find her," I said.
"I'll call Amelda," Remy replied.
Nine Years Later...
Kinsley
"I want to go to school," I said and tried to keep from putting my hands on my hips and stomping my foot.
I knew it made me look like a petulant little kid when I did that, and I wasn't a little kid anymore. I was a teenager. I'd just had my thirteenth birthday, and I'd gotten all the clothes and makeup I'd asked for as presents. Daddy hadn't wanted me to start wearing makeup yet, but Great-Grandma Amelda and the Aunties straightened him out real fast. They said that I was old enough to make my own decisions about what to wear on my face, and that the last thing I needed was a man telling me how I should present myself to the world.
Secretly, I was glad that Daddy wanted to protect me. Later when I talked to him alone, I promised him
I wouldn't wear too much. I assured him it wasn't about boys, and that I just liked the sparkly eyeshadow colors. He apologized for trying to foist patriarchal ideas on me, and I accepted. I had no idea what he meant, but after that, we had ice cream.
The problem was that I had all these cute new clothes and three eyeshadow pallets filled with sparkly eyeshadow in every color, and I had nowhere to wear them. I mean, sure, I could wear them when I hung around with my friends who were also home-schooled by their witch mothers, but what I really wanted was to wear them to school. Real school with bells, teachers, and horrible cafeteria food. Most witch kids were home-schooled, but my friend Gaia went to regular school. She could control her powers enough to be with the normal kids, and so could I.
What I didn't understand was why I could choose to wear makeup, because I was old enough to make my own decisions about what to wear on my face, but I wasn't allowed to choose to go to school. It was one of those times when I wasn't thankful for Daddy trying to protect me. I'd noticed that Mom hadn't said no. My dad kept telling me no, but Mom never said anything. That's why I'd gotten them both together. If Mom agreed with Daddy, she was going to have to say something. I wouldn't accept her silence on the matter any longer.
Besides, I knew she hadn't grown up as a witch. Her family had left Coventry a long time ago, and she'd grown up out in the normal world. Until she'd moved back to town, she hadn't even known she was a witch.
Sometimes, I was so jealous of that. She's gone to regular school and had regular jobs, and even though Mom said it wasn't fun, I didn't care. I wanted to know what it was like. There was nothing wrong with the normal kids, so I didn't know why all of us witch kids had to be separated from them.
"Kinsley, we've talked about this," Dad said.
"No, you've talked about it. You say no every time, and you won't hear me out. Mom never says anything. What about Uncle Gunner? He's a normal guy. He knows about all of us, and he even married into the family," I said.
"That's one of the big problems," Dad said. "You can't tell people, and you still don't seem to get that."
"I do get it," I said. "I would never tell anyone. It wouldn't do any good anyway. The stupid magic in this town would keep them from believing me anyway. They'd just think I was a weirdo, and I'm not going to risk that. Wait? Why doesn't that magic work on Uncle Gunner? Never mind, that's off topic."
"Gunner is a sensitive, honey," Mom said. "He's got some sort of magic in his lineage. Probably way back. We haven't figured that out yet."
"But what about school?" I tried not to raise my voice. If I got too excited, stuff would happen around me. Things would break. Stuff might fly off the wall. It could start suddenly storming. I was trying to convince them to let me go to school because I had my power under control. The last thing I needed was to lose control and prove them right. "You'll talk to me about Uncle Gunner and why it's okay for him to know about witches, but you won't say anything about me going to school. You're just letting Daddy make the decision. When do you ever let him make the decisions about anything?"
"Your father feels a lot more strongly about it than I do," Mom said. "So, I'm trying to keep the peace."
"See! I knew it!" I said and then took a deep breath before I caused an earthquake or something. "You want to let me try," I said and turned to Dad. "Come on, Dad. If Mom thinks I can do it, then you should give me a chance."
"She didn't say that," Remy said. "You're just filling in blanks that might not exist, and also I don't want you trying to play us off of each other."
"I'm not. I swear," I said. "I just really, really, really want to go to regular school."
"Honey, you'd have to suppress your powers and probably stop studying magic altogether while you were in regular school," Mom said. “It would be too dangerous for you to work on growing your powers while you’re around regular kids.”
“Don’t you get it? I’m fine with that,” I said.
"That's unacceptable, young lady," Dad said. "You know what you mean to this coven and your family."
"What about what I want?" I pleaded. "I didn't ask to be whatever it is you and Great-Grandmother Amelda think I am. This wasn't my choice, and it wouldn't be my choice if you gave me any say at all in my life."
Dad started to talk again, but Mom cut him off. "Remy, she's right. Besides, if she's the future head of the coven, then who are we to tell her no?"
"I'm also the future head of the coven," Dad said. "She's not in line until I abdicate or die." He tried to sound forceful, but all of the wind had left his argument.
"We should at least give her a chance," Mom said and then turned to me. "You get one chance, but if you can't control your powers around those kids, it's over. Do you understand that?"
"I do."
"She'll need to start wearing a bracelet again to help her suppress her powers," Mom said.
"I'll call Amelda," Dad responded.
One Year Later...
Kinsley
"You're a freak," Annabelle said as she stood over my lunch table. "You never should have been allowed to come to this school. They should have kept you at home along with the other freak monster social outcasts."
"Annabelle, just leave me alone. I've got a bio final this afternoon. I need to study," I said.
"No, what you need to do is go back home to Mommy and spare us of your freakishness."
"You have any other names you can call me besides freak?" I asked. "Maybe you should be studying vocabulary instead of being over here bothering me."
"Who do you think you are?" Annabelle shrilled.
"I know that I'm Kinsley Skeenbauer, and I also know that I need to study. So, if you're friends have gotten enough entertainment out of you harassing me, can I please go back to my studies?"
I looked over, and Annabelle's table full of kiss-ups was giggling and watching us. She was still red-faced with fury from what I'd said about her vocabulary and about to escalate her torture, but a teacher walked by.
"Ladies, I think it's time to take it down a notch," Mrs. Wiggins said. "Annabelle, do you need something?"
"No, Mrs. Wiggins."
"Then I suggest you go finish your lunch."
Two Years Later...
Kinsley
"Gavin, I don't know if we should keep doing this," I said.
"Doing what?" he asked and pushed a lock of hair away from my eyes. "All we're doing is hanging out and spending time together."
Gavin and I had met while I was still in school before my parents had pulled me out. We'd started out as friends, but it had turned into something more. I cared about him far more than I should have given that he was a human, and I didn't know how the coven would feel about that. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal for a witch to be in a relationship with a regular. It happened. But I was supposed to be different. There was some prophesy dealing with me, and it meant I lived my whole life under a microscope. Which is why I felt like I had to keep my relationship with Gavin a secret.
"But you've got that basketball scholarship and you're going away next year. I don't know that I'll ever be able to leave Coventry," I said.
"You could come with me," he said. "We could be together in college too."
"How?" I asked.
"I know your grades are amazing at that online prep school you're doing. The college I'm going to has academic scholarships. You could get one and come with me," he said.
"You want that? You want me to come to college with you?"
"Of course I do, Kinsley. I love you. I can't imagine having to go away without you. I don't even want to go if you don't come with me."
"Don't say things like that. You've got a full-ride basketball scholarship. It's your ticket to your whole future," I said and took his hands.
"No, Kinsley. You are my whole future. The rest is just... noise," Gavin said and kissed me quickly. "Please say you'll try for a scholarship and come with me."
"I will," I said. "I'll do whatever it takes."
Epilo
gue
One Year Later...
Meri
"I can't believe you’re really doing this," I said as I slunk into the room.
She was halfway out the window with nothing more than a backpack on her back and a small duffel bag over her shoulder.
"Meri, I have to," Kinsley said.
"You don't have to. You don't have to do this at all," I said.
"Meri, I got the scholarship, and I'm going. There's nothing you can do or say to change my mind," Kinsley said.
"I can make you stay," I bristled.
"You can't," she said with a sad smile. "You could only do that if you were protecting me. Going away to college isn't something I actually need to be protected from."
"You know what will happen if you leave Coventry," I said.
"I do know, and that's why I'm going," she said.
"Kinsley, this is not how things were supposed to be."
"According to who?" she asked. "I didn't ask to be this chosen whatever. Nobody gave me any options."
"You just want a normal life?" I asked, but I already knew the answer.
Kinsley had rebelled against her powers starting at about age seven. Ten years she'd already been fighting it. Ten years of her young life given over to a war she didn't ask for, and one that had brought her parents much grief.
Remy hadn't wanted to allow her to start regular school, but Brighton had insisted they let her try. Kinsley finally wore them down when she was thirteen, and they let her start middle school that fall.
She made it to about fifteen before a group of mean girls bullied her so badly that she unleashed her powers on them. Of course, because of the magical veil in Coventry, none of the regular girls' parents believed their fantastical story. The witches knew, though.
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