"And sacrifice Vidya?"
Faustine nodded solemnly, the enthusiasm at his discovery already gone.
"If he sacrifices Vidya, he will not only have all of the power he has amassed, his body will be rejuvenated as well."
Elda set her shaking hands in her lap and looked toward the window. A distant blue sky greeted her, but she felt a storm coming.
Chapter 8
Abby held Vidya wrapped in a bundle of blankets. The baby looked up at her mother and offered the tiniest smile.
"Was that a smile? Are you my happy baby? Huh, little sweet pea?"
"I hate to interrupt the baby talk," Oliver teased walking through the sliding glass doors.
Abby turned and smiled.
"Feel free to join the baby talk, she's used to me, Helena and Sebastian all doing it simultaneously."
"She's a multi-tasker then?"
"More like a multi-listener."
"How are you feeling?" he asked, pulling a chair closer to Abby's.
"Good actually. The first 48 hours were rough. I'll spare you the details, but us women have some wickedly cool and rather freaky bodies."
"Oh, I already knew that." He winked at her. "I hear Sebastian's casting for Oscar the Grouch."
Abby laughed.
"He'll be more like Big Bird once he gets a few cups of coffee down. Vidya woke up a lot last night, and he insists on taking her after she eats. He doesn't want me to become overwhelmed. The funny thing is I feel really good. This special blood of mine seems to make me more resilient. I try to tell him to go back to bed, but he doesn't want to miss a second of her life, and I understand. When I'm sleeping, I miss her."
Oliver leaned over to look at Vidya. She had fallen asleep.
"It's hard to believe she's been living inside you. Very science fiction if you ask me," he told her, making a ghoulish face.
Abby swatted at him. "Cut the small talk. What's going on? I get the impression you're not here to inquire about my health?" she asked.
"We're going back to Australia to talk to Meghan. Just me, Lydie, and Julian this time."
Abby nodded.
"I figured it would come to that. I almost wondered if we shouldn't have pressured Binda while we were there to get more information."
"After Sebastian got out of the dream wood, I think we were all ready to get on a plane for home," Oliver said. "I feel more confident going back without him. Better if we have nothing she wants - hybrid and all that."
"Hybrid," she said, looking at her daughter with the uncomfortable thought Vidya too could be a hybrid. She wondered why that put her on edge.
"Why do you look like someone just pinched your baby?" Oliver asked.
Abby glanced up at him.
"The hybrid thing, I guess. It reminds me of Clyde, but then again Liam is a hybrid, isn't he, and he's not part of that lineage."
"Let's hope not. I've talked with Julian about it. He's heard of hybrids. They're not isolated to Clyde and it seems like Clyde was never a hybrid at all. He only exhibited powers after he murdered Eugene and stole those items from Serpent House."
"Sounds like a good question for Meghan," Abby said. "Maybe she and Binda created the story of Clyde as a hybrid. It brought him a step closer to being a witch and made future Sky Mothers more likely to accept him."
Oliver nodded.
"I wouldn't doubt it. They were deceptive, although I bet Binda was just a pawn in whatever sick game Meghan was playing."
"Do you think so?" Abby asked, kissing Vidya's head. "I'm not sure Meghan was malicious back then. She probably wanted to protect her son and feared if she told Binda the truth, the woman would turn on her."
"As any sane person would," Oliver pointed out.
Abby shrugged.
"I feel differently now." She looked down at Vidya. "I can't imagine abandoning my child. Maybe it's crazy. And surely Meghan is partially at fault for everything that transpired after Clyde escaped. But I can understand her motivation."
Oliver gazed out at the lake, not answering right away. Abby wondered if he envisioned his own future children, and if he'd be willing to make such sacrifices.
"My mother would have done the same," he admitted. "Even now she writes several times a year. She's not angry that I took off. I don't like to admit it, but I'm sure she'd do just about anything to get me back."
Abby studied his face, the slight downturn of his mouth.
"Why don't you go see her, Oliver? What's holding you back."
He laughed, short and harsh, and shook his head.
"Oh, you know, Vepars, Victor, Clyde - hundred nameless faceless enemies that might follow me there. I won't put them at risk so I can sleep easy at night."
"How about so they can sleep easy? You said yourself, she'd do anything to have you back. Don't you think she'd put herself at risk to hug her son?"
He frowned.
"It's easy to say that when you're a witch, Abby. But consider Sydney. Would you have ever gone to her house if you'd known what you were bringing to her door?"
Abby sucked in a breath and looked away. She could sense that Oliver regretted the words the instant he'd spoken them. After all, he had been the one that killed Sydney.
Abby didn't say more and after several minutes, Oliver quietly left.
****
"You gonna miss me?" Oliver asked Ezra, watching her sift through a box of medicine donated to her clinic.
"I wish people would stop giving us expired meds. I mean seriously, throw this shit away. It's too old for them to take, so they pass it off to the homeless guy. Who cares if his stomach lining rots!"
"Ahem," Oliver said, clearing his throat loudly. He sat on her bed in the new loft. Ezra had thrown away her old furniture, bedding - everything that reminded her of the old loft. Oliver noticed a dark theme in her new room. The soft velvet comforter beneath him was such a dark purple as to be nearly black. The candles on her bureau were all black, and she'd even bought black lace curtains.
She glanced up at him and scowled.
"If you think I'll be sitting here pining for you, then no. But sure, I'll miss those big blue eyes imploring me to wake up in the morning," she told him, returning her gaze to the box.
He laughed.
"Well I'm happy you said my big blue eyes instead of the coffee I make every morning. I would have felt truly irrelevant if that were the case."
"Oh, I'm gonna miss the coffee, for sure," she said. "Kendra thinks espresso is the only coffee worth drinking so I will be forced to make my own."
"Finally," he said triumphantly. "A show of emotion on my behalf."
She laughed and threw an empty bottle of chewable vitamins at him. The plastic bottle bounced off his head.
"You don't mind?" he asked. "I would have asked you, but..."
"Oliver, you don't need my permission to live your life. No, I don't mind. Honestly, I'm behind at the clinic. We've had staff changes. I need to hire another pediatrician. I've been spending way too much time in Michigan."
He watched the tight set of her shoulders and the firmness in her jaw and knew she wasn't being entirely truthful. He stood and went behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"I'll miss you, Ezra." He kissed the back of her neck where the petals of a lotus flower tattoo peeked from her black t-shirt.
She reached a hand back and grabbed his head, turning into him. She sighed as she kissed him, and he understood the things she didn't allow herself to say.
When she pulled back her eyes glistened, but she twisted away quickly. When she glanced at him a moment later, not a tear remained.
****
"What's the occasion?" Abby teased as they pulled out of their driveway.
Sebastian turned onto the road that led to Trager, and glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
"I wanted us to have a night of normal, a date night if you will," he told her, reaching a hand to her knee.
She rubbed her finger over his knuckles.
> "I don't think we've ever been on an actual date." She thought back over the previous year and couldn't remember a single time they'd gone out just to have dinner and connect.
"Exactly."
"But how come today? What spurred this sudden desire for normalcy?"
Sebastian kept his eyes trained forward, but Abby saw the downturn of his mouth.
"Are you okay, honey?" she asked, lifting his hand to her lips for a kiss.
He swallowed hard and nodded.
"Yeah. I just wanted some time with you. Just us. I figured with Lydie and Oliver gone, it was good timing."
She smiled and turned toward the window, watching the trees whiz by. The sunny sky revealed ominous dark clouds in the distance.
"I think we're going to have a rainy date," she told him.
He leaned forward and looked up through the windshield.
"You think or you know?" he joked.
She laughed and felt the buzzing of her element gathering.
"I know."
He parked downtown and they walked to a new brewery that had opened earlier that summer.
Abby admired the frosted glass, drawing a little heart on the icy surface. The glass was so full, the beer frothing to the rim, she leaned forward to take her first sip.
"Oh wow, that's good," she said, licking her lips. "It tastes like raspberries."
"Right? That's craft beer for you. I've been so distracted since... well pretty much ever, I didn't realize the world had graduated beyond Bud Light."
She laughed. "I never even graduated to Bud Light. I've been more of a wine cooler kind of gal myself, but this is delicious."
Sebastian ordered bacon wrapped dates and garlic crusted asparagus for appetizers.
"I feel like I haven't been in public in ages," Abby shifted and pulled her skirt lower over her thigh as if people could see beneath the booth. "I feel oddly exposed."
Sebastian nodded.
"Me too, but let's pretend just for tonight that we're like everyone else in here. We're new parents escaping Babyville for a night on the town. Other than dirty diapers and how to ensure that our baby's a genius, we don't have a care in the world."
Abby laughed.
"Yes, please. I never thought ordinary would be the thing I most missed."
Abby remembered the morning nearly a year earlier when she'd climbed into her car and driven north. She had watched Lansing and her life there fade into the rear-view mirror. In a moment of impulse, she had abandoned her boyfriend Nick, her job and even her cat. It wasn't only dissatisfaction that prompted her departure; she understood now that it was her power desperate to reveal itself. Less than twenty-four hours later, she had discovered the body of Devin in the Ebony Woods. She recalled that tiny bit of red fabric hanging from a branch. What would have happened if she'd disregarded it and walked on by?
"I believe I now fully and completely understand the statement 'be careful what you wish for,'" she said.
Sebastian grunted.
"You know what's crazy? I never wished for anything other than what I had. I loved my parents and Claire. I didn't long for an exciting life."
Abby bit her lip, guiltily. She had. She had yearned for something to make her feel alive.
The waitress delivered their food.
"I'll take another," Abby said, pointing at her glass.
Sebastian cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Better keep up with the lady. I'll take one too," he said, downing the last of his beer.
They drank and ate and avoided the most pressing topics in their lives. For tonight, they were just a husband and wife out on the town.
"Tell me something about your childhood. A secret that no one knows," Abby prodded.
Sebastian screwed up his eyes and then nodded.
"Okay, got one. When I was seven, I drank an entire Margarita that my mom had put in the kitchen sink. I promptly threw it up all over the yellow rug in our bathroom. I stuffed the rug in the trashcan and claimed ignorance when she asked me about it the next day."
Abby laughed, grimacing.
"Poor little guy. Were you afraid you'd get in trouble?"
"Hell yeah," he exclaimed. "I knew I wasn't allowed to drink those, not to mention, my mom loved that rug. She had bought it from a flea market in San Francisco when she was younger. She told me about it every time I used the bathroom."
"In that case I would have lied too."
"Your turn. A childhood secret you intended to take to the grave, but will now reveal to your beloved husband."
"I flushed my dad's keys down the toilet," Abby admitted, covering her eyes and peeking at him between her fingers.
"Okay," he said thoughtfully. "Tell me more."
"I was eleven and my mom was having one of her days. I could always tell because she'd do fidgety things like scrubbing the same spot on the counter ten or fifteen times. My dad had an open house for a new client, a very affluent client, but I didn't want to be home alone with my mom so I grabbed his keys and flushed them down the toilet."
Sebastian tilted his head to the side and offered her a sympathetic look.
"That's kind of sad. Did they go down?"
Abby shook her head.
"They seemed to at first and then when I checked a few minutes later they were back in the toilet bowl so I fished them out with a wire hanger and hid them in my closet. He missed the open house and had to pay the dealership to make him new keys."
"Was he pissed?"
"My dad never got pissed," Abby responded, taking another sip of beer. "My mom was pissed. She lit into him, told him he was irresponsible and if we couldn't pay the mortgage that month it was his own damn fault. I felt terrible and wanted to tell him, but I just couldn't. I'm still embarrassed."
Sebastian watched her with sad eyes and leaned in to kiss her cheek.
"I wish I had known little Abby. I would have come to your room at night so we could sneak out to our tree house in the woods. I would have slain all your dragons with my wooden sword and you could have faced the days with your mom a little easier."
"I would have liked that," she said, wishing that she had found Sebastian twenty years earlier. How different their lives might have been?
When they drove home that evening, they could barely see through the downpour. Outside the city, Sebastian pulled the car down a grassy two-track road.
"Where are we?" she asked, squinting into the rainy darkness.
He plugged his phone into the stereo and turned the volume up as a slow R&B song played.
"Dance with me," he said, stepping from the car.
They were instantly soaked. Abby's sandaled feet sunk into the soggy ground. He pulled her beneath a canopy of trees where the rain still poured, but it offered a partial shield.
He pulled her body against him and they danced, twirling around and around as their soaked bodies clung together. Abby looked into Sebastian's face and thought she saw tears pouring down his cheeks, but perhaps it was only the rain.
Chapter 9
"This place is legendary," Lydie announced, jumping out of the Range Rover.
Oliver faced the glass structure of the Sky Mothers Coven. He nodded, but the grandness of the compound had somewhat soured after his last visit.
Matilda floated from the main archway, holding her arms out graciously. Julian hugged her, but with an air of coolness.
"I'm so happy to have you back," Matilda crooned, kissing Julian's cheeks. "And you must be Lydie? A fire witch through and through." She took Lydie's hands and squeezed before moving on to Oliver. She hugged Oliver and his stiff body relaxed into her. He had the ability to calm people, but Matilda's soothing qualities were unmatched. He felt immediately at ease in her embrace.
"Kit has prepared a lobster salad by the pool," Matilda told them, leading them through the breezy hallway that led to the ocean.
Kit smiled and waved when she and Oliver made eye contact. He felt a funky flip in his stomach at the sight of her. Things had developed
with Ezra and he dreaded telling Kit if she expected time alone with him.
"Kit, this is Lyds," Oliver told her, eyeing the salad and licking his lips.
Kit stood and offered a hand to Lydie. She had pulled her dreadlocks in a high bun and wore a soft looking white t-shirt over a pair of cut-off black shorts. Oliver saw Lydie studying the markings on Kit's arms and neck.
"Crikey, you're a little beauty, aren't you?" Kit asked, cocking an eyebrow. "And a force to be reckoned with, I dare say. Lovely to meet you."
Lydie blushed and shook Kit's hand.
Oliver had not mentioned Kit to Lydie, but he'd told Kit a great deal about Lydie. Kit had been curious to hear of a witch who exhibited powers so young.
"I like your hair," Lydie told her. "Maybe I should get dreads?" She looked at Oliver.
"Nah," Oliver disagreed. "If you get rid of those curls, Helena and Bridget will keel over dead."
"Sometimes you gotta do it because no one else wants you to," Kit told Lydie, with a sly wink.
"Oh great. Well let's get your lip pierced and a tattoo while we're at it. Helena will be thrilled," Oliver complained.
Lydie and Kit laughed, but Oliver saw a twinkle in the young witch's eye.
"Helena probably would be thrilled," Kit cut in. "I don't think you're giving her enough credit, Oliver. She's one bad-ass witch. She happens to be sweet and gentle too. I bet you and Helena have a lot in common, Lydie."
Lydie looked thoughtful.
"Bad-ass is not a word I'd use to describe her, but then again, I have seen her fight."
"Ha, fighting is the least of it. She told me a story about an all Hallow's Party where she swam with great white sharks because another witch challenged her to show her water element by lifting a shark out of the water."
"And she did it?" Lydie asked, incredulous.
"She did it. And lifted three at once. They didn't go near her in the water. Apparently, she made them uneasy," Kit laughed.
"Or they weren't hungry," Oliver remarked. He shook his head, grinning. "I could see Helena doing that too and probably trying to pet them while she was at it."
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