Abby stood and left the library. She walked from the castle and wound through the forest to the crumbling stone steps that led to the floating garden. As she emerged in the garden, the realization that Sebastian was gone hit her full force. Falling to her knees, she let out a terrible sob of anguish. As she lay on the ground, the flowers seemed to gather around her.
****
"An ancient saved you, Abby. Saved us all, perhaps," Elda told her.
Abby sat in the oratory on a stiff wooden stool. Sunlight beamed through the stained-glass window. The patterns of light on the stone floor were beautiful but everything of beauty made Abby ache for Sebastian.
"An ancient?" she asked, thinking of the old man who appeared beneath the Serpent House. Ancient seemed like an appropriate description.
"Yes." Elda opened a thick book with rough papyrus pages.
Abby saw a drawing of a cloaked figure with a pentacle of light on his chest.
"Until now, I've believed they were a myth of sorts in the world of witches. A way to keep the peace. When I was a young witch, the elders were always threatening us with the ancients to keep us in line, but nobody ever saw one. Eventually the practice of speaking about them went out of style."
"I don't understand," Abby said, pulling off her moonstone wedding ring and staring into the glistening surface. If she looked hard enough, maybe she could catch a glimpse of Sebastian in the iridescent stone.
"The story of the ancients was that they righted wrongs, they stepped in when the balance between light and dark was shifting. No one really knows where they come from, but it is said they are the original witches. The very first witches to ever exist, and that all the witches in the world descend from them. They hold the source of all magic within their grasp."
"Why would they help me? You've lived hundreds of years and they never showed up. Why now?" Abby asked somewhat bitterly.
Sebastian had handed her the portal. She had not known it at the time, but he intended for Abby to send him to the dream wood, but she had failed. Left to her, the curse would not have been broken, but she would still have Sebastian.
Elda nodded as if hearing her thoughts.
"I believe he appeared to prevent a great injustice," Elda offered. "Why now? Why in this instance when they have not stepped in for so many others?" Elda shrugged. "I don't know. Perhaps they saw a future in this curse too terrible to allow."
Abby considered her words. Was Sebastian's sacrifice actually the best possible outcome for them all? The ache in her heart said no. But what if she sat mourning Vidya instead of Sebastian?
"Vidya was connected to Clyde's body," Abby whispered, struggling to get the words out. "If Sebastian were only pretending to join Clyde, why would he do that? He gave him our child."
Elda blew out a breath and stood from her chair, grimacing as if her back ached from sitting.
"Faustine read about the power of three in the Egyptian text for immortality. If the spirit survived for three hundred years, the Gods would grant them a new body, a baby born within their lineage. Your Vidya would have been that for Clyde. I believe that is why Clyde was not satisfied with Victor. He intended to turn Sebastian and would stop at nothing to attain that goal. Sebastian was strong, but all the energy that Clyde had amassed over three centuries was directed at pulling him towards the darkness."
"He couldn't resist it."
"I believe so. But Sebastian may not have given Vidya to Clyde. Alva or Victor or any other Vepar on Snake Island might have grabbed the child and taken her to Clyde. We will probably never know."
Abby looked at Elda doubtfully. She wanted to believe that Sebastian had not been the one, needed to believe it.
"My heart breaks for you, Abby. I wish that Sebastian had not perished, but I understand that if an ancient had not appeared your future would have been a horror that we cannot even imagine. For that I am thankful."
Abby stood. She wasn't angry at Elda's words, but had heard enough. She needed to see her daughter and get lost in the scent of her baby's skin. Perhaps then she could begin to heal the wound in her heart.
****
"Are you sure you want to stay here, tonight?" Helena asked again as she settled Abby into her and Sebastian's bed.
Abby could smell him, feel him, though he was not there, maybe he was not anywhere.
"Yes, Helena. I'm sure. I need to be home, at least for tonight."
Helena nodded and patted Abby's arm.
"You call me if you need me, honey. I'm going to rock Vidya and put her to sleep in the nursery, give you a little break."
Abby nodded, already rolling away from Helena and burying herself in Sebastian's pillow. She was so exhausted that even grief didn't find her as she slipped into sleep.
Hours later, Abby woke to the smell of smoke. In the darkness of her bedroom, she stood, disoriented, and fell from the bed.
"Vidya?" she choked, searching the bed for her daughter.
And then she remembered Helena had put Vidya in the nursery so that Abby could sleep. The smoke that had seemed to fill the room a moment earlier was gone. Had it all been a dream?
She moved down the hallway, sleepy, on the edges of consciousness and pushed into Vidya's room. She stopped hard. Above Vidya's bed a strange image greeted her. A ball of fire, an orb of water, and a mass of rock floated in a circular motion, around and around, like a cosmic mobile. She crept closer to the bassinet. Vidya lay within it, her blue eyes wide and twinkling, and a smile playing on her lips. Her chubby little hands waved and the cycle of elements flowed with her movements. She squeezed one of her hands into a fist and the fireball shot to the curtain. It lit the fabric and they were immediately engulfed in flames.
"Oh," Abby gasped and stumbled back, shaking her head as if that might make sense of the scene before her. She threw her hands up and sent a wave of water crashing over the flames, but already they'd leaped to the carpet and the ceiling.
Abby snatched Vidya from the bassinet and ran from the room, pounding down the stairs.
"Helena!" she screamed.
The witch appeared behind her on the stairs.
"Are we being attacked?" Helena asked, also disoriented.
Abby flung open the front door and Helena followed her into the night.
"Vidya," Abby sputtered, pointing at the window. "Vidya somehow..."
Helena looked at her, bewildered, and then glanced down at Vidya, the fire reflected in her huge blue eyes.
Abby hurried to her car and tucked Vidya into her car seat with the door propped open. She returned to Helena and together they sent gusts of water billowing at the blaze. It did nothing. The house burned.
At the edge of the forest hundreds of birds had flown to the trees. They filled the branches and the ground below, the flames reflected in their black eyes.
Chapter 30
Two Years Later
"Vidya," Abby called to her daughter, who stood on the end of the dock staring into the placid Lake Michigan waters. She held a pink fishing pole in one hand a neon yellow net in the other.
"Mama, Bossy ate my fish," she shrieked, pointing at the eagle perched on the huge metal rod at the end of their dock.
Abby could see the remnants of a fish hanging from his taloned feet. She almost thought he smirked at her as if to say, "I am an eagle after all," but since he couldn't talk, she surely imagined it.
Beyond the dock a head broke the surface of the water. She watched his tan chest follow. In his hands, he held a long slender trout.
"Daddy!" Vidya squealed, reaching for the fish.
Oliver handed the trout to the tiny light-haired girl who waved it wildly in the air before Bossy swooped from his perch, reaching with a taloned claw. Before the eagle could snatch the fish, Abby flicked her fingers at the lake and a streak of water rose up and sprayed him. He veered and flew away, ruffling his feathers, and shedding water droplets as he rose higher.
Vidya had called Oliver Daddy for the first time just weeks before. When i
t happened, Abby had almost corrected her. The name caused a twisting, aching pull in her stomach, but she'd fought the desire to tell her daughter the truth. It was not that she intended to hide Sebastian from Vidya, only that she wanted her to be allowed to choose Oliver. He was, after all, the man raising her. Her real father, Sebastian, was merely a phantom, a man that Vidya would know through stories and photographs tucked in albums.
Oliver grabbed Vidya from the dock and lifted her high.
"Swim," she screamed. "Swimmie, swimmie."
Oliver grinned at Abby and dove under the water. With Vidya perched on his back, Oliver swam along the shore. At the edge of the beach, she climbed off and swam on her own, an awkward doggie paddle that sent plumes of water in every direction. A row of black birds flew to the water's edge, hopping along the shore beside her. The birds always hovered close to Abby's magical daughter, but since the arrival of the eagle, known to Vidya as Bossy, the birds kept their distance. He had staked his claim over the girl and smaller birds understood the pecking order.
Oliver's blond hair had grown long, nearly to his shoulders. He shook his head like a dog and Vidya squealed, delighted. He tied it back in a ponytail and jogged to where Abby stood at the edge of the yard.
He swept her against him, his body cold and wet, and kissed her. She felt the heat sucked from her own body as his lips sought hers. She leaned into it, savoring the chill of his skin suddenly slick with goosebumps.
When he pulled back, she saw the question in his eyes.
"If you prefer she doesn't say it, we can talk to her," he said, hiding his own feelings behind his ever-present smile.
"No." Abby shook her head. "You are her daddy now."
He grinned and lifted Abby high before tossing her over his shoulder and splashing into the lake.
****
"Lydie!" Abby exclaimed, hugging the young witch who had somehow grown into a young woman since Abby last saw her. "You look gorgeous."
Lydie smiled, twirling around.
"Helena said I could choose my own costume this year so I'm going as a butterfly." She opened her arms and her gown extended to reveal flowing silk wings in black and copper.
Abby had only attended one All Hallow's Ball more than two years before. As the memory of stepping through the mirror with Sebastian rose in her mind, she returned her focus to Lydie.
"It's beautiful Lydie. How's Florida?"
Lydie grinned.
"Awesome! Aunt Cammi and I go fishing, we hike the Everglades. I'm even enrolled in school for the fall," Lydie gushed.
"Human school?"
"Human all the way, but Elda has me set up with a summer program in Italy. Witches only." She winked. The door behind Abby opened and Lydie squealed. "Oliver!"
She rushed into him, nearly toppling him over.
"Lyds!" he roared, catching her and spinning her around. "You've grown five inches since December!"
"Hardly," she laughed, punching his shoulder. "Two if I'm lucky. But I have been learning to drive."
"What? A car? Or an air boat while you hunt gators?" Oliver asked, holding out Lydie's arms so he could admire her butterfly wings.
"A car, silly. Cammi owns a Firebird."
"Oliver," Helena chastised, sweeping into the room in a frothy white gown studded with glass bubbles. "I need to invoke your stardust."
Oliver rolled his eyes.
"Stardust?" Lydie grinned.
"Why does Abby get the celestial rain and I have stardust?" Oliver asked.
Abby demonstrated by grabbing her midnight blue dress and waving the skirt toward them. A mist of warm rain fell over their heads.
"Because she is a water element, you fool. In case you forgot, you are earth. Now stand still," Helena demanded.
"Where's Vidya?" Lydie asked, looking around the library as if the toddler might be playing on the rug.
"With Grammy Becky," Abby responded, taking out her compact and flipping open the lid. Faustine had created a magic baby monitor. The mirror in Abby's compact allowed her to peer through every mirror in her mother's house. She spotted Vidya and Becky in the sitting room reading a book. Her dad stood at the bookshelf thumbing through paperbacks.
Her parents had moved into Sydney's lake house six months after Sebastian disappeared. During that time, Abby and Vidya had lived at Ula. Oliver had stepped in to help Abby and a year after Sebastian vanished, they had begun officially seeing each other. Six months later, Oliver surprised her by purchasing a house close to Sydney's. Her mother had been delighted. Abby herself had been unsure about returning to Trager, but Oliver's enthusiasm got the best of her.
Abby held out the mirror so Lydie could see Vidya.
"She's getting so big!" Lydie exclaimed, frowning. "I want to come visit soon, okay?"
"We'd love it, Lyds!" Oliver called out as Helena pulled at the pouch near his waist. "We never get to use the magic rooms seeing as how most of our friends are human."
He mimed gagging and Helena gave him a little push. He nearly toppled over, straightening himself up and holding his head high.
"Is that any way to treat a cosmic lover?" he asked, looking past Helena to Abby.
His blue eyes bore into hers and she experienced the spread of warmth and gratitude that she often felt when Oliver looked at her. Theirs was a different kind of love. Passionate in its way, but placid compared to her time with Sebastian. She tried not to compare them, but often couldn't help it.
"It's time," Faustine said, striding into the room with Elda on his arm. They were dressed in plain dark robes having chosen to forego costumes that year. Abby envied the ease of their wardrobe as she stepped to the mirror in her complicated gown.
Oliver took her hand and kissed it.
"See you on the other side," he whispered, smiling mischievously.
****
Abby danced until her feet grew sore. She laughed and drank champagne and kissed Oliver beneath a sky bewitched to reflect four moons and a million stars. Sometime after midnight, she slipped away citing a need for fresh air.
Alone on the veranda, Abby watched the distant forest far below. She examined the silhouette of dark trees, their branches thick with the dying leaves of autumn.
She had glimpsed the dead on that night as expected. Sydney's face peeking at her from the crowd of costumed witches, Dafne traipsing down a long staircase only to vanish into thin air. She had even seen Ezra, only for an instant, as she slipped behind a curtain and disappeared. But she had sought only one face that evening and not a fragment of him had appeared - Sebastian. How could he not arrive on this night - All Hallow's Eve - when the veil between the living and the dead vanished?
Two years had passed without a sight of her lost love. He no longer tormented her dreams, but this year, especially, she hoped to catch him for just a moment.
"Sebastian..." she whispered, staring at the moonstone ring she had moved to her right hand, but still never took off.
Abby sighed and pulled the navy mask from her face. She drew her thick braid over one shoulder, and allowed her eyes to linger another moment on the dark forest below.
A movement caught her eye, subtle and quick. She squinted, trying to make out the shape. It had looked like a man, tall and dark, slipping into the woods. A breath had caught in her diaphragm and she let it out. Only shadows greeted her as she searched the tree line.
She turned and walked back to the double doors, glancing back a final time. Another movement caught her eye, not on the ground, but in the sky. A dark shape rose from the shadowy woods. A skin-walker soared away from the castle, a silhouette beneath the glowing moon.
Curious about that spooky witch who lived beneath the red willow tree? Get a Free Copy of Beneath the Willow - a short story prequel to the Born of Shadows Series.
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