Daughter of Magic

by Teresa Roman

  “How is this place even possible?” I thought out loud.

  “Does that mean she likes it?” Rayden asked Devin.

  Devin smiled. “I think so.”

  Rayden walked over to me, took my hand and led me towards the dining area. “Come. I want you to eat.”

  The table was set and covered with food. An assortment of jams in small round glass jars and cheeses sat on the table. The spread made my stomach rumble.

  Rayden poured me a cup of tea while I slathered butter first, then what looked like a berry jam, on a piece of the still warm bread. I savored the combination of the creaminess from the almost melted butter and the sweetness of the jam. If all the food in the Wilds tasted as good as what Rayden had set out for breakfast I knew why Devin had been so particular about what he ate back in Crescent City.

  “How did you sleep?” he asked.

  “Good.” I fought to think of something else to add. When my nerves got the best of me, I never could think of the right thing to say. “Thank you for letting me stay here. I know having a cousin you never knew you had show up in the middle of the night must’ve been kinda weird.”

  “Lilli, you’re family.” Rayden shook his head. “The truth is, I wish you could stay longer. I wish that you being here wasn’t as dangerous as it is.”

  Devin cleared his throat. “Speaking of dangerous,” he said. “The sooner we can get Naiara over here, the faster Lilli and I can be on our way.”

  “Don’t we have to wait until night time?” I asked.

  “I’m hoping Naiara might find another way for us to return home.”

  My heart sank. I’d hoped for a little more time to get to know Rayden. I’d always wanted a cousin. Somehow the idea of returning to Crescent City and my empty home made me sad. I wondered if Devin had known that visiting the Wilds would have that effect on me. Perhaps that was another reason he’d been so hesitant.

  Rayden pushed his chair away from the table. “Got it.” A second later, he vanished, and I gasped, still not used to seeing people disappear before my eyes.

  “You okay?” Devin asked.

  “Yeah. I guess I just expected him to use the door, that’s all.”

  “Well, don’t worry. When Rayden returns with Naiara, that’s what they’ll do.”

  “So you guys don’t just pop up in other people’s houses unannounced?”

  “Oh no.” Devin shook his head. “That’s considered bad manners.”

  “Well, that’s a relief.” I took another look around the room. “So do all the houses here look like this?”

  “A lot of them do, not all though. Your mother’s house is a lot grander than this one.”

  “You’ve been to her house?”

  “I’ve only seen it from the outside,” Devin said. “I’m not the type of person Zoran permits inside his home.”

  I wondered why, but didn’t ask. “It sounds like my mother has a good life here. Maybe that’s why it was so easy for her to turn her back on me and Dad.” As the words came out I heard the bitterness in my voice. When it came to my mother it was so hard to sort out my feelings.

  “Oh no, Lilli. I don’t think that was it at all.”

  Devin scooted his chair closer to mine and pulled me onto his lap. I leaned into him and he slung an arm over my shoulders.

  “I’m scared. What if she isn’t happy to see me?”

  “She will be,” Devin said. “It’s me she won’t be pleased with.”

  “That’s just the thing. If she’s upset with you for bringing me here, I’m going to feel like she wasn’t interested in meeting her own daughter.”

  “If she’s upset, it will only be because she knows you’re safer being as far away from Zoran as possible.”

  I didn’t want to spend my time stewing over it, so I got up. “We should clear the table.”

  Devin stood and carried the dirty dishes from the table to the kitchen, where he set them down on the counter. Something caught my eye: a row of pictures on the mantle over the fireplace. I walked over to them and picked up the one that I knew had to be of Rayden’s parents. “What happened to them?”

  Devin joined me beside the fireplace and took the photograph from my hands to get a better look. “Rayden’s parents were healers. They were tending to a wounded Council member when a group of demons attacked, ambushing and murdering them. Healers are often targeted by demons. I think you can imagine why.”

  I was about to ask him about the Council when his body stiffened, and he turned toward the door. “They’re here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “You still doubt my ability?"

  He sounded almost disappointed as he grasped my hand and pulled me into the middle of the room.

  Two quick knocks let Devin and I know that someone was about to enter. A moment later, Rayden pushed the door open and walked inside, followed by my mother. I steadied myself for her reaction as Rayden turned to close the door behind them.

  I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen when I came face to face with her. For the past few days I kept picturing the same scenario over and over in my head. My mother would stare at me as if she didn’t know who I was at first. Devin would explain that I was her daughter. It would take a moment or two for the reality of the situation to sink in, and when it finally did, she would cry happy tears and sweep me into her arms. Of course, that was ridiculous. Not only did we look alike, but she had seen me just a few weeks ago at Dad’s funeral. Clearly, I’d been overdoing it on Lifetime channel movies.

  As my mother’s eyes met mine she placed a hand over heart and whispered my name. I stood, rooted to the spot, speechless.

  Before I was able to form words, my mother turned her gaze from me and glared icily at Devin. “You’ve no idea what you have done.”

  Chapter 19

  My mother’s reaction caused a storm of anger and rejection to billow through me. She clearly had no desire to see me, and was angry with Devin because he had brought me to her.

  “Don’t talk to him like that,” I said. “I made him bring me here. If you want to be upset with someone, be upset with me.”

  “She defends you even though you’ve put her life at risk,” my mother said, addressing Devin as if I wasn’t in the room. He lowered his head, like a child being scolded by their parent.

  “I’m here only because I need answers from you,” I said, choking back tears. “Once you give them to me, I’ll leave, and you can go back to forgetting that you ever have a daughter.”

  “What?” My mother looked at me like I’d just slapped her across the face. “You can’t really believe that’s what I want?”

  “You disappeared from my life without a trace. No note, no picture, nothing to remember you by, and then you show up at my father’s funeral. It was your chance to explain things to me, but instead you ran away and let me think I was losing my mind. What kind of mother does that?” I wiped the tears from my cheeks and pressed my fingers over my eyes to steady myself. I’d sworn I wouldn’t cry, yet here I was, bawling like a baby.

  “The kind who wants to protect the daughter she loves more than her own life.”

  I dropped my hands from my face and looked at my mother, studying her. How in the world did we look so much alike? People might mistake us for sisters, maybe even twins, rather than mother and daughter.

  “You have to believe that if I had any other choice, I would have stayed with you and Mark forever.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Rayden asked.

  “I ran away from the Wilds because I wanted a different life than the one laid out for me. One where I wouldn’t be forced to marry someone I didn’t want to.” My mother took a few steps closer before continuing. “I planned to live in Crescent City with you and your father forever. I prayed that, with enough time, Zoran would forget about me, that he would assume I was gone forever and move on with his life, but it didn’t happen that way.”

  “If Zoran found you, he wouldn’t have let Lilli or her father live,�
� Rayden said.

  “It was Dara who found me . . .”

  “Who’s Dara?” I asked.

  “Zoran’s mother,” Rayden explained before turning his head to address my mother. “How is that even possible?”

  “She has her moments of lucidity,” my mother replied. “And one of those moments came after I ran away. She was determined to find me and return me to her son to make up for being such a poor mother to him. I used every cloaking spell I could come up with, but she managed to track me down anyway. I’d left Lilli at home with her father one day while I went to the store. That’s where Dara confronted me.” My mother’s voice alternated between anger and sadness as she spoke. “She knew about Lilli and about Mark because she’d been following me around for days. I begged her not to hurt my child or the man I loved. She promised she wouldn’t, but, in exchange I had to make a choice: come with her then and there and marry Zoran as I was meant to, or she would tell him where to find me.”

  “Not much of a choice,” Rayden mumbled.

  “Why couldn’t you have told me any of this? After Dad died, when I saw you at the funeral, you could have come back later and explained everything.”

  “She never intended for you to see her in the first place.” It was the first time Devin had spoken since my mother walked through the door. “Isn’t that right, Naiara?”

  “It’s safer for her this way. I never meant for Lilli to learn about me or the Wilds or magic from you, Devin. You had no right to tell her.”

  “You’re being unfair, Naiara,” Rayden said.

  “Am I?” she asked, testily.

  “You may not have wanted Lilli to know the truth, and I’m sure you worked your finest magic to keep her in the dark, but it didn’t work,” Devin said in a controlled voice. “Not only did she see you at her father’s funeral despite your use of glamour, but Lilli’s been seeing . . . other things since she was only a child. Do you have any idea how frightening that has been for her?”

  “What other things?”

  “Demons,” Devin said, his voice gruff.

  “Wait. What? That can’t be possible.”

  “But it is. You thought cutting her connection to magic would keep her safe, but it calls to her anyway.”

  “What is he talking about?” my mother asked me.

  As I told her about my dreams and the monsters I had learned from Devin were actually demons, the expression on my mother’s face darkened.

  “You’ll be more powerful than even I imagined,” she whispered to no one in particular. “Devin, if you care for my daughter the way you seem to, then you must return her to her home right now. The longer you’re here, the greater the risk.”

  I protested. “But I only just got here, and . . .”

  “No buts, Lilli. I have always felt in my heart that there would be a time in the future when the two of us would reunite.” My mother’s voice cracked and she wiped away a tear that had begun to slide down her cheek. “I’d actually hoped it would be the three of us, you, me and your father, but I forgot how fragile human lives are. I never expected . . .” She shook her head. “The time for you and I to be together will come, but for now, the Wilds is too dangerous of a place for you to be.”

  “We can’t leave until it gets dark. Someone might see us,” I said, hopeful that I would have at least a few hours to spend with my mother and her cousin.

  My mother’s confused expression prompted an explanation from Devin about how we’d arrived under the cover of night. “I can’t do any magic,” I said, realizing that perhaps she didn’t know that.

  “But you can see through glamour.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s about all I can do.”

  “Perhaps it was, but not anymore.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “I bound your powers after you were born. You weren’t supposed to be able to do magic at all, but Devin’s right, magic called to you anyway. It shouldn’t have, but I believe the reason it has is because you are destined to be a powerful witch. ” My mother turned to Devin. “The spell was dependent on her remaining in the human world. Now that you’ve brought her here, the binding spell I cast is broken. The longer she stays in the Wilds, the quicker her magic will develop. I don’t know what her ability will be, but you need to be with her when she finds out. We both know what’s at stake here, don’t we?”

  Devin nodded and bowed his head. “I assumed Lilli had her full powers already and that the reason she couldn’t do more was because of her father. It never even occurred to me that you’d bound her powers.”

  “What’s done is done. I never anticipated that one day my cousin’s best friend would find my daughter where I’d left her a world away. But if you came across her, then someone else very well may do the same. Someone who wouldn’t hesitate to run to Zoran with my secret. I’m trusting you to ensure Lilli’s safety. She may not have been able to teleport into the Wilds, but she can teleport back out now, and that’s what the two of you need to do. Now.”

  Rayden walked over to me and took my hand. He glanced at my mother. “At least give us a moment to say goodbye.”

  “While you do that, I’m going to use your room to have a private word with Devin,” my mother replied.

  The two of them disappeared down the hallway.

  Rayden sighed. “Less than a day after I met you, and I already have to say goodbye.”

  “I’ll miss you.” I smiled, even though his words made me sad. I hadn’t anticipated liking him so much. I’d grown up with hardly any family members, always wishing for more, but like so many of the things in life I’d longed for, having my cousin be a part of my life wasn’t going to happen.

  “You heard what Naiara said. The time will come when it will be safe for you to return.”

  Seer or not, I didn’t have a lot of faith in my mother’s prediction, but I kept that opinion to myself. “What do you suppose they’re talking about?”

  “No doubt she’s making him swear on his life that he’ll do whatever he can to protect you.” Rayden held his arms open. “Will I scare you if I ask for a hug before you leave?”

  This time my smile was genuine. I embraced Rayden, only dropping my arms from around him as my mother and Devin returned. She walked over to me and grasped my hands. “It’s almost harder to say goodbye the second time around.” She drew me into her arms. “I love you, my child.”

  A moment later, I felt Devin’s hand on my arm. “It’s time to go.”

  My mother let go and took the hand Rayden extended toward her. He circled his hand around her waist to keep her steady, noticing, just as I did, that she looked faint.

  I turned to look at Devin.

  “Before we do this,” he said, “I have to warn you that teleporting from this world into another, especially since it’s your first time, won’t feel good.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It can be a dizzying experience. Keep your eyes closed.”

  I did as he asked.

  He wrapped his arms around me and whispered into my ear, “Now.”

  The craziest feeling came over me. It was like I was being tossed around in a tumbler. I felt sick to my stomach, and a horrible ringing in my ears made my head feel like it was about to explode. Eventually, the sensation subsided, only to return suddenly. My legs felt like jelly and couldn’t support me. If it weren’t for Devin holding onto me, I would’ve collapsed into a heap on the floor.

  Slowly, the sick feeling in my stomach and the spinning in my head started to fade. I felt Devin lift me into his arms. He laid me down on a bed.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered into my ear. “You can open your eyes now.”

  “Where are we?”

  “In your room.”

  My eyelids flicked open and, even though it seemed impossible, he was right. We were back home and in my bedroom.

  “Holy crap,” I said. “You were right, that did not feel good.”

  “It never does the first few times, and the farther
you teleport the worse it is.”

  “I do not want to do that again.”

  Devin laughed. “You seemed pretty eager to try it a few days ago.”

  I sat up. “Well, I changed my mind.”

  “Good. The less magic both of us do, the safer it will be.”

  I knew Devin was right. Doing magic would only create attention neither of us needed. Still, it seemed strange to go back to the way things were after everything I learned. Thankfully, I had Devin. He made it easier to have to give up so much.

  “So what now?” I asked.

  “I believe you and I are scheduled to work tomorrow.”

  “And you’re okay with that?”

  He looked confused. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “You don’t find Crescent City boring?” Surely, he couldn’t be satisfied with life in the mundane human world after growing up with magic and with the beauty and splendor of the Wilds. I’d seen so little of it, but the little I did filled me with a sense of awe.

  “Not at all.”

  “Staying here with me means giving up on seeing your family.”

  Devin clasped the side of my face and turned my head so that I could look into his eyes. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t give up to be with you.”

  “Devin . . .”

  “I mean it, Lilli.” His lips brushed mine and his hands moved to the nape of my neck. He pulled me closer sliding his tongue between my lips as we kissed. “This—you in my arms, your lips on mine, it’s all I need to be happy.”

  I wanted to tell him that I felt the same way, but fear kept the words inside. What if he hadn’t really meant what he’d just said? What if something happened to him, the way it had to my dad, and I lost him? Loving Devin scared me. It was risky, but I did love him with every cell in my body. Why couldn’t I bring myself to tell him?

  Chapter 20

  Now that the binding spell my mother had cast on me had supposedly broken, I expected my life to be dramatically different, but in the few days since Devin and I had returned from the Wilds, nothing had changed. I waited to catch myself suddenly being able to read people’s minds, or to start having visions the way my mother did. Instead, life went on as usual.