She bent down to touch his hair with her free hand. “That’s right, honey. It’s me. You’ve done very good work. But now I have to go away.”
“Where?”
“That’s not important. You’ll be dead long before I get there.”
“Celia, don’t,” I said. I would have said more, but she smacked me in the jaw with the Luger. I could only spit out a wad of blood and maybe a few pieces of teeth.
“Shut up! I’m tired of listening to you. You’re nothing more than a whore. Who was my father? A stable boy? Some sweaty dockworker?”
“No. Alexis’s husband,” I said through my busted mouth. “I thought he loved me. Maybe he did, but not as much as he loved his life with Alexis.”
“So you’re a whore and a fool.”
“Yes,” I said, looking down at the floor. “I am.”
Ethan turned to me, raising an eyebrow. “What’s going on here?”
“There’s something you should know Ethan. Celia is my daughter. She’s over a hundred twenty years old. The Chairwoman has been keeping her alive and young with magic. In return she works as an assassin for her.”
“What?” He turned to Celia. “Is that true?”
“Yes, sweetheart. It’s true. Stephanie is my mother. She fucked her sister’s husband and made me. But she was too scared to tell anyone, so she gave me away to a sleazy lawyer for another family to adopt.”
“You gave her away?”
“Yes.” I turned to face Ethan, whose look of disappointment hurt worse than both of my shoulders. “It wasn’t like that. I thought she would be better off with a mortal family. You remember what I told you in Italy?”
“Yes.” He looked back at Celia. “But she was wrong. She would have been a good mother. Much better than this Chairwoman person.”
“What do you know about it?” Celia shot back. “What do you know about anything? You thought I was a sweet, innocent girl who wanted to marry you. You’re nothing but a sap.”
“Maybe I am a sap, but I still love you, Celia. Let’s go away and forget about all of this. We’ll find somewhere quiet and start over.”
“I don’t love you! Either of you!”
I was already shifting my weight, tipping the chair to my right. I toppled it just as Celia fired the Luger at Ethan. I knocked him over onto the floor; the bullet got me in the stomach, right about in the womb where Celia had come from. I landed on top of him, my mind a haze of pain.
“Very noble, but also very stupid. I’m still going to kill you both.”
“You have what you want!” Ethan shouted. “Just go! Stephanie’s already going to die and the Nazis will kill me.”
“I don’t leave a job unfinished.”
“I’m not a job. Neither is Stephanie. She’s your mother and I’m your fiancé.”
“Neither of you is anything to me. Not anymore.”
“Fine, but do me one favor before you kill us.”
“You want me to let her go? She looks about dead anyway.”
“No. I want you to kiss me. Kiss me like you used to do.”
“Why?”
“I want to know before I die if you ever did love me.”
“How sentimental.” She glared down at us, but finally nodded. “Fine. If that will shut you up.”
She tucked the Luger into a pocket and then roughly grabbed my chair. She threw me to the left, so that I wound up hitting my head against the floor. I could feel myself getting weaker, my life draining away. I didn’t mind at that moment. I was finally getting what I deserved for all the wrongs I’d done. It was just too bad Ethan would be another casualty, along with Celia, another life she would destroy thanks to me.
She tipped his chair up so that she could kiss him properly on the lips. It wasn’t a simple peck but a full-length kiss, one that lasted until they both looked as if they needed air. Celia was actually gasping as she stepped back from him.
I could see the change in her. Her face had turned pale, her lower lip trembled, and she wobbled a bit on her feet. “Oh Ethan,” she whispered. She dropped to her knees on the floor and began to sob. “I’m so sorry, Ethan.”
“It’s all right, honey. We can make things right again. I know we can.”
I let out a sigh of relief as Celia untied him and they embraced just the way they had back in Rampart City. They kissed again, this time even longer, until I was sure they were going to turn blue. My world was starting to turn black around the edges when they parted.
“Let’s get out of here,” Ethan said. “Stephanie can help us find somewhere safe.”
“No. I can’t go with you, Ethan.”
“What? Why not?”
“The Chairwoman saved my life. I can’t abandon her.”
“But—”
“Go with Stephanie. She’ll hide you. I’ll tell the Chairwoman I killed you.”
“What about a body?”
“I’ll take care of it.” She stroked Ethan’s hair. “I know what I’m doing, sweetheart.”
“What about us, Celia?”
“We still have plenty of time. When this is all over we can be together.”
“But—”
“I can take care of myself,” she said, a bit of the old Celia creeping into her voice. She stepped over to my chair, turning it upright and then slicing the ropes holding me. I could only see her face in the dark tunnel that remained of my vision. She smiled at me and for a moment I saw a daughter’s love in her eyes. The moment was short-lived. “Mother, I’m trusting you with Ethan’s life. Get him to safety. Find somewhere for him to hide. Understand?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Good.” She leaned in close to whisper into my ear, “The next time I see you, I’m going to kill you, Mother.”
All I could bring myself to say was, “I know.”
“The two of you get out of here before Stephanie dies on us.”
Ethan didn’t have time for more than a brief kiss on Celia’s lips. Then he wrapped his arms around me. I was half-dead, but I still had the will left to vanish us safely to the archives. I stayed awake just long enough to see Clare floating over me and to hear Alexis’s voice calling my name.
Then I passed out.
Epilogue
When I woke up, I thought for sure I was still dreaming. I was in my bedroom in Rampart City as if nothing had happened at all. A damp cloth pressed against my forehead and then I heard Alexis say, “You’re awake. I thought you might sleep for a few more days.”
“How long has it been?” I asked, my voice hoarse and cracking so much I thought I must be an old woman again. Then Alexis dribbled some water into my mouth. My voice sounded better as I thanked her.
She sat on the edge of the bed, letting me look at her. She was back to herself, thin and beautiful, though perhaps a bit plumper than before in the midsection. Her lower lip trembled and then she finally lost all self-control. She crushed me in a hug, her wet cheek pressing against mine. “I thought you were gone. I thought I was too late for the potion to work,” she said through her sobs.
“It’s all right. I’m fine now, aren’t I?”
“Yes. You’re all better.”
“Thanks to you.” The only explanation was that Alexis with one of her feelings had brewed a Restoration potion to give to me when I appeared. That had saved my life. Though thinking of everything that had happened, I wasn’t so sure I was glad about that.
Thinking of Celia, I tried to get out of bed. Alexis pushed me back down; I was too weak still to put up a fight about it. “You still need to rest.”
“Ethan, is he safe?”
“He’s fine. He’s asleep in the guestroom.”
“No one’s come here?”
“No, dear. Not even Gretel has paid us a visit yet.”
I sighed at this. If Celia kept her word, the Chairwoman would think Ethan and I were dead. She might find out differently, but that would take time. For now we should be safe. “I’m sorry, Alexis. About everything.”
“Don’t worry about it, dear. I’m perfectly fine now. Healthy as a horse.”
“It’s my fault—”
“I said not to worry about it. It wasn’t so bad, all things considered.” She sighed and then patted her midsection. “I felt normal for the first time, perhaps ever. Does that sound crazy?”
I thought of when I’d stayed with Frau Braun, how content I’d been with being a chubby milkmaid. “Not at all.”
We hugged, albeit lightly, and then Alexis stood up. Before she could leave, I asked, “What has Ethan told you?”
“Not much. Only that his fiancée let you go. That she still loves him.”
I sighed again. Ethan hadn’t mentioned that I was Celia’s mother. My secret was still safe from Alexis. That didn’t make me feel much better at the moment.
“Get some rest, dear. I’ll check on you later.”
***
It was another day before I was strong enough to get up and around. The hard part was convincing Alexis that I didn’t need her mothering me. She escorted me down the stairs as if I had become a toddler and was still learning to walk. I didn’t say anything to her about that, but I drew the line at her trying to cut my food for me. “I’m not an invalid,” I snapped.
“Of course not, dear.”
I could see the hurt on her face as clearly as if I’d slapped her. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re just getting back to your old self,” she said with a smile.
“I haven’t been very good to you, have I?”
“You’ve been the best sister a girl could hope for,” she said and hugged me again while I went slack with shame. “Now eat your breakfast, young lady.”
“Yes, Mother.”
I was still sleeping when Ethan came downstairs. He looked unchanged except for a bit of stubble on his face. He smiled when he saw me. “Sleeping Beauty awakens.”
“Thanks to you and Alexis.” I shook my head as he sat down. “I did a pretty lousy job of rescuing you. Turns out I was the one who needed rescuing.”
“We’ll call it even,” he said. I didn’t feel even. I felt stupid and useless. Celia had beaten me. It was Ethan who had reached her, not me, not her own mother. She still hated me, perhaps now more than before. Only her love for Ethan had kept us from both winding up floating in the Rhine.
After breakfast we went into the parlor and got down to business. Alexis opened a desk drawer to take out a blue vial. “I took the liberty of brewing this for Ethan.”
“What is it?” he asked, but I already knew what it was. Maybe it was another of Alexis’s feelings, or maybe she was just wise enough to know what Ethan needed.
“It’s a potion to change your appearance. Like the ones Celia used those years you were together,” I said.
“I don’t need a potion,” he said. “You can hide me here. Or somewhere else—”
I sat down beside him on the sofa and patted his knee. “I’m sorry, Ethan. I can’t protect you. This Chairwoman knows too much about me. Wherever I take you, she’ll probably already know about it. As soon as she figures out you’re alive, she’s going to have her people looking for you. This is the only way to keep them from finding you.”
“No. There has to be another way.”
“There’s not. You have to take this and leave. When you do, you can’t ever contact me again. Not until this is over. You can’t see me, call me, or even write to me. I can’t know anything about where you are, who you are, or what you look like.” I paused, moving my hand up to his shoulder before I delivered the hardest blow. “The same for your family. You can’t tell anyone, not even your parents. You have to disappear completely.”
“I can’t let my parents think I’m missing—or dead. That could kill them.”
“I’ll take care of it. I’ll send them a few postcards. Tell them you’re just taking some time away after Celia left you. Then they won’t think the worst.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. He stared at the vial. “There has to be another way, doesn’t there?”
“I’m afraid not, dear,” Alexis said.
“Not until the Chairwoman and Nazis are beaten.”
“How long will that be?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It could be years.”
“Years?”
“I’m sorry, Ethan. I wish I had some good news for you.”
I couldn’t blame him for crying then. It wasn’t easy to give up the only life you’ve ever known. I’d found it hard enough to leave Celia behind. I thought I had been doing the right thing, but now it had blown up in my face. Like Pandora I’d opened a box of evil and now my comeuppance was due. Except it wasn’t just me bearing the brunt of it; Ethan and Alexis had been caught up in it too. It seemed I destroyed everyone I loved.
“It’ll be all right, Ethan,” I said, patting his back. “We’ll find a way to fix this. You saw what happened with Celia. She can come back and you can live a normal life.”
“Maybe,” he said with a sniffle. “But I’m going to be alone now, aren’t I?”
“For now, I’m afraid so. You’re going to have to run and keep running. You can’t stop anywhere longer than a couple of months. You can’t leave a trace of your presence.”
“Like a ghost. That’s what I am now, isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“I guess I always did want to travel,” he said with a hollow laugh. He held up the vial. “I just drink this?”
“That’s right, dear,” Alexis said. She picked up a wooden ruler to hand to him. “You ought to lie down and put this in your mouth. The change can be painful.”
Ethan did as he was told, lying flat on the floor and then opening the vial. After downing the potion in one long pull, he stuck the ruler in his mouth. He bit down on it just before a muffled scream escaped his lips.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch the transition. I closed my eyes and covered them with my hands while I listened to Ethan scream. Those screams were just another indictment of my failures. I’d failed as a mother, as a sister, and as a witch. Because of that, Ethan had to suffer.
I opened my eyes when the screaming stopped. Looking down, I saw a completely different man. Maybe it had been something subconscious on Alexis’s part in brewing the potion that he looked like Marco. He had the same olive-toned skin and black hair. That hair was thicker, a full beard lining his cheeks instead of a mustache like Marco had worn.
When he stood up, he was shorter than Marco and a bit chubbier as well. I had to look down at him in order to meet his now-brown eyes. “How’d we do?” he asked, his voice deeper.
“Here you go, dear,” Alexis said, handing a mirror to him. Her face was pale, as she was probably also thinking how much he looked like her husband. “You look very handsome.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied his unfamiliar face. “It’s not bad,” he said. He struggled to make unfamiliar facial muscles smile. “It could be worse, right?”
I thought of what had happened to Alexis back in Florence. Yes, it could be a lot worse. “That’s true,” I mumbled.
Alexis roused herself from her chair and opened the drawer again. She took out a cigar box from the desk. When she opened the lid, I saw two-dozen of the vials lined up neatly. “Each of these should last you about two months.” I did the math in my head. Four years. Just like Celia. “Each one will be unique. There’s no way to predict exactly what it will do, especially not on a mortal.”
“You mean I could wind up a circus freak?”
“Only if I made a mistake, dear.”
“Alexis has a lot of experience, though. Centuries of it.”
“Oh,” Ethan said, but he didn’t try smiling again. “You said I have to keep running, right? I guess this will help.”
“I guess so.”
Ethan left that night. I gave some money to him, enough to get him started. We would have to hope the Chairwoman or the War Department didn’t have anyone still watching the house. Otherwise this whole ruse might be
for nothing.
As he stood at the door, I brushed my hand along his unfamiliar beard. “You’ll be all right,” I said. “You’re a smart guy.”
“What about Celia?”
“I’ll find her. I’ll find a way to make this right.”
“I know you will.” He gave me a hug, during which he whispered into my ear, “I still believe in you.”
“Still?”
“We’re still alive aren’t we?”
“Barely.”
He squeezed me again. “Next time I see you, maybe it’ll be at the wedding.” He whispered into my ear, “Then you can be my mother-in-law.”
I was still thinking about that as Ethan slipped away into the night, out of my life, possibly forever.
***
Now that I was recovered and Ethan was gone, Alexis and I had one last piece of business to attend to. We vanished to the estate, appearing just inside the gates. We walked silently up to the front doors, where I used the knocker in a brass lion’s mouth to knock on the door.
A minute later, Mrs. Deveaux opened the door. Her frown quickly turned to a smile as she saw us. “Madame Gallo. Madame Joliet. You’re home. And look at you! You’re both looking so young. You must have discovered the Fountain of Youth somewhere.”
“Not quite, dear,” Alexis said. I followed her inside the house. As we walked to the living room, Mrs. Deveaux briefed us on the latest goings-on at the estate. From what I could gather, everything was about the same.
There was a key difference, though. “Just yesterday this young woman showed up here. She said she was your granddaughter, Madame Gallo. I told her that’s preposterous. You don’t have any grandchildren, do you ma’am?”
“No,” Alexis said. “But this girl is my very good friend. I hope you didn’t turn her out?”
The answer was sitting on the sofa. Bernice got to her feet and ran across the door. I thought she was going to bowl Alexis over from the violence of her embrace. “Oh, Grandmamma, I’ve missed you so much,” she said into Alexis’s shoulder as she sobbed with joy.
“I’ve missed you too, dear,” Alexis said, patting Bernice’s head.
Awakening (Birth of Magic #1) Page 26