Mrs. Deveaux politely excused herself to check on some laundry. I decided she had the right idea to leave Alexis and Bernice to their reunion. I waited until Mrs. Deveaux had gone and then vanished myself into the forest. I sat there, in the spot where Henry and I had kissed and where I had later betrayed Alexis.
I lay down on the cool grass of the clearing, trying not to cry. Somewhere Ethan was being forced to live like a tramp thanks to me. Elsewhere, Celia was turning over his plans for the magic wand to the Chairwoman. She would probably in turn give those plans to the Nazis. I ran through my laundry list of failures again.
I must have fallen asleep there. The next thing I knew, something was rattling the brush. I thought maybe it was a deer or some other animal. Then I stiffened, thinking it might be Celia or some other agent of the Chairwoman. I wished I’d brought my jacket with me, but I’d left it in Rampart City, on my bed. There wouldn’t be time to fetch it now—
“Hello, dear,” Alexis said. She ducked beneath a branch as she stepped into the clearing. “I thought you might be here.”
“How do you know about this place?”
“Clare told me you and Henry used to come here. I thought you might like some company.” She sat on the damp grass beside me, throwing an arm around my shoulder. “I can’t thank you enough for bringing Bernice back. I only wish you could have brought the other two. At least Lorain. Vivien was always such a headstrong little thing; I don’t suppose there’s any use trying to talk to her.”
“I’m not sure Lorain is much better. Not anymore. They’re so angry. So bitter. They hate us. All of the coven.” I told Alexis what Bernice had said about the Chairwoman’s plan to start a new coven and destroy us.
“Then we’ll have to find this Chairwoman and stop her. Maybe when we do, the rest of them will come to their senses.”
I smiled a little. That was Alexis, always so positive, even in the face of oblivion. I wished I could be like that, but I could only think of impending doom. “I don’t think so. They’ve been trained for over a century to hate us. You can’t just snap out of that.”
“Celia did, didn’t she?”
“Not entirely. If Ethan hadn’t been there, she would have killed me. She hates me so much, I can’t stand it.” Though I tried, I couldn’t help collapsing against Alexis and crying as I replayed the scene from the bunker in my mind.
Alexis stroked my hair, whispering, “We’ll find a way to help her. Then she can marry Ethan and you can all be friends.”
“You don’t understand. She’s not just my friend,” I said. I took a deep breath that was punctuated with a sob. “There’s more to it. Celia is my daughter.”
Alexis stopped stroking my hair. I looked up at her, seeing that her face had gone deathly pale. “You’re sure?” she asked.
“I’m sure.”
“Oh my. When did this happen?”
“A hundred twenty years ago. You thought I was living in Edinburgh, but I wasn’t. I was in Paris. With my baby.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was afraid. Afraid of what you might think of me.”
She held me at arm’s length and mustered her best big sister voice as she said, “Stephanie, you’re my sister. I’ll always love you. No matter what happens.”
“I’m sorry, Alexis. I’m so sorry.”
“It’ll be all right, dear. We’ll find her and we’ll get her back, just like Bernice. Everything will work out. You’ll see.” I sat there and let her comfort me, still afraid to tell her the rest of it.
But there would be time for that later, once we had finished with all of this: the Chairwoman, the Nazis, and the magic wand.
Alexis helped me to stand. “Come on, dear. Mrs. Deveaux has fixed some tea for us.”
“Tea sounds lovely,” I said and followed my sister back to the house.
Also by P.T. Dilloway:
A Hero’s Journey (Tales of the Scarlet Knight, Volume 1): Dr. Emma Earl never wanted to be a hero. But when she finds a magic suit of armor that can deflect bullets and turn her invisible, she becomes part of an ancient war between good and evil. It’s up to Emma as the latest incarnation of the heroic Scarlet Knight to save Rampart City from the fiendish Black Dragoon and his plan to rule first the city and then the whole world.
The Hazards of Love (Tales of the Scarlet Knight, Volume 3): Terror grips the streets of Rampart City as a killer stalks its citizens, cutting the hearts from his victims. For Emma Earl, the Scarlet Knight, the trail leads to an ancient evil reborn and a confrontation with the person she cares about the most!
Girl Power: When a supervillain's weapon turns Earth's greatest male heroes into its greatest heroines, they enter a whole new world. Can Apex Girl, Velocity Girl, the Mermaid, and Midnight Spectre come together in time to save the world?
Chance of a Lifetime (Chances Are #1): When Detective Steve Fischer investigates a robbery, he’s murdered by a gangster and injected with an experimental drug known as FY-1978. Thanks to the drug, Steve comes back—as a woman. Now Stacey Chance has to find those responsible and make them pay.
About the Author
P.T. Dilloway has been a writer for most of his life. He completed his first story in third grade and received an ‘A’ for the assignment. Around that time, he was also placed in a local writing contest for a television station, receiving an action figure in lieu of a trophy, thus securing his love with the written word. Since then, he’s continued to spend most of his free time writing and editing. In the last twenty years, he’s completed nearly forty novels of various genres.
In 2012, Solistice Publishing published P.T.’s superhero novel A Hero’s Journey, Tales of the Scarlet Knight #1. That same year, December House Publishing included P.T.’s flash fiction stories as part of the collection We Are Now. Also in 2012, P.T. created the imprint Planet 99 Publishing to publish the remainder of the Tales of the Scarlet Knight series as well as a variety of other novels, all of which can be found at http://www.planet99publishing.com.
When not writing, P.T. enjoys reading and photographing Michigan’s many lighthouses. In order to pay the bills, he earned an accounting degree from Saginaw Valley State University in 2000 and for the past ten years has worked as a payroll accountant in Detroit. Visit his website: http://www.ptdilloway.com
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