Nora stared at me a good long moment, then, much to my surprise, she burst out laughing. “That’s just ridiculous. No longer a witch. What nonsense.”
“I’m serious, Nora.” I took a steadying breath. “I am happier without it.”
“That’s absurd,” my aunt said. “You’re not happier without magic. You’re a Warren. Magic is who you are.”
“I don’t expect you to understand my decision, but I do expect you to respect it.”
“Respect it? Never. Absolutely not.”
“You don’t have a choice. I’ve been doing some reading, and while it’s rare, there are witches who have given up their powers. If I stop practicing altogether, eventually my magic will disappear.”
“Ha!” Nora shouted. “You think it’s that easy, do you?”
I pulled my hair from my face and twisted it behind my neck. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear. It’s painful for me too.”
“But it’s a lot less painful than facing the real issue, isn’t it?”
I shot her a warning look.
Nora studied me. I knew she was weighing her options about how far she wanted to take this, but I could tell by the resolved look on her face she wasn’t going to back down. And even though I knew what she was building herself up to, it still felt like a slap when she said, “You can’t even say his name, can you?”
“Don’t.”
“We miss him too.”
“Nora,” Izzy pleaded.
“No, Izzy,” she snapped. “I will not abide by this a moment longer. You are a talented witch, Brynn, and you have been given a rare gift. It’s wrong of you to throw it away.”
“I didn’t throw anything away. My gift was taken from me.”
“Rubbish. Your gift is blocked because you’re blocked. You’ve blocked everything off. You’re terrified to feel anything. You’ve completely shut down. You never talk about him. Stars above us, forget the spells we haven’t tried to regain your powers, what about the most obvious ritual we’ve been ignoring? Adam’s funeral.”
Adam’s funeral.
The words were wrong. They shouldn’t be said.
Nora took another step toward me. I instinctively backed away. “Don’t you remember the joy you used to feel when you used your gift? You brought peace to so many people in pain.”
“And what about my pain?” I snapped. “What about that?”
She didn’t answer.
“You want me to share my feelings? You want me to talk about it? Here it is. I’m the one who has always been with ghosts. I’m the one who has always passed on their final messages to their loved ones. And yet, I’m the one who doesn’t get to know what his final words would have been? Tell me, how is that fair?”
My aunts stared at me, mirrored expressions of pain on their faces.
“Here’s some more truth for you. I hate my magic. It abandoned me that day when Adam lay dying on the grass, and it abandoned me afterward when I still had a chance to hear from him one last time.”
“Darling,” Izzy said, reaching for me again.
“No, I’m done.” I scissored my hands. “Nora, I will move mountains to help you prove your innocence, but don’t ask me about my magic again. It is not your choice. Accept it.”
“Brynn,” Izzy said, “this isn’t right.”
I turned and headed for the door.
“Don’t you dare walk away from us, young lady,” Nora shouted after me. “We are not done talking about this.”
I was done though. I grabbed the handle and tried to twist it. It didn’t budge.
“Nora,” I warned. “Knock it off.”
I heard some muttering from behind me that sounded like, You undo the spell if you don’t like it.
I tried the knob again.
Still frozen.
“Nora!”
“All right! But this isn’t over. I know you’re in pain, but this is not the way to deal with it.”
I yanked the door open and stumbled through the threshold. I only made it halfway to the house when a lightning bolt cracked directly over my head. I whirled around and gave Nora, who was leaning against the doorframe of the greenhouse, a ferocious look.
“Oh, that wasn’t me,” she said, planting a hand delicately on her chest. “If I had to guess that was all you, Miss I’m-Not-a-Witch-Anymore. You think you can simply stop being who you are? It’s not that easy, Niece. Your magic doesn’t just die. It fights to live. But I suspect at some level you already know that.”
I pressed my lips shut.
“If I had to guess, you’ve already had some experience with your powers going rogue.”
Suddenly I could see the broken concrete in front of Theo’s shop. And the dog treats that had appeared in my basket.
“It’s going to keep happening, you know. At first, your magic may try to win you over, by giving you a helping hand here and there, but eventually it will get annoyed. And its behavior will get worse. Especially when you’re upset.”
“It’s none of your concern. I have everything under control.”
Nora laughed. “Famous last words.”
“This conversation is over.”
I turned back around and hurried for the house, but not quickly enough to escape my aunts’ bickering.
“Oh, well done, Sister.”
“Now you have something to say?”
“No. No. I think you said enough for the both of us.”
“One more word and I’ll hurl a lightning bolt down on your head.”
“Please. I’d like to see you try.”
Let me guess,” I called up to the tree branch, “Gideon sent you to check up on me?”
Dog cawed, then swooped from his perch, sending a few golden leaves cascading down, and flew to a tree farther down the street.
“Mm-hmm.”
Despite the tumult of the day before, I had flown out of bed. Not literally of course. I’d need a broom to do that. But I did wake up feeling full of purpose. I finally told my aunts the truth, there were no more secrets between us, and that meant I could focus completely on the work at hand.
And there was a lot of work to do.
I meant what I had said about moving mountains to prove Nora’s innocence. No matter what she believed, I didn’t need my magic. I just needed to get busy.
It was time to talk to Constance’s younger brother, John.
Rip had said he couldn’t believe his brother had finally done something. Obviously, he said it in such a way to lead me to believe his brother might be responsible for Constance’s death, but given the way he had scratched at his nose, there was a good chance it was all a play on his part. If that was the case, I needed to find out why he wanted me to believe his brother was guilty. Was it to deflect guilt away from himself? Or was there something more going on?
Roxie had mentioned that John cut all the town’s lawns, and given that it was a Wednesday, there was a good chance I knew where to find him.
Adam and I often went on Wednesday picnics. He had taught science at the local high school, and his schedule gave us just enough time to meet up for lunch dates. They were usually short, just paper bag meals, but they were lovely. When we weren’t getting kicked off the lawn by men riding on mowers, that is. That’s right, on one occasion we had met up on the lawn of the town square, only to be driven off it literally by a man on a mower. We had laughed about it at the time even though it had been a pretty aggressive move. It’s easy to laugh about things when you’re happy and in love.
The memory warmed me a moment before it was washed away by the pain that always seemed to follow.
I didn’t have time for that today.
I quickened my step, hearing the flapping of wings overhead as Dog leapfrogged ahead of me.
Of course, so many things could have changed since that time on the lawn. There was no guarantee whatsoever John Graves would be at the town square, and yet, I had a feeling he would be. There was something in the air. I somehow knew the powers that be were on my side for a change. Maybe it was my reward for telling the truth.
Dog let out a loud caw. “You feel it too, don’t you?” I said, looking up at him on his new perch. I noticed a woman on the other side of the street, trimming some hedges, giving me a suspicious look. She probably didn’t make a habit of talking to crows.
“Good morning, Mrs. Myers!” I called out cheerily.
She held up a hand in greeting but still looked suspicious.
Well, it would take more than suspicious looks to stop me today.
Just before I turned the corner that would take me to the town square, I heard a rumbling noise. A smile spread over my face.
Lawn mower.
Sure enough, there he was. The man I remembered from that day with Adam.
I trotted across the street and stepped up onto the lawn.
Now, how to get his attention? In the past I could have used any number of little spells. A flash of sunlight directed by the snap of my fingers. A gust of wind that would have carried the cap off his head and dropped it at my feet.
But those were no longer options.
The man finished the row, then swung the riding mower back around in my direction. I raised a hand in greeting. I thought he spotted me, but I must have been mistaken because he kept on driving. I walked closer and tried again. Without a doubt he saw me that time, we made eye contact, but he kept on driving. Right past me.
Clearly, not much had changed since he had run Adam and me off the lawn.
Well, I was not about to be run off again. Not today.
I waited until he reached the end of the row and swung the mower back around.
Then I stepped directly in his path.