It took a lot for Izzy to get angry. But when she did? It was a little scary.
Nora and I watched her stride through the front doors of Ivywood Hollow and head directly for the fireplace. She shot out her hand and flames swelled up over the logs waiting in the hearth. She then whirled around and pinned us with a ferocious look. “Well, that was a disaster.”
I cleared my throat. “Izzy, I’m so sorry.”
“No, I don’t want to hear from you right now,” she said with a point. “There will be time for your apologies later. You promised me everything was fine. How could you lose control of your powers like that? In front of the town?” She shook her head, then turned on her sister. “You. You start talking.”
“Don’t you think I’ve done quite enough of that already?” Nora collapsed into the chaise lounge.
“Don’t you dare try to be cute with me, Little Sister,” Izzy said. “You are going to tell me every detail of your connection to the Graves family. And you’re going to do it right now.”
“Is everything all right?” a tinny voice came from the iron register by the ceiling.
“Gideon, if you want to say something, then get down here,” Izzy snapped. “Otherwise, be quiet.”
Silence.
“Sister?”
Nora’s shoulders slumped. “It was all such a long time ago. I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Let’s start with Liz Coleman’s father, and why she thinks you made him disappear.”
Nora rolled her eyes grumpily. “I didn’t make him disappear. That would have required far more effort than he was worth.”
“Nora,” Izzy warned.
A defeated look came over my aunt’s face. “Mary came to me. She needed help. Her first husband, Carl, was not a nice man.”
Izzy folded her arms over her chest. “Go on.”
“She was afraid for her life and her daughter’s. She’d spoken to the police, but they were of little help.”
“So, you thought you could help her.”
Nora nodded.
Izzy tapped her foot on the floor. “Do I even want to ask why you didn’t come to me?”
“You know perfectly well why I wouldn’t come to you with something like this,” Nora said, her voice regaining some of its vigor. “You’ve always been too afraid of your own magical shadow to do what is necessary. You would have given him a sugar cookie and hoped for the best.”
“That’s not fair.”
Nora met Izzy’s eye, then said, “You’re right. It’s not. The truth is, something needed to be done, and I wanted to spare you from having to perform a spell you clearly wouldn’t have been comfortable with when I could take care of the situation myself.”
Izzy took a step toward her sister. “And which spell exactly wouldn’t I have been comfortable with?”
Nora sank back into the chaise again. “There was only one option as far as I could see.”
“Which spell?”
“If I’d had the time, I would have perhaps gone in a different direction.”
“Evanora!”
Nora mumbled something into her chest while fiddling with the many buttons of her coat.
“Which. Spell. Did. You. Do?”
“The Night of Terror spell,” she finally shouted. “There? Are you happy?”
Izzy blinked a few times, then reached a shaky hand out for the armrest of the sofa behind her. Once she found it, she dropped down into it.
I looked back and forth from one aunt to the other. “What exactly is the Night of Terror spell?”
“It’s from the restricted library.” Izzy’s eyes were wide, but she was staring at nothing I could see. “It’s extremely dangerous. Even with a powerful coven, it’s extremely dangerous. Highly unpredictable. Nora, you could have died.”
My other aunt folded her hands on her lap. “Well, I didn’t, and the spell worked.”
I had a feeling the name was somewhat self-explanatory, but I still needed to ask. “What exactly does the spell do?”
“It brings a person’s worst fears to life,” Izzy said, still looking shocked. “It’s an illusion if done correctly, but for the person the spell targets, it might as well be real.”
I turned back to Nora. “And what were Carl’s worst fears?”
“Oh, who remembers.” Her face twisted in disgust. “I locked him in a room and put in my ear plugs. As I recall, I managed to get a fair bit of knitting done that night. By morning, Carl was a new man. Quite agreeable. I told him if he ever raised his voice, let alone his hand in anger to anyone again, I’d be back. I don’t think he trusted himself around Mary, so he left town. He lives in Nevada now. I paid him a visit a few years back just to be sure he was behaving himself.” Her lips curled into something slightly wicked. “He assured me he was. I used a truth spell just to be certain. That being said, I should probably check on him again. Maybe I’ll take a trip in February. Get some sun. Buy myself a new hat.”
“Enough,” Izzy said.
Nora stopped talking and folded her hands once again.
Izzy fixed her sister in her gaze. “Now let’s hear the rest of it.”
Nora looked back at her in question.
“Well?”
“Everything I told you is the truth.” Nora looked over at me. “Didn’t Mary say something about my always having been good to her?”
“She did.”
“Obviously, she hasn’t filled her daughter in on the truth of who her father was,” she added. “Not that I could blame her. No one wants a monster in the family.”
“I don’t doubt any of that,” Izzy said. “But you’ve left something out.”
Nora frowned, then pointed a single finger in the air, a moment later she raised another, and then another as though silently counting. “No, I think I’ve covered all the pertinent details.”
“Don’t do that.”
Nora sighed with what sounded like real exasperation. “I don’t know what it is you’re referring to.”
“Consequences. I am referring to the consequences. They must have been severe given you did the spell without a coven. They would have all gone to you.”
Nora looked over to the door, probably subconsciously wishing for escape. “You know the Warren witches are hardy stock.”
Izzy took a steadying breath. “It’s a dark spell, Nora. Even if your intentions were pristine, there would have been a price to pay.”
“So, I paid it,” she said with a shrug.
Izzy pushed herself up off the couch and walked over to her sister. “Where?”
Nora scoffed. “It’s fine. It’s healed. It was so long ago.”
“Where?”
Nora closed her eyes and pointed at the back of her shoulders.
Izzy snapped her fingers and the buttons on Nora’s jacket flew open. She then yanked it down and pulled up the black silk turtleneck Nora was wearing underneath. I could only look for a moment at the thin scars crisscrossed over my aunt’s back.
“That’s right,” Nora suddenly said. “Spiders were one of his fears. Hence the, uh, webbing.”
Izzy ran her hand over Nora’s shoulders. “How did you hide this from me?” she asked in a much gentler voice. “Have you been using a glamor spell?”
She shrugged.
Izzy carefully pulled Nora’s shirt back down and then cradled her head. “My dear, dear, sweet, foolish sister.”
A strange honking noise came from the register. Was that Gideon blowing his nose? Not that I was judging. My own eyes were stinging.
“Again, it was a long time ago,” Nora said, patting Izzy’s arm. “I’m fine now. I survived. And Mary and her daughter were free from danger.” She looked over at me. “But just so we’re clear, it’s not something I would recommend.” She then pulled away from Izzy’s embrace to look up at her. “And if I had to do it again, I would come to you.”
“I should hope so.”
“It’s about time you started pulling your own weight.” She shot me a wink.
I smiled. Nora and I had been fighting so much lately. It felt good for us all to be on the same side again.
“Stop that, you two,” Izzy snapped.
Or not.
“I’m still mad.”
Nora groaned. “But it was forever ago.”
“I’m not mad at what you did then. I’m mad about now. Don’t you think it would have been a good idea to share all this with us?”
“No, no, let’s not go there. I’ve had a very trying evening. I liked where we were a second ago.” She waved her sister in to come cradle her head again, but Izzy folded her arms over her chest. “Besides, I’m not the only one who needs to explain herself. Let’s talk about Brynn, shall we?”