A faint light lit a corner window of the Abbey. The General was still awake. I hesitated at the Abbey door. Whatever Henry’s mother wanted of me, I still couldn’t just barge inside and demand the General hear me out. This wasn’t my home. For the first time, I felt like an intruder. An angry one at that.
Henry had no such scruples. He marched straight up to the Abbey door and waved his arm over the entry. Reassured there were no new booby traps, he pushed it open. At least the General hadn’t locked it this time. Henry looked back to where we trailed behind him, his expression grim. “I guess he’s expecting us.”
Henry stood to one side, allowing us to pass, and Sylvia closed the door quietly once we were all inside. I stiffened, wondering if the General knew we’d arrived. Maybe he’d been watching for us from the window. I know I would have been. I twisted the ring on my finger. Henry might be his son, but I’d seen what the General could do when his blood was up, and there was no way I was going back there defenseless. I summoned all the magic I could hold.
Scar peeked out of the pack, quivering in fright.
“Be calm, baby. Nothing’s going to happen to you, I promise. Mommy’s just being careful.”
Scar slithered back inside.
Sylvia must have seen me because I saw her hand go down to the pocket where I knew she kept her wand. She was a smart cookie. I was glad she’d decided to come along.
Henry slowed as he neared the study. The door was ajar, and he pushed it open wide.
“So you’ve come then,” the General said. It was a statement, not a question.
At that precise moment, Sylvia and I reached the study. We found the General sitting behind his desk; the scrolls Scar had recently scattered in all directions were now neatly piled in front of him. He held on to the red pouch of trammeling powder and was fingering the ribbon that tied it.
His thoughtful expression died when he saw Sylvia and I were with Henry. His cheeks became red and flushed, and he slammed his fists onto the table before jumping to his feet. He must have seen Sylvia’s wand because he instantly withdrew his own.
“What on earth are they doing here?” the General exclaimed. “I thought you were coming to apologize.”
“Shut up and listen for a change,” Henry said. “And I have not come to apologize. If anyone ought to be apologizing, it’s you! You and your foolish, dangerous spell casting. You scrambled my memories, and you nearly cost me everything!”
“Get out,” the General said. “If you’ve not come to say you’re sorry, then you have nothing more to say.”
“Not until you hear us,” Henry continued.
“No, I will not. Get her out of here, or I’ll…”
The General waved his wand in my direction, and Henry dived over the desk to grab his arm. They tussled for a moment, and I thought Henry had the better of him, but his father brushed him off and backed into a corner, sending a few jars and books crashing to the ground. The smell of vinegar and ammonia invaded the room.
“I curse the day you ever set foot in my home,” the General screamed at me. “Get her out and don’t ever bring her back.”
“I’ll go, and gladly,” I said. “But I made a promise to someone, and I intend to see it through. Your wife gave me a message for you.”
This time, the General snatched a bowl from his shelves and angrily smashed it to the floor. “She gave you a message? I’ve read every necromancy text ever written, spent hours on my knees before her grave begging her to come back. Why would she give a message to a stupid little witch when I, the man who loved her heart and soul and has ached for her every day since she left me, has heard nothing? Why?”
He was shaking with anger, and I could see tears of frustration in his eyes. He raised his wand again and pointed it at me once more. At this moment, he was capable of anything. I hoped the blast of energy I had spindled inside my ring would be enough to cast a defensive shield if I needed it to. I raised my hands, ready to defend myself. Henry and Sylvia stood aside, their own wands drawn, ready to help me if it came to it.
A gentle voice behind me stopped everyone cold. “Put your wand down, Father. Enough is enough.”
I turned. Eleanor stood in the study door, and Victor was just behind her. They were dressed in matching leather coats, very Goth, their expressions unreadable. I guessed she’d received Henry’s texts after all.
The General’s wand remained high, but he tilted his head and narrowed his eyes in confusion.
“Put the wand down,” she repeated, “and we can talk.”
The fire went out of him, and the General stumbled forward, collapsing into his own seat. Henry took the opportunity to step forward and gently slipped the wand from his father’s hand.
“You decided to come after all?” Henry said to Eleanor.
She nodded. “I didn’t come for you. Or anyone else for that matter,” she said, glancing at me. There was something in her eyes that surprised me. It felt like—disappointment? Anger? I wasn’t totally sure. “None of you have anything to say that either Victor or I want to hear.”
“Then why did you come?” the General asked. His voice was empty, defeated.
Eleanor took a sharp intake of breath and stood up straight. “I came for our mother because it seems she wanted me to. That’s the only reason I’m here. So whatever message you say she has for us, Cat, say it quickly and be done, so we can all get on with our lives.”
“It wasn’t a message—it was a song. My ancestor, Catherine Morland, sang it to me in my family’s cemetery.”
“Then how do you know it was intended for us?” Eleanor asked, bewildered.
“Trust her,” Henry said softly. “Cat already sang it to me. It’s the song we could never remember. You’ll know it when you hear it.”
“Don’t!” the General cried. “Don’t say another word. I can’t bear it. Why do you think I cast those spells of forgetfulness on you in the first place? It breaks my heart to hear what we once had and have lost forever. I knew if you remembered it, you would sing it, and I’d suffer the pain of losing my darling Eleanor all over again. So don’t. Please, don’t.”
The General covered his face with his hands. He didn’t cry, but his agony and loneliness filled the room, touching us all.
Eleanor and Henry exchanged glances, and I guessed a little of what they were feeling. I understood the General’s motives, but it had been cruel to remove such a precious memory of their mother. I wasn’t sure if this revelation would unite them or drive them all further apart.
While they all battled with their feelings, I slipped around the desk. Sylvia smiled gently, encouraging me. I put my arm around the General’s shoulders and tried to help him sit up. At first, he brushed me away, his anger not quite abated and still boiling close to the surface. Anything might rekindle it. But I understood him better now, so I was less intimidated by it. I stood by patiently and waited for his gaze to lock on mine.
“You loved her very much,” I said. “And I can feel the weight of that loss even now. The thing is, I don’t know why I have this gift, when others may deserve it or need it more than I do. But that decision was never mine. It was another’s. All I know is your wife loved you all and loves you still. So much so she rose unbidden from her grave when she thought you all in danger of breaking up. Please let me give you her message. Please let me sing you her song.”
The General’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Unbidden, you say?”
I nodded. “Whatever you think, I didn’t summon her. I wasn’t even thinking about her at the time. I was searching for my familiar, who was curled up on her grave. Your wife revealed herself to me.”
The General sought Henry’s attention. “Is that true?”
Henry nodded. “Let her sing her song. She sounds just like Mom did when she sang it, and I’ve missed her so much.”
The General’s gaze went from Henry, to Eleanor, and then to me. At last, the fight went out of his eyes, and he nodded.
It was now or never. After an encouraging nod from Sylvia, I filled my lungs with air and began to sing:
Dancing with my sweetheart and my children, one to three,
With the Goddess there beside us under shade of willow tree,
Turn the circle once, then twice,
And sing out all our praises
As we thank you for our blessings on this gentle bed of daisies.
Merry meet and blessings be, we spin under the light,
We dance together, hands entwined, ‘til day turns into night,
Circle in, and circle out,
We sing with all our heart,
Receive our thanks, O blessed one, and pray we never part.
As I sang the words, a dreaminess fell on the General and his children. Henry, who had heard the song before, smiled affectionately, as if remembering an old favorite. Eleanor gasped, and her eyes filled with tears. She was so overcome, we all thought she might faint, but luckily Victor stepped forward and led her over to the General’s armchair where she sat down. The General himself stared dead ahead, but though he didn’t make a sound, the familiar hardness of his expression began to wither, making him look more like his son Henry than ever, and the years seemed to fade from his face.
When I was done, he nodded thoughtfully. After a moment, he took my hand in his and kissed the back of it.
“Thank you,” he said. And then he raised his head and addressed his children. “I’m sorry. It all just hurt too much, you see. I loved her ever so dearly.”
Henry rested his hand on the General’s shoulder. “So did we, Dad. So did we.”
“I know,” the General said. “Will you ever forgive me?”
Eleanor’s lips were set. She took hold of Victor’s hand and squeezed it. “I can forgive you for the past, Dad, but it’s my future that concerns me. I love Victor. I am going to be with Victor. I love him, like you loved Mom. Until you can accept him as part of the family, it can never be as it was before. Don’t you see that?”
Slowly, the General got out from behind his desk and joined them both by the armchair. He stood in front of Victor, standing just an inch or two taller than the werewolf.
“It looks like my daughter can’t be happy without you,” he said. He fell silent, and we all waited anxiously to hear what either of them had to say. “I don’t care how much money you have or who your people are. You hurt one hair on my daughter’s head when you turn, and I will hex your fangs off. Are we clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Victor replied. “But believe me, your daughter’s life is worth more than my own to me.” Victor pulled a small glass vial from inside his leather coat. “This contains a deadly mixture of silver buckshot and wolfsbane oil. I engaged a wizard to weave a spell that will break the vial if I ever try to harm anyone while in my werewolf form.”
The General nodded and took Victor’s hand and pumped it. “Very well, then. That’s good enough for now. Welcome to the family.”
Victor smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. We all did.
Eleanor kissed her father on his cheek, and Sylvia began clapping happily. It seemed everyone was friends again. Henry’s mother’s wish had been fulfilled.
Henry took hold of my hand and smiled at me. “Well done,” he whispered.
I beamed. Well, thank Gaia this is all fixed at last, I thought.
I still hadn’t forgiven the General for attacking Scar or for calling me a stupid little witch, but at least it was a start. Perhaps I should let her out so she could pee against his leg or something. Maybe not right now. But oh, the temptation.