Neither Henry nor I spoke on the drive back to my house.
I collapsed into my kitchen chair, Hemlock darting from his hiding spot and curling up in my lap. My entire body shook as I stroked his fur.
Henry made us both a welcome cup of tea without a word and sat at the table opposite me, placing a plate laden with cookies between us.
“How did you know where to find me?” I said.
Henry lowered his head and took a sip of his tea. “I came over for Scrabble, like we’d arranged. The door was open, the chairs knocked over and your purse still here on the table. I knew instantly something had happened, so I went after you.”
“But how did you know I was in the maze?”
Henry pulled at his collar, rubbed the back of his neck and stared into his cup.
“A friend saw you.”
“A friend?”
“Adela. She told me you were there.” Henry cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Belinda, but that’s all I can tell you.”
I nodded. I understood secrets.
“Who was that man?” Henry said.
“My past catching up with me,” I said.
“He’s a witch too?” Henry said. Suddenly ravenously hungry, I took a cookie from the plate.
“Does everyone in this town know everyone’s secrets?” I said through a mouthful of crumbs.
Henry smiled and shook his head. “Not everyone, not every secret.”
I took another bite. “Wizard?” I said. “Is that one of these secrets?”
Up until then, as far as I knew, wizards were fiction. Gandalf, Harry Potter, Harry Dresden, those were the only wizards. Or so I thought.
“It’s not a secret as such, but something I don’t enjoy a lot of people knowing. Some people call us wizards,” Henry said. His tone was low and calm, and he looked me right in the eye. “I’m a priest of the Aldric gods.”
He spoke in such a reverent tone that I knew what he’d admitted was important, and yet I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Aldric gods?” I said, embarrassed by my ignorance.
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them, given what you wear every day around your neck.”
“My pendant?”
“One half of an Aldric symbol. One snake for Zustera, one of the twin Aldric gods, one for his sister, Broric. It’s a kind of legend in my faith.”
“I had no idea it meant anything at all,” I said.
“There’s a matching brother snake to that one out there somewhere, another half to a whole.”
Quentin’s twin pendant. Had he known? It did seem too much of a coincidence, and there was an awful lot of that going on these days.
“The Aldric is an ancient pantheon, not nearly as powerful as they once were, but with enough presence in the world to hold some sway still. Particularly over witches.”
“So what does a wizard do?” I asked.
“Much like any other priest does, except with the perk of borrowing the gods’ magic. We pray, we spread the word, do their work. I am a bardic priest—I work through music. You actually caught me mid-lesson with Iain in the shop a few days ago. He’s my acolyte.”
The world fell into place a little more clearly but with no less confusion.
“I thought you and Iain were, like…” I hesitated. “You were so close together, I thought you were… y’know… getting romantic.”
Henry laughed, slapping the table. “An affair? With Iain? Gee, Belinda, you know I’ve been with Josie for nearly a decade now, don’t you?”
I nodded. “That’s what upset me about it.”
“What you saw between us was an act of religious training, not hanky-panky. Our relationship is professional, spiritual, but nothing more.”
“That’s a relief,” I said. “I really like Josie, and thinking of you as a cheater was terrible.”
“You can relax,” he said. “I’m an honorable fellow.”
Henry’s smile faded, and his serious face returned.
“Belinda, only a few in the world know who I am, and Iain too. I would appreciate your keeping our secret as I have kept yours.”
“How long have you known about me?”
“From the instant you first stepped into my store.”
I took another cookie and tried to let the information sink in. My hands still tingled where the battle magic had exploded like lava from a long-dormant volcano, power I hadn’t tried to summon, power I hadn’t known I was capable of.
Was it something that would last?
Henry looked at me and smiled. “I hope this doesn’t change anything between us, Belinda. New as it is, I truly value our friendship and would like it to continue.”
I felt the same way. “I’m glad you told me,” I said. “Thank you for trusting me enough to do so.”
We sat in silence, picking the last crumbs off the plates. Hemlock rubbed against Henry, showing me Henry was the kind of friend I had to keep on my side.
“This past of yours,” Henry said, motioning to the door, “is it something that’s likely to keep causing any trouble?”
I shrugged, shaking my head. “I can’t say. I certainly hope not. I managed to scare him off this time, but it’s not his style to back down forever.”
“That was some very impressive spellwork I saw you do.”
He had seen. It would have been less awkward if he had told me he had seen me naked.
“It was…” I was going to say nothing, but that was the furthest thing from the truth. “Honestly, Henry, I don’t know what that was. I didn’t even know I could do battle magic.”
He nodded. “Blackthorn Springs can have a remarkable effect on different people. That’s why so many supernaturals are here.”
“So I’ve heard. Is it possible that’s why I liked this town so much, so quickly? I wasn’t even thinking about moving the first day I came here. That’s all magic in itself, don’t you think?”
“I’d put money on it,” Henry said. “So, were you and that guy a couple?”
I shook my head. “Nothing like that. Though that’s not to say he never tried it with me for years. Rowan Jackfort is the high witch from the Bloodfire coven, one of the darkest Loreton covens. My brother got mixed up with them years ago.”
“So there is a brother,” Henry said.
My first instinct was to clam up, stick to the secrecy I’d been trying to maintain. But there was no going back now. My witchcraft was out with Lila, Adela, and Edie, and now, after what Conri had seen, he’d guessed correctly too. Besides, it seemed I had never been able to hide from Henry. The pages of my life had long been open to eyes I didn’t even know were reading my story, anyway. What was the harm in telling him more?
“I have a twin brother,” I said softly. “Quentin. Also a witch. We were adopted, and neither of us knew anything about our blood family. He had an insatiable desire to find other witches and got mixed up in a coven he met online. The Bloodfire. They’re into bad things—drugs and other illegal stuff as well as seriously black magic. I don’t know the full story, but one time Jackfort had Quentin lay a curse on a man. A Mortis death curse. The same curse that killed Kenny Langdel.”
Henry listened closely, nodding his head.
“You knew about Kenny,” I said, half not wanting to hear my friend had witnessed a murder and was prepared to look the other way.
“I did. I suspected you knew too, and others. There are proper authorities for this, though, Belinda. I’m sure they’ve been alerted. I hope you won’t get yourself mixed up in the hunt for a black magic killer.”
Too late.
“I tried to alert the authorities, but Margie Garon wouldn’t listen to me as soon as I mentioned witchcraft. And Sheriff Bonney has been acting super weird around me.”
“The sheriff’s department has their own way of dealing with it. Part of that is no on-the-record admission of the existence of the supernatural.”
I reached down to pet Hemlock. If Henry was right, I should back away. It wasn’t like I hadn’t kept coming back to the same reasoning since this whole Pandora’s box had opened. At first, it had started as a pursuit of justice, but if someone else was dealing with it, as Henry said, then what was keeping me going—besides lunacy?
“Tell me more about your brother, the curse,” Henry said. I wondered if he was trying to change the subject, but I went with it. I was ready to tell.
“Quentin swore he didn’t know the curse would kill the guy, but he did know it was intended to hurt him. I think the guilt broke him. Jackfort believes Quentin stole whatever it was he was sent to get from the victim and ran off with it. I haven’t seen or heard from my brother in over a year. Jackfort still thinks I’m lying about it. But I honestly don’t know. And deep down, I don’t want to know.” I did nothing to wipe away my tears. “I’ve been trying to hide, hide from it all. Hide from what my brother did, from Jackfort, from my powers, but it seems as soon as I got here, everything just opened up and intensified.”
“Welcome to Blackthorn Springs,” Henry chuckled.
I smiled, but it was a short-lived humor. “I just don’t know what to do anymore, Henry. I don’t know who I am. I’ve never known who I am or where I belong, if I belong anywhere. I never had a real family, but I so desperately miss belonging to someone. I miss my brother.”
“You belong here, Belinda. With us. If that’s where you want to be. You’re not alone. You have friends here who understand what you’re going through. Your community is your family if you need us to be.”