Page 39 of Bewicched

“Oh, thank God,” he murmured. He glanced over again. “Does that mean they’re okay too?”

Damn, my whole body hurt. I started to get up and Declan was there, lifting me to my feet. He held on to my elbow while I tried to regain my balance and use of my limbs. Geez, someone should warn a person what happens in these ceremonies.

I lurched to my mother and Gran. Both were staring up into the trees as I had been. “We should just drive off and leave you two here.”Fuck. I bent over, almost tipping onto my head before Declan—who was apparently walking behind me as you would an unsteady toddler—grabbed me around the middle.

I reached for both their hands and felt a charge run through me. They blinked and I felt—as I wasn’t wearing my gloves—what they’d been going through. They’d been hounded, battered, as they waited for me to fill the void. We had a sorcerer in the family. This wasn’t the work of a black wicche. A sorcerer and their demon had been wearing away at my mother and grandmother for years, trying to worm their way in, to siphon off the power, and these two women had been holding the line. No wonder they were always annoyed with me.

“Can you pick up Gran and carry her into the house?”

“Don’t curse me,” Declan said to my grandmother. “I’m helping at your granddaughter’s request.”

I went to Mom and rested my bare hand against her cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how bad it had been for you two.”

Blinking, she brought me into focus. “Of course you didn’t. We worked hard to block it. From everyone.” She lifted a hand for help up and then saw my bare hands.

“Oh. Wait.” I always carried an extra pair, sometimes two. When I reached for Mom, I saw that she’d pulled on her own pair. She might have driven me nuts much of my life, but I never doubted she loved me. Deep, deep down.

“I got her.” Declan jogged out Gran’s front door and reached for Mom.

“Nonsense. I’m perfectly able to stand on my own.” Mom waved him off.

I grabbed her arm, steadying her as she stood, and held on until she regained her balance.

She brushed at her clothing and then addressed Declan. “You may go now. We have family matters to discuss.”

He nodded, taking a step back, his gaze finding mine. “Are you good, or do you need a ride?”

“I’m fine,” I assured him. “You can take off. Mom’ll give me a ride home.”

“Good enough.” He headed back to his truck. “I’ll keep working on the deck.”

Mom and I moved to Gran’s porch so he could turn his truck around and leave.

“Let’s go check on your grandmother. If I’m feeling beat up, she must be worse.” She held open the door for me.

We walked in and found Gran sitting in her usual chair by the fire, the tea cart next to her. Apparently, she wasn’t feeling too poorly to brew us tea. That was a good sign.

I poured us each a cup and sat in a club chair. Mom took the couch, so we were again arranged in three triangle points in the room. I took a sip and let Gran’s tea, a restorative, work its way through me. By degrees, the imbalance ebbed, along with little aches and pains.

“Welcome, Arwyn,” Grandmother said. “I believe your mother and I were witness to that last vision.” She looked at her daughter and Mom nodded.

“It was dark and hazy,” Mom explained, “not clear the way you’ve described them. My guess is since we were listening in on a vision that wasn’t ours, our reception was faulty.”

“More like one of those dark arty-type films where you spend half the movie wondering what’s going on and why no one will turn on a light,” Gran said.

We talked through each part of the vision and what I thought it meant. They gave their own opinions, and it was nice to have people to bounce ideas off of. They, of course, had the most to say about Serena and Gran’s chapters in the vision.

“This didn’t feel like one of my normal visions, though. This felt like it was sent to me because of our joining.” I wasn’t sure how to explain it to women who didn’t have visions, why this felt so different to me. “It wasn’t something that’s happened or something that will. It felt more like these were the things we needed to focus on. If we didn’t intercede, this is what would happen.”

Gran said, “A harbinger,” just as Mom said, “a warning.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“The tea bar in Serena’s shop is small compared to all the shelves of lotions and perfumes and soaps, but we can’t make her throw it all out. We don’t even know if it’s been poisoned yet. The poisoner could strike a couple of days from now. The news scene we saw might not take place for months.” Mom shook her head in annoyance. “This is so frustrating, Arwyn. How do you reconcile yourself with not knowing?”

“I don’t. Nightmares wake me up. Endless interpretations and the guilt of not knowing how or even when to help keep me up. It’s probably why the ones before me checked out early.”

Mom and Gran made almost identical moves with their hands, warding off my words, not wanting me to travel that well-worn road. I appreciated the spell but knew the path that lay before me was not in their power to choose.

---