Page 84 of The Witch's Spell
I’m not sure what’s going on here. Maybe none of us are.
“N-no,” Aurora says at long last. “Lilith was my auntie. This was her cottage.” She places a hand on the lovingly worn wooden doorway. “But she passed away last year.”
Ciaran’s glamour flickers again. Then he draws himself up and gives her an apologetic smile. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry. You just...” He shakes his head, his breath steaming out around his lips. “You look so much like her.”
Aurora takes a step closer to my uncle, her head tipping to one side. “You knew her?”
“I did,” he says. Again, his gaze travels across the front porch, the open doorway, the large tree in the snowy yard with a swing hanging from one of its sturdy boughs.
Aurora draws another breath. “You,” she says, calling my uncle’s gaze back. “Are you the fairy she told me about? The one she met all those years ago?”
“She spoke of me?” Ciaran asks, an amused tilt to his lips. “And here I thought we’d agreed to keep each other a secret.”
A cold gust sweeps through the trees and onto the front porch, making Aurora’s long dress ripple around her ankles and Ciaran’s cloak snap.
I’m not so sure where the souls of witches go when they depart, but that gust felt oddlypointed.
“Would you like to come in?” Aurora asks. She reaches up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and I notice she has a little bit of frosting on her cheek. “We’re about to have the Yule log. I’d love for you to join us. And maybe you can tell me more about Auntie?”
Ciaran looks from Aurora to me, as if asking for my permission. I give him a small nod. I’m just as curious to discover what my uncle has been keeping hidden all these years.
“I’d love to,” he says. “Thank you.”
Aurora turns to step back into the cottage, then pauses and says, “I’m Aurora, by the way. Lilith’s youngest niece.”
“I know,” Ciaran says, making Aurora blink in surprise yet again. Then he smiles. “I’m Ciaran. This one’s uncle.” He reaches out to grasp my shoulder, his touch firm and familiar.
“Ciaran,” Aurora whispers, as if trying to recall something from a long-forgotten memory. Then she shakes her head and steps through the doorway, beckoning us both after her. “Come. We’ll eat, and then you can tell me about this secret.”
Ciaran and I exchange an amused look, and then he follows her into the cottage, and I follow behind him.
THE YULE LOG STOOD NO chance against the lot of us. Almost as soon as Aurora put it down on the low table in the parlor, it was gone, sliced up and swiped away onto mismatched plates. My uncle is the only one who hasn’t yet finished eating, due mostly to the fact that he keeps looking around the parlor with a mixture of sadness and warmth in his eyes, like maybe Lilith will come stepping through the doorway at any moment.
I feel strange about the whole thing, especially as the laughter and chatter in the parlor go quiet and he starts to tell his story. He’s sitting on the couch, Aurora on one side of him and Rowan’s mother on the other. I’m in the rocking chair, Harrison in my lap, and the others are scattered about the room—some on the floor in front of the fire, some leaning against the walls. Everyone looks full and content, like they’ll fall asleep as soon as their heads hit a pillow.
“We met not so far from here, in a meadow surrounded by old oaks,” Ciaran says. “Lilith was young, but she was fierce, not one to be tussled with.” He smiles to himself, a chuckle rumbling his chest. “It was Lughnasadh. I was here for the festival.”
Ciaran recounts their first day together. Everyone watches him, but I’m watching Aurora.
So I see the glimmer of tears in her eyes, the subtle way she lifts a hand to her cheek to dab the moisture away when it slips down her face.
I wish I could have known this Lilith. I wish I could’ve seen Aurora with her, watched them interact and experienced the love between them.
“I returned home after the festival, but before leaving, I promised Lilith I would visit her again. And I did. Every year until her passing.” His smile flickers sadly. “It was our tradition.”
So, he already knew of Lilith’s passing, then.
I try to recall the past year with my uncle and remember quite suddenly the day that I found him beside the river, sitting alone on a stone beneath the draping willows, a single flower held in his hand. When I sat down beside him and he turned to look at me, I saw tears in his eyes.
He didn’t tell me much, only that he’d recently lost a dear friend.
And now I know who he was speaking of.
“I can’t believe she didn’t tell me,” Aurora says, a hint of hurt in her voice.
Ciaran reaches out, placing a hand atop hers. “Please do not think ill of her. It was a decision we made many, many years ago, to keep what we had a secret, to protect it so it was our own. Sometimes, the world seeks to take that which is yours, to twist and morph it into something else, something different from what it once was.” His lips lift slightly in the corners. “Over the years, we were able to keep what we had secret.Safe.It was not a reflection of you or your sister.Though I must say, I’m delighted to have finally met you. There were times I could not get Lilith tostoptalking about silver Selene and her little sprout.” Ciaran chuckles. “You two were the dearest things to her.”
Another few tears streak down Aurora’s cheeks, but she doesn’t bother to wipe them away. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” She reaches out and takes Ciaran into her arms, tucking her head against his chest and making his brows rise in surprise. But then he sets his cake plate aside and returns the gesture, wrapping his arms around her.
