Page 82 of The Seven Miracles of Beatrix Holland
“Oh, no,” breathed Cordelia.
“It’s them.” Astrid held up the deck, passing it over the three flames in the center of the table.
Minna shoved her cup, sending a wave of tea onto the wood. “It’s themwho? I’m not little anymore. I’m almost a woman. You have to tell me. What’s going on?”
Cordelia looked at Astrid.
The older woman gave a tight nod. “I suppose it’s time you tell her.” Astrid flicked her gaze at Beatrice. “Andher.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Some souls play such important roles in our lives that we can’t escape them. Would we really want to?
—Evie Oxby, in conversation with Glennon Doyle on theWe Can Do Hard Thingspodcast
Was it okay to stab an old lady with a silver needle? Because Beatrice really, really wanted to. It was a thin needle—it wasn’t like it would kill her.
Cordelia picked up a length of thread and ran it through her fingers. “Okay, then. I’ll try to make this as clear as I can. Here goes. Many years ago, Valeska Holland fell in love with Theodore Velamen, marrying him in 1877. The Velamens were a prominent family on the island, owning many of the shops, the sawmill, and most of the local farmland. Valeska didn’t know that the Velamens were also sensitive to the magic puddled here in Skerry Cove. She’d kept her own power a secret from him because Theodore’s father was vocal about persecuting non-Christians.Which was really rich, given that his father could also summon lightning. Then she gave birth to twins.”
“Twins!” Minna looked gobsmacked. “But I only know about Anna.”
Cordelia pressed her fingertips into the table so hard, her nail beds striped pink and white. “Twin girls. Anna and Louise. There’s no way you would have known, honey.”
“But it’s not in the book—”
“Let me finish, okay? Not everything’s in the grimoire. There are some things we pass on orally. One of those things is that the power of Holland twins is immense. The power is multiplied by more than just a factor of two.”
Beatrice’s hands and feet tingled painfully, as if they’d fallen asleep without her noticing.
Her sister’s voice was strangled. “And… we’re back to Theodore. He was a—”
“Just tell them,” said Astrid.
Cordelia shot a look at Minna. “We don’t know how she found out, but Valeska learned that Theodore had a terrible plan for their daughters. He… oh, crap, I don’t want to say this.” She took a deep breath. “He planned to have children with their daughters when they grew up, so that their combined familial powers would multiply exponentially.”
Minna blanched. “That’s the worst andgrossestthing I ever heard.”
Cordelia inclined her head. “Then Valeska and Theodore disappeared. Not long after they left, his remains were sent back in a pine box to his family on the island, along with a rather murky story about him contracting an unnamed infection, but Valeska didn’t come back with his body. She never returned to the island.”
Sitting forward, Minna said, “What about the babies? Anna and Louise?”
“They were only thirteen months old. Valeska left them with her mother, Xenia.”
The same age I was when Astrid left.Beatrice shifted in her seat.
Cordelia continued, “From the grimoire, we know a couple of things. Most importantly, we know that Xenia stripped the Velamen power out of her granddaughters, attempting to keep their powers solely of the Holland lineage.”
Beatrice’s head ached. “How?”
“We don’t know that exactly, but we think that whatever method she used went badly for one of the babies. Louise died shortly after her parents disappeared. The power Xenia removed from the girls is probably the power she put into the forbidden sigil that’s sealed in the book. We also know that she kept teaching Anna, and that Anna became more powerful than her grandmother. Anna eventually married and gave birth to Rosalind”—Cordelia looked at Beatrice—“our grandmother.”
Astrid said, “My mother, Rosalind, was the strongest one. Until I came along. Hollands get stronger as our lineage lengthens. So then… then there were you two.”
The twins. What had Cordelia meant by the power of twins multiplying? If that were true, why couldn’t Beatrice do more than shove around a plastic utensil and occasionally write for the dead?
“And then there was me,” said Minna in a small voice.
Cordelia squeezed her daughter’s hand. “And all that time, the Velamens were growing stronger in their hatred of the Hollands for what they believed was the murder of Theodore Velamen, and the theft of their power.”
