Page 48 of Brews and Banishments
They’d fallen right into a deep pit. While Daisy was sure they could find a means to climb their way out, the pain throbbing in her arms told her an entirely different story. As far as she was concerned, the only thing strong enough to rescue them from where they were now was magic. And unfortunately for Daisy, she felt as though she was a dried up well, without an ounce of magic left to spare.
“Well, well.”
Daisy lifted her head towards the top of the pit. Crouching where the ground sloped downwards was Sebastian Crowe, a proud and smug look on his face. Dirt and mud and grease stained his cheeks and sandy blonde hair.
“Looks to me likeyou,Daisy Fields, have no choice but to finally listen tome,” Sebastian mocked, his smirk growing wide and toothy.
Daisy gulped.
And, for the first time in a long time, the only feeling she could feel from Tessa’s radiating power was nothing more than fear.
16
Daisy
Sebastian Crowe was once a highly respectable man in Willowbrook. While it partly came from the power and work his family had done for generations, Sebastian had skyrocketed through school, looking as though he might even rise towards becoming an Elder on the Witch Council. Plenty of men and women from the Crowe family went on to govern on the Council, and most of the town was expecting him to do the same. When his grandfather stepped down years ago, all of Willowbrook waited to hear from Sebastian, waited to see him step up, waited to see him continue the legacy that had been left for him.
But, surprisingly, the time never came.
Sebastian opened his mechanic shop instead, allowing himself to become a recluse from the community. The time after Gary’s death was when everything changed, when Daisy witnessed a man who was destined for greatness become nothing more than a greedy warlock. When Daisy denied him the things he wanted, the life he begged to have alongside her, Sebastian went so far as to threaten her with magic. He was apowerful member of the Crowe family, after all. Test him too much, and the wrath of generational power would be thrusted into Daisy’s life.
While Sebastian never did follow through on his threats, the danger remained. When he found himself lingering outside of Fields’ Herbals,Daisy watched with a wary eye, expecting that he would burst in at any second with a slew of spells. Unfortunately, that was all it would take. Enough power and enough perfectly done hexes would’ve landed Sebastian the woman of his dreams, the person he believed he deserved, the one he claimed to beowedto him.
Daisy watched him from within the pit, reliving every single heinous thing he’d forced her to experience. Perhaps if she had been stronger back then, Daisy would’ve noticed how much Sebastian clung to her, how he demanded to be around whenever he could, how he was the only one who lingered after everyone else had gone. At the time, Daisy couldn’t have asked for a better companion.
Thatwasthe sentiment, right until he pulled her in for a kiss, right after she had been through crying over her dead husband.
“I don’t blame you for forgetting who your best friend is,” Sebastian was in the middle of saying as he paced around the pit. Each step he took sent more dirt down into the hole, a few pebbles and rocks flying in next. “I-It’s hard to see the truth when there are so many lies being waved in front of you.”
“Lies, Sebastian?” Daisy called out. “What lies?”
He thrusted an accusatory finger towards Tessa. “I know that little empath was whispering things in your ear while we were together.”
“That’s the thing,” she continued with a shake of her head. “We weren’t evertogether. You realize that, don’t you? We weren’t -”
“You’ve really been brainwashed, haven’t you?”
Daisy blinked. “N-No, I don’t think I -”
“You see,” Sebastian interjected as he continued his tirade, still pacing around the pit’s circumference. “You and I were bound from the very moment I laid eyes on you. You were leaving the community college. You took a year off when Gary got sick and started to go back after he passed. I was standing by the water fountain and I,” he paused, stopping in his tracks as though he had been thrusted back into the memory, “I heard the voice of Hecate in my head.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. “Every Crowe says they’ve heardtestimonyfrom Hecate,” she whispered to Daisy. “A load of baloney, if you ask me.”
“‘Go to her,’ Hecate said,” Sebastian continued. “‘Heal her. Heal that which belongs to you.’”
Daisy’s face scrunched up.
Sebastian shrugged, as if it was as simple as that. “It was written by the Mother herself,” he said. “You and me.Boundfor eternity. I have been the man of your dreams before you ever knew it.”
She looked away, barely able to stomach the words he said any longer. The more he talked, the easier it was for her to think of Gary. The sadness came as fast as it always did. No matter how much time had passed since she last saw her late husband, Daisy remembered him as though he’d only perished the day before, as if the wound he’d left upon her had never fully healed all those years ago. It remained with her, still, and even more so as Sebastian continuously spoke against Gary’s good name.
“After all this time,” Sebastian was still saying, “you never saw how much I was there for you, Daisy. Who else wiped your tears when you thought the world was caving in on you? Who else made you dinner when you hardly had any energy to feed yourself? Who cut your grass? Who cleaned your gutters? Who was always there?” He flung around, leaning forward till thedreadfully terrifying look on his face was visible. “It wasme, Daisy. It was alwaysme.”
He pulled himself up and straightened his work overalls. “You know,” he continued, “I never once stopped loving you. Even when -”
The words continued but Daisy found herself hardly able to listen. As far as she was concerned, the more he spoke, the more he disrespected Gary, the more he drove a wedge between himself and Daisy. Not that she would’ve found herself ever turning towards him in the way he sought, but perhaps she could have been softened towards him, more understanding of his plight. Any chance he had for sympathy was gone long before he ever decided to open his mouth or trap them in the pit.
“He’s hardly paying attention to where he walks,” Tessa suddenly whispered.
