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Ah, shit.

Bradley’s eyes widened, and he placed his hands in his lap. “I’m so sorry. I thought that was why you were here.”

I shook my head. “I understand why Lily didn’t tell me,” I said. “It’s fine.”

Lily interrupted us. “Hey, Mercy. What brings you here? We were just heading out to do some shopping.”

Right.

“I’m coming with you to Salem,” I said, cutting her off from continuing her lie.

Her eyes went wide, and she gave Bradley an accusatory glare. He looked down as if she scared him. It’s not his fault she was keeping this from me.

I killed my mom a year ago today. I missed her, regardless of what she did to me. Being there where we laid her ashes would be hard, and I understood why Lily didn’t want me to go, but I hated that I wasn’t given a choice.

“I’m sorry, Mercy,” she said. “I honestly didn’t think you’d want to go.”

I stood and walked to the cash register, and Lily followed. When I turned around to face her, I asked, “Do you blame me for her death, Lily?”

She gasped, “No. God, no. Mercy, you did what you had to do. I know you blame yourself for what happened. You could barely stand the last time we were there when we put her ashes in the harbor. I didn’t think you could handle it, especially with everything going on right now with you and the coven.”

I secured my purse over my shoulder and flashed her a warm smile. “Well, I want to go.”

When she smiled back, Bradley, watching us from across the café, walked toward us and handed Lily her keys.

As hard as this was going to be, we’d get through it together.

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WE PICKED UPJoel on the way, who looked surprised to see me in the car, but I flashed him a smile, hoping it would help everyone relax and stop being so goddamn weird around me.

Once we reached Salem Harbor, we hurried over to the lighthouse, where we sprinkled her ashes and sat on the rocks.

For the next hour, we talked about her life before she started changing into someone we didn’t recognize. Because Bradley was with us, we had to tread lightly when we spoke about my mom. For all he knew, she had a mental illness and died of a brain tumor. We weren’t far off from the truth, just omitted a few details.

“I wish I had known her,” Bradley added.

“You would have liked her. She was a huge fan of Star Trek,” I said, giggling quietly.

“I like StarWars,” he said, sounding offended, and everyone barked out a laugh. Everyone except for Bradley. I laughed so hard that tears welled up in my eyes. I wasn’t sure if the tears were from grief or happiness, but either way, the sudden change in my mood was what I needed to relax and not care about anything else.

“You’re such a nerd, sweetie, but I love you,” Lily said, squeezing his hand. He finally joined in on the laughter, but I could tell there was a slight discomfort beneath it all.

“Well, theyaredifferent,” Bradley said, and this only made us chuckle harder.

I tapered off my laugh, stood up, wiped the tears from my eyes, and ambled toward the water. I placed my hand on the surface, my fingers lingering above the water, and swished around. “We’ll be back in a year,” I said to the wind.

Joel and Lily suggested we grab a drink or two before heading back. Bradley didn’t drink much, so he volunteered to drive us home.

“We should have teleported,” I suggested once I had downed my third cocktail. I kept my voice low and in a joking manner in case Bradley overheard.

“True,” Joel agreed. He and Lily snickered. They were about four beers in and drunk as a couple of skunks.

“We should probably get going, guys,” Bradley suggested. “We’re going to hit traffic.”

We all agreed, closed our tab, and headed toward the parking lot.

As we neared the car, it dawned on me that I had to meet Dorian in less than two hours. “Hey, Bradley. Can you drop me off at Three Brother’s Tavern? I’ll get a driver home after that.”

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