“You were close?”I asked.
Her eyes were watery and it was clear she was trying to hold back the tears.“There at the last we were.She was… worried.I think she knew something was going to happen to her.”
I eased back into the cushion of the sofa, my hand gripping the phone so tight it ached.“Did she… talk about me?”
That seemed to brighten her.“All the time.She loved you, Piper.”
Then she reached for me, her cool hand on my cheek.“I see her in you.”
And that nearly did me in.My throat closed.I swallowed hard.“She was my mother.”
I don’t know why I told her that.I hardly believed it myself.Her hand never moved from my cheek as she looked at me, her eyes going soft and her mouth curling at the ends.
“I know,” she whispered.
That caught me off guard.It was deeply unfair that the entire town—even Tani—could see I belonged to Alice before I did.
“You did?”
“She never told me.But I knew.The way she talked about you.Worried about you.”She dropped her hand back to her lap then.
“I wish she’d told me.”It was too much to bear.
“She was protecting you from whatever was happening,” she said.“And that’s why you have to be the one to finish it.”Then she turned all business.“Now, here’s what you need to do.The planetary alignment will be visible in the western sky at 10:47 pm tonight.You’ll need to be ready and at the Crossroads before then.”
I picked up my phone and started tapping again making notes.
She walked me through it, step by step.The enchantment words—which she made me practice until I could say them without stumbling.
“You’ll need to memorize them,” she said.
I nodded.She kept going, giving me the order of the ritual, where to place the Sun Disk, how to pour the potion, what to expect once it was all done.
“The boundary will feel different than before,” she warned.“Stronger.But also… hungry.It will want to pull magic from you to sustain itself.Don’t let it take too much.”
“How do I stop it?”
“The Sun Disk,” she said.“It anchors you.As long as you’re touching it, the seal can’t drain you dry.”
I wrote it all down.Every word.
When she finished, I looked up.“What if it doesn’t work?”
Madeline’s expression softened.“Then you call me.And we try again.”
“You’ll help me?”
“Honey,” she said, “I’m not letting Alice’s daughter face this alone.”
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.Owen appeared in the doorway, two glasses of sweet tea in his hands.
“Dinner’s ready,” he said, looking between us.His gaze lingered on my face.“Everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” Madeline said smoothly.“We were getting to know each other.”
She patted my leg like we were old friends.Owen didn’t look convinced, but he handed me a glass anyway.
I took a sip, grateful for something to do with my hands.
