“No, mama!” Serena cried. “Don’t put Delly in there. She can’t swim!”
Delly. Adele. My mother pushed her into the creek first, then me. Delly crawled out on her own. My mother held me under, waiting for the cold water to press the breath from my lungs.
“Stay down! Stop squirming, little bitch!”
“Mama, stop!”
The pain in my skull had been unbearable. The blackness closing in faster than I could fight…
“It was her,” I gasped, the images finally receding. “At the creek in the woods behind our house.”
Deirdre frowned. I waited for her to deny it. To provide some other explanation. But all she said was, “I’d always hoped you girls were too young to remember. But darkness like that makes an impression on your very soul. It never leaves you.”
“My mother tried to drown us,” I said, needing to hear the words spoken out loud, even if Deirdre herself couldn’t say them. Even if they tore up my insides on the way out.
“Yes,” she said. “All four of you.”
“My mother tried to murder her babies,” I said again, as if it would make any more sense the second time around. It didn’t; this was a tale that only got more horrifying in the telling.
“I had long since suspected your mother in your father’s disappearance, but without proof, there wasn’t much I could do. She never prevented me from seeing you four girls, so I did what I could to protect you—charms, spells of protection, amulets sewn into the hems of your clothing. I visited as often as I could. It wasn’t enough.”
“So that’s how we survived that day? Protective charms?”
“That may have been part of it. But there was also a neighbor walking his dog in the woods behind his property. He heard your sister screaming for help, and ran down to the creek to find out what was going on. He told us later that your mother had insisted she was trying to save you—that Serena and Adele had snuck you and Georgie out of the house while she was in the shower, knowing that you weren’t permitted in the woods alone. She’d chased after you as soon as she’d noticed you missing She said you and Adele had fallen in the water. He called me as soon as he got your mother and you girls back to the house. She was refusing to seek medical attention for you.
“That night,” Deirdre continued, “I called on the help of my coven sisters. We cast a powerful spell to put your mother to sleep and to fully open her to the power of suggestion. While the sisters took the four of you out of the house, I worked to manipulate your mother’s memory, making her believe she’d succeeded in killing you. The coven and I saw to your adoptions, ensuring your mother never knew what had truly happened.”
Tears that had nothing to do with the bitter wind slid down my cheeks, as salty as the sea before us. My chest hurt, the pain of that day fresh in my lungs. In my skull. I didn’t know what hurt worse—nearly drowning in icy water, or learning years later that your own mother had tried to murder you. Sunshine and Sparkle pressed against my legs, stopping me from walking. Absently I reached down to pet Sunshine’s head, rubbing the notched edge of her ear. She nuzzled my hand, and the pain in my chest receded, just a little.
Wiping the tears from my eyes, I turned my attention back to Deirdre, searching for the right question to ask next. This, I sensed, was only the beginning of a much longer, much more sinister story, and I needed to tread carefully.
I didn’t know what other memories might be unlocked.
“How did she—” I began, but before I could finish the question, Deirdre’s face paled, her eyes widening in fear.
The hounds yelped, taking off down the shore, and Deirdre raised her hands in front of her chest.
Magic,I thought.
“Down,” she ordered. “Now!”
I didn’t hesitate. Just dropped to the rocky shore and covered my head, barely ducking the blast of Deirdre’s magic. Beams of bright, yellow-orange light shot out from her hands, and I twisted around to see the magic slam into a man charging toward us, gun drawn. The attack knocked him on his ass, unconscious, but more men followed in his wake, at least half a dozen goons not far behind. They rushed at us, even as the hounds bounded right for them.
“Hunters,” she deadpanned.
“Where did they come from?” I got to my feet, bringing my hands to my chest, palms out. I hadn’t used my magic since the battle with the memory eaters in the Shadowrealm, but it came to me easy now, blue flame sparking to life in my hands.
Still, it wasn’t enough. I could feel it. I was out of practice, and the hunters were closing in fast.
“I don’t know,” she said, “but we’re about to get up close and personal with a couple more.”
Closing my eyes and calling on the magic of the earth, I drew more power into my core, pushing it out through my limbs, charging my entire body.
“Now!” Deirdre shouted, and I opened my eyes and sent a blast of energy outward right alongside hers just as two hunters drew their guns on us. Deirdre and I hit them at the same time. Her man went down, unconscious like the last. Mine only stumbled and gasped.
Ten feet away, Sunshine let out a primal growl that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I saw her lunge at someone, knocking him into the water. Sparkle was still running down the beach—chasing after another hunter who’d turned tail.
Where had these assholes come from? Were they part of Jonathan’s group? Part of the prison hunters?
