I’d made a run into Haenvale, braving the stares of the residents, the night after they came for mac and cheese. It was a firm favorite with the young ones. I’d gone to get blow up mattresses for the trailer and some better, kid friendly snacks. Yeah, it was a tight fit as I’d predicted, but I didn’t feel right about letting them return to their home deeper in the woods.
Rowan was tired. That first night, I’d ended up with both Sandy and Berry sharing my bed with me in my dingo form. They’d sort of imprinted on me, I guess. We shared an instant connection. They felt like mine even though they were witches and not shifters. Seeing his siblings so content and feeling safe for what had to be the first time in a long time, Rowan slept deeply on the tattered couch covered ina blanket Mom had made for me in college. He was out for like twelve hours straight.
While he rested, I got the little ones up and made them breakfast. When their brother woke, they left my trailer to get their things, promising to return. I told them I was going to get some things to make them more comfortable and to make themselves at home if I wasn’t there when they got back.
Let me tell you, it was something special to see the three of them with all their possessions waiting for me. I’m not ashamed to admit I nearly cried over it. Rowan had even started taking in the sheets of drywall, informing me in a no nonsense tone, that a summer rainstorm was predicted. He was right, and the boards would have been useless if it wasn’t for him.
The day after that, I took them to the next town over to get them new clothes. The twins had gone through a growth spurt, outgrowing pretty much everything. They hadn’t enjoyed traveling in the truck. Berry got sick, which I’d prepared for with a plastic bucket and bottles of water to wash it out. Sandy kept asking if I was giving them away. It broke my heart.
“I’ll never give you up. You’re my family now. All of you,” I swore with all I had. We’d goneto just one store, getting the essentials, then returned to the house to reassure them they were safe with me.
Malik had known I’d love them as my own as soon as I met them. My heart ached when I thought about him preparing to go into the hospice and leaving them behind. I couldn’t imagine how guilty he felt in those last months, but he’d done the right thing. Those kids would have been taken from him straight away if they’d been discovered. He had done everything he could to ensure their safety, aside from what most would have considered the best thing to do: alert the authorities.
We hadn’t discussed it, me and Rowan, but I know he would have fought like hell to stay with the kids and out of social services hands if Malik had told anyone.
There was no telling what they would have done to him with his unstable magic. At ten, the twins, I’d just found out, weren’t sparking with magic at the same rate as Rowan. He confessed late one night he thought about taking them into town and leaving them for a family to find. They could have the normal life he was denied.
Rowan cried as I held him, calling himself selfish for keeping his family together whenthey were his only reason for living. His magic wasn’t even that bad. My anger over how he lived burned hot within me. I hated the town for making these kids so scared. Rowan was impressive, not scary. There was nothing selfish about him.
To protect us, he’d laid wards all around the property. It gave us all a measure of security knowing we would be alerted if anyone broke the rules and ventured too close to the house. How many practically untrained witches could do something so complex?
Another thing, he and the kids hadn’t just survived, they’d thrived. These weren’t dirty, unkempt, uneducated, and starving children. No, thanks to Uncle Malik, they’d continued learning about the world. They had clean clothes. Rowan knew how to use the washer they had at the home they’d once shared with their mom. Rowan grew their fruit and vegetables. They kept chickens until a fox got them. He’d used solar panels and a wind turbine for power to light and heat their home and power their fridge. He recharged their crystals with magic in the darker months. They made things work for them.
Meeting me just made life easier. They could play more, spend more time reading books and doing math. Sandy was great at math. Berry was great at growing things.
“She helped me so much in the garden,” Rowan said with a smile as he watched his little sister water the plants.
“Berry’s a wonder.”
Yeah, Berry was already transforming the vegetable patch in our yard. She was remarkable. They all were.
In a week we went from strangers to family. At thirty-five, I’d been ready to settle down. Adopting three kids, well one young adult and pre-teen twins, wasn’t what I’d had in mind, yet fate was a tricky thing, and I truly felt like we were meant to find each other.
Still I found myself looking out into the woods.
There was a jingling sound.
“Imri? That’s the delivery sound. Want me to come with you to the mailbox?” Rowan offered. The kid was barely an adult and more mature than anyone I’d ever met his age.
“Sure.” I called out to tell Sandy and Berry we’d be back. Sandy was reading under a leafy tree and Berry was weeding the garden.
Wewalked in silence for a little while. The mailbox was quite a distance from the house, close to a mile maybe. There was a cart for us to carry things on that Rowan had found for me.
“Thank you for making things so nice for my family. I’m grateful Uncle Malik sent you to us.” I loved how they referred to him as Uncle Malik. He was as much their family as he was mine. It kept him with us in spirit.
“So am I. We’re family now…” I paused for a moment, thinking of how to word what I wanted to say. “I’d like to make it formal. We can get documents made… My mama knows someone who can forge papers and we can make it like I took over a while ago. Pretend you weren’t alone, if you like.”
“My magic—“
“Really isn’t bad and I think Mom might know some witches who could train you.” He looked worried. “We can afford a tutor. If you want that, I mean,” I assured him. “This isn’t me trying to get rid of you. I want to adopt you all. This way, if we do it so it happened years ago, then you were young enough for me to adopt.”
“Adopt us? All of us?” Rowan’s face was alight with happiness. “Yes! I would like that.”
“Do you think Sandy and Berry will agree, too?”
“They love you already. Even with Uncle Malik, they kept some distance. As soon as they saw you, they let their guards down.”
Warmth spread in my heart at how easily they all accepted me.
