Page 10 of Healing Elixirs & Wicked Crows

"Memory magic," she whispered, her form already beginning to fade."She took specific memories from you, child.Ones that could have gotten you both killed if the wrong people knew they existed."

"What memories?"I demanded.

She pressed her small hands to her temples."It started right after...after your mother..."

A chill ran down my spine."After mother what?"

She huffed in frustration."I can’t, the memory won't come.It's like trying to grasp smoke."Her voice grew distant and pained."Your mother was powerful, Rosemary.More powerful than anyone knew.In those final days, she worked magic I'd never seen before.Binding spells.Protection magic."

"What kind of protection magic?"

Magdalyn's eyes grew unfocused, as if she were trying to see through a thick veil."She said some secrets were too dangerous to remember.Some connections too powerful to leave intact."The fairy's form flickered, becoming translucent."Memory magic, she called it.Said it would keep you safe."

"Keep me safe from what?"I demanded, but Magdalyn was already fading.

"Ask your crow," she whispered as she winked out of existence."He remembers what the rest of us cannot."

I turned to Herb, my shoulders lowered with newfound dread.His beady eyes stared back at me with an intelligence that suddenly seemed far too keen for a bird."Well, that went well, don't you think?"

But Herb was watching me intently now, his head tilted as if he were trying to tell me something important.For a moment, his eyes seemed far too knowing, too ancient.

In all the years of Magdalyn's visits and the years in between, I had never once considered what she had lost when my mother had perished.Mags had been the bonded fairy to my mother.Their bond should have been eternal.Instead, our mother had sent Magdalyn away with us, begging her to stow us somewhere safe.

But what if there was more to it?What if my mother hadn't just hidden us from the unseelie queen, but had hidden something else as well?Something dangerous enough to require memory magic?

Herb moved to the edge of the table, stretching his neck so he could be as close to me as possible.I stepped next to him, my fingers moving over the feathers like a whisper."You remember, don't you?"I whispered."You remember what really happened."

He cawed once, softly, and something in that sound made my chest tight with a loss I couldn't name.

"All I need is you, dear friend, and to break this curse so that I can have my sister back," I muttered the words, his soft feathers a comfort as I spoke.But even as I said it, I wondered what other secrets lay buried in the gaps of my memory, and whether I truly wanted them back.

I didn't know if I was trying to reassure him or myself, but now that Magdalyn was gone again, more than guilt settled deep within my heart.Fear had taken root there too, growing like a weed in the spaces where my memories should have been.

The Bargain

ROSEMARY

My bed creaked as I sat up, feeling that today was different.Rubbing sleep from my eyes, I smiled with newfound hope at my partially packed sack.Before the morning dew disappeared, I planned to have everything foraged and safely tucked away.But as I glanced out the window at the wall of trees, a sliver of fear crept in.There was a chance I might never return to my quaint cottage, my slumbering sister, or the little life I'd built for us.

That harrowing thought snapped my attention to Briar's bed.I inched my way to her bedside, my fingers barely grazing the cool skin of her arm as doubts flooded my mind.

If I never returned, would somebody else find her here?Would they bury her alive?Would she still live or would the curse be her undoing?

What if the curse broke on its own and I was no longer here?

The worst doubt came last; what if I succeeded in collecting the petals and even that wasn’t enough to break this curse?

I shook my head.Thoughts like these helped nothing.They were like poison that festered.I gritted my teeth, glancing toward the window and the forest beyond, my fingers working through the strands of my sister's silky hair."I'm going to break the curse, Briar," I whispered."But it means leaving you for a small while.If you can hear me, I want you to know that I am going to wake you up."

I sighed as another memory surfaced.Gray eyes.A crooked, knowing grin.There was a familiarity to him that I just couldn't place.Yet I couldn't deny the way my body had reacted to him, a fear that froze and a want that sizzled.I laughed weakly as I straightened and dressed in fresh clothing.Clearly, it had been far too long since I'd experienced the touch of another.

Something about his dark, tumultuous eyes that reminded me of a brewing tempest lingered in my thoughts as I walked away, but it danced just out of reach, refusing to fully form.

I'd felt this before, a strange hollowness when trying to recall certain parts of my childhood, particularly the years before we’d fled to the cottage.Magdalyn had always said the trauma of losing our kingdom had affected my memories, but this felt different.More deliberate.

I shook my head, dismissing the odd sensation.I had more pressing concerns than half-remembered dreams.

The sun still lay low on the horizon as I continued pulling the brush I'd collected from the woods these past days.Our cottage had grown from the forest itself, its walls breathing with the trees, unlike the cold marble halls where I'd once curtsied and smiled on command.Now, most of our walls had been hidden behind scattered brush, dead leaves, twigs, long grass, anything nature provided to obscure our cottage from view.