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“Really, madam, we don’t have time for this,” John insisted, although I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or my mother.
“What have I ever done to need your forgiveness?” my mother demanded, ignoring them. The athame glinted in her hand as she gestured wildly, the blade coming closer and closer to my face. “You ruined my life, not the other way around. Always needy. Always noisy. And when I needed you, when I came to see you, all you did was scream and turn to Daddy.”
At the mention of my father, my anger spiked, from a minor blaze to volcanic in the space of a second. Instead of trying to fight it off, I embraced it. I could feel the last of Penny’s restraints fall away and the spark of proper energy flowing through my body. I took a deep breath, feeding that spark, picturing it growing into a flame, larger and hotter, until it caught the ropes binding my wrists. It wasn’t burning me; it was as harmless and welcome as sunlight. I was in control. I was a McGavock. This was who I was. And no one was going to take this from me. Not even another McGavock.
I leaned away from the tree as the rope smoldered and smoked. “Never mind the fact that you tried to snatch me out of Dad’s hands and kidnap me. Another thing you’ve conveniently allowed yourself to forget,” I scoffed as the ropes’ hold on my wrist weakened.
Just beyond the ring of trees, I could hear movement. Fallen leaves crackling and branches moving as something large made its way through the trees. John’s and Melinda’s heads turned toward the noise, while my mother’s overbright eyes stayed focused on me.
“What’s that?” John demanded.
“Probably just a deer,” my mother assured him without even looking up. “They’re thick as rats around here.”
But the crackling sounds grew louder, closer. I could hear distinct footsteps now, lumbering, heavy footfalls that had John standing in front of his wife and child in a protective stance. And still, my mother was entirely focused on sneering down at me, the point of her blade hovering carelessly close to my eyes. I had no doubt she would use it, if just to intimidate me into shutting up. She was too far gone. And I was embarrassing her, which was something Anna McGavock could never abide.
Still, I continued. “I guess that’s how you survive, right?”
I could hear beastly, laboring grunts as the branches just beyond our circle bucked and swayed. My mother’s attention wavered as she glanced toward the trees.
“You forgot about me. You forgot about my dad.”
An enormous hairy shape emerged, with long furry arms and a twisted, apelike face. I couldn’t help but grin at Jed’s choice of creature projection. He’d made himself a Yeti for me. My mother gasped and stumbled back from the approaching Sasquatch, closer to me. The athame fell from her hand.
“Mom, there’s one more thing you’ve forgotten.”
Her head whipped toward me, a menacing snarl half-formed on her lips.
I yanked hard and freed my wrists. I grinned at her and wiggled my free hands. “I’m a witch.”
I sprang to my feet, tossing the burning remnants of rope at the Kerrigans, who instinctively ducked away into Jed’s path. I pressed my palm against my mother’s chest, and a strange, enormous energy surged through my arm and sent her flying back against a tree. I stared down at my hand, stunned.
John moved toward us, but Jed picked him up by the shoulders and tossed him into the trees like a rag doll.
Melinda Kerrigan shrieked and lunged for me. I cranked my fist back and swung for her face, just as Dick had instructed. My knuckles connected with her jaw. She yelped, flailing back toward the fire.
I heard a loud whooping at the edge of the clearing, and dark shapes emerged from the trees. Suddenly, the clearing was filled with vampires. Jane and Gabriel, Andrea and Dick, even Jamie. But there were others, more dark-clad Kerrigans, waiting to get their licks in on a McGavock. Jane was engaged in a hair-pulling contest with Melinda. Andrea and Gabriel were chasing the nameless Kerrigan men into the trees. Jamie and Cameron were slugging it out. Jed had shifted into what looked like a Minotaur and was charging a Kerrigan henchman alongside Dick. And from nowhere, a weight crashed against my ribs, throwing me to the ground.
“You little bitch!” my mother howled, her face white and skeletal, hovering over mine as she clawed at me. “You think you can use magic against me? I made you! You’re nothing without me. You’re nothing!”
I yanked my hand loose and swung at her chin. She shouted, covering her face with her hands. I swung again, letting the heel of my hand collide with her sternum. I took both hands and popped them against her ears. She howled, falling to her side. I shoved her off of me, jumping to my feet and kicking her in the ribs.
With my mother on her knees, wheezing, the woods seemed incredibly quiet. I turned to see that the Kerrigans were subdued, their hands secured behind their backs with zip ties that Andrea had pulled from her purse. Suddenly, Jed appeared at the edge of the clearing, tossing two more strange men into the firelit circle.
My mother used this moment of distraction to punch me in the face. I stumbled back and punched her in the stomach.
“Keep your guard up!” Dick yelled.
“Let her do it on her own,” Gabriel admonished. “She’s never going to learn if you’re hovering all the time.”
My mother and I grappled, wrestling back and forth, her hands wrapped around my wrists. My muscles were starting to burn from the extended use of magic and the effort of fighting her. She had to be getting tired. I shoved her against the large oak, Uncle Jack’s cabinet bumping against my shins. I felt sparks at her fingertips. She was actually trying to use magic against me. She barely had enough power to sting me. Even with her study of dark spells, she was weak. She was a weak woman, a weaker witch, and a shameful mother. I’d spent years being afraid of this woman, and she couldn’t even sting me.
Ouch. She had a hell of a right hook, though.
Rather than stumbling, I threw my momentum forward, knocking her to the ground. Gasping for air, wiping at the blood dripping from her mouth, she glared up at me. “You think I’m afraid of you? Little Miss Perfect? The Half-Assed Witch?”
“You should be. I’m done letting you walk all over me. I’m done with your games. I’m done with forgiving you and giving in to you because you’re the only mother I’ve got. Give me that cabinet, and get the hell out of my face.” I nodded toward Jane, giving her a mental picture of what was about to happen. I placed my hands on my mother’s shoulders and used every bit of the authority I had to say, “I bind you, Anna. I bind you in the name of your mother, in the name of our ancestors. I bind you from doing harm, from doing magic. You spent every day of your life abusing the magic in your blood. You will live the rest of your life without it.”
I felt it leave her body before I spoke the last syllable. The spark of my mother’s energy fizzled out like a doused candle. She was dead space, cold and empty—which wasn’t much of a change, really.
