Page 132 of In the Shadows


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hadn’t shared with even her sister.

Mary had given her a choice.

That night in the cavern, Mary had pulled her close and whis-

pered of the pain and horror of love. And then she had given

Minnie the spell, the words that would let her live forever so that

Arthur wouldn’t have to go on his dark path alone.

But Minnie didn’t know what to choose. By the time Charles

was gone and Minnie realized she could not live her life know-

ing Arthur would be alone forever, she had no way of finding him.

Arthur had disappeared, and with him the clues to tracking the

Ladon Vitae.

In her heart of hearts, though, Minnie knew she had promised

Arthur something. She would wait for him.

Forever.

And so, on a quiet night, in the solitude of the trees by the

witch’s house she now claimed as her own, Minnie alone stepped

out of the path of time and onto the lonely path of immortality to

wait for Arthur to come home.

Minnie waited. She watched her sister and brother-in-law

grow old and gray, and then watched her nieces and nephews do

the same. She stopped attending funerals, because they became

too many. She became very adept at forging official documents

and new birth certificates, and the town that had always harbored

a small share of magic turned a blind eye to their new witch.

And while she waited, she wrote the stories of her town, the

stories of her childhood, the stories of her long, long years. She

sent the books out into the world along with her hopes that

Arthur would find them and know he wasn’t alone.

She didn’t just write. She read. Minnie couldn’t track the

Ladon Vitae, but she learned enough to know that if someone

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