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“I don’t want to tell Katherine to go. I want to know the truth!”
“You already know the truth, Mum,” I said gently as Grandma seethed with rage. “You know who I am, and you knew my father for who he was, and you know who you are yourself, down deep inside. The only one denying the truth here is Grandma, and that’s because she can’t face her own lies.”
I sounded much more wise and confident than I felt, but that was Mary inside me. It was my ancient past holding me strong – a beacon of calm in the storm.
When Mum smiled I knew it was at the memory of Thomas, my father. I could read it in her.
“I can’t believe it,” she whispered. “I really thought he’d abandoned us…”
“He didn’t abandon us,” I said. “Grandma sent him away.”
“BECAUSE HE IS A FUCKING SINNER!” Grandma raged, and her fury made the whole room rumble. “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE!”
I tried to ignore the shudders of the house around us, but when Mum looked over at my grandmother there was a whole other level to the tremors.
“You lied to me! You’ve been lying to me my whole life.”
“FOR YOUR OWN SAKE!” Grandma yelled. “Don’t let this evil little witch turn you away from God, Serena. Don’t!”
The tremors kept rumbling. Louder.
“You lied…” Mum whispered. “I thought Thomas left us…”
Grandma screeched in rage.
“I SENT HIM AWAY TO SAVE YOU, AND I SHOWED MERCY ON YOU! BECAUSE YOU KILLED YOUR FUCKING FATHER!”
Holy hell, how the walls shook, but it wasn’t just from Grandma’s anger anymore, it was from Mum’s too. The plates rattled on the shelves, cupboard doors flew open and banged shut, and it was like Grandad’s vision of them from the tower. Both of them waging a war.
But I was right there next to them, in the same room, not screaming with waving arms from a turret in the distance.
“Don’t let Grandma win,” I said to Mum. “Because the greatest power you have is forgiveness. Don’t battle with her demons. There’s way more strength in making peace with yours.”
It wasn’t me speaking, it was Mary. It was my past. It was my heritage.
“Honestly, Mum,” I said. “Don’t let her win. Your spells are stronger than hers. Have faith in them. Have faith inyourself,like she should have had right from the start.”
I was silent, daring to hope my words would make a difference and speak to her soul, and it worked. My God, it worked.
Mum looked at me, and she nodded. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and just like that, the tremors in the walls turned to stillness.
It was incredible. In one heartbeat the air of the house lightened in a heartbeat. Fresh, and bright, and new.Cleansed of bullshit lies.
I smiled at my grandmother. Her spell was finally broken, and she knew it.
“Mum has better control over her skills than you do, doesn’t she?” I said. “You should be proud not ashamed.”
“Curse you both to Hell and eternal damnation,” my grandmother spat, and stormed out of kitchen, out through the front door and down the garden path.
“Don’t worry,” I told Mum. “She’ll be back. She’s nothing without you.”
Mum’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry, Katherine. For all of this. I’m truly, truly sorry.”
I shook my head. “You don’t need to be. I’m fine now.”
“Maybe. But it’s because the man called Hans saved you, isn’t it? Not me.I’mthe one who should have saved you.I’myour mother.”
“Hans isn’t a man,” I said. “He’s a vampire, just like Grandma said.”
