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“I’m looking for Augusta.”
Her face sobered, her expression becoming unreadable. “What business do you have with her?”
“I need her help with something,” I said. “When I was young, she told me if I ever needed something, I should look her up, and… well, I need something.”
The fae sighed. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. Augusta passed away last fall.”
My heart sank. “What?”
“It was her time.”
I gave a slow blink, trying to wrap my mind around the information. “I thought I had someone still left who could help me. I thought—” My voice cracked, and I stopped talking. “She was the last connection I had to my mom,” I added in a whisper.
The fae’s eyes softened. “You’re Aurora’s girl.”
I snapped my head up. “You knew my mother?”
She stepped around me, flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED, and locked the door.
“Augusta was my mother. She told me all about you and your mother, and your fate. Come.”
She led me through the shop. As I passed the items, they all whispered with their own magic, telling me things I didn’t understand. The amulet in my pocket grew hot, burning my skin through the handkerchief it was wrapped in, through my jeans. In the backroom, two old velvet armchairs faced a small bookshelf and a two-plate stove stood on the counter.
“I’m Autumn,” she said. “Tea?”
“Please.”
She poured hot water from a kettle that must have recently boiled. When she passed me my cup, leaves floated in it, making strange patterns. I tried to sip the tea around the leaves.
Autumn sat down and sipped her own tea.
“What is it that you need?”
I hesitated.
“My mom didn’t just reach out to shifters, but there were a few she liked to look out for, and you were one of them. When you had to leave, she was heartbroken.”
“I asked her to help me,” I said softly. “When I had to go…”
“Her greatest regret was that she couldn’t.”
Couldn’t, or wouldn’t? I’d screamed at her that she didn’t care. It had been the last thing I’d said to her before they’d taken me away.
A lump rose in my throat. I hated that Augusta was gone, too, before I could make it right with her. I’d hoped I would come home to someone who’d known my mother, someone who understood what a loss it had been when she’d passed away. I’d hoped I could fix things with the fae, tell her that I hadn’t meant it all those years ago, I just hadn’t been able to see the bigger picture through my grief and fear of the unknown life that lay ahead.
I forced the thoughts of her away and tried to focus on the reason I’d come. It was easier to focus on the now—the past held too much pain.
“I’m in trouble,” I blurted. I reached into my pocket and produced the handkerchief. When I unwrapped it, Autumn bounced back from the amulet as if she’d been physically shoved.
“What did you do?” she asked.
“I didn’t do anything,” I said. “I just took it.” I explained to her that I took it from my dad in an effort to get my revenge.
“Oh, honey,” Autumn breathed. “No, no, no… the magic in that thing isstolen.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “How can magic be stolen?”
Autumn shook her head again and again.
