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“That sounds kind of harsh,” I said, frowning. “I mean, you only moved two hours away. And you became a nurse. Wouldn’t most families be proud of that?”
“I have no idea. Our family isn’t most families,” she replied shortly. “Who needs a college degree or a steady income when you can putter around a dusty old shop, following your mother like a shadow for your entire life?”
I felt the stirrings of something like a memory, but it was hazy, a distant shape in the fog. “You’ve told me about that shop before,” I said.
My mother looked at me sharply. “Did I?”
I frowned in concentration. I could almost see it, a tantalizing something dancing in my peripheral vision. “What was it called again?”
My mother hesitated. “The Shadowkeep.”
I stared at her. “Thewhat?”
My mother rolled her eyes. “I know. It’s a little tourist trap down by the water. They sell candles and crystals and tarot cards, that kind of stuff.”
“And that’s why you and Asteria stopped speaking? Because you wouldn’t help sell a bunch of gimmicky, new-age junk?” I asked.
My mother’s mouth quirked into a crooked smile. “Something like that.”
“But your sisters both work there?”
“Sure, as long as we’re using a vague definition of the word ‘work,’” my mother said dryly.
“And it’s not a very big shop, is it?”
My mother shook her head. “Tiny.”
“Well, then, why would Asteria care whether you worked there or not? It sounds like she had plenty of help.”
My mother smiled at the indignation in my tone, reached out, and ruffled my hair. “I see your point, but Asteria wasn’t exactly famous for her logic.”
I tilted my head. “Was she famous for something else?”
There was that hesitation again. Then, “No. Your grandmother wasn’t famous. At least, not outside our little town.” She took her eyes from the road for a brief moment to smile at me. “Everyone knows everyone in Sedgwick Cove. You’ll see what I mean.”
She went silent again, and I turned to look out the window, my mind whirling. I’d learned more about my grandmother in the last few minutes than I had in my entire life up until today, and it was still all I could do to swallow back a steady stream of questions. I decided to be patient. We’d be in Sedgwick Cove soon, and then my mother would have to answer my questions. And even if she still tried to avoid them, there would be other people and places from which to get answers. I reached down and ran my fingers over the necklace from Asteria which I had tucked carefully down my shirt. I could wait.
The drive was mostly highway, and I could feel my eyelids getting heavy as I stared at the endless yellow lines rushing toward us. I rubbed the pad of my thumb back and forth over the little velvet pouch, stifling a yawn, and then another…
I turned my head to the left and gasped to see not my mother, but Asteria behind the wheel of the car. The window was down and the breeze whipped strands of her silvery hair around her face like dancing cobwebs.
“Where are we going?” I heard myself ask the question.
Asteria looked at me, gray-green eyes agleam. “On an adventure together at last!” she whispered.
I looked back out at the road ahead of us again, but it had gone, replaced by the crashing edge of the sea, battering itself against the low cliffs we now stood upon. The sun, too, had gone, and a full moon hung in her place, a pale imitation of her brighter counterpart. Asteria reached over and brushed a finger over the necklace that still dangled around my neck.
“Are you ready, Little Bird?” she whispered.
I started awake as Freya gave an indignant yowl. She’d been suspiciously well-behaved since we’d set out; normally she made her displeasure very evident in the loudest and most dramatic ways possible. Now she stared imperiously at me through the bars of the carrier as though to say, “Did you hear that? I could have been making that sound the entire time.” I poked a couple of fingers through so that I could scratch her forehead.
“Sorry for the long ride,” I told her. “We’ll be there soon.”
“Sooner than you think. Did you have a nice nap?” my mother asked.
“How long was I… oh!” I cried, for at that moment I realized we were no longer on the highway. A two-lane road wound lazily up the coast, the shimmer of the sea visible in the distance out of my window. We rounded a bend and a battered, faded wooden sign rose up to meet us. Several antique wooden buoys and a fishing net hung in nautical accent to the pale blue letters:Welcome to Sedgwick Cove: A magical haven by the sea.
I felt a shiver of anticipation as the hairs on the back of my neck rose to attention. We were here. Here, in the town where I was born—the town where my mother and her mother were born. I gazed hungrily out the window for something that would kindle a spark of recognition in me. It seemed impossible that I could be in this place and not recognize it as an intrinsic part of myself.
