44. Bonus Epilogue Part 2

Iwrapped my fingers around the locket I wore as I watched my daughter play with the other little witch children. My mind wanted to drift to thoughts of her father, the way they always did when I took in the sight of that bright red hair and those intelligent blue eyes. The memories brought both love and regret.

Dyre. He had been so lost. So trapped. Used all his life by his horrible family. And in the end, they destroyed the boy I loved, turned him into a monster that last I heard was still being hunted by the supernatural community.

But he had left me with this, with the little girl who was my reason for living when all else was lost. It had taken so much hard work and sacrifice to get us here. To a place without a ruling coven. Where the local witches were willing to take us in and help me learn how to care for and raise my non-human daughter.

Now we were forming a coven of our own. A family of our own. At first, I had hated the idea. The last thing the world needed was more haughty witch families, like the one who had owned me and my relatives. But truth-be-told, I was terrified of the blood that ran through my little Aggie"s veins. I wanted to believe that my Dyre had been a good person. A poor, dear boy who was born into horrible circumstances. But could I be sure of that? Maybe the curse of cruelty and madness ran in his Blaisdell blood.

Maybe he had been a monster all along, and I never realized it. Or maybe his heritage just made him destined to become the horrible abomination he now was. Would it be the same for Aggie?

I was only a human. Having a family of other witches around us to nurture and support her seemed like the best thing I could do to make sure she didn"t go bad the way her father had. Squaring my shoulders, I pasted on a smile and waved to the children. "Aggie! I"m going inside for a moment. Mind Mrs. Mumford while I"m gone."

Aggie barely acknowledged me because she was too busy helping the other kids levitate a leaf they"d found in the yard. But Mrs. Mumford smiled and waved back at me, indicating that the kids were fine with her.

I made my way inside the small, tidy house we had all pooled our resources to purchase just a week ago. There were plans to expand the place soon, to make ourselves a proper manor house that would house several families. The solicitor waited in the study with the heads of the other witch families. I was the only woman who didn"t have a man to speak for her. It had been a challenge at first, but I had demanded they treat me as an equal, and I was surprised to learn that in witch society, women were often given more freedom and power than in the human world. In fact, they had allowed me to guide the entire process, put me in charge of writing up the coven"s manifesto and drafting our initial plans.

It was a lot of responsibility for a twenty-year-old ex-slave. And it made my chest swell with pride every time I realized how much my life had changed. I would never say that what had happened with the Blaisdells was a good thing. But in a strange way, Dyre had granted me freedom. I wiped the back of my hand across my eyes as tears threatened. It seemed I was feeling maudlin today.

"Ah, there she is," Mr. Mumford said happily as I entered the study. He waved me over to the desk where the solicitor waited. "Tears of joy, I hope? All we need to formally establish the new coven is your signature, Maura."

I smiled back in agreement and surreptitiously wiped my sweaty hands on my skirts as I stepped up to the desk. The pen was heavy in my hand as I scrawled my name—the new one I had chosen when I left my old life behind.

Maura Lovell.

Backs were patted and cigars passed around as the solicitor rolled up the paperwork and talk turned to how we should go about growing and tending to our fledgling coven. I was as excited about the future as the rest. But my eyes were drawn toward the window when I heard the faint squeals of excited childish laughter.

An entire whirling dervish of autumn leaves now spun and fluttered in the air above the back lawn while Mrs. Mumford watched on with wide, surprised eyes. At the center of it all, doing magic that I suspected was beyond what any of the other children could manage, was Aggie. Her red hair danced in the breeze she had conjured, and her face was lit up with childish joy.

I was both happy and terrified. Had I done the right thing?

Mr. Mumford clapped me on the back and chuckled at my daughter"s little display. "She"s a prodigy," he said with a smile. "We"re lucky to have you heading up this endeavor, Mrs. Lovell. I can tell our coven is going to do great things."

I nodded. He was right. This coven would be nothing like the Blaisdell coven. I would make sure my daughter put her powerful magic to good use. And we were surrounded by other witch families who shared in my vision. What could possibly go wrong?