21. Beth

That same morning, Beth woke up and untangled herself from Conner's arms. He had confessed his love for her. She pinched herself to make sure that she was awake and hadn't gotten lost in one of her dreams that always haunted her after she had cried herself to sleep.

After they left for the rodeo grounds, Beth called Savvy.

"Good morning, Sunshine," Beth said when Savvy answered the phone.

"Really? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"I'm sorry. I know that you worked late last night, but I had to talk to you. I'm so excited. This is the best day ever."

"You won the ten-million-dollar lottery and we both can retire."

"Better, at least for me," Beth said. "Conner stayed the night last night and we made love."

"Nothing new."

"I told him that I was still in love with him. He told me that he loved me, too," Beth said. "He said that he was going to stick around and we were going to be a family."

"Beth, that is so wonderful," Savvy said, now fully awake. "I know how much you've been hurting over the last few years."

"I don't feel like it's real. I'm terrified that at any moment, I'm going to wake up and it's another one of my dreams. Taryn will be asking about her father and why he disappeared before she was born, and I will have a huge hole in my heart."

"Speaking about the fact that he disappeared before she was born, what are you going to do about your mother? You know she isn't going to stop trying to hurt Conner and be like, ‘Yeah, okay. He's back, they're in love, so I should just let them live their lives'."

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do about her. Actually, she might be an even greater threat than just to Conner. She was wearing the Amulet of the Shadow Realm."

Savvy, who was also a witch, knew exactly how profound that was.

"I'm sorry. I guess that I'm still asleep and misheard what you said," Savvy said. "I could have sworn that you just said your mother was wearing the Amulet of the Shadow Realm."

"Yes."

"Is it the genuine article?"

"I'm afraid it is," Beth said.

"How did she get ahold of that? The last time it was seen was in the year 562 when it disappeared from the witch's neck when she was being burned at the stake."

"My guess is that the reason it disappeared is because Mother managed to create some kind of spell to grab it and history changed itself."

"That's dangerous magic in a million different ways," Savvy said. "Not only can going back in time and breathing differently change the world but for someone like her to have such an object…"

"I know. If she figures out the sigils around the crystal, there's no telling what she could do. We could be looking at an epidemic that rivaled the Black Plague or something even worse."

"What are we going to do about it?" Savvy asked.

"I don't know. There's no way that she would give it up, short of me killing her and taking it from her. That would put me on a dangerous path and give the amulet even more power."

"Can it even be destroyed?"

"I don't know. That may have been why they chose to let her wear it while Matilda was being burned. They hoped it would burn with her."

"That obviously didn't work, did it?" Savvy asked sardonically. "They might have been too afraid of Matilda and the amulet to try to remove it."

"I had thought of that, too," Beth conceded. "I've always wondered why she didn't use it to fight back against her captors. She could have killed them all."

"Maybe she had the power of foresight. Matilda may have seen that your mother would take the amulet and figure out how to use it. The devastation that your mother could cause in today's world far outweighs anything that could have been done in the past. The old Matilda could have caused the death of a few hundred people. Your mother could go to Denver and wipe out three-quarters of a million people."

"Hopefully, we'll figure out how to nullify the amulet's power before she can use it."

"I hope so. I guess we have a lot of research to do to figure out what those sigils mean and then develop counter spells," Savvy said.

"Yes," Beth said.

"We'll figure it out," Savvy said. "You are your mother's antithesis, which is why she wants so badly to control you. You are the light to her darkness."

"I don't believe in fairy tales or the idea that the good guy always defeats the bad," Beth said.

"But it does happen and we've seen it happen many times in history."

"At what cost?" Beth asked.

"That I can't answer. There always does seem to be some sacrifice," Savvy said. "Look, you called me this morning excited about Conner and the fact that he loves you and Taryn. Focus on that and we'll work to find a solution against your mother. We got this."

"You're right," Beth said, even though a knot in her gut told her that the world wasn't going to be unicorns and rainbows for a while.

Beth focused on her breathing when she got off the phone with Savvy. The absolute joy in finding out that Conner loved her was pitted against the worry about what her mother was up to.

Deep breath in through the nose to the count of four, hold it to the count of four, breathe out through the mouth to the count of four, and hold it to the count of four.

She continued this breathing ritual until she felt calm again. "Alright. As Savvy said, we've got this. We'll figure out a way to make everything right in this world."

Meanwhile, she had paperwork to do.

Anna smiled when Beth walked in the door. "Congrats. I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks, Anna." Beth grinned at her friend and shook her head. "You know that you're no fun when it comes to surprises. I could never throw a surprise birthday party for you."

"I'm not a fan of the unknown, anyway. I much prefer to see that freight train barreling down on me. I might not be about to get out of the way in time, but at least I know what hit me."

"You have a lovely way of putting things," Beth said.

"Speaking of that, there is something you should know," Anna said.

Beth groaned. "This can't be good."

"There will be a great challenge to your love and your relationship with Conner. There is a great danger coming. It will threaten the life of someone you hold dear. I cannot see who or where the danger is coming from."

"I bet that it's coming from Mother," Beth said. "She believes that if she can destroy my love for Conner, she can break me. She needs me for something."

She told Anna about her mother's proposition about an exchange of a potion for Conner and about the amulet.

"That can't be good," Anna said. "You know, she might not need you in that you have a power that she can use. She might just need you to be in a position where you aren't going to fight her. The potion might not even mean anything. She's just playing head games with you."

"It's working. I have a headache," Beth said. "However, what you are saying makes absolute sense."

"I'm with Savvy. We'll work together to figure this out. I know your mother has a team of witches trying to decipher the sigils. We are team Supreme Divine Trinity who cannot be defeated."

"Did you just give us a superhero team name?" Beth asked.

"Yes. Do you think that capes would be too much?"

Beth shook her head and laughed. "Yes. Why do superheroes wear capes, anyway? Wouldn't they just get in the way?"

"Do you want the long explanation or the short one?"

"Short."

"Capes protect the superhero by deflecting spells and bullets. Superman's cape helps him fly," Anna said.

"Protects against spells, huh? What color capes should we get?" Beth asked.

She spent the next couple of hours catching up on her paperwork before heading to the rodeo grounds. A shiver went up and down her spine when she arrived. Anna's warning echoed in her brain. Beth knew that danger was imminent.

Beth was dismayed to find that Taryn and Conner were the center of attention when she arrived. A large crowd had gathered around them. Her heart lurched when she heard what Kelly had done. If she hadn't been caught, Taryn could have been badly hurt.

After the crowd had finally dispersed, Conner asked, "Why didn't you want to press charges?"

"We would have had to go to file all the paperwork and go to court, which would end up taking more time than she would spend in jail. She's been disgraced. Kelly is used to everyone, outside of the rodeo, looking up to her and putting her on a pedestal. Now, they are going to look down on her and she's going to be nothing. That will hurt a lot more than jail."

"True," Conner said.

He pulled Beth and Taryn into a hug and suggested that they play a few games before the rodeo began.

Beth wished, with all of her heart, that the dread she felt and the danger that Anna spoke of had been thwarted when Kelly was caught putting burrs under Taryn's saddle blanket. However, her gut told her that something worse, a lot worse, was yet to come.