25. Beth

Beth and Taryn stared at the door in complete shock. Just as quickly as he had come into their lives, he left. Taryn's body shook as heavy sobs overtook her body. Beth wrapped her arms around Taryn and they cried together.

When they finally ran out of tears, Taryn stuck out her bottom lip and said, "It's not fair. I want my dad. I want to be a family."

An arrow slammed through Beth's heart at that moment as she realized just how much of a little girl Taryn was. She was incredibly mature for her age and was an extremely talented witch. But at the end of the day, she was a ten-year-old little girl.

She's just a baby. And even though I warned her that this could happen, she couldn't help but get attached to her dad.

"You know he didn't want to go," Beth said. "He loves us both so much."

"I know. It's your mother's fault," Taryn said bitterly.

Beth was shocked to hear Taryn say it quite like that. All these years of knowing that Matilda didn't like Taryn, she had still referred to her as Grandmother. Now, she was "Your Mother."There are a lot of people who refer to others that way, jokingly or in anger, but Beth knew that Taryn had made a complete emotional break with Matilda.

"Yes, it is her fault. She is the one who hurt Conner."

"Hurt him?" Taryn said in a high-pitched voice full of disgust and anger. "That woman tried to kill him."

Taryn started shaking and her wolf fangs popped out. Her hands formed into claws. "I don't care that she hates me. She tried to kill my father."

Beth had never seen Taryn like this ever before. Taryn was calm and laid back. If something got to her, she would walk away, take a deep breath, and calm down. Then, when she could process the situation, she would come up with a solution and go from there – just like a mini adult.

"Taryn, Honey, I need you to listen to me."

She sucked in a huge breath of air when Beth saw that her daughter's eyes were completely black and almost glowing. Taryn's chest was heaving, like she had been sprinting for miles. Taryn was almost scaring her.

Beth's heart thundered in her chest. She was sure that if Matilda walked through the door, between Taryn's wolf and witch powers, her mother would be dead.

"Your dad isn't gone from your life forever. He went back to Angel's Creek. That's in New Mexico and is about six hours from here. Seven hours if we count pee stops. You can go down there as often as you want and stay as long as you want. If you want to meet halfway for a day and go do something, I know he will meet us. He just can't be here."

Her words didn't seem to have an effect on Taryn.

"Listen. I need you to control your hate and anger. This is exactly what Mother wanted. When you are angry and hurt, your emotions are in control, not logic or reason. You can be easily controlled when your emotions are in charge," Beth said. "I know that you would want to hurt her if she walked in the door. But, Baby Girl, that would make you just like her. That would put you on the dark path of magic."

Taryn stared at her mother as though she didn't recognize Beth. Then, slowly, Taryn's eyes and face returned to normal. Her claws became human hands again.

"That's my girl," Beth said, soothingly.

A couple of hours later, Taryn said, "I need to take care of Pegasus."

"Okay, let me call Jenna's mom to find out if you can come over."

Jenna begged Taryn to stay the night at their house. Beth wasn't sure that it was a good idea.

"Mom, please. Life's got to get back to normal for me. Staying at Jenna's is normal."

"True, but what about what happened this morning?" Beth asked.

"Won't happen," Taryn said.

"Okay."

Beth went back to the house and sank down on the couch with a glass of wine and the bottle sitting next to her. She wasn't stupid enough to think that one glass was going to be enough. She leaned back and put her feet up on the coffee table.

Her kitchen door opened and Beth groaned. She wasn't in the mood for her mother.

I guess it's a good thing that Taryn is at Jenna's.

"You aren't welcome here."

"That's no way to talk to your mother," Matilda said. "I see that the filthy wolf shifter finally got the hint and left town."

"Get out of my house."

"But, Darling, don't you see? It's for the best. I have something exciting to show you."

"I'm not interested. I don't want to be a part of your life. Please, just go."

"Look," Matilda said eagerly as she pulled the amulet off of her neck.

She held it in her hands and muttered something. A weird crackling sound, like a cross between static electricity and thunder, vibrated through the air. Beth looked around, bewildered, as a thin blue line creased the air behind Matilda. It got bigger and bigger until it looked like a portal of sorts.

"We can travel back and forth in time. Think about it. We can go into the past and change things and go into the future. Together we can rule the world."

"You are insane," Beth hissed. "You have absolutely lost your mind. This is wrong on so many levels."

"No. We can make this a world where witches rule. I'll be queen. You and Lyla can rule beside me," Matilda said.

"That's how you got the amulet," Beth said. "You found a way to go back into the past to get it."

"No. I was that Matilda, burning at the stake. I used my last bit of energy to hide it. As you can imagine, the landscape has changed over the last several centuries, so it took me a while to find it. But I did on my last trip to Europe."

"You're telling me that you're an evil witch, reincarnated from an evil witch?"

"Yeah. With all the other paranormal activity in the world, you find that hard to believe? Look behind me. Peek into it and focus on a time. You can go anywhere and be anywhere you want to be. We could stop John Proctor from being hanged and keep Giles Corey from being pressed to death."

"No," Beth said, snatching the amulet out of her mother's hand.

"Give that back. You don't know the power that it holds," Matilda said.

Beth dashed into the kitchen and yanked open her junk drawer. She grabbed a hammer.

"Don't do it," Matilda screamed. "You don't know what will happen."

Beth set the amulet down on the counter and brought the hammer down on it as hard as she could. The crystal shattered and flew in a million pieces. The setting on which the sigils were written was distorted, ruining the symbols.

The blue line snapped closed and Matilda collapsed to the ground. "How could you?"

"Easy. And here is something else that you should know. I'm done with you, and I'm done with you meddling in our lives. You know I don't believe in violence, and I don't believe in using my magic to hurt anyone. But hear me well. If you come near me or Taryn again, I will stop your heart, just like that."

Beth snapped her fingers, and Matilda's heart skipped a beat.

"If you go near Conner, his friends, family, or anyone else, I will end you. I will consider it an act of defense, and I will not lose a second of sleep over it."

"I'm your mother," Matilda said, haughtily.

"You are the egg donor. Father raised me. I suspect that you had a hand in his death, too. I was afraid of you and then I was afraid of becoming like you. No more. Am I clear?"

She snapped her fingers again, causing Matilda's heart to lurch, just to make sure that the dark witch got the message.

Matilda glared at Beth and then stormed out the door.

As soon as she left, Beth got on the phone. "Savvy, can you come over? I need you."

"On my way. Is this a one-wine bottle night, or two?"

"You'd better bring the whole case."

Savvy showed up twenty minutes later. As soon as she saw the shards of crystal and the bent setting in a white cotton cloth bag, she gasped. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes," Beth said and explained what happened.

"Do you think that she's done?"

"I don't know," Beth said. "But she'll have to start from scratch. I'm sure that she'll leave me and mine alone."

"Let's take care of this before we do anything else."

They drove up to the mountains and found a small sacred area where they practiced their arts and communicated with nature. After casting a strong nullification spell, they buried the bag.

Then, they went back to Beth's house. They only made it through one bottle each before they fell asleep.

Conner called her the next day and let her know that he already bought some land. It had a nice four-bedroom house on it, with a sturdy barn. They were going to expedite the closing, so it would be his soon. She told him what happened with her mother and said that Matilda wouldn't be a problem anymore.

"I'm sorry. I can't risk it," Conner said. "I love you and Taryn."

Life trudged by for the next couple of weeks. She and Taryn missed Conner. They constantly talked about him.

Then, one evening, Taryn said, "I'm going to have a little brother."

"What are you talking about?" Beth said.

"You're going to have a baby," Taryn said, gently touching Beth's tummy. "He's a wizard and a wolf shifter."

She thought about what Taryn said. She had been tired lately and breakfast had been extremely hard to make with her stomach constantly rolling.

She smiled. "I guess you're right."

Now that Taryn had mentioned it, she could feel the baby.

After several minutes, Beth asked, "How would you feel about moving to New Mexico?"

"Can Pegasus come with me?"

"Of course. Jenna has to stay here, though."

"She can come visit," Taryn said, confidently.

The next couple of days were busy. Anna offered to buy the store from Beth. The house was put up for sale and all of their belongings, except for their essentials, were put into storage.

Beth bought a truck and a trailer, which she knew how to drive, thanks to her father. They loaded up Pegasus and headed south.

"Does Dad know we're coming?" Taryn asked.

"No, I thought we'd surprise him," Beth said.

"People hate surprises," Taryn said. Then she gasped. "You were too afraid to tell him."

"Quit using your telepathy to read my mind."

"Don't worry. He's going to love it when we show up," Taryn said.

I hope,Beth thought.

Taryn just patted her arm and giggled.