Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Dafni

“That human got too close. She knows too much.”

A whispered voice woke me.

My mother was here.

I knew better than to open my eyes. I knew that voice. I was better off pretending to sleep. My joints locked under the thin blanket covering me. I reminded myself to breathe evenly, naturally. Nothing good would come if she knew I was awake.

“The rot is growing. It can’t come as a surprise that those in the woods are taking notice.”

The familiar stirring of grandmother’s wooden spoon hitting the sides of her cauldron were soothing. The sharp footsteps coming toward me were anything but.

“She’ll let the shifters know everything she’s discovered. If she hasn’t already,” my mother ranted. “After everything I’ve done. After everything I’ve created. I refuse to let an idiot human ruin everything.” Her cadence increased, every click of her heel on the floor in time with the rapid beat of my heart.

“She won’t be human for long,” my grandmother mumbled from her place beside the cauldron. She had been working on a strengthening potion for the coven when I’d gone to bed earlier. It wasn’t uncommon that she stayed up late, tending to the potion, stirring it into submission under her careful tutelage.

“ Do you have to throw it in my face, you hag? ”

My mother’s shriek was loud enough that I flinched beneath the blanket. My breathing stopped, all the air leaving my lungs.

Please don’t notice me.

Please don’t see me.

Please don’t remember that I’m here.

“Hush, Matilda, the child’s sleeping.” My heart skipped a beat. The stir of my grandmother’s wooden spoon continued, although quicker, the liquid sloshing against the sides of the cauldron.

“As if I wouldn’t realize my child was in the room.” The sound of her voice made my hands quiver. I clenched my fingers nails into my palms.

The point of her shoe poked me through the blanket and between two of my ribs. I held my tongue between my teeth, keeping my eyes closed. She would leave soon. She never stayed long. I just needed to pretend to sleep.

“You spoil her.” I could feel her hot breath against my face. I opened my mouth, no longer able to stand the rancid stench entering my nose.

A finger pushed through my lips and ran along the gums under my upper lip, the pointed nail clacking along my teeth.

“There’s nothing there yet,” my grandmother said.

“That’s what you said the last time. And the time before that.” Her finger left my mouth, her nail cutting the inside of my lip. The taste of iron immediately hit my tongue.

“Her poison will come. I’m sure of it.” The handle of the wooden spoon hit the side of the cauldron, clanking against the metal. The floorboards creaked as they supported my grandmother’s footsteps. “Leave her be. You promised me her first eighteen years.”

A couple of heel clicks and a breeze let me know my mother had left my side. I let my eyelids open just enough to see the hazy scene before me. She and grandmother were toe-to-toe in the middle of the room, my grandmother standing her ground although she stood a full foot shorter.

“Don’t make me regret giving her to you to raise instead of putting her in the Academy, where she belongs.” Through the glow of the hearth, I could see drops of spit spewing from my mother’s mouth as she spoke.

“You know Dafni’s better off with me until she’s grown.”

“Dafni will corrode under you if you continue to coddle her.”

“I raised you, didn’t I?” Grandmother stood there for a moment before turning back to the hearth, slowly shuffling back to her potion.

My mother stood there for a moment, her silhouette that frequented my nightmares, expanding and contracting with every heated breath. “Let me know if any dogs come sniffing around.”

“You know I will,” my grandmother said. “I will protect Dafni with my life.”

A large exhale left Mother’s silhouette, her long red hair catching her body’s movement as she turned. I closed my eyes gently. My only defense was my supposed unconsciousness.

“Don’t tell her I stopped by,” she said. The clicking of her heels past the mound of furs I rested on and the slam of the screen door brought my heartbeat down to a manageable level.

Grandmother sighed, her stirring continuing. “You can stop pretending to sleep now, Dafni. You can’t fool me.”

I opened my eyes, staring at my grandmother in front of the flaming hearth. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop pretending, Grandmother. Not in front of her.”

She looked back down at her potion, getting lost in the swirling liquid.

“Then you’d better get better at pretending, Dafni. Your life depends on it.”