16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

T he knock on the door nearly made her jump out of her skin. As she moved to rise from the couch, something tickled her feet. Roses. A small pile of pink roses lay on the floor and all around her. She sighed. She must have conjured them without noticing, lost in thought as she was.

“Coming!” she yelled as she ran to answer the knock. She smoothed her hair down as she pulled the door open. She probably looked a mess, eyes red and swollen from crying and tears still staining her cheeks.

“Hi,” she breathed out as her eyes met Draven’s.

“Hi,” he said with a soft smile, though it did not reach his eyes. Something was wrong.

“Are you okay? I’ve been calling and texting you. I was starting to worry.”

He cringed. “I’m okay. But I really need to talk to you about something. Can I come in?”

Worry gnawed at her gut. It had been a long time since she had been in anything resembling a relationship but even she knew someone saying they “needed to talk” was never a good sign.

“Of course.” She waved him through, shutting the door behind him. She watched him for a moment as he walked through to the living room. Whatever was about to happen could not be good. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she followed after him.

He was stopped in the middle of the room, staring at nothing.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I, um … I need to tell you something and I’m not sure where to start. Let’s sit down.”

He perched on the edge of the couch, pulling her down to sit next to him.

“Draven, you’re scaring me.”

He took a deep breath. It must not have done much to steady him because she could feel his hand shaking. “First, I want to apologize for not responding to your texts or answering your calls. I did not mean to shut you out. But this thing I have to tell you isn’t easy and I know once I do, you’re going to hate me. I spent the morning trying to decide what to do and I know telling you is the right thing.”

A cold chill ran up her spine and dread pooled in her stomach. This was exactly what she had been trying to explain to Jill. Something about today had felt off since the moment she opened her eyes this morning. She had a feeling whatever he was about to say would break her heart.

“I told you why I came to town in the first place. I found out my mom was a witch and searching through her things pointed me here. I found letters from friends, pictures, all kinds of things. But what I was most excited about were the journals. She had dozens of journals where she wrote about her life.”

Despite her nerves, she smiled. Whenever Draven talked about his mom, his whole face lit up. It was such a cool thing to see. “That’s really amazing, Draven. I’m sure you were able to learn so much about who she was.”

He nodded, squeezing her hand. “I did. The bulk of the journals started around the time she left here for New York. She and my dad were together, but my brother and I weren’t around yet. One of the first entries was talking about how she lost her magic.”

Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Yeah. I remember you told me that on our first date.”

“Right. But there’s more to it.”

The first tear fell down her cheek just as a single drop of rain hit the window. She was definitely making it rain. “I knew it,” she said softly, pulling her hand from his. “I knew you weren’t telling me everything.”

“I’m sorry, Liv,” he said. “I just did not know who I could trust. Because the thing is, I know why my mom lost her magic here in this town, but I don’t know how. I assume someone had to have taken it away. But I also know that instead of helping her, the people in this town let her leave. I know that losing her magic was something that my dad resented, though I don’t know exactly why and I know that he eventually left because of it. My mother wrote it all down. That’s how I know that she never got over losing him. Even though she accepted the loss of her magic, I can’t.”

She narrowed her eyes. What exactly was he trying to say?

“Draven,” she said slowly. “Before you say anything else, I want to make something very clear. Magic is good. The witches here are good. So, whatever you think happened as far as how your mom lost her magic, I can promise you; you are wrong.”

He stood up from the couch so fast it startled her. He began pacing back and forth, like a caged animal. Then, suddenly, he whirled around to look her right in the eye.

“I am not wrong. This town is wrong. They use magic for a protection spell, but where were they when my mother was raising two boys all alone, huh? Where were they when she was dying?” He choked out on a sob.

She stood up and hurried towards him. Tears shone on his lashes. “No amount of magic can bring back the dead, Draven. You must know that?”

He stepped away from her, jaw set in an angry line. “I do know that. I may not have grown up in this town, Olivia, but I know that. Anyway, that’s not what I’m saying. Magic could not have saved my mother, I know that. But its absence did do harm. The lack of it drove my father away. I’m saying that magic tore my family apart, Liv.”

His eyes bored into hers, as if pleading with her to believe him, to take his accusations seriously.

She scoffed. He had no idea what he was talking about, no idea of the consequences his mother would have known about all along. She would have known exactly what she was doing but was willing to risk it. “You would say that. That just proves you have no idea how any of this works. Look at those flowers, Draven,” she said, pointing to the pile of roses still on the floor. “That’s about as bad as it gets. Me, absent-mindedly creating flowers out of nothing because my emotions were going haywire worrying about you. We use our magic for good. Magic did not do anything to hurt you. You said it yourself; the lack of magic did.”

He only stared at her for a moment, either not hearing her or choosing to ignore her. Now would be a good time to tell him what she knew.

“Exactly,” he said quietly. “If my mother had been allowed to keep her magic, maybe my father wouldn’t have left us. If the people in this town had cared more, maybe my mother wouldn’t have left behind two broken sons when she died. Maybe we would have found a family here, just like you did.”

How dare he use her own experience against her like that? Screw him.

“What is it that you want, Draven? Why did you really come here?” she snapped.

He sighed, his whole body slumping. He looked exhausted, as if he carried the weight of the word on his shoulders.

“I came here to expose magic.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Olivia asked.

Had she not heard him?

“I said I came here to expose magic.”

Her eyes snapped back to his and the fury he saw there turned his whole body to ice. Ironically, this was one of the things he liked most about her. Her fire. Her fierce determination and protectiveness.

The slap she landed against his cheek echoed throughout the room. Both of them were breathing harshly, chests heaving with the effort. Her warm brown eyes were now filled with disgust.

“I knew it. I knew from the moment I heard your name that nothing good could come from you being here. That’s why you lied, isn’t it? You pretended you did not know anyone here so you could sneak around and expose us? So, what the hell was I, Draven? I gave you everything you needed the night we slept together. Was it all just a joke to you?”

It hurt so damn much for him to see her like this. Despite everything she said, he still wanted to hold her, to comfort her. But he knew she would not want that now.

“No,” he gasped out. “No, Liv. I swear. That night changed things for me. I could see how good you were. Even though I was angry, at the town, at the people here, I never thought any less of you.”

She straightened up, wiping the tears from her eyes. Her face hardened, mouth settling into a scowl. “Save it, Draven. How can you justify making such a huge assumption? You only knew one side of the story and yet you were willing to punish innocent people? Do you want to know what really happened with your mother?”

He gasped. “I know exactly what happened. I just don’t know how it happened. You told me you didn’t know anything about it.”

“I hadn’t. I didn’t lie to you. Parker asked Rosa about your mom, just like I told you she would. She came to the bakery this morning to tell me. But I wasn’t there, because I was busy worrying about you. So, she told Jill, who told me.”

“And what exactly did she say?” he asked. His anger simmered low in his gut. He needed to finally know the whole truth.

“Rosa said that your mom tried to give someone else part of her magic and she tried to use the book’s magic to help her. Remember, the one I told you about?”

He nodded, avoiding her gaze. She still had no idea he had spied on the protection spell and that he knew exactly where that book was.

“But it did not work and as punishment, she lost her magic completely.”

“I know that. I know she wasn’t supposed to do it. But I don’t understand how she just lost her magic. How the people here—her friends, her family—could just take her whole life away from her and then just turn their backs like she meant nothing to them.”

“Our magic is a gift. It’s against the rules to try and give it to someone else. But it wasn’t other witches that took her magic away. It was the book itself. The magic from the original witches is like an entity unto itself. It’s what keeps magic alive.”

No. No, that wasn’t right. This could not be right.

“Isn’t it possible my mother was the victim here? That my father forced her to do it? Why should she have been punished for someone else’s mistake? Someone still should have tried to do something,” he was almost yelling now.

“She still chose to try. Whatever her reasons, she made the choice in the end, and people did try,” she said, shaking her head. “But there is no spell to bring back someone’s magic. Or to give someone magic. Or to stop the book from taking it. Your mother must have tried to create one. Her friends tried to help her. But, in the end, she told everyone she had to accept what happened because she had known the risks., So I don’t think anyone forced her hand.”

He snapped. “That is such bullshit. She loved my dad and was probably just trying to make him happy. It’s not right that she could not choose to share her magic with him. It’s not right that she had magic and he did not. It’s not right that some people have magic and others don’t. You, your friends, this whole goddamn town. What makes you so special?”

She was crying again, but he could not bring himself to care.

“I don’t know, Draven. I don’t know. It’s in our blood. Please try to understand,” she begged.

“No. You love it, don’t you? You love that you have magic and I don’t. You wouldn’t share it with me if you could, would you?”

“No,” she snapped. “I would not. It would not be right. Magic is a gift, Draven. I would not betray it like that.”

He laughed, bitterness coating his tongue. “You don’t deserve it. None of you do.”

She stalked up to him, poking him in the chest hard with her finger. “Don’t you dare tell me what I deserve. You’re just afraid to face the truth. I’m sorry that your father left you. Believe me; I understand exactly how you feel. You want answers that make sense and the only people who can give them to you aren’t around. But that isn’t my fault. It’s no one’s fault. Can’t you see that?”

“All I see is everything I’ve lost.”

“What about me, Draven? Do you see me standing here in front of you? You just admitted to me that you were out for revenge and I’m still here. Do you want to know what I think? I think you’re afraid. Afraid of this thing that you know so little about. And because you’ve been so focused on how magic wronged you, you can’t see how wonderful it can be.”

Each word she said cut him to the quick. He had thought maybe she would understand. She had lost her own family so very early in life, so she should see the need for justice the way he did. But he should have known. She had a family now and it did not include him.

He would see this through for his mother. Even if it meant turning his back on this woman he had come to care so much about.

She moved closer to him, both hands coming up to cup his face. “Please, Draven. Please try to understand.”

He gripped her hands tightly, pushing them away and putting space between them. He could not understand. He had to see this through. But not by writing some exposé. No. He was going to take their magic away.

“I’m sorry, Olivia. But I have to do this.”

“Do what? Draven, what are you going to do?”

“You’ll know soon.”

As he walked out the door, the sound of her sobs pierced his heart.