Chapter 38

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Erikson was sleeping at the motel complex, so that night Holly joined Connor in his little trailer bed, and they made lingering love while covered in the scent of wood smoke. Holly told herself she wasn’t going to ruin things by pushing him away and losing what little time they had left together. She was already in love with him; a few more nights of intimacy and pleasure weren’t going to make it any less painful when he hooked up the trailer and drove away.

The next morning he was already gone when she woke up, but he’d left a daisy on the pillow next to her. When she walked into the orchards that afternoon, things felt different. A weight had lifted from her shoulders, and she sensed a change in the atmosphere. Perhaps Miller’s presence had been haunting the farm for so long that they’d become inured to the niggling feeling that not all was quite right. Now that he was gone, the difference was so obvious she didn’t know how they could have missed that something evil was contributing to their apple farm’s decline. Everything felt calmer, more hopeful. Brighter.

For the next three days, Connor and his crew filmed a reenactment of the councilman dustup, excluding all references to witches. Instead, they focused on the councilman’s rage over his death, which was caused when he ingested a poisoned apple—the implication being that the apple had been poisoned bait for pesky wildlife.

Every night Holly slept with Connor in his trailer, where they laughed and shared secrets until eventually they stripped out of their clothes and made love. Despite her initial desire to keep their relationship quiet, she’d realized that doing so would mean having to sneak around and lose precious time with him. Besides, after the ghost banishment, it had been obvious that she and Connor had become more than former enemies.

The night before he was scheduled to leave, Holly found her aunts sitting together on the swing by the herb garden, swaying in companionable silence. Connor was in a meeting with his crew, and Holly was cooking dinner while she impatiently waited for the meeting to end. She’d come into the garden to collect rosemary for her dish, when she spotted the aunts, their shoulders touching and worry lines bracketing their mouths. Aunt Daisy’s gloved hand was curled on her thigh, and Aunt Rose’s eyes had the faraway look of someone deep in thought.

“Are you two all right?” Holly asked, walking over to crouch before the swing. She slipped her hand into Aunt Daisy’s. Her aunts had spent a decade shouldering the worry of raising three headstrong girls. It was time Holly helped share the burden. “Is something bothering you?”

Aunt Daisy rubbed her thumb over the back of Holly’s hand, the touch of thin leather familiar on Holly’s skin. “We’re troubled by how much power was used to expel Councilman Miller.”

“You’re worried it alerted the Shadow Council?”

Aunt Daisy nodded. A chickadee hopped across the garden, bleating its signature call as another bird encroached on its territory.

Holly set the bundle of rosemary on the ground by her knee. “They haven’t made contact yet, and it’s been days since it happened.”

Aunt rose pressed her lips together. “When they come, there won’t be any warning.”

When , not if .

Holly withdrew her hand and cupped her chin in her palm. “The power usage was certainly unusual, but I didn’t hurt anyone. Why would the Council care?”

“Oh, Holly.” Aunt Rose sighed and looked fondly at her. “The Shadow Council is beholden to no governing body. There is no court to approve their decisions, no centralized Wicked organization to rein them in. Like any shadow squad, they have functioned for centuries by making sure no one challenges their power.”

Holly let that sink in. “Are you saying they’ve kept their control by eliminating anyone who threatens their organization?” Threats like her and her sisters?

Rose nodded. “At the beginning the Shadow Council did what it needed to do to keep Wickeds safe. Over time and unchecked, they became corrupt and power hungry.”

The aunts had raised Holly and her sisters to fear the Shadow Council discovering their powers. They’d impressed upon the girls how important it was that they remain as “normal” as possible. And all this time Holly had thought it was because of what she’d done to her mother, that she’d proven she and her sisters were dangerous and unstable. But now … “Is that why you’ve been so adamant that we remain out of the spotlight? Our family has always lived ‘small’ because of Autumn’s vow, but you both took it a step further. I always thought you were afraid the Shadow Council would see us as a threat to others, but what you were really afraid of was that they would see us as a threat to them .”

Aunt Rose and Aunt Daisy shared a speaking look. “We’re sorry, Holly,” Aunt Rose finally said. “If your mother had been alive, she might have found a better way than restraining your powers. We did the best we could to protect you.”

Tears stung Holly’s eyes. “I’m sorry I killed her. I ruined everyone’s life that day.”

Aunt Rose reached forward to stroke the top of her head. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Holly sprang to her feet. “I’m an adult; you can admit the truth. If I hadn’t created that storm, she never would have lost control of her car.”

Her aunts’ faces went slack with stunned silence.

“Holly …” Aunt Rose’s voice trembled on her name, a whisper of horror threading the vowels. “Don’t tell me that’s what you actually believe.”

“How could I not? None of you ever blamed me, but I’m not an idiot. I started that storm. I was the reason she crashed.”

Aunt Daisy pressed her gloved hands to her eyes, and when they came away the leather was damp. “My dear child, we didn’t tell you the truth because we didn’t want you to live in fear. If we’d known you held yourself responsible … You did not kill your mother, Holly.”

“I appreciate you saying that, but—”

“ You did not kill your mother, Holly,” Aunt Daisy repeated.

The emphasis on you halted Holly’s objections, and suddenly she knew, as if the pieces had always hovered close, but were only just now falling into place to reveal the larger picture. In that moment she understood how her aunts could know so little about their powers and other Wickeds, and yet be experts on the Shadow Council. She understood why her aunts had been terrified the Shadow Council would target the girls, and why they’d been so desperate to keep Holly and her sisters’ strengths a secret.

A crushing weight lifted from Holly’s chest while another, more ominous mantle settled over her shoulders. Her throat felt lined with cut glass when she whispered, “The Shadow Council killed my mother.”

“Lilac was always the powerful one. Not as powerful as you girls, but of the three of us she inherited the most talent. She was strong and she was tired of hiding away. She saw how the Witches lived, and she wanted a brighter future for the Wickeds—a future that involved a centralized government and communities. A future that didn’t hinge on the whims of a select council of fear.” Aunt Rose touched her necklace, where a rose quartz sat against her skin. Drawing strength from it, she continued. “She’d even gone so far as to start having phone calls with Stacy’s mother. They’d begun to put aside their rivalry, were even tentative friends. Lilac wanted to learn from the Witches, and she wanted to bring you girls out of the shadows so that you could have better lives.”

Holly was stunned. “Mom was friends with Stacy’s mom?”

Aunt Rose nodded. “They found their way to common ground before your mother’s ‘accident.’ I think that is the way it was always supposed to be: Wickeds working in harmony with Witches.”

Holly turned that over in her mind. She’d only remembered her mother’s disdain for the Witches; she hadn’t been aware of the budding truce. She thought of her own feelings about Stacy and how they’d begun changing. Was it possible that she and Stacy could find common ground as their mothers had?

“After the Council murdered your mother, Daisy and I knew if they discovered you girls had ten times her power it would be only a matter of time before they came after you as well. We didn’t have the skill set to teach you how to handle your power, so we tried to suppress it.”

“There can be no question of their knowledge now,” Aunt Daisy said solemnly. “If the Witches felt your power, the Shadow Council did.”

Holly’s cheeks whitened. Had she put her entire family in danger? “What do we do?”

“We need to regain some of what we’ve lost,” Aunt Rose said firmly. “It is time we take up where Lilac left off and step out of the shadows. We need to connect with other Wickeds and relearn what our family has spent so long forgetting. Perhaps answers will come with the knowledge. Until then …”

They looked at each other but didn’t finish the sentence.

They didn’t have to. Holly understood perfectly. Until her aunts either discovered a way to help Holly and her sisters hide their powers again, or she and her sisters learned how to fully control and conceal them on their own, they would be targets for a ruthless council that answered to no one. A council that had already murdered their mother.

Holly clenched her fists.