Chapter 25

Chapter

Twenty-Five

SELESTE

H ow long had she been staring at his bed? How long had it been since anyone had been in the chalet ? The curtains were different, and the bed was situated along a different wall, but everything else was the same.

A gentle knock came from the door, shaking Seleste from her stupor. When she opened it, Aggie, Sorscha, and Winnie stood there holding their mother's journals, while Grimm held a glowing lantern.

With no preamble, Aggie handed Seleste her journal. "It's time, Sister."

Seleste moved out of the way and they filed in, gathering around Cal's table—a sight she never could have predicted in all her years.

"What do we do?" Sorscha threw a hand onto her silk- swathed hip. "We have been carrying these around for moons and nothing's summoned anyone."

Seleste pushed all thoughts of Cal aside, and ticked through several summoning spells in her mind, considering each of them carefully. None seemed quite right, not with an inanimate object and the spirit of someone involved.

"Grimm," she said, everyone turning in her direction. "That's how. It will take all of us and the prince."

"Choppity-chop then, reaper." Sorscha rotated her wrists as if stretching would aid her in releasing magic.

"You could say please, you know," Grimm sniped.

"Pretty please with a damned cherry on top, Marchand de Mort ." Sorscha's words dripped with sarcasm as thick as honey, and Seleste nearly smiled.

"I'd almost forgotten you're not actually named reapers ," she mused.

Agatha snorted and stepped forward, Winnie following her lead—on both counts.

"Let's get on with it, then," Grimm drawled.

Sorscha's vibrantly crimson magic danced forward hastily, hovering over the journals. Winnie, fancy as always, let hers descend as falling snow and silver sparkles.

Aggie and Seleste traded bemused grins at their Sisters' showmanship, combining their magic. Aggie's magic wove into a black lace that draped delicately over Seleste's golden sunburst.

"Very good, witches," Grimm droned sardonically. "We can all make pretty things." He stepped forward, hands still in his pockets, as a tendril of smoke and shadow spun and dove, a show in acrobatics.

"Show off," Sorscha muttered, just before the vine of night fanned out, blanketing the rose gold of the Sisters' combined magic.

Grimm's power coalesced with the Sisters' magic and began to spin. A whirlwind of colour and smoke, until Seleste had to shield her face, Winnie shrieking something about her hair stinging her face.

The wind stopped as suddenly as it had come, and Seleste knew they were not alone. Not anymore.

She lowered her arm from her face, and couldn't help the gasp that escaped. Four ethereal witches stood before them.

In front of Winnie, a young woman full of poise and dignity, with strawberry waves and violet eyes. Talan .

Before Sorscha was a raven-haired beauty with blue eyes and mirth dancing around the edges of her mouth, her eyes, her very essence. Hissa .

The youngest of them stood before Aggie, her spitting image as a child, save for a dimple on her cheek as she smiled at her mother. Belfry .

Dark auburn hair swaying, the young witch in front of Seleste was a combination of all three of her Sisters—of her parents. Monarch .

A sob ripped from Aggie's lips and she launched forward, crushing Talan, Hissa, Monarch, and Belfry in a stumbling embrace. Seleste tore her gaze from the emotional scene to find tears streaming down Grimm's cheeks.

His daughters.

Goddess, what he and Aggie had been through, that none of them could understand, save for possibly Winnie. Just as Seleste had the thought, Winnie sniffled and stepped to Grimm's side, taking his arm in both of hers and giving it a firm, understanding squeeze .

"Most don't get this chance, reaper," she whispered. "Don't just stand here."

He swiped at his face, nodding repeatedly.

One of the Sisters untangled from Aggie, her eyes glistening as she caught Grimm's eyes. The youngest. Belfry.

"Hi, Papa," she whispered.

Grimm's eyes closed with the impact of her words and he tipped his head back for only a breath before he strode forward and enveloped Belfry in a crushing embrace. One by one, he repeated the moment with Monarch, Hissa, and finally Talan, stopping to hold each of their faces in his hands.

All in attendance were weeping, and Seleste thought she might burst. Might die right there of heartbreak and joy all at once.

Sorscha slung one arm around Winnie's waist and the other around Seleste's, sniffling and crying. "Goddess," she cursed, "I can't fucking watch this." She let go of Winnie and buried her face in Seleste's shoulder.

They all watched as Talan approached Winnie. "Sister Winter," she said, her voice like the snowy wind, "remember that you are never too old for hearthtales."

Her attention flicked from Winnie to Grimm. "Right, Papa?" He huffed a tearful laugh, and Talan turned back to her successor. "Cherish that you live in a hearthtale with your cirque master."

Tears streamed down Winnie's face as she nodded, unable to speak.

Talan reached up and squeezed Winnie's shoulder affectionately. "I also want you to know that Lilette is with us." Winnie sucked in a shaky, garbled breath. "We watched over her the best we could during her glorious, adventurous life. She lives in our home now in the Afterlife. Lady Death had her brought to us when she passed."

Winnie hit her knees, sobbing uncontrollably, and Aggie rushed to her side, kneeling to rub small circles on her back. "Just breathe," she whispered to Sister Winter.

"Thank you, thank you," Winnie cried. Talan knelt on her other side, and Hissa stepped forward, encircling her arms around Sorscha's waist.

"Look at me," she commanded, and Sorscha did, a sob hiccuping out of her as their eyes met. "Sister Spring, your feelings are not a burden. You are no burden. Your friend"—Hissa smiled mischievously, bending and swaying to ensure Sorscha kept eye contact—"the pretty one…Gaius." Sorscha laughed. "He is right. You don't hide anymore. Understood?"

Nodding vigorously, Sorscha jumped into Hissa's arms, squeezing her tight until they all chuckled and Hissa finally set Sorscha down.

Monarch approached Seleste with a gentle smile. "That makes it your turn, Sister Summer." She reached forward and put a hand over Seleste's heart. "You are not weak for choosing kindness." A torrent of emotion came out in a sob from Seleste's chest. "I'm going to say that again and you store it in your heart, hm?"

Seleste nodded, tears streaming.

"Seleste, you are not weak for choosing kindness. You are not weak for being who you are." Monarch moved her hand from Seleste's heart to her cheek, and Seleste leaned into the touch. "Your Summer boy waits for you, dearheart."

Seleste tried to inhale, but her lungs had ceased pulling in air .

"The one who gave his life to put our father on the throne. He waits for you in the Afterlife. Your King Caliban."

Everyone gasped, and Aggie scrambled to her feet. "What? Caliban ?" Her chest was rising and falling rapidly, to the point Seleste thought Aggie might faint. "I– I– Seleste, I?—"

She ran for her Sister Autumn. "Shhhh." Hugging Aggie to her chest, both of them sobbing afresh, she murmured against her hair, "You didn't know who he was, Aggie."

She only cried harder, guilt over one of her greatest traumas pouring out of her by way of tears.

Seleste looked to Talan, still clutching her Sister Winter on the floor. "I thought it was Athania who wrote that Order. With the goddess quill."

Talan stroked Winnie's hair once and stood from her side. "It was. I have been in the Afterlife much longer than my Sisters." She smiled apologetically at Grimm as if she knew saying such a thing would hurt him. Judging by the look on his pained face, it very much had. "But my Sisters used everything, every tiny thing, to bring about this day. That included the death of King Caliban Bardot. Athania wanted our father on the throne, and she knew the maternal family line he would hail from.

"When it became clear to her that we planned to have that maternal line marry into the Earl of Bellvary's lineage, she had Seleste render Caliban sterile, to ensure he had no heirs. However, she did not consider that his family's blood would live on through his sister, Elsie."

Seleste let out a long, slow breath. Her sweet Elsie girl.

"Athania's actions effectively made the Peridot men next in line for the throne. When she saw fit, she sent Aggie to take Caliban's life. From there, a ripple effect took place. Aggie was tortured alongside her lover—the bodily form of Thanasim, Lord of Night, at that time."

Ira .

"Chresedia placed a man called Emile von Fuchs in the seat of Grand Magus, and had him retrieve Fleurina from Eridon."

Belfry left Grimm's side and stepped forward. "Our mother lived on, and our father was reborn yet again. This time, as Thackery Frederic Peridot III and Athania only aided in our plan set forth ages ago with her Orders steeped in blood." She walked to her mother and took her hands in hers. It was nearly like looking at Aggie and her reflection, save for that dimple.

"Sister Autumn." She laughed, a sweet moment tinged with all the intricacies of their relationship. "Equal darkness and light in this life, carrying the Source of all magic within your soul. This is it, Mummy." Agatha bent her head, a tear falling and splashing onto the floor. "Everything we've sacrificed for. It's time." Lip wobbling, Belfry looked from Agatha to Grimm. "It's time to break the spell."

Grimm stepped forward, weaving his fingers through Agatha's. "When the spell is broken, we will intercept Chresedia, as we've done countless times before. But now we have reinforcements." He looked to Winnie, Seleste, and Sorscha, who all nodded. "She will try, as she always has, to take the power of Lord and Lady Magie de la Nuit, expecting us to throw her into another realm again if she fails. However, this time, I will unbind her."

"So mote it be," Belfry said quietly, motioning her parents forward .

"And we will end this once and for all," Aggie finished for Grimm.

Aggie and Grimm clasped hands, facing one another as Winnie, Seleste, and Sorscha made a small circle around them. Talan, Hissa, Monarch, and Belfry held hands, encircling them all.

Aggie's voice rang out,

Déliez la magie

Déliez la graine,

Ne soyez plus protégée

Que la corde soit brisée

Dans l'obscurité du jour ? *

"May love be what binds us," two sets of Sisters and a reaper said in unison.

The locket around Aggie's neck—their mother's—glowed with the same bedimmed, blush magic it had the night the Sisters' forced separation had ended. Lifting off Aggie's chest and into the air, the locket hovered for a breath before the magic shot forth, diving into Aggie's breastbone where the locket had rested. When the magic disappeared within her, Aggie gasped, and the locket dropped back down, swaying on its chain.

Seleste looked up to find that Talan, Hissa, Monarch, and Belfry were faint, hardly even ghosts.

"We will meet again," Belfry whispered, just before their spirits blinked out.

* ? Unbind the magic, Unbind the seed. No longer protected, Let the twine be broken, In the darkness of the day