Page 78 of Dreams Do Come True

CHAPTER 24

Ican’t believe my mother is in town. Why is she here? Please don’t say she knows about my boys. How would she even know about them?

I stop behind her. “Mother,” I say, to her back.

She spins around, and I try not to gasp in shock. Since I last saw her, she has aged considerably. Is that what a loss of magic does to you?

“Titus, it’s about time you arrived,” she says, in her normal disapproval tone, looking at me up and down with a sneer on her face.

I’m dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, not clothing my mother usually sees me wearing. Not that I care, she can disapprove all she likes. “I didn’t know we were supposed to be meeting today. Why are you here?”

“I’m here because...,” she starts to say, but stops as Ernest suddenly comes and stands next to me.

“Lizzie, welcome to Cadenbury,” he says, with laughter in his voice.

“My name is Elizabeth,” she spits out, glaring at Ernest, before looking back at me. “The reason I am here is because I’vefound out you have children. Hand them over to me now, or I’ll make you wish you had never been born.”

I feel anger suddenly race through me.

“And just what, Lizzie, are you planning to do to those sweet children?” Molly asks, stepping in front of me.

My mother pales and takes a step back, as I hear running footsteps and cars racing down the road and screeching to a halt. The next moment, I feel Kean next to me, taking my hand.

Lizzie wants our boys.I tell him through our mind link.

Hell will freeze over first.He growls back.

“This conversation is between my son, Titus, and myself,” she shouts.

“Not if it involves our children, it doesn’t,” Kean spits out.

“Why don’t we take this into the tearoom?” Adhan suggests.

We’re probably gathering a crowd, not that I currently care. I also have no idea when Adhan arrived, but then I’ve not taken my eyes off my mother.

“No, we will have the conversation here and now,” she demands.

A red, angry haze covers me. “Fine,” I say, dropping Kean’s hand and stepping forward. I touch Molly’s shoulder, and she moves out of my way.

I stare at my mother. “You will never get your hands on our children, and if you try anything against our boys, against my family, against this town or against me, I will makeyouwish you had never been born. I will find the darkest spells imaginable and cast them on you, and if by some miracle you survive, I will have every piece of flesh stripped off your body. I will cut out your organs and throw them into a fire, and finally, I will break every bone in your body and grind them down, scattering them to the four winds. DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND. ME?” I thunder.

My mother gasps and looks horrified, a hand clutching her chest.

There is stunned silence around us, literally no sound whatsoever.

“Damn, and I thought I was the dark witch. Remind me never to piss you off, Titus,” Sly comments a moment later.

I hear a few chuckles, but I continue staring at her.

“This isn’t over, Titus,” she says hatefully, standing up straighter.

“What can you actually do, mother?” I hear Cassie ask as he comes and stands next to me. “You have practically no magic inside of you. The small remaining bit of Septamus’s magic is bound, and Father’s magic is gone. So I ask again, Mother what can you actually do? And just so you know, if you try and fight my brother, you’ll not only be fighting him, but me, the original line true light witches, two original line true grey witches, one original line true dark witch, plus Mollyanne and all the Cadenbury Town witches, and for your informationMotherone of those true light witchesisTitus.”

My mother takes another step back. “That’s not possible!” she exclaims, looking shocked. “We have no original line true witches in the family.”

“It is very possible, Lizzie. Titus was gifted the Porter true light magic, but even without it, he could stop you blindfolded. Boys leave Lizzie with me,” Molly says, moving in front of me again.

I take a step back.