Page 8

NADINE

O ver the following weeks, we began to find a rhythm that worked better for us. The side effects of my treatment lasted for a few days, which mostly left me tired, but I found that the treatment helped. Lucas was seeing Dr. Mack again and attending weekly appointments, though he was still on the fence about starting medication.

Professor Wykoff had volunteered to watch Marcus while we were working, and it turned out to be a great arrangement. She had been with us the night the priestesses kidnapped Marcus, and she’d risked her life to protect him. We trusted her more than anyone else, and she was really great with our son.

Council duties continued to take up most of our time, but we were committed to being home before dinner and taking one day off every week. I’d spent the better part of the summer poring over Imperium records and meeting with our allies about the Curse Breaker Wand, but I had yet to stumble across a credible lead. The autumn equinox was quickly approaching, which meant Halloween wasn’t far behind. I kept reminding myself that we still had time before the priestesses’ arrival, and I was staying confident until then.

The Waning was only getting worse and slowing us down, though, and we were already running short on magically-charged crystal reserves by casting spells to help the coven. The first week of September arrived, and the Waning hit me so hard that I could barely even access my intuition, let alone any simple spells. Onyx and Miles didn’t have any magic, either.

Saturdays were our day off, and my friends and I always planned a laid-back activity to help us unwind. It was less than two weeks until Miles and Chloe’s wedding, and we agreed to help prepare party favors.

Talia and I had gone shopping with Marcus at a craft store after work one day, and we picked up supplies to make pendulum jars for the wedding guests. They were super simple. All we had to do was attach a pendulum to a cork, fill the small vials with crystals, leaves, or whatever else we wanted inside, then seal the corks on the jars. Then we could use them to commune with spirits, with the pendulum able to answer yes or no questions depending on the direction it swung within the jar. Miles thought they were the best wedding favors ever.

While we were shopping, we found shadow boxes at the craft store, which were like a deep picture frame meant to put memorabilia inside. I thought it’d be fun to make a display of keepsakes from Miles and Chloe’s dates to put on display at the reception. Chloe loved the idea.

I bought extra shadow boxes for myself, because I’d always wanted to make one for Marcus and Dean with the hats and onesies from their birth, along with photos from our ultrasound appointments and the footprints we’d taken after they were born.

I figured if I was making one for them, I wanted to make others—one for our wedding, and one for my parents. I had all these keepsakes hidden away in a box, but it was time to stop hiding them. We had a home now where we could put all these things on display. My dad’s collector’s license plate and my mom’s apron shouldn’t be left sitting in a box somewhere. They should be hanging on the wall, where I could look at them every day.

My friends and I gathered in the kitchen that morning and spread our art supplies over the long dining room table. Talia, Grant, and Onyx formed an assembly line to begin crafting the pendulum jars, while Miles started on the shadow box.

Talia leaned over to Onyx to eye one of the pendulum jars she’d just finished. “Ooh, I like that one!”

“Here, have it.” Onyx placed it in Talia’s hand. “We have tons of extra supplies.”

Talia beamed as she slipped the jar into her pocket.

“How can I help?” I asked.

Onyx glued one cork onto a vial before quickly moving onto the next pendulum jar. “I think we have this covered. I know you had some other shadow boxes you wanted to make. You and Lucas can work on those.”

“Yeah, we’re here to have fun,” Miles agreed.

Lucas started on the kids’ shadow boxes, while I brought out my parents’ keepsakes and started organizing them for their display. Marcus sat beside us in his bouncer, appearing fascinated by the rattles and toys that hung above his head. The cats were batting around a marble that had fallen from our craft supplies. Rose had declined to join us, as she wasn’t feeling well today.

Chloe plopped down next to Miles, smacking a thick binder on the table. “Now that everyone’s here, we need to finalize wedding details.”

We didn’t have a lot of time for wedding planning, but we didn’t really need it because Chloe had been planning her wedding her whole life, so all the details were already decided on. Booking a venue wasn’t an issue, because Chloe wanted to have the wedding in the backyard under the garden arch. It was one of the most beautiful places in town. Miles didn’t care about the details; all he wanted was for her to have the wedding of her dreams.

“Nadine, how did that adjustment on your bridesmaid dress work?” Chloe asked. “We’re running out of time to make any more changes.”

I pulled my collection of handwritten birthday cards from my parents out of their box. Luckily, they hadn’t been destroyed when Lucas accidentally knocked my things into the sink a few months ago. “It fits great. Everyone’s going to look really good.”

Chloe had planned a black and white wedding, where all the guests would be in black and the bride and groom would both be wearing white.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why the rush to get married?” Talia asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Yeah, is there something you’re not telling us?” Grant teased, wiggling his eyebrows at his brother.

Miles wrapped an arm around Chloe’s waist. “We are not rushing . We’re just excited! You never know what the future holds, and we want to make it official sooner rather than later.”

Chloe planted a kiss on his lips. “We can’t wait when we’re this madly in love.”

Talia dropped crushed petals into one of the vials. “There’s no question you two are perfect for each other. It’s just that marriage is a big step, and there are a lot of details to think about. What’s life going to look like after the wedding? Things like that.”

Chloe shrugged, keeping her eyes on Miles. He stared back dreamily. The two were absolutely smitten by each other.

“I guess we’ll figure that out when we get there,” Chloe said. “I know some people need to plan out their whole futures together to be comfortable moving forward with something like this, but Miles and I agree that we can’t know what the future holds, so why not live life now?”

I understood where both couples were coming from. Chloe and Miles were the kind of people who were certain of what they wanted, and once they made a decision, you couldn’t convince them otherwise. It didn’t make sense for them to wait on the wedding, because to them, there was nothing to wait for.

Talia and Grant were a different story. They’d always taken their relationship slowly, and they had to map out every detail of their futures before they said I Do. Sometimes I thought Grant and Talia could be too rigid, because there would be things they couldn’t predict that no amount of planning could prepare them for. But they also had to do what worked for them, and if they needed to agree on which color to paint the nursery before walking down the aisle, that’s what they had to do.

“Nadine and Lucas planned their wedding pretty quickly,” Onyx pointed out. “Do you guys ever wonder if you should’ve waited longer?”

Lucas shook his head. “I like the pace we took things, but every couple has their own timeline.”

“Lucas is right,” I agreed as I cut one of my birthday cards straight down the middle. I was going to arrange the cards in a way where the front image peeked out from behind the message written on the inside. When I was finished, it’d be a collage that covered the back of the shadow box. “I’m glad we didn’t wait, because if we hadn’t gotten married when we did, I might’ve never gotten pregnant, and Marcus wouldn’t be here with us now. But I don’t think everyone has to go at the same pace…”

I trailed off, and all eyes turned toward me. “Huh,” I mused as I stared down at my parents’ birthday letters.

“Everything all right?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah, it’s just… hold on.” I laid the letters out across the table, starting with the earliest date, all the way up to the card my parents had left me a few months before my nineteenth birthday. I noticed something strange about my mother’s handwriting that I’d never caught before. The anomaly appeared in each card, all the way back to when I was born. It was sporadic and didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason to it.

I placed a hand on my hip as I looked them over curiously. “I can spot my mom’s handwriting anywhere. She always writes in print. So… why are some of these letters in cursive?”

I pointed to an S at the end of a word, which swirled in a way that no other letter on the page did.

Lucas leaned over to inspect the cards. “Maybe it’s some sort of code. Your mom knew you liked puzzles. There’s got to be a meaning behind this.”

I got really excited at the idea that my parents had left something behind for me. If it really was a hidden message, it’d be really fun to highlight that in the shadow box. It was like one last game with my parents.

“Let’s work together to figure it out,” I suggested.

Lucas found a pen and notepad in one of the kitchen drawers, then returned to the table. He started scribbling down each letter that my mom had written in cursive.

Everyone gathered around to hunt down the cursive letters together. By the time Lucas finished writing them down, he’d filled up the whole sheet of paper.

Lucas tapped his pen against the table. “These letters don’t make sense in order. Maybe they mean something if you mix them up?”

“There’s got to be fifty letters here,” Miles pointed out. “You could make any combination of words with that if you wanted. Maybe you’re looking too deep into it. It might not mean anything.”

“Maybe it doesn’t, but it does seem strange for my mother to do. If my parents left me a message, I want to know what it is.” I picked up the oldest card. “Some of these have more cursive letters than others. Let’s try treating each card like its own separate piece of a whole, instead of trying to interpret these letters all together.”

Lucas tore off the top sheet of the notepad, giving himself a fresh piece of paper. “What letters do we have in the first card?”

“Just one,” I told him. “The letter I. ”

He wrote that down. “The second card?”

“O. T. O. K,” I listed out.

We continued on like this, until we’d organized each cursive letter by their respective cards. I looked over the list Lucas came up with. It became very clear that all together, the cards spelled out a full sentence.

“It’s still gibberish,” Miles insisted.

I shook my head. “No. The pattern’s there, but each word is mixed up. Each card spells out its own word, and if we unscramble them individually, we can figure out the whole message. See this second card here? O. T. O. K. That can only be took . I took… ”

Lucas started writing down the unscrambled version. “Let’s keep going.”

As we worked our way through the next words, my pulse began to quicken. I thought this was a fun game my parents had left behind, like the puzzles my dad and I used to solve together. But as the words started to form a sentence, I realized this was something else entirely.

I stared down at the sentence Lucas had written out once we reached the last card. “ I took the curse you seek from Octavia Falls and hid it in a place close to my heart ,” I read aloud in a shaky tone.

Onyx’s gaze darted between me and the cards. “What does that mean?”

“She must be talking about Nadine’s family curse,” Grant theorized. “Except Nadine broke it.”

“She says the curse you seek ,” I emphasized. “There’s only one thing we’re looking for. My mom took the Curse Breaker Wand.”

I stepped back as the weight of the realization hit me.

Talia furrowed her brow. “Why wouldn’t she just say that? Why call it a curse?”

“Because this message is meant for me ,” I said. “She didn’t want to be too obvious in case someone else deciphered it. But these cards are written to me, which means this message is referring to me… the curse you seek. The curse I, Nadine, seeks. Which can only mean the Curse Breaker Wand. The word curse in this message isn’t the item; it’s a clue, for me.”

“It fits everything we know,” Lucas added. “Helena had the Curse Breaker Wand for years after Nicholas died, and then she lost it. She said someone took it from her house. Faith must’ve found it when she was living there and took it with her when she left town over twenty years ago.”

“But how did she know ?” I wondered. “This message took her nineteen years to write, and more than that, she wrote the last card before my nineteenth birthday, shortly before she died.”

“You think your mom knew she was going to die?” Chloe asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. It’s more like she knew she had to get the last of the message to me sooner than later. But I’m not sure she knew why . If she knew she was going to die, she would’ve left more behind for me, or hinted in some way that she wouldn’t be around anymore.”

“Why wouldn’t she just tell you all this, instead of leaving a message in these cards?” Miles asked. “Haven’t you seen your mother’s spirit since she died?”

“My parents’ spirits appeared at our wedding to give their blessing, but they were only there for a few seconds,” I said. “She didn’t have time to tell me any of this, even if she wanted to. Talia and I tried contacting my parents in a séance when I first moved to Octavia Falls, but the connection wasn’t very good. We didn’t get through to them. The only other time I’ve seen them since their death was in a vision during my Evoking Ceremony, but I don’t think it was really their spirits. That vision was more like a projection of them from my own subconscious. So no, I haven’t really spoken to her since she died.”

“Clearly, your mom knew something ,” Chloe pointed out. “How she knew to leave you this message isn’t as important as the message itself. If this really does refer to the Curse Breaker Wand, then we need to go find where she hid it. Any idea what this second half of the message means— hid it in a place close to my heart ?”

“I think so,” I admitted. “Mom always said home is where the heart is. I think she hid it in the house I grew up in.”

“Any idea what might’ve happened to it when you moved?” Grant asked.

I racked my brain, trying to remember if we ran across anything that looked like a wand when we packed up the house, but I couldn’t recall anything like that. “If we’d found the Wand while packing, Grammy would’ve recognized it.”

“What if it’s still there?” Talia theorized.

I shook my head. “Grammy and I completely emptied the house after my parents died.”

“Unless she hid it somewhere you wouldn’t think to check,” Miles suggested.

I inhaled a sharp breath as I realized something. “When I was a kid, my mom and I were playing hide and seek, and I hid inside her closet. I found a hidden panel in the wall that led to a cubby space, just big enough to hide a few valuables. I don’t remember finding anything there at the time, but I do remember Mom saying it was a secret. I forgot about it until now.”

“You think that’s where she hid the Curse Breaker Wand?” Lucas asked.

“It’s got to be,” I said. “We have to go check it out.”

There wasn’t time to waste. We quickly agreed that anyone who had access to their magic should come along with me. Chloe, Miles, and Onyx offered to stay back and watch Marcus. Lucas created a portal, and we stepped through it alongside Grant and Talia. Our four cats followed at our feet.

We emerged into a cluster of trees behind my childhood home. I could see the white siding and green shutters from here, and my heart ached for the home that once was mine.

It didn’t feel the same, though. Various building materials and construction equipment were stacked in the driveway. The inside of the house was dark, and there weren’t any cars parked outside.

The backyard was all torn up, with mounds of dirt piled in various places. My mother’s bushes she tended to on the side of the house weren’t there anymore, and her flower gardens were completely gone. The old car dad had parked out behind the garage hadn’t been there since we sold it after his funeral. The swing set I used to play on as a child, along with the tall oak tree I used to climb, were both missing. The yard was completely unrecognizable, and that made me sick to my stomach.

We approached the back of the house, and I peered in through the sliding glass door. Ladders, buckets of paint, and various sheets of plastic scattered the house. Clearly no one was living here right now, as the house was undergoing a major remodel. I couldn’t understand why the new owners would want to change something that was already so beautiful. It was really sad to witness.

Grant muttered an incantation, and his green magic swirled around the door handle before disengaging the lock. We entered the house, our footsteps echoing off the hardwood floor. The cats were silent as they slunk through the house beside us.

It was strange being here again, because it felt so familiar, yet so distant at the same time. This had been my home growing up, but I’d changed so much since I left this place. I’d made a new home now, and it was surreal coming to this place that was merely a memory.

I led my friends upstairs to my parents’ old bedroom, which smelled of new paint but was otherwise empty.

“It’s in here,” I said as I entered my parent’s old closet. I knelt beside a shoe storage shelf and reached for the hidden panel. I held my breath and popped the panel out of place.

My stomach sank. It was empty.

“I don’t get it,” I said. “I was so certain of what the message meant, but there’s nothing here.”

“Do you think the priestesses could’ve gotten to it first?” Grant wondered.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. They pushed me so hard to find the Curse Breaker Wand, and we never had a lead. I don’t see how they could’ve learned that my mom had it.”

“You could still be right about the message, but it’s just not in this spot,” Talia suggested. “Are there any other places in the house where she could’ve hidden it?”

“I don’t have any ideas, but we should look while we’re here,” I said.

My friends and I scoured the whole house, and the cats sniffed around for clues. We searched under the sinks for hidden panels and inspected every floorboard in the house for potential hiding spots. We searched every nook and cranny of the basement, and even lifted Talia into the attic crawlspace, but we found nothing.

We met back in my parents’ empty bedroom.

Grant sighed. “There’s nothing here.”

“There’s got to be something. We can’t use magic to track an Oaken Wand, but what if we can feel it’s magic?” Lucas wondered.

“Maybe, if I had an ounce of magical access,” I said. I lifted my fingers, but not even a spark appeared. I turned my gaze to Isa. “Any ideas, girl? You’re the one who hid it.”

Isa stared up at me helplessly and gave a small meow.

“She’s not going to remember anything from a past life,” Grant pointed out.

“But she would remember in the afterlife,” I said, forming an idea. “That piece of her that’s still in Alora knows where she hid it. I know we’re not supposed to summon loved ones because it complicates the healing process, but this is different. We need to contact my mom and ask her where she put the Curse Breaker Wand.”

“I think this is a valid exception,” Talia agreed. She withdrew the pendulum jar she’d slipped into her pocket earlier. The crystal was contained within a small vial that fit in the palm of her hand. “I can lead the séance.”

Lucas nodded in agreement. “Let’s see what Faith can tell us.”

We sat in a circle in the center of the empty room, and Talia placed the pendulum jar in the center. We joined hands, and the cats circled us to keep us protected as we performed the séance. Talia led us through a guided meditation, until she felt confident in our connection to the other side.

“Faith?” Talia called out. “We’re looking for information about the message you wrote to Nadine in her birthday cards. You hid the Curse Breaker Wand, but we need more information to find it. Are you here with us now?”

I expected to feel something, but not so much as a breeze passed through the trees outside. The room remained completely silent.

Then, the pendulum gave the smallest shudder. We all noticed it, and Talia gave a start.

“I think she’s here,” she announced excitedly. “Faith, can you show us yes ?”

The pendulum didn’t move.

Talia tried again. “Can you show us no ?”

The pendulum wiggled slightly, but in no discernable direction.

“Mom, please,” I begged. “If there was ever a time for you to come through, now is it. This is our first lead on the Curse Breaker Wand, and we need to find it if we stand a chance against the priestesses. I know you had your secrets, and there was something you were trying to tell me in those cards, but to fully understand where to find the Wand, we need you here now. Is the Wand here in the house?”

Nothing happened. We must’ve sat there for minutes awaiting an answer, but the pendulum didn’t move.

I leaned back. “I don’t get it. Why won’t my mom come through?”

Lucas looked to Isa. “Your mom’s already reincarnated. That makes it harder to contact her, even though there’s still a piece of her soul in the afterlife.”

“Can we use Isa to amplify the spell somehow?” I asked desperately. “We could do a past-life regression on the cat or something. There has to be some way to get answers.”

“There’s no spell for a past-life regression on cats,” Talia said. “But maybe your dad knew something. We could try getting through to him.”

I agreed to give it a shot, and Talia began calling out to my father.

“Nathan? Are you here? Your daughter Nadine needs you now,” Talia said. “We believe Faith hid an object from the Miriamic Coven here in your house. Do you know where to find it?”

For a brief moment, I thought that the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees, but I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just my imagination. I kept my gaze firmly locked on the pendulum jar, willing my father to give us an answer.

The sound of shattering glass filled the room, and we all jumped as the jar exploded. The cats scurried in all directions. Lucas threw himself in front of me, but he wasn’t fast enough. A shard of glass sliced the back of my hand. A line of blood quickly formed over my skin. I winced as I pressed my other palm over the wound to stop the bleeding.

Grant was so startled that he jumped to his feet and put his fists up. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know. That’s never happened to me before. The Waning must be affecting our spell,” Talia theorized. She lifted her hand, but only a few sparks emitted from her fingers. “I must’ve overdone it, and my spell failed.”

Lucas conjured a first-aid kit and placed a bandage over my cut. “Mine and Grant’s magic should’ve been enough.”

“Then maybe it wasn’t the Waning this time,” Talia said. “We can’t force spirits to talk to us if they don’t want to.”

I sat back on my heels, heartbroken. “I don’t get why my parents wouldn’t talk to me. We need them to find the Wand, or the entire coven is going to die out.”

“Maybe they didn’t have any answers to give,” Talia offered kindly as she picked up pieces of shattered glass. “We might’ve confused them. I can’t say for sure why the séance didn’t work, but I think this is a clear sign we can’t try again.”

I got to my feet, feeling wholly disappointed that we’d come here only to walk away with nothing. “I guess I was wrong. The Curse Breaker Wand isn’t here.”

“That doesn’t mean your mom didn’t have it,” Lucas encouraged. “She must’ve hidden it somewhere else.”

“Then we need to find out where that is,” I stated. “If we hope to get any information about where to go next, then we need to talk to the one person alive who knew my mother best. We need to tell her about the message we found, and maybe she’ll be able to piece together something my mother told her. We need to visit Headmistress Verla as soon as possible.”

Lucas raised his hands. “I’ll portal us there right away.”

I hesitated, because I knew speaking to Verla about my mother was going to feel heavy, no matter how I approached it. When I’d lost my mother, Verla had lost a best friend, and the topic of my mother’s passing was never an easy one for either of us. I needed my mother more than I needed answers about the Curse Breaker Wand, but she couldn’t be here. Verla could provide comfort in a way my friends couldn’t, because she knew my mom better than anyone else.

“I should go alone,” I suggested. “I need to tell Verla about what we found on my own.”

Lucas nodded. “We understand. Call me whenever you’re ready, and I’ll come pick you up.”

Lucas portaled us back to Octavia Falls and dropped me off on Headmistress Verla’s doorstep. It was Saturday, which was her day off, so I figured she’d be home. I knocked, and she answered right away.

“Nadine!” she greeted brightly. “Come in. I just put on some tea.”

I entered her house and sat next to the fireplace in the living room. Odin lazed next to a faded carpet stain beside the coffee table, where it looked like someone had spilled tea long ago. Verla brought a tray from the kitchen with tea and tiny sandwiches on it.

She sat in the chair beside me. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“We have information about the Curse Breaker Wand, and I’m hoping you might be able to help us find it,” I said.

Verla sat up straighter. She appeared genuinely shocked that we’d found something after all this time. “I’ll help in any way I can.”

I dove into an explanation about the message we’d found this morning, and then told her how we’d been to my parents’ old house but didn’t find anything. By the time I finished, tears had beaded in the corners of my eyes.

“Do you have any idea where my mom might’ve hidden the Wand—anything she might’ve said to you before she died?” I asked.

Verla noticed my broken tone, and she set her teacup aside. “I suspect that’s not the main reason you’re visiting me today, is it?”

Tears leaked from my eyes, and I dashed them away. “No,” I admitted, my voice cracking. “She didn’t show up, Clarice. I need her now—the coven needs her—and she wasn’t there. I don’t understand. My friends are some of the most powerful witches I know. The séance should’ve worked. If Mom wanted to send me a message, then why wouldn’t she show up to provide clarity?”

Verla placed a gentle hand on mine. I gazed down at the long scars on her arm, which she’d obtained when trying to protect me from the questing beast on our way to the Abyss. Verla cared so much, but even her love couldn’t fill the hole inside of me that formed without my mother here.

“Nadine, I am so sorry,” she said genuinely. “I know it seems that magic can answer all our questions and solve all problems, but that is far from the truth. I’m certain your mother wanted to be there for you today, but even the most powerful of witches can’t guarantee results, especially when it comes to tricky spells like séances.”

“Séances are supposed to be easy,” I said in a small voice.

Verla’s features grew even sadder. “Even when we open that connection, we don’t know which spirits might come through. I don’t want you to think you and your friends failed, or that your mother didn’t want to show up for you, because that’s not true. Believe me, I know.”

I noticed something in her eyes—something she’d buried so far down that only the deepest of sorrows could unearth. My gaze darted to a picture framed on the mantle. In it, Verla stood beside her sister on their graduation day. They looked so much alike that I wasn’t entirely sure which one was her. The twins shared the same eyes and bright smile.

“You’re not just talking about my mom, are you?” I asked slowly.

“No, honey.” Verla followed my gaze to the photograph. “I tried contacting my sister many times after her death, but each attempt failed. She wasn’t the kind of person to abandon me, so I know there are greater forces at play. Something, or someone, here or in the afterlife, has prevented us from meeting again. I am certain that is the case, because Nicole would never leave me.”

Verla seemed sad, but with it came a spark of joy at the memories. She rarely talked about her sister, but I got the sense that maybe she was just waiting for someone to ask first.

“I can tell you loved her very much,” I said. “Are you okay talking about her?”

“Of course,” Verla replied. “You can ask me anything.”

“What was your sister like?”

Verla drew a deep breath. “Nicole was my rock. She kept me grounded when I took life too seriously. She was always singing and dancing, trying to lift people’s spirits. To others, she appeared to have no care in the world, but between you and me, I believe she acted the way she did to make people feel better. She couldn’t stand to see people get hurt.”

I picked up a deeper meaning in her tone. “Someone hurt her , didn’t they? She didn’t want anyone to feel the way she did. She sounds very noble.”

“She was,” Verla said fondly. “Nicole and I both grew up with a strong sense of justice. Our father was a lawyer, and we were both expected to follow in his footsteps. I loved and admired my father very dearly, but he wasn’t always kind to our mother. When we were nine years old, we came home from playing in the woods with a tree branch we wanted to show him. It was twisted like his wand, and we thought he’d like it. When we entered the house, he was screaming at our mother. Nicole begged him to stop, and when he didn’t, she stood between them. He smacked Nicole with the back of his hand, and she fell to the ground. My mother cowered, but I knew that he was wrong. I wasn’t going to stand for it. I smacked him across the face with that tree branch so hard he fell to the ground. My father never dared to lay a hand on any of us again.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I told her. “You were too young to have to stand up to a full-grown man.”

“I did what I had to do,” Verla replied. “It was that day that I became my sister’s fierce protector. I was the older one—even if only by a few minutes. It was my job to take care of her, but at the same time, and in her own way, she became my protector as well. I stood up physically to my father, but Nicole found her own ways to fight back. She was always coming up with creative ideas on things we could build with sticks in the backyard or activities that would get us out of the house. My father wanted her to become a corporate lawyer like him, but her greatest rebellion was choosing to specialize in family law instead.”

“It doesn’t sound like she loved him the way you did,” I noted.

“Our relationship with our father was… complicated. He loved in his own way, often buying us presents and praising us endlessly for our accomplishments. His love for his daughters was never a question, but he never should’ve married my mother, because he couldn’t love her in the way she deserved. Once we were old enough to care for ourselves, my mother left my father. Soon after, she moved away from Octavia Falls altogether. My parents were right to get divorced, but things changed once they did. It seemed that when my mother left him, my father just… stopped caring. He threw himself so deep into his work that he didn’t even show up for our graduation.”

“I’m sure that wasn’t easy for either of you.”

“Nicole and I took it in different ways,” Verla admitted. “I saw my father’s grief, and I recognized his struggle. I did everything I could to show him I was still there, to be his little girl, to follow in his footsteps and become that great leader he wanted me to be. Nicole didn’t understand why I was still trying to please him. She thought I was taking his side over my mother’s, but I wasn’t. My mother was happy for the first time in her life, and I was so grateful for that, but I wanted that for both of them. Nothing could excuse or undo the way he treated my mother, but I thought if I could be there for him, maybe he could have a second chance. Nicole didn’t think he deserved it.”

“Where is your father now?” I wondered.

“He died of a heart attack many years ago,” she said sadly. “He left us with a large inheritance and willed the house to me before I became headmistress. The financial security is what allowed me to pursue a new career in teaching after working as a lawyer, although Nicole continued to practice law.”

“What happened to her?” I asked. “I’ve heard bits and pieces of the story, but not the whole thing.”

Verla dropped her gaze. “Nicole took a case prosecuting a man who had brutally beaten his wife. Despite all the evidence against him, the jury ruled him not guilty. That night, the wife drove her car off the road, presumably because she could not live with the ruling. Nicole took it personally and believed that if she’d done a better job presenting the case, the man would’ve been convicted, and the woman would’ve lived. We were both highly ambitious people, and we always had this saying that we were going to make this world a better place— whatever it takes . She took this one personally. She believed it was her fault that she couldn’t convince the jury.”

Verla let out a shaky breath. “Something within her broke after that trial. She quit her job, lost her apartment, and moved back in with me here in our childhood home. She started seeing strange visions after that. They say it’s something that can happen to Seers— disunion , they call it. The night she died, she took an ax to the Protection Tree. The priestesses caught her in the act and hanged her for it.”

“Did she ever tell you why she did that?” I wondered. It seemed like such a strange thing for her to do after everything Verla had told me about her.

“I believe it was my sister’s final form of protest,” Verla said. “She always held on to the faith that the coven would protect each other, but this trial that she lost proved otherwise. The coven had stopped protecting its people, and in her eyes, I don’t think she believed we deserved protecting anymore.”

“I heard she called the tree a murder tree , and no one knew what she meant,” I said. “Could she have been referring to her client? The tree was a symbol of the coven protecting the wrong person, and she blamed the coven for her client’s death.”

“It has to be,” Verla replied. “What people didn’t understand was that my sister had no intention of harming anyone. She just wanted them to listen.”

“I can understand that,” I said. “It’s hard getting people to listen. Sometimes it feels hopeless altogether. I just hope that’s not ultimately the witches’ fate.”

“The what?” Verla’s brow furrowed.

“The fate of our coven,” I clarified. “It can’t be hopeless.”

Verla’s shoulders relaxed. “Just because we’re presented with challenges doesn’t mean it’s hopeless, Nadine. I tried so many times to contact my sister, but even though it didn't work, I’ve learned that if I still have these memories, that’s good enough.”

“It doesn’t feel like enough when my mom has answers to the Wand, which we need to face off against the priestesses, and she’s not answering us,” I countered.

“There have to be answers somewhere,” Verla encouraged. “But continuing to try contacting your mother will only distract you from the work that needs to be done.”

“She never told you anything about the Wand?” I asked in desperation.

Verla shook her head regrettably. “I’m afraid not. But I know your mom wouldn’t leave you hanging. That’s not the type of person she is.”

“I know you’re right. I’m just not sure where to look next.”

“I’m not your mother, but I knew her well enough to know what she’d say,” Verla said. “Look within yourself, Nadine, because your heart already has the answers.”

That was exactly what my mom would say. “Thank you.”

Verla pulled me into a hug. It was so motherly, so comforting, that it was like receiving a hug from my mother herself. My mom had picked a really wonderful friend. I was so glad they never lost touch, because Verla was everything I needed in a motherly figure when my own mom couldn’t be here anymore.

I drew away and wiped my eyes. “You’re right. The Curse Breaker Wand is still out there, and I can’t be wasting time on spells that don’t work. My mom would’ve left something more for me. I just have to find her other clues.”

I just hoped I could decipher her messages… before it was too late.