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- Author: T.K. Eldridge
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Our grandfather’s face was bright red and he was spluttering, so I took Sid’s hand and led her to the door.
“Thanks for that,” she whispered to me. I squeezed her hand in reply.
We got just outside the library door when we heard a choking sound and the creak of Grandpa’s chair. Sid whirled around and ran to his side. “Grandpa, are you alright? Can you breathe?”
I saw him slumped in his chair, hands over his face, making this wheezing sound as he shook. “Grandpa?” I asked as I walked closer.
He sniffled and rubbed his face, then pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped at his eyes, then nose. “I’m sorry,” he finally wheezed out.
Sid sighed, walked around his desk and sat back down. I just stood there, arm on the back of the leather wingback I had been sitting in earlier. “Sorry for what?”
“For being such a horses ass. I know better, but my worry for your father – my boy – has me leaning more towards my animal side than my human.”
“And so you’ve been more animal than human every time you see me?” Sid said.
“She has a point, Grandpa.”
The old man leaned back and sighed. “Do you know how many twins were born into this family? Five. Over the last hundred years. Every pair of twins were both males.” He shook his head. “Your father not only gave me mutant grandchildren, he couldn’t even give me both males. Total waste of his genetics.”
“Are you freakin’ kidding me right now?” I said, staring at the man I had admired and loved. Sid had a much different reaction. Standing, she moved past the desk to the bookshelves at the end of the room. She reached up, tugged on the copy of Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” and the bookcase slid to the right, revealing the safe.
“What do you think…” Grandpa started to say, and I turned to face him.
“I think you need to be quiet,” I said.
“You children need to stop.” He started to get up out of his chair and Sid turned, flicked her hand in his direction, and a force spell slapped him in the chest and pushed him back into his chair.
I snorted a rude laugh and shook my head. “Like I said, be quiet and just sit there. It’s healthier for you.”
Sid opened the safe, stepped inside and within a few minutes, she was walking out with our wooden trunk floating behind her. “It’s still warded,” she told me.
“Good,” I turned to our grandfather. “Now, the bank account information.”
“I’m not about to give…”
“Yeah, yeah, we know. You’re not about to give a damn about us because we’re mutants. But you are about to give us the account information for those trusts you set up for us instead of using them as threats to hold over us. We’re past legal age, more than capable of handling our own finances, and not interested in having to deal with you again.”
He got to his feet and went into the safe. A few minutes went by and he came out with a soft black leather bag zipped shut. He handed it to me, so I zipped it open. Inside were two account access packets and a couple of bound bundles of money. I zipped it shut and nodded to Sid. “We’re done.”
Sid headed out of the office, the trunk floating behind her. I started to follow, then stopped and reached into my pocket. I pulled out the two keys for the house that he’d given me a couple of years back and tossed them onto his desk, then followed my sister out to the car.
Our grandfather didn’t say a word. I mean, what could he say?
Once we were back on the road, I turned toward the lighthouse.
“Thanks,” Sid said. “I want to go see if there are any traces there, too.”
“Then we go to Grandma’s place and see Mom.”
“Definitely. I need to see that she’s okay.”
It was only about ten minutes up the road from Boudreau House to the lighthouse on the point. No one was there that we could see. No cars and no hikers as we parked and made our way up to the house and tower. There was a new padlock on the lighthouse door, but a whispered word of power and the lock popped open. Inside the ground floor of the tower, a dirty blanket lay on the floor. Bloodstains marred the plaid fabric and the scent of blood and salt was in the air. Sid picked up a broken branch from some debris in the corner and lifted the blanket, revealing a salt circle underneath.
I wandered the room and found herb bundles scattered in the dead leaves and brush. “Whoever brought Mom here, tried to heal and protect her. I guess that’s a good sign?” I said.
“There’s a lot of blood on this blanket. You got a trash bag in the car? I don’t want to leave Mom’s blood here for someone to maybe use.” Sid said.
“I’ve got a better idea,” I told her. With a gesture and a word of power, some of the brush and leaves swirled into the empty fireplace.
Sid kept the blanket on the stick and brought it over, stuffing it into the pile. She checked to make sure the flue was open, and I lit the fire with my magic. It didn’t take long to turn the blanket into ash. Sid and I stood there, watching until it was gone. I put the fire out and we left.
It was time to go to the Fortin side of town and see Mom.
Sid
Sin pulled up the gravel drive between the gardens and past the cottage herbal shop. We drove past Auntie Sett’s little blue cottage covered in ivy and morning glory vines, past the pale green cottage that used to be our Mom’s before she got married and parked in front of the main farmhouse. A Victorian in a soft yellow with blue and green trim and gingerbread detailing sprawled amid flowers and herbs. Hanging pots of ferns and flowers decorated the wrap around porch, shading the padded wicker seats. The differences between the Boudreau home base and the Fortin home base were stark.
I got out the minute the car stopped but Sin called me back.
“Sid, wait a sec. Come sit back down a moment.”
I slid back into the car and looked up at him. “What’s up?”
“We need to ward this, and the car, before we go in,” Sin said.
“Oh, yeah. Let’s make it fast. I want to see Mom.” We got it done quickly and slid the bag into the glove compartment, got out, sealed the wards, then headed inside. When I got to the door, Auntie Sett pulled it open and tugged me into a hug.
“She’s better. She’s going to be okay,” Auntie Sett’s voice cracked, and I hugged her back good and tight. Mom was the older of the two sisters. There had been four of them, the Fortin sisters, but the two eldest had died in the last shifter-witch war. Bernadette and Marie-Sidonie were about two years apart, then twelve years between Marie and my mom, and three years between Mom and Cosette. Auntie Sett barely remembered Bernie and Marie. They’d died when she had been five years old. Grandma had checked out for a few years after losing two of her kids, so Mom had helped raise Sett until Grandma got her head screwed back on straight.
“She’s tough, Auntie Sett. She’s not going to let some racist asshat take her out,” I said. My attempt at reassurance. Hey, I was pre-law, not in law school yet. The art of subtlety had never been mine.
Sin rolled his eyes at me and nudged us both back into the house, a hand on Auntie’s shoulder. “Who’s her healer?” he asked.
“Evelyn Rue,” Sett told him, an arm looped around my waist as we headed down the hall to the kitchen. “I was just getting tea ready to bring in. You go ahead, Sid. I want to ask Sin’s advice on some of the herbs. He’s better at them than I am.”
I kissed Sett’s cheek and slipped past them to the hallway. I knew Mom would be in the sick room in the back. It was a bright and airy guest room with its own bath, a door out to the patio, and across the hall from the apothecary room. The door was open, and I gently tapped before I pushed it open a bit more. “May I?” I asked as I stepped a pace in.
“Siddie,” my Mom said, lifting a hand to me.
I glanced at my grandmother for a moment and she nodded, so I rushed over to the bed and knelt beside it. I took Mom’s hand and kissed her fingers. “I’m so glad to see you.”
“I’m pretty glad to see you too, daughter mine,” Mom tugged my hand a little and I leaned up and kissed her forehead.
“How are you feeling? Sin and I went to the lighthouse and burned the bloody blanket. Didn’t want to leave that around for anyone to use.”
“Smart girl,” she murmured as she stroked my hair. “I’m feeling a lot better, but I’m going to need some time to get my strength back.”
Evelyn cleared her throat, “As soon as Cosette brings the tea and Amelia drinks it, she needs to rest.”
Grandma Fortin moved to the bed, leaned over and kissed Mom’s forehead. “I’m going to talk to the kids, Melly. You drink your tea and rest. They’ll be here when you wake up.”
I kissed Mom again and got to my feet. “Definitely, Mom.”
Sin came in with Sett and he carried the tray for her to put it on a table before he headed over to Mom. “Hey beautiful mother of mine,” he said as he leaned over to kiss her forehead.
“There’s my Sinclair. Hello, son. You and your sister are the lights of my life.”
“And you are the light of ours, Mom,” Sin said as he handed her a cup of tea and helped her sip it.
Evelyn took the cup from Sin and sat beside Mom to help her drink the tea.
“We’ll see you after your rest, Mom,” I told her and headed for the door.
Grandma walked out with us and we hugged. “I’m glad you two came here. You’ll stay for the night, so you can spend time with your mom?”
“Sure, Grandma. Thanks for asking,” Sin said.
“We’d like to stay, Grandma. It’s been a really crappy day,” I told her.
Gleaming silver hair coiled in a braid around her head, Grandma Fortin was a tiny powerhouse. Elegant demeanor and fine manners in cargo pants, chamois shirt and a t-shirt with a broom on it that said: “I Drive Stick”.
“Well, come into the kitchen. There’s a big pot of chicken soup on the stove and Sett made her cheddar herb bread.”
“Oh, bless you both. I’m starved,” Sin said as he moved to kiss the top of Grandma’s head.
We all sat down at the table and Jolie, Bernadette’s daughter, put the food on the table. Jolie’s father had sent her to Grandma when she was thirteen and started showing her magic. She’d lived here, worked with Grandma on the farm and helped around the
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