Witch Clan: Matriarchs by John Stormm (best beach reads of all time TXT) 📖

you."

"You guys did that for me?" she asked, genuinely surprised.

Little Johnny nodded. She reached over and gave him a big hug and bussed him on his forehead. A strong, satisfying sense of belonging washed over her, causing her to sit back down on the bench and just look out on the garden and sigh. Johnny sighed too. The two of them sat there for a moment taking in the morning freshness from the garden.

"So Grandma's been teaching you the craft?" she asked.

"Oh, yes," Johnny said eagerly. "I learned my runes. How to get groceries and medicine in the woods. What witches to stay away from. I can write a little bit and read letters from my mommy. I know most of these plants and how to pick them. I help Grandma with the canning."

"Do you know something called the Threefold Law?" she asked.

"Oh, yes," he said, nodding like his head might come loose.

"Could you teach it to me?" she asked.

"You want me to help you learn?" he asked, wide eyed.

"We're cousins. Look at us," she said. "My mom always said I look like your mommy when she was my age. We look like each other. We're family and witches of the blood."

"Witches of the blood," Johnny agreed, looking furtively around to see if anyone might overhear them. "I'll help you. Witches' honor," he said, holding his two fingers beneath his eyes and peering over them.

"I'm afraid you'll have to tell me what that means too," she said.

Johnny was all too eager to finally be able to share the wonder of his Grandma's teachings with someone nearer his own age, though Leona was fully twice as old. They spent the morning with Johnny showing her all his favorite parts of the backyard and ate sweet pears as they sat in his back lot play area on a seesaw they made with a plank and a saw horse. He told her about Grandpa Willard's experience with the pixies hiding his things, and she laughed as he mimicked his gruff voice so well, but got tongue tangled when he tried to say "pesky pecks."

"You guys really have faeries here?" she asked. She had always dreamed of meeting real faeries but never dared speak of it aloud lest she be treated like a silly little girl. She hated that.

"Yep," Johnny said, nodding enthusiastically. "We even had 'lepperkawns' once but Grandma said she'd rather have cockroaches and we made 'em go away."

"I've never seen a real faery before," she confessed. "My teacher says there are no such things. They are mythical creatures from the old days when people didn't know any better."

"People weren't so stupid in the old days," Johnny insisted. "Grandma's from the old days, and Great Grandma older still and nobody knows as much about magick as they do."

She couldn't argue that point. She had heard much from her aunts about her great Grandma Ella's legendary prowess at healing and conjuring. The uninitiated couldn't be expected to be aware of these things; therefore their assumptions about the world were flawed, she reasoned to herself. Still, she had never seen a real live faery before and the idea struck her that if Johnny was half Sidhe, then he was half faery himself and her dream was coming true by her just being here with him. Her cousin was a special boy and she had all summer long to enjoy in Grandma's magickal household.

"Would you like to meet some pixies?" Johnny asked.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked incredulous. "I always dreamed I would meet real faeries one day. I would love to."

"Grandma says that dreams are important," he said solemnly. "We gotta get up before Grandpa, if I'm gonna be able to show you some pixies in Grandma's garden."

Shortly after lunch, Leona kissed her parents goodbye as they packed up to go visit some relatives in Philadelphia for the Fourth of July celebration. She was officially on her own with her Grandma for the summer and could cease speaking in hushed tones about the craft where her father might overhear. Grandpa Willard understood and respected the craft, so it was okay to speak with him in earshot. She wasn't sure what to think about her new grandfather, but this singular point raised him up a couple notches in her esteem.

At the supper table, she excitedly shared what she learned about the Threefold Law, and about a witch's honor being in their unbroken will and word. Johnny beamed proudly as Grandma looked back and forth between the cousins.

"My Lioness and my Unicorn," Emma declared. "Neither of you have let me down and I'm so proud of the both of you."

Leona could swear that Johnny grew another couple inches sitting right there at the table. She was feeling a bit larger herself. After dinner they all helped with the dishes and Johnny lugged out the garbage to the cans in the shed. She went to bed exhausted that night between the long road trip from Cleveland and the day spent in the backyard with her cousin.

In her dreams, there was a little faery prince who was introducing her to all the members of his court and a dark presence coming through the backyard hedge as she jolted awake, being shaken by her little cousin. It was still dark out and the street lights were shining through her curtains, and she could clearly make out Johnny dressed in his housecoat and slippers. He held his finger up to his lips as he handed her robe and slippers to her.

"We should go out to the garden now," he said in a hush. "It will be time to cross soon."

Leona thought it was entirely too early to be out of bed, but she had asked to see faeries. The thought energized her to get dressed quietly and sneaking out the back into the garden. A large full moon was sinking in the west, and the sun hadn't yet begun to peek over the eastern horizon. It was an eerie light in the backyard garden, hidden away from the street lights of the city in its hedged and tree shadowed depths. The summer's fireflies were still winking occasionally in the bushes beneath the apple tree and along the garden. Johnny indicated she should have a seat on the bench and stood in the midst of the garden, tilted his head back and held his arms out from his sides. The fireflies began to light on him as if called. She wondered what he might have that attracted them so. They only stayed on him for a moment or so before they spiraled up and away from him as the morning sun drew closer to peeking over the horizon. The twilight sky took on a different aspect of lighting, being neither day, nor night but something in between when new arrivals came to replace the fireflies.

From various points around the backyard and the trees the hum of dragonfly wings whirled before she could spot them. When they came into view in the curious ambience of twilight, they were about twice the size of the dragonflies that had flitted in the garden yesterday. Rainbow hued wings and multicolored iridescent bodies about two and a half inches long began gathering in the garden around her and her cousin.

"Here we are," he was still speaking in hushed tones. "This is my cousin, Leona Mae. She is a witch too."

Upon closer scrutiny, the largish dragonflies were not insects at all, but tiny little human shaped pixies with iridescent silk pajamas and eyes like bright fire opals. They buzzed at Johnny, while some of them lit on his shoulders and head. Others came to investigate Leona and touch her silky blond hair as if they were considering it for fabric. A snow white dove landed on the trellis and before her eyes it took the form of an angel dressed in shining armor about eighteen inches high.

"You must be the faery prince," Leona observed aloud.

"He's no prince." Johnny giggled. "That's my big brother George."

"Somehow, he doesn't look so big," she said.

"They do when they want to," Johnny replied.

The garden was brightening more as the morning sun made its climb to peek over the horizon, but a darkness was forming in the hedges to the back of the yard. A dark robed woman walked out from under the apple tree towards the garden. The angelic looking man drew a silvery broadsword from his scabbard and turned to face the oncoming specter.

"Put your weapon away, shining one," the woman commanded. "I have no wish to hurt anyone this morning. What I do wish is to get a look at those who would dare crossover into my realm."

"Auntie Vyra," Johnny admonished, his brows forming creases as his eyes flashed like cold gray steel. "This is my Grandma's yard and not your realm. We didn't invite you here." At this, the angelic man spread his wings and leaned forward as if to spring at the dark robed woman. Leona was feeling less in wonder and more than a little threatened.

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving," the woman assured. "I see that among your other talents, you are a little gate master as well. If your matriarch is wise, she will keep a close eye on you two or you might just... disappear." As if to make a point, the woman vanished from view. The sun resumed its climb, as though the whole world had been holding its breath and as the first rays hit the dew sprinkled garden, Leona looked about to find herself and Johnny all alone. A pair of morning doves cooed in the pear tree.

"You called that woman Auntie