Page 28 of The Accidental Witch

Wanda looked at him for a moment before she said, “I think you know what I’m going to ask next, don’t you?”

He sure did. “You want to know why I’m estranged from my coven.”

“I do,” she whispered. “We all do.”

“Am I wrong when I guess January’s probably told you a bit of what’s happened with me?”

She looked directly at him. “You’re not.”

Fuck. He had to tell her. Ofcoursehe had to tell her. So he did.

His throat grew tight as he shifted on the sofa, but the words fell out of his mouth like a waterfall. “Gwinnifer killed my mother.”

Wanda gasped, her eyes going wide. “Oh, Greer. She told me something awful had happened, but she didn’t specify. How awful…” She reached out to him, gripping his fingers with her warm hand. “Do you mind telling me what happened?”

“Like I said, Gwinnifer was a horrible person. She ruined so many lives that she deserved to be expunged…but what I didn’t tell all of you was that she also tried to killme, and my mother died protecting me. I have no magic, because Gwinnifer stole it from me.”

Wanda’s mouth fell open. “I…I don’t know what to say, Greer. What can I possibly say to tell you how sorry I am?”

He held up a hand. “I don’t want you to say anything. I’ve come to terms with what happened, but I can’t let go of the fact that my coven didn’t tell me what Gwinnifer had done—to me ormy mother. And to make matters worse, I don’t remember any of it myself.”

Wanda’s silence screamed at him. What did someone say when you told them your grandmother tried to kill both you and your mother?

He held up a hand. “Let me explain. After she drained me nearly dry and killed my mother, I was in a coma it appeared no magic could cure. When I came out of it, I had no idea what had happened to me, and rather than tell me the truth, for fear it would impede my recuperation, my coven didn’t tell me anything. For a long time, I couldn’t even speak to ask for the details about what had happened to me. All I could remember was that my mother was dead.”

Wanda squeezed his hand harder. “And they didn’t offeranyexplanations…?”

Those days after he’d awakened were a blur of high-powered potions, people coming and going in his hospital room, and confusion. He’d been in and out of consciousness and weak as a newborn baby for months afterward.

Clenching his jaw, he fought the rage that always tried to overwhelm him when he thought about his mother’s death. “No. They were afraid it would slow my recuperation. During the time I was laid up, they tried and convicted Gwinnifer and ruled she should be expunged, but I didn’t know the final straw, what made them decide to expunge her, was Gwinnifer killing my mother. I didn’t even know I had no powers left until the day of her funeral, which I insisted on attending even though I was still in a wheelchair, because I wanted to see her put in the ground for her misdeeds.”

Still weak, Greer had watched as they’d lowered Gwinnifer into the ground and closed her casket, and as awful as he’d felt seeing that, taking part in the coven’s ritual of sending her off into the hands of the universe, he’d felt relief.

Relief that her legacy of horror, all the accusations he’d heard all his life, accusations that haunted him, had been laid to rest.

Until he heardwhyshe’d been put in the ground.

Wanda blinked, putting her hand to her throat. “So how did you find out about what she’d done?”

Greer scoffed bitterly. “I overheard a conversation between some fellow coven members, gossiping about how glad they were she was gone. Here’s the thing. No one could ever prove Gwinnifer was killing people for their essence, stealing their youth, until they caught her trying to steal mine. But my mother’s life was sacrificed in the process. It tookherdeath for anyone to finally realize Gwinnifer was a danger to the entire coven.”

Wanda and her sympathetic eyes. “Greer… Oh, Greer, what a horrible thing. I’m so sorry. I never would have pushed had I known.”

He held up a hand. “It’s only right you know, and Robbie, too. She should know my magic is gone, and why. She hasn’t said a word about it. She’s never even asked if I have any magic of my own.”

He identified hard with Robbie’s hatred for her mother. He fully understood what it was to feel the devastation of that kind of disappointment.

“I don’t know that she’s thought that far ahead, Greer. She’s early in her change, and she comes across as the type who puts her heart into everything she does. She’s focused on learning how to live her life now. But I admit, we did wonder why you didn’t open your grandmother’s grave with your own magic.”

He looked down at his work boots, nodding. “It’s a painful subject.”

“I get that, and I respect it, and you for telling me. I even understand why you’re angry with your coven for not telling you firsthand what happened between your mother and Gwinnifer.You shouldn’t have heard it through the gossip mill, but it’s been a while since your grandmother’s death. Have you thought about giving them another chance?”

He had. He thought about it every day. “I think a lot of how I feel has to do with feeling like an outsider now. I’ve mostly gotten past the deception about my grandmother, but I have no power anymore, Wanda, and I never will.”

“And that hurts,” she whispered softly. “Of course it hurts.”

Like Hell. “It does. It’s awkward and uncomfortable. Sometimes, it’s harder to bewiththem than be without them because of it. Gwinnifer left me a legacy of shame I can’t seem to shake.”

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