Page 54 of A Lullaby for Witches

In the living room, they found a woman in a flowy, linen dress embroidered with flowers sitting in an armchair, book in one hand, petting an orange tabby cat with the other.

“Hey, Mom,” Leo said, bending down and brushing the older woman’s cheek with a kiss. “You look good.”

“Thanks, honey. This must be Augusta,” she said, with a warm smile that creased her tan skin. “So nice to meet you, dear.”

“Hi, Mrs. Stone.”

“You can just call me Ellen,” she said, unseating the cat and rising to clasp Augusta’s hand. “You have a lovely aura, such a soothing shade of lavender.”

“Mom,” Leo said in a tone Augusta had never heard him use before.

She ignored him. “Please, make yourself comfortable. Leo, there’s some iced tea in the fridge if you want to grab us some glasses.”

Leo dutifully went to the kitchen and Augusta tried to discreetly take in all the details of the room that was the polar opposite of her own childhood home. Pat Podos would have described the succulents hanging in macramé plant holders and silk turquoise curtains as “crunchy granola,” but Augusta liked it. It was homey.

After Leo had come back and poured and passed around glasses of homemade peach iced tea, he lowered himself beside Augusta on the couch. “So,” Ellen said, settling back into her chair. “Have you called Lisa lately?”

“I will,” he said, a little testily. “I’ve just been busy.”

Augusta darted a curious look between mother and son. There she was again—the mysterious Lisa.

“My daughter is getting married,” Ellen told Augusta, her voice brimming with pride. “She and her girlfriend have been living together for what, seven, eight years? We’ve been waiting for this forever and are so happy they are finally making it official. I gave her my blessing the day I met Kira. I only don’t know why they waited this long.”

“Mom, she’s almost forty, she doesn’t need your blessing,” Leo said.

His sister.Augusta almost groaned out loud. Here she had been working herself up into a panic thinking he was seeing someone. Her heart immediately felt a little lighter.

Ellen waved him off with a fluttery hand, her copper bangles clinking. “So,” she said, turning back to Augusta, “what exactly has Leo told you about his eccentric mom?”

Leo started to say something, but she stopped him with a raise of her brows that said she knew exactly what he had told Augusta about her. “No, no. It’s fine.” She looked at Augusta expectantly.

“He told me that you might be able to help me with ah, um, a problem I’m having.”

“Mmm,” Ellen said, as if she was used to being sought out for advice. “Well, depending on what your problem is, I might be able to help you. I’d like to think I’m handy in a few different areas. Leo, why don’t you go see if your father wants some help making dinner, and Augusta and I will have a chat.”

Leo started to protest, but Ellen shot him a look that would have made Pat Podos proud. Sighing, he stood up. “I’ll be in the kitchen. If you need me, just give a shout,” he said. He hesitated, then leaned down and added in a whisper, “Don’t let her push you into anything that makes you uncomfortable. She means well.”

Ellen leaned back in the armchair and the cat jumped up again and started purring. It circled in her lap three times before it settled, gazing at Augusta through narrowed yellow eyes. “Leo is a wonderful cook,” Ellen said when he had left. “We’re in for a treat. But that’s not why you came, so what brings you all the way up to Pale Harbor for help?”

There was something comfortable and nonjudgmental about the older woman, and Augusta found herself telling her everything from the strange dreams to the hallucinations that grew more vivid each time. She’d already told Leo, so the words came easier. Ellen never interrupted or so much as batted an eyelash at some of the stranger details; she just nodded knowingly and stroked the cat, while the sounds of Leo and Terry moving around in the kitchen drifted in.

When Augusta had finished her story, she studied Ellen for her reaction. “That must be very hard,” she said gently. “Not just the episodes, but reliving it all. Thank you for trusting me with that.”

Augusta’s shoulders sagged and she felt like a huge weight had been lifted. She still hadn’t given herself permission to think too deeply on everything, but Ellen was right: itwashard. She felt like two different people, neither of whom were in the right place or the right time. When she was in the present, she was yearning to see Margaret’s world again, to understand her and what had happened to her. When she was in the past, she worried that she would lose herself, that she might never come back.

“Don’t mind me,” Terry said, setting down a tray of vegetables and hummus. “Just bringing in some refreshments for you ladies.”

“Thank you, dear,” Ellen said with a warm smile. She offered the plate to Augusta, who shook her head.

“So, what should I do?” she asked after Terry had shuffled back out, humming a song under his breath. She didn’t really think the woman sitting across from her could fix all her problems, but at least she was a good listener. Would she tell Augusta to put a crystal on her forehead and say an incantation? Or was there some kind of ceremony that involved burning herbs and sprinkling holy water? Augusta was willing to try anything, but Ellen’s answer still surprised her.

“I don’t know that there is anything youcando,” she said. At Augusta’s crestfallen expression, she continued. “Everything that you’ve told me makes it seem like you haven’t done anything to bring this on. If anything, this outside entity, this Margaret, is the one who is instigating the episodes.”

Well, that wasn’t what she had wanted to hear. She still wasn’t convinced that it all wasn’t just in her head, and that there wasn’t something seriously wrong with her. “I guess it’s not worth asking Margaret to leave me alone?” Even as she said it, she realized how ridiculous it sounded. But more than that, she realized she wasn’t quite ready for the visions to end. She wanted to know what had happened to Margaret after that fight with Henry, how she had disappeared into thin air.

Ellen tilted her head in consideration. “You could. She clearly wants you to know something, and I wonder if, once you know what she’s trying to tell you, if she’ll stop on her own. I think you need to set some boundaries, though.”

“How do I do that?”

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