Page 32 of Pure Magic
Going still beneath me, she cocks her head. “What thoughts took you away from me just now?”
With a heavy heart, I pull from the comfort of her body. “We should talk, Beth.” I grab my trousers from the floor next to the bed and pull them on before sitting again.
She grabs her white robe from the bedpost and wraps it around herself. “Is it because you spilled within me? Do you worry there will be a child?”
An image of Sara Beth full with our child floats through my head. Pleasure so bright floods me. “I would revel in the greatest joy if I could be a father to our child.”
She sits next to me. “What an odd way of phrasing that. Have you plans to leave even if you are accepted here?”
“I have little faith that you will want me after I tell you the full story of Ariana and Kaden.” My chest aches with the pain of leaving her and Windsor.
“Tell me or don’t, but don’t let the past poison every moment of our time together,” she scolds.
The sun begins its assent, and we’ve had no sleep. This is bad timing, but it can’t be helped. “It might be best if we wake the great mother, and I tell you both.”
She closes her eyes, and her worry lines ease. Looking at me, she says, “Great Mother is already awake. She’s taking her morning tea in the dining room, and she is alone.”
Any hope of a few minutes to gather my wits dies. I tug my shirt over my head. “I’ll just go to my own room and wash up. I’ll meet you in a moment.”
Expression stern, and with a deep worry line between her eyes, she goes to her basin. Her back is straight and rigid as a pine.
I walk to her side and kiss her cheek. “Should this end badly, know that I am sorry, Beth.”
Without waiting for a reply, I go to my room, wash, and put on fresh clothes. The small mirror reveals a man I hardly recognize. Where is the magic man who entertains crowds for coin and keeps those around him laughing? Have I finally met my match in all things? Has Sara Beth’s serious nature subdued my frivolity? Could I bring lightness to her formal ways?
Looking around the room, I wonder if this is the last time I’ll see it. My brain screams, run as fast and as far from here as you can, Adam MacNab. You have no business among good witches. My heart speaks of loyalty and family. I look at my empty bag next to the wardrobe and consider readying it for travel but dismiss the idea. If I must go, I’ll have time to pack. When everything you own fits into one bag, there’s little fuss in the leaving.
Drawing a full breath, as if it might be my last, I step into the hallway, and then I walk to the dining room.
Sara Beth’s hair is braided once again and pulled into a tight bun. She leans in and speaks in hushed tones with Prudence.
The great mother nods, her expression solemn but not angry or disappointed.
They both turn as I enter. “Good morning.” I sit across from Sara Beth so that I can face them both. If the inquisition is to come, I shall meet it head on.
“Would you like tea?” Great Mother asks.
“No. If I said yes, it would only be to stall. I’ve withheld my past long enough. I am sorry for misleading you both.” My chest is so tight, I have a vain hope I may die before I tell the story.
Prudence pats my hand on the table. “The funny thing about the past is that while it haunts us, it need not define us.”
Surprise rockets through me. “Are we not all products of our past?”
“Yes, but it does not stand that we become one thing or the other based on it. I would assume you and your brother lived a similar childhood. You grew up in the same home with the same parents. You were both six years old when your mother birthed a daughter.” Prudence stares with her brows raised in a knowing way that is unsettling.
My hands shake, and I clutch them together. “You know about Ariana. You knew before you invited me here?”
With a hint of a smile, she says, “I know a great deal about the witching world on this island and beyond. I have lived a long time and corresponded with a great many old friends.”
Thinking of the elders of my birth clan and coven, I wonder who spoke of my family to Prudence. “Why did you correspond with me, Great Mother, when you know what I am?”
“I know nothing of that.” She sighs. “Tell your tale. Let Sara Beth hear what haunts your past. It is not for me to decide the coven’s business.”
I look at the door just off the dining room where Trina sleeps.
“She was up until almost dawn. She’ll not disturb us.” Sara Beth sips her tea, keeping her eyes leveled on me.
My heart may pound out of my chest. “I suppose, I must go back to when we were exiled from our clan. Kaden and I were eighteen. Ariana was only twelve but had already begun to dabble in dark magic. The right hand of the high priest caught her bringing a cat back to life. She’d claimed that killing the cat had been an accident, but the magic was forbidden. Pressure from the coven pushed my mother into writing to the Order in Glasgow.”
