Page 57 of April's Fool
“Woah! Hold on! One thing at a time.”
“Of course!” Thyme said brightly. He did the spell quickly, one of his hairs wrapped around Oak’s darkstrand. The light from the magic flared red. “Red is no match. Green is what we’re looking for.”
“Right.” I reached up and pulled at a hair, taking three with it. With one hand, I rubbed the spot as the other passed the hair over.
Thyme repeated the spell, word for word, the same. Green.
Brothers. I’d just gained two, one of which I might have to kill before this was all over. Fratricide wasn’t on my list of reasons for going to hell, just as well I didn’t believe in God.
Wishing this to all have been a dream, I fixed Thyme with a look and said, “Tell me about my mom.”
He quickly complied.
“I met Fern when I was twenty. She was a little older, around twenty-five, I think. She wasn’t part of the coven because her family had been cast out. Her father disagreed with my father about how things should be done. Her father was less powerful than mine. You know how these things go with covens.”
The witch’s nerves were palpable.
“For a long time I’d been struggling with being in a female body. I was powerful, next in line to lead the coven over Basil because of how much power I had. Did you know women generally have more magic?”
I shook my head.
“Our goddess venerates the female form. So you can imagine I was under the stress of being the heir, living under the expectations set for me, and hating what I saw when I looked in the mirror.”
Inside, I felt pity for that young Thyme. With all the struggles he faced just to live his life freely.
“Fern was hanging around with some people I fell in with. We made friends quickly. Because I loved her, just as friends, not more at that point, I begged my father to consider taking her into the coven. Not her parents, though. She would have to cut ties with them. He agreed, and Fern was brought back in.”
After a quick drink, Thyme continued.
“Quickly it became clear that father was attracted to her. She was pretty and her well was deep.” At my frown, he added, “She had a lot of magic.” He continued. “They began an affair. He’d had many by that point, only a couple got pregnant, none of them kept the babies. Later, I found out Basil was threatening them. Scaring them into ending the pregnancies and paying them off. When Fern became pregnant, she came to me. She begged me to help her hide from my father in return for helping me with my transition. She got together another couple of witches she used to hang with, and they did the spell with me.”
I could only imagine my mother, a woman only slightly younger than I was now, taken in by a manmuch older with so much influence, then hearing the whispers of what Basil had done to others like her. Fern sounded like she had a good heart. She had helped Thyme become his authentic self.
“With a few working the spell, the drain on my magic wasn’t nearly as bad. I’m no slouch in the power department, though I’m nowhere like Poppy and Zinna, like I used to be. Being this,” he pointed down himself, “was worth losing what I gave up.”
“It sucks that there was such a high price.”
“That’s the thing, Damon. Magic always has a price. Depends on if you’re willing to pay it.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.
“We believed no one knew Fern was pregnant. Father was absolutely livid she had helped me transition. He had been dead set against it. For what she had done, he cast her out of the coven. Nearly cast me out, too. I was sent away for a while, so he didn’t have to see me, which suited me fine. I took Fern, and we crossed the country. We were still concerned about Basil, and she began having visions as her pregnancy progressed. When you were born…”
Thyme’s voice cracked.
“Goddess, you were so cute! Fern wouldn’t settle in the hospital. Kept saying we had to leave. Had to bind you. She made me swear I’d never tell a soul until you came to me. We left as soon as we could. Went toCanada for a bit. There, Fern gathered all we needed for the spell.” His face changed. Sadness washed over him. “She was different after you were born, distant. All she could focus on was your safety. She loved you so much. You followed her every move when she was in the room.”
He took a drink of water. “We argued a lot but, eventually, I gave in. We performed the spell on you when you were just a couple of months old. Fern poured so much of herself in there, she was drained for weeks afterwards. It affected her health. I did what I could. It—it wasn’t enough.”
My heart hurt for my mother. For having to make that choice. She really had loved me.
“I got a call when you were five months old and Fern was still recovering. My father was dead, and I needed to return to the coven for the funeral. I couldn’t not go. In my absence and because of my transition, Basil was appointed High Witch.”
Thyme wiped away tears. I frowned.
“I’m not crying for him. These were for Fern.” He wiped some more away. “I loved her and let her down. She was the one that told me to go. I should have gone back to her sooner.”
He twisted his hands in his lap. Oak put a quelling hand over his. Their eyes met, something passing between them.
“By the time I did return, she had left. I looked everywhere for you both but couldn’t find you. So I went back to Northarbor and waited. Then, just three years later, she called. Fern was sick. She was dying. All the while, she had been putting a lock on your magic, hiding every trace of you both. It had drained her, but she said you were essential to defeating Basil. Fern kept laughing, saying she’d hidden you from the wrong one, to be careful of Basil… I thought the spells had driven her mad. The visions she had shown me seemed clear, that it was my dad who was the problem. She should have been free once he died. It only made her worse.
