Page 11 of Magic in the Woods
Why did she trust me? She didn’t even know me. No one in the woods had trusted me the entire time I’d been struggling to find my way. They’d all treated me like astranger. Someone to be weary of.
Emily didn’t know me, yet she was giving me a chance. Treating me like a person, not some alien creature that didn’t belong. She was treating me like…a friend. That made the corners of my lips rise up a bit.
I got to work finding the knife and the cutting board and chopping the vegetables. The chopping motion was familiar and comforting. I’d helped my grandmother many times prepare ingredients for our meals and her potions.
Emily nodded after I’d presented my work and motioned for me to throw the chopping’s into the pot. I let the vegetables tumble in the boiling water just as the door opened and thewoman who had wiped my forehead yesterday appeared. She paused in the doorway, glancing between Emily and me.
Quickly, I backed away from the stove, moving across the kitchen to put some space between me and her daughter. Emily might’ve trusted me, but I wasn’t sure her mother did just yet.
“Is everything okay?” her mother asked.
“Yes, it’s great!” Emily chirped. She walked over to where I stood, grabbed the cutting board from my frozen hands, and set it on the counter. “The soup base is ready. Evenshe”—Emily motioned to me—“came out of her room to help.”
The woman looked over at me, pausing at the knife I still held in my hand.Oh no.I slowly set it on the counter next to me. She kept her eyes on me as she walked over to Emily, continuing to stare at me as they spoke in whispers.
She noticeably exhaled, her shoulders moving up and then dropping down before she nodded and turned around to face me. The woman walked over to where I was standing and picked up the knife I’d just set on the counter. She backed away, placing it in the sink—out of my reach.
Okay, so she didn’t trust me yet. That was fair.
“You look much better; some color in your cheeks,” she said.
My hand went up to my face, trying to feel the warmth she saw.
“It’ll take some time to feel like yourself again. You’ve been existing on only moose broth for the last week.”
A week? I’d been in bed for a week? It hadn’t felt like that long.
My heart started pounding, and my breath quickened. I’d wasted a week.
My magic tingled down my arm into my fingers. A week without using it.
Everything came rushingback to me.
Matilda. The pail.
My knees bent into a defensive stance, and my eyes glanced back and forth.
“I had a pail… When…I… When Luke…” My voice shook just as bad as my hands trembled. How could I have forgotten about that?
The woman put her hands in front of her, palms facing down, in a calming motion. “Your pail is in our freezer,” she said. “It’s still frozen.”
She lowered her chin, motioning her head toward the room I’d been staying in for the lastweek. I left Emily to the soup base and followed her mother into the room. Standing by the bed, holding my still shaking hands, I watched as she turned around and closed the door behind her. I reflexively took a few steps back.
A moment passed between us before she spoke. “I know who’s in the pail.”
My stomach dropped. This was it. The moment where it all fell apart. This woman wouldn’t let me keep my mother frozen in a pail—not if she knew who she was. She’d force me to release my mother, and then my mother would unleash her wrath onto me.
“I also think I know who you are,” she said.
My heartbeat pounded in my ears.
“I’m not going to do anything about it,” she continued. “And I have questions, but I’d prefer if you let me guide the conversation with my children. Emily is still young and naive to danger. Everyone here needs to be careful—if anyone at the Coven knew who’s in the freezer, we’d all be in danger.”
Breath slowly released from my nose. I nodded.
“Let’s take this slow. We won’t hurt you.”
“I won’t hurt anyone—I-I promise,” I stammered. Thesewere the first kind people I’d met, out here all alone. If they turned me away, I’d have nowhere to go.
