With that, he turned for the stairs, the spirit on his heels, and told himself that he was imagining Sebastian’s eyes burning a hole in his bare skin.
Kieran spent the rest of the day napping on and off in a cocoon of blankets, Seaweed curled up against him like a cat.His head still hurt, but the silence was helping.As he lay there under the blankets, watching the sun shining through the white sheet he’d pulled over his head, he kept thinking about what he’d seen in the lake.There was his mother, of course, but that was a whole other ordeal to unpack.Instead, he thought of all the spirits who were finally released from their watery grave.Where had they gone?Into some kind of afterlife?Did their families know they were free?
He hoped so, genuinely.Even if he hadn’t gone to Raven’s Roost specifically to help the townsfolk, it still felt good to know he’d done something for all those people.Maybe he’d just barely managed to channel his magic into Hattie’s breathing contraption to do it, but he had, hadn’t he?He supposed he was something of a hero.
Maybe his magic wasn’t a total loss after all.
That night, after most everyone had gone to bed, Kieran lifted Seaweed off his lap, set her down on a bed of pillows to sleep, and went to the kitchen to make himself tea.Back at the Witch’s Brew Café, he’d occasionally mix his own tea blends for customers.He’d gotten quite skilled at finding good pairings for blends.This time, he took dried chamomile flowers, sweet and bitter fennel seeds, and licorice root and crushed them together using a mortar and pestle.Then he combined them in a small cheesecloth pouch and placed it in his mug.When the water was boiling, he let it cool for a moment so it wouldn’t burn the flowers, then poured it over the teabag, added honey and a few drops of vanilla extract, and took a quick sip.Once he’d decided it was to his liking, he headed up the stairs toward his room.
As he passed the study, he saw a flash of red hair—his sister—then paused when he realized there was no Delilah.
That’s odd,he thought.I almost never see Briar without Delilah these days.
The twins hadn’t really spoken since their spat at Hattie’s.Briar’s words still stung whenever Kieran played them back in his mind:You, on the other hand, barely know anythingaboutmagic.
At that moment, Briar lifted her head, noticing Kieran lingering outside.She had been reading a book with a yellow-eyed woman on the cover.At the sight of him, Briar jumped, closing the book as if she’d been caught doing something illegal.
“Oh.You’re awake.”Briar put the book down, then gestured at Kieran’s throat as he took a seat on one of the green velvet couches facing her.“Do you want to…sit?Your, uh, strangle marks look better.”
Kieran couldn’t help but snort at her crass description of his wounds.“Thanks.Icing them really did help—”
Before he could finish, Briar burst out, “Also, I’m sorry.”
Kieran blinked.“Oh.”
“For this morning,” she clarified.She kept her gaze focused elsewhere, careful not to meet her brother’s eyes.“I was a jerk.I just—I was really worried about you.After seventeen years apart, the thought of losing you to some lake monster was…a lot for me to handle.I never had any kind of blood family I cared about before you.”
That gave Kieran a moment of pause.Instantly, the image of his mother floating in the lake came back to him, and his expression fell.He always did his best not to bring up the past with Briar, worried that it might stir up bad emotions.After all, she’d had it worse than he had, being raised by their abusive aunt, Wrenlin, in the woods outside Gabriel’s Edge.Even if Kieran’s childhood hadn’t been great, it didn’t hold a candle to what Briar had survived.
Still, he didn’t know who else he could really talk to about what he’d seen in the lake.He was growing closer to Sebastian, but that felt like a lot to dump on someone he’d just met.And talking about mom stuff with Delilah was tough sometimes—not because she wasn’t a good listener or sympathetic (she was very much both), but because her own mother was such a lovely person, it felt…wrong, somehow, to bring up the subject with her.As if he’d be angling for pity when he wasn’t.
So, despite their unspoken rule not to bring it up, Kieran said, “Speaking of, um, upbringings…I saw our mother down there.In the lake.”
To his relief, Briar didn’t immediately wince as she usually did when someone mentioned their parents.Instead, she chewed her lower lip for a moment before saying, “I assume it wasn’t really her?”
“No—definitely not.”Kieran stared down into his tea, watching as a few tiny flower petals that had escaped the bag sank to the bottom of the mug.After a moment, he decided to take a seat on the couch next to his twin as he continued: “I think Seaweed made a vision of her to try to keep me down there.For a minute, I fell for it too.That’s why I have all these marks—the kelp tried to grab me.”
There was a long pause as Briar mulled over his words.She rubbed her thumb over the corner of her book, her expression far away.
Finally, she took a breath.She didn’t make eye contact as she asked, “Do you miss her?”
That was a loaded question.But then again, they’d already waded this far into the discussion—no point backing out now.
Kieran took a sip of tea, then shrugged.“It depends on the day, honestly.I never miss our father, or really anyone else in the family barring Adelaide and a few cousins I used to play with when I was little.Father was gone nearly all the time doing business as the head of the family.When he was home, he only made me feel inadequate.I wasn’t strong or powerful or, well,masculineenough for him.He preferred to avoid me.But Mother…she and I were always close.Or, at least, her version of close.”
Briar’s eyebrows furrowed.“What do you mean, ‘her version’?”
Of course Briar wouldn’t know.She hadn’t grown up with their mother.She’d only met her once after their birth, and it wasthe night that Delilah broke the curse.She hadn’t spent the first seventeen years of her life constantly navigating their mother’s moods and trying to win her favor.
Not as Kieran had.
He sighed.“Our mother…Well, her mind doesn’t work like yours or mine does.I don’t think it’s intentional.I suspect it’s how she was born.She’s always been preoccupied with herself, first and foremost.”
When Briar cocked an eyebrow at him, Kieran continued: “So, for example, from our mother’s point of view, you and I weren’t her children.We were just…tools she could use as bragging rights, I guess.Which meant that when you were born with your half of the curse, I think she treated you the way she did because she considered you…imperfect.Like your existence meant she was imperfect too.Meanwhile, I was doomed to die, and therefore I helped her become a sympathetic martyr to the family.If she could pretend you didn’t exist and focus on loving me, then everything would be fine.”
“But…that’s not real love.That’s just using you as a prop for her own self-interest.”
“I…Yeah.I guess that’s true.”Kieran set his tea down and met Briar’s eyes.“When I was down there in the lake, the vision of her apologized for how she had treated me.That’s how I knew it couldn’t be her.Our mother has never, and will never, apologize.”
