The piece climbs toward its crescendo, notes tumbling over each other like water over stone. My chest aches with it, with the weight of everything Mom poured into this spell, this safeguard she left behind for the daughter who almost didn’t return.
The final chord rings out. It hangs in the air and then fades. Silence settles over us, heavy and complete. The hum that’s vibrated from the piano since the first night I stepped through these doors is gone.
I open my eyes, pulse hammering.
“Holy shit, baby girl.” Asher’s mouth is hanging open, and he’s staring at me like I just sprouted wings. “You canplay.Like, actually play.”
Movement at the doorway brings my attention to Wylder leaning with his shoulder against the doorframe. “Wow, Poppy, that was?—”
“Beautifully done, Poppy girl.”
I spin back toward the piano as the familiar female voice steals my breath. “Mom?”
The magic of the spell still pulses in the air and tingles in my fingers as I stare at my mother standing five feet from where I sit.
“Holy shit.” Asher is beside me, staring straight at the spot where my mother is standing.
My throat closes, and I scramble to my feet. “You can see her? I’m not imagining this, right? You can see her.”
Asher stands, his mouth hanging open. “Uh, yeah. Hello, Mrs. Hallowind.”
My mind is spinning.
How many times did we sit in this parlor, doing a puzzle or playing a board game, while she played for us?
“There’s magic in music,” I say, my words barely a breath.
“There is,” Mom agrees.
I nod, swallowing to speak past the lump in my throat. “You spelled the piano so I could bring you back.”
Even before everything fell apart, before the coven interfered in the ritual and tore our family to pieces and scattered us like ashes… she cast this spell.
“I knew there was a possibility I wouldn’t survive. I had no idea things would go so wrong, but yes, being a spirit witch allowed me to put a safety net in place.”
“Poppy? What just happened?” Sebastian is running up the hallway. “I felt an influx of…” He rushes past Wylder in the doorway, and his gaze settles on Mom. “Zoe? Wow, it’s good to see you.”
Mom offers him a look of genuine affection. “You found her. You brought her home.”
He steps further into the room. “I only wish I could do more. I’m so fucking sorry.”
She shakes her head. “No, don’t. Everything happens for a reason. Thank you for never giving up on Emberwood.”
I let out a shaky breath and look around the parlor, at the piano, at Asher and Wylder looking shaken, at the way the afternoon light slants through the windows and dances through my mother in iridescent sparkles.
“Are you really here?” I reach into the air between us, my hand trembling. “I mean, can you stay? Are you here to stay?”
The love that pours out of her smile buckles my knees, and only Asher’s hold on me keeps me on my feet.
“Let’s sit down before you fall down.” Her attention turns to Wylder looking positively murderous in the doorway. “I’m glad you’re here, Wylder. There’s so much we need to discuss.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Wylder’s Jeep rumbles down a tree-lined street I haven’t been on since I was sixteen years old. The centuries-old white oaks arch from both sides of the roadway, their long branches interlacing to form a tunnel of amber and crimson leaves overhead.
Afternoon light filters through, marking our path in dappled shadows, but ahead, golden shafts illuminate the estate at the end of the road.
Ashcroft Manor.
