“Can we… visit?” Sarah asked.
Gabriel smiled. “Once it is safe, we would love to have you as our guests.”
Sarah nodded and absently stroked back Charlie’s platinum curls, then took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Well then, we need to find whatever it is the original three Tanglewood sisters left for you.”
The entire table seemed to release a collective breath, even David, as if he was happy as long as Sarah was happy.
“Do you know what it looks like?” Sarah asked.
Raven nodded. “A tree. Or part of a tree.”
Sarah snorted. “Not the tanglewood tree?”
All three sisters leaned forward.
“Yes, Mom,” Avery said. “We need a piece of the tanglewood tree.”
“You know the legend is that our ancestor was burned at the stake over its pieces.” She rubbed her chin.
“I’d heard,” Raven said. “But we think there might be pieces of it left.”
Sarah nodded. “Well, yes. There are three.”
“What?” Raven, Avery, and Clarissa yelled in unison.
“Sure. Well, you two know.” She wagged a finger between Raven and Avery incredulously. “It hangs above the bar. The wands. The magic wands!”
When Raven stared at her blankly, her mother clarified. “Right above the beer taps. On the wall. Oh, for Christ’s sake, let’s go down there. I’ll show you.” She pulled the napkin from her lap and tossed it onto the table.
They all followed Sarah through the back door and down into the closed restaurant. She walked behind the bar and pointed up. A dropped section of ceiling ran the length of the bar in the same shape as the counter. And there, hanging so that only the workers would likely see it, was a shadowbox with a framed piece of wood.
“I can’t believe I never noticed that before,” Avery said.
Sarah grabbed a stepladder and climbed up to pull it off the wall. “I’m surprised we can still see it through all the dust.” She blew along the top, and a cloud settled down around them. She handed it to Raven.
“How do you know this is part of the tanglewood tree?” Gabriel asked.
“It says so, right on the back. That’s why I left it up there all these years. Grandma said it was lucky because it came from our family tree.”
“Literally,” Clarissa said.
Gabriel, Charlie in his arms, tapped the back of the box, and Avery and Clarissa leaned in as Raven turned it over. Etched into the wood on the back wasTanglewood 1625with a triquetra beside it.
“It’s three, you know.” Sarah pointed a manicured finger at the box, and Raven turned it back over and stared at the blur of brown behind the glass. “Grandma told me it’s actually their three magic wands, wrapped so tightly together that it looks like one solid branch. She said it was a symbol for the three sisters’ undying affection for one another.”
Clarissa reached for the box. “Let’s get this baby open and see for ourselves.”
Raven tried to open the back, but it was nailed shut. “Mom, do you care about the frame?”
Sarah shook her head. “Not a bit.”
“Clarissa?” Raven held it up and turned her face away. Without another word, Clarissa sang a high note and the glass shattered. Avery caught the brown hunk of wood as it fell from its mount.
“I see it now,” Avery said. “Mom was right. There’re three separate branches.” Avery grasped the stub of one. “It tingles.” Raven reached for another, and Clarissa looked between them before grasping the third. The wood vibrated, then stopped.
“This isn’t mine,” Clarissa said slowly.
Raven looked at her. “I thought it was just me.”
