Malcolm’s face darkened. “Calli and I have almost witch-locked. Yes, she’s a hedge witch. But I don’t care what you or anyone on the council thinks, Lady Batsford. She belongs with me and I with her.”
Malcolm’s mother gasped. “Wait—does that mean you’re engaged?”
Malcolm gave his mother a tender look that tore at Calli’s heart. “Mom, it’s a magical bond, a real bond,” Malcolm said. “Deeper than marriage.”
“Oh!” His mother’s gaze turned to Calli who flinched, but she saw no judgment in the woman’s eyes, and that gave her back her strength to stand tall beside Malcolm.
Yes, she was a hedge witch. But she wasn’t going to let anyone make her feel ashamed about it, not ever.
Lady Batsford’s eyes widened. “I can sense the bond between you… but it would be a terrible mistake for you to let it happen. For both of you.”
“Because she’s a hedge witch?” said Malcolm, his voice a challenge.
Lady Batsford frowned. “No. Because…” She looked to Calli. “You are Callista Moira Wynter, are you not? The last daughter of Celestine Skycaster’s bloodline?”
“Yes…” Calli said uncertainly. The Council witch’s earlier shocked reaction at seeing her now took on a different, and more disturbing significance. How did she know who she was?
Reginald’s eyes grew round as saucers when he heard her full name. He looked to Lady Batsford. “You mean, she is the one? I had hoped foolishly that it was a coincidence and not…”
A deep sorrow replaced the witch’s frustration as she turned to Malcolm. “It’s not because she is a hedge witch, my boy. It’s because of who she is, and what you did to her.”
“Did to her?” Malcolm’s voice was hard as stone. “What are you talking about?”
Lady Batsford turned back to Calli, her eyes filled with sympathy. “I’m sorry, Calli. Malcolm is the reason your parents are dead. It is better that you learn that now before the witch-lock is complete.”
“I … what?” Malcolm stammered.
“That’s not possible. My parents… were hit by a truck. Malcolm wasn’t there.” Calli insisted, her hands shaking as adrenaline spiked her blood. “I would have remembered.”
“The broom accident, when you were a boy,” Lady Batsford said. “You flew across a highway and a semi-truck swerved when it nearly hit you… You tried to regain control as you shot across a field and fell into a barbed wire fence much further away. What you did not know was that Callista’s family was in the opposite lane from that truck. They were forced off the road when they tried to avoid the truck and their car rolled down a hill.”
Calli went numb. Her body froze, and her fingers slipped out of Malcolm’s hand.
Screeching tires. The crunch of metal as the car rolled. Screams. Vines shooting painfully out of her arms to protect her. The fading stardust of her parents’ familiars. The sightless stare of her mother…
“No…” Malcolm said. “That can’t be true.”
“It is,” Reginald said. “Serafina met with me that night. You must remember that after you returned home, I left for the evening.”
“You left because you were disappointed in me. You?—”
His father shook his head. “No, I sensed something was wrong. Death clung to you like a shadow. I decided to retrace your route and found the wreckage.” He nodded toward Calli. “I saw her, down the hill, a child wrapped in vines and unharmed, but her parents were gone. I called for help, but it was far too late.” He sagged a little. Even talking was draining him at this point. “I contacted Serafina, who found the child’s grandmother and collected the child. Then Serafina and I went to the town to make sure what you had done didn’t have even more consequences.”
What you had done…
His words hit Calli like a slap across the face, though they weren’t meant for her.
“No…” Malcolm whispered as he turned to face her. “That can’t be… No, Calli. I didn’t?—”
But it all fit into place. The prophecy that her parents would leave her and that their absence would bring Malcolm to her. Never in a million years would she have guessed that he’d be responsible for their deaths.
Malcolm stepped toward her, hand outstretched, but she recoiled. Persephone meowed loudly, clawing at Calli’s legs. She picked Persephone up, holding the kitten close, needing the strength of her familiar just to keep her on her feet. Her ears began to ring as she stared at the man she’d fallen in love with. The man she’d wanted to spend eternity with…
But he’d killed her parents. He’d destroyed her life.
“Calli…” Malcolm’s voice was a choked whisper. “Please don’t. Honey, I?—”
His voice was a slap to her senses. Her eyes felt as though they were on fire because the tears were burning so fiercely as she kept them at bay. In a single instant her life had been thrown into chaos and grief all over again. She stepped back, desperate to retreat, to put some distance between her and the man she loved… the man who’d killed her parents. Her body was still sore from his lovemaking… and her lips still tasted of the cocoa he’d made for them… A bittersweet betrayal that ran as deep as the mythical River Styx.
