For once, it felt like we weren’t reacting. We were deciding.
“I spoke to my mom about Mariselle,” I told her, letting the words hang there.
“She’s always preferred consolidation,” Stella said calmly. “Control is cleaner when it runs through one set of hands, and Stonewick has been a thorn in her side for generations.”
“I don’t understand why she’s held onto this belief for so long.”
Stella looked at Keegan briefly before returning her gaze to me.
“I know you’ve heard of her other kin,” Stella said.
There was no drama in her tone. Just fact.
“Briefly. I’m not sure how or why that could work.”
“She weaves several possibilities like thread, and some fray, some snap, and the one that holds she uses until she can’t any longer.”
“She bargains with shadows,” I said quietly. “Not metaphorically.”
“Quite literally.” Stella nodded and stood to refill our tea. “Your grandmother treats family as puppets that can be disposed of once she’s finished with them.”
“Like discarding my mom when she wouldn’t do what she wanted?”
“For your grandmother, that was kind. I’m sure it aggravates her that she let her get away. The others weren’t so lucky over the years.”
A chill settled over me, knowing Stella had seen a lot more than she was letting on over the centuries.
She poured hot water over our loose tea and put the kettle back on the counter.
I studied her. “So you knew.”
“I suspected,” she corrected. “And then I saw.”
Keegan straightened slightly. “Saw how?”
Stella folded her hands neatly on the table, and she looked around the tea shop as my mind went wild with worry.
“I’ve been alive for over two centuries,” she said. “I’ve watched rulers cling to youth, witches siphon vitality from unwilling sources, and covens fracture over a single whispered promise. Your grandmother’s longevity has never sat cleanly.”
I hesitated. “There are whispers. Concoctions. Stones. Something that lets her live among immortals while still being very much… alive.”
Stella inhaled slowly.
“I would like to believe,” she said evenly, “that because of my age, I have seen everything.”
Her scarlet lips curved faintly.
“But I would be a fool to think that. There is always something older. Something buried deeper.”
The candle between us flickered.
“There have always been whispers about Mariselle,” Stella continued. “Whether it’s a draught she consumes, a relic she carries, or something far more intricate, binding her lifespan to forces that don’t age in the traditional sense. She’s alive just as much as when she was your age, Maeve, but she’s been around before I was even created.”
I shifted uncomfortably. “But you’re very much alive.”
The moment the words left my mouth, I felt heat rise to my cheeks.
Stella regarded me with a steady gaze, and I saw her scarlet lips turn down.
