Declan jogged over, opened the door, and pulled me into a hug.“Are you two all right?”he murmured by my ear.
I nodded.
Uncle Robert was at Faith’s door, helping her out.“Okay?”he asked her.
She nodded, but he seemed to recognize something in her expression because he pulled her into a big hug.
“What happened?”He rubbed a hand up and down her narrow back.
“I rained on them,” she said against his chest.
He glanced over his daughter’s head at us and we nodded.“That’s nothing.Sometimes it rains in San Francisco.”
“We were in Pacifica,” she said.
“Oh, well, it rains even more there,” he told her.
She looked up at him.“Dad, it was totally obvious.I panicked and the rain poured down.”
“I honestly think most of the wicches believed it was a sudden storm,” Mom said, trying to reassure her.
Faith gave her a look.“What about the earthquake?”
Robert took a half step back, his hands on his daughter’s shoulders so he could see her better.“Who scared you?”
She ducked her head.“It was nothing.”
“No.”Mom rubbed Faith’s back like her father had.“We don’t lie to your parents.They have a right to know you were in danger.”
Robert tucked Faith under his arm, holding her close as he pinned Mom with an accusing glare.“What happened?”
“The meeting was going as well as could be expected,” Mom told him.“Catherine was doing what she could to paint us in a bad light.She needed us to live up to all the horrible things she’d been saying about us for years.Bracken spoke first and was clearly changing minds.
“I think she was desperate by the time Arwyn took over,” she continued.“Arwyn had pulled up all the video and photos and said she had proof of the Swans doing black magic.Catherine threw a curse, not at any of the three adults.No, she threw it at the one she thought was the most vulnerable and would cause the most chaos.”
Robert’s gaze ran over his daughter.“Were you hit?”
She shook her head, her braids swinging.“They all moved too fast.Aunt Sybil threw herself in front of me.Uncle Bracken reached out to grab the curse in his hand, but Arwyn got there first.Fire shot out of her fist.”
Declan grabbed my hands and held them up to the light from the doorway.He stared at the hole in my right glove, his finger lightly tracing over the new skin on my palm.“I knew I smelled something charred.”
“Yeah,” I said.“I accidentally took out the extra pair of gloves I keep in my backpack when I was reorganizing for the laptop and projector.I’ve had to hold this hand closed so I didn’t accidentally touch something.”
Robert was there, taking my hand and holding his over the top of it.“The healing is almost complete.”He flipped my hand over and kissed the back of my glove.“Thank you for saving my daughter.”He turned to the others.“All of you.Having Faith be a member of the Council scares her mother and me, but I feel better knowing the first impulse of all of you was to protect her.”
“Wait, though,” Faith said, grinning now, the embarrassment of losing control of her powers now forgotten.“Uncle Bracken and Arwyn made a car disappear and reappear a quarter of a mile away.”She smacked her dad’s chest.“It was incredible!All the wicches watching gasped.”She looked over at me.“Some of them were muttering about you two never being able to do it, how this was a waste of time.You know,Coreyswith an eye roll.And then you did it!Ha!It was beautiful.Wasn’t it, Aunt Sybil?”
Mom nodded, grinning at Bracken and me.“I must admit, it feltreallygood to put those naysayers in their place.”She shook her head.“Put some respect on our names.”
“They invited us back,” I said.“So, that’s good.”
Mom straightened her dress.“Lydia shared that with Catherine gone, it made sense for a Corey to be back on the Panel of Five.”She held up a hand.“We’ll see, though.It’s too early.I’m sure a lot of families still think the worst of us.”
“We’ll prove them wrong,” I assured her.
She checked the time on her watch.“It’s late and it’s been a very long and emotional day.We should probably head home.”She looked at Declan.“And you have a bag of food to eat.”
Everyone said their goodbyes and headed out.Declan carried my backpack and his bag of food while keeping an arm around me as we went inside.
