The minutes stretched into an agonizing wait, and doubt began to creepin. Gran remained still, her slumber unbroken. What if the spell had failed? Had I come back only moments too late? Did I lack the magic necessary to save Gran’s life, just as I had failed to save James’s? Maybe magic did not flow through my veins as strongly as it did Gran’s. The spells in the book may not work for someone untrained such as myself. I had just discovered the power within me but had no idea how to wield it.
I was on the verge of losing all hope when Gran began to stir. Initially, just her fingers moved gently along the bed linens; then her eyes began to flutter under her lids. Within a moment, they slowly opened, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Gran, are you well?”I asked, taking her hand in mine and giving it a gentle squeeze.
She looked at me and then down at the cup in my hands, motioning for me to give it to her. I assisted her in sitting up and then passed her the cup. Gran blew weakly on the tea before taking a long, deliberate sip, followed by another. Not a word escaped her lips until she had drunk the entire cup, the dullness in her eyes gradually fading with each sip.
“Rowan?”she said, confused.
“Gran, the spell you cast to help you sleep after the ball went awry, and you did not wake. It’s been three days now,”I told her.
She looked at me, recognition dawning on her in spite of the haziness clouding her eyes, the kind that comes from being very ill. The spell had roused her from her sleep but had not pulled her from the illness she had been battling. The joy of seeing Gran awake was quickly extinguished as I realized that it had awoken her but not cured her.
“Ah, you possess the gift,”she said, a smile gracing her lips.“I pondered which of my grandchildren the Goddess would bestow it upon, and it seems it is you, my dear Cora. I am truly glad it is so. There is much you must learn now.”
Then she noticed the sorrow in my eyes, and her joy also faded.“What is it, my child?”
Biting back the tears, I took a deep breath before I spoke.“After you fell ill, I discovered your spellbook and a counter-spell for the one you had performed. I persuaded the duke that I knew of an ancient remedy of yours that might aid you, but I required time to gather the ingredients myself. He insisted that his son accompany me. Thus, Lord and I journeyed to Letterfearn, to Tobar Mhoire, and then on to Loch Ness to procure the necessary ingredients for the spell to aid you.”
“You need not continue,”Gran said.“On the very day he was born, just after I had saved his life, I had a vision. He was grown and deeply in love with a beautiful woman. Though you were not yet born, I knew it was you, for you bear a striking resemblance to your mother in her youth. That is why I informed your mother of the ball. I knew she would insist upon your attendance, and that you and James would meet. Do not concern yourself with your status, for it shall matter not. I saw you two happily together,”she said, a weak smile spreading across her aged face.
I looked at her, tears welling in my eyes, then spilling down my cheeks. Her expression changed, and she knew.“No, it cannot be. This is not what I foresaw. I have never had a prediction go awry. What has happened?”she asked, her eyes growing misty with tears.
“On our return from Loch Ness, he glimpsed something on the ice—a child. As he approached, the ice gave way and the child vanished. The tale you told of the kelpie in the lake surged back to me and I knew it was no ordinary child. I tried to save him, but I was too late.”
“Did they recover his body?”she asked, a glint of hope shining in her eyes.
“Yes. I attempted to save him with a spell from the book, but it proved ineffective,”I replied, feeling a pang of shame.
“What spell did you use?”
“To bring one back from death’s grip.”
“And it did not work?”she asked, confusion furrowing her brow.
“No, it did not.”
“Did you repeat the incantation thrice while over his body?”she inquired.
I pondered the question. Had I spoken it three times? No, the fairy had appeared before I could utter the incantation for the third and final time. A wave of dread washed over me as I realized the truth: the magic must have attracted the fairy, who had intervened before I could complete the spell and save him. How could I have been so negligent? Why had I not recognized it in that moment?
“I did not. Before I could speak it for the final time, a song interrupted me, and then a woman appeared, vowing she would bring him back to me.”
Gran’s eyes widened as concern carved lines into her pale face.“Cora, tell me you did not strike a bargain with a fairy,”she said, fear palpable in her every word.
“I wasn’t thinking clearly. I only wished to save him,”I wept, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“What were her exact words? The precise terms of the bargain,”Gran insisted, her tone forceful.
I cast my mind back, struggling to recall the exact terms of the bargain, word for word.
“She wanted the bracelet you gave me and told me she saw many happy times ahead of us. Then she asked me if I wished for our love to continue. I, of course, said yes and gave her the bracelet, desperate to save him.”
“Oh, my child, I fear you have ensnared yourself in a fairy’s curse. Fairies fulfill their bargains, but not always as one might hope. Their fulfillment is often bound to the precise nature of their queries. She did not ask if you wished him to live again; she asked if you wished for your love to continue, which is quite different. Did she sing afterward?”
I felt stricken at how naive I had been. In my grief, I had not been thinking rationally.
“Yes,”I said, looking down, trying to hide my shame for falling for such trickery.
