“Your mother was my sister, Amarante,” Lana said shakily. “You are my niece.”
And then everything made sense. Why Theodora and Rowena insisted on taking me to Lana specifically. The look Beatrice had given her. Why Lana had Mama’s things. I felt like somebody was squeezing me so tightly I couldn’t breathe.
“Fraternizing with humans led to Seraphina’s death. She was so foolish. That silver bracelet ruined everything,” Lana said, pointing a trembling finger at the chain of bells around my wrist. “She conceived with your coward of a father who never told you the circumstances of your own birth. Then she killed herself when they found her out. She killed herself to protect you and that man. Humans are cruel, worthless creatures. That queen deserves to be poisoned.”
“How could you say that?” I said, my voice breaking.
“Not only that,” Lana said. A dark look came over her visage. “I created manbane.”
The floor spun.
Lana took a shuddering breath. “And when you came to me, I knew I shouldn’t have accepted you. But I couldn’t stop myself. I am your aunt, Amarante, and I...I cannot have what happened to your mother happen to you.”
“You’re no aunt of mine.” I nearly spat the words out. “You insult my Papa. You say humans are vermin upon this earth. You refuse to cure an innocent you poisoned! You are wicked!”
I snatched my bag and fled from Lana’s cottage. She didn’t call for me and I didn’t care to look back. My vision was too blurred with tears. I flew down Witch Village, ignoring the passersby. How dare she lie to me? How could she have kept everything from me all this time? To think I respected her! To think I wanted to make her proud!
The traverse through the tunnel for once felt too short. I wasn’t done fuming when Miriam received me in her back room. She gave me an appraising look. “So. She told you?”
I gave a stiff nod and wiped my eyes when she turned her back. My sleeves came away wet.
“Must’ve done it in a darned awful way, then,” Miriam said with a snort. She pulled out a china set from a low shelf. “Care for some tea?”
I sank down into a pouf before a circular table as Miriam clattered about, levitating the tea cups and shooting a spout of flame underneath the kettle.
She arranged herself before me. Her gaudy brass jewelry gleamed in the dim lamps hanging from the ceiling, a welcome distraction. I didn’t wish to see her face. No doubt she pitied me, or was guilty for lying to me from the start.
Miriam, Lana, Theodora, Rowena, and Papa. All of them lied to me.
The water in the kettle simmered. I stared at my tea cup. It had snails painted on it and the rim was dipped in gold.
Miriam heaved a mighty sigh. “Seraphina...She was one of those young witches too curious for their own good.”
I said nothing, but she continued. “She was no older than you when she got the bright idea to pretend to be human and explore their world. She came to me, of course, because I liked assisting the young and curious.” Miriam chuckled. “I didn’t see the harm in letting her roam around a bit. But that silly girl wanted more. She wanted to attend the Season.
“I didn’t think she’d pull it off, but in a fortnight, she had a false identity and went off to the palace with some money she magicked. There, she fell in love with your father. Lana hated the match. But Seraphina didn’t care.”
Mama had always been a figment of my imagination, an empty space I knew should have been filled but simply wasn’t. To hear her story was like filling that space. Even in my current state, I hungered for more. “When did Papa know?”
“When she became pregnant with you. Once she had you, the facade she built to attend the Season began to crumble. Magicked money isn’t permanent. Eventually a dressmaker did some digging and found holes in her story. It wasn’t long before he was blabbering about it to the public.
“Your father wanted to escape the kingdom, but Seraphina refused. Delibera had become her home. She couldn’t bear for you to live as an outcast, or risk exposing the location of Witch Village. She committed suicide before the authorities found her. I had to tell Lana the news myself. She didn’t like me very much after that.”
I closed my eyes. Papa’s absence made sense now. Perhaps he couldn’t bear to see me after what Mama did to protect us.
“But Theodora and Rowena,” I said. “Who were they in all this?”
“They were your mother’s closest friends. They offered to raise you. At your father’s request they suppressed your magic for sixteen years. I don’t think either of them expected you to come to Witch Village. It was Seraphina’s wish to not see you suffer the same fate she did, as a witch.”
“You knew. When you first saw me, you knew who I was,” I said, warming my shaking fingers with the steam rising from my tea. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Miriam shrugged. “It wasn’t my place.”
I shook my head. It didn’t matter anymore. I couldn’t change my family’s past. But there was still one thing I could do.
“Miriam, do you have the recipe for truth potion?”
