“Thank you.” I lean in to kiss her cheek. “Thanks for keeping it safe for me.”
“You know there’s not much we wouldn’t do for you, my boy.” She pats my cheek and then gets back to work. “Now, let’s get this food ready. I have people to feed.”
“I want to talk to you.” We just drove away from Oliver’s, headed back to Millie’s, and I have about twenty minutes alone with Daphne.
I need to get something off my chest.
“I’m right here,” she says and shifts in her seat to face me. “What’s up?”
“You said before that you stopped practicing witchcraft the day I walked out.”
She doesn’t say anything.
“Why, Daph?”
“Because it was tied to you,” she says. “Because I met you the day I went with Millie to my first coven meeting. And, honestly, I didn’t want to run into you there. I didn’t know what was happening—if you were staying or leaving. I knew nothing. But I sure didn’t want to chance seeing you there. I was too raw, and I knew I’d make a dramatic scene or something. Even though I’m not dramatic.”
“I never went back either,” I reply and feel myself settle when she reaches for my hand. “I packed my shit and enlisted. I wanted out of here. It was like a driving force, making me go. I couldn’t leave fast enough.”
“I wasn’t a very good witch anyway. I never did the homework. I couldn’t cast a spell if my life depended on it. And right now, it kind of does.” She clears her throat. “Miss Annabelle gave me some clippings off her plants, and a bracelet that she says was her mother’s lucky charm. They’re worried about us.”
“Yeah, I know. But don’t change the subject.”
She laughs a little. “I’m not. There’s not much more to say.”
“Did you miss it?”
“Some of the people, yes. I did. But I saw most of them anyway because of Millie. I’m not lying when I say I wasn’t good at it, Jack. I always felt like an imposter, so it was easy to stop going. To just let that part of me slip away.”
“You were never an imposter.” I glance her way and squeeze her hand. “Not everyone is super-gifted like Miss Sophia, Daph. Her knowledge comes from a literal lifetime of studying and honing her craft.”
“I know,” she says. “But it just comes so naturally to Millie.”
“And now we know that Millie has been honing her craft over a millennium.”
“You have a point. But she says that we’ve all lived through the same lifetimes. So, wouldn’t that mean I should have been learning over a millennium, too?”
“No. Because she said there were many times that you and Brielle didn’t believe or understand. It was always part of Millie’s path, not yours.”
“So, our defeating him this time isn’t necessarily linked to the coven,” she says, thinking it over. “Yet he’s targeting coven members? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Only with the aid of the craft will we be able to defeat him,” I reply and park in front of Millie’s house. Neither of us makes a move to leave the car. “He’s too powerful an entity at this point to even try to defeat him in any other way. In fact, there probably isn’t another way.”
“Good point.”
“And he knows that. So, yeah, he’s taking out our army. And that really pisses me off, Daph.”
“I know.” She pulls my hand to her face and nuzzles her cheek against it. “I know it does. We’re going to figure all of this out, Jack. One more thing about me being part of the coven... I’ve been considering going back to it. Since all of this started happening, it’s been really nice to have a close community around us. And I find a lot of it fascinating, even if I’m not especially gifted at it.”
“It just takes time,” I repeat. “And if you want to practice magic, who am I to say that you shouldn’t?”
“Would you consider going back?”
I lick my lips, thinking it over. “I think so. I don’t have anything against it. I just couldn’t stay with it back then. It was too painful because my parents loved it so much.”
“I know. And I’m not saying you have to because I want to.”
“No.” I lean over and kiss her gently. “You wouldn’t say that. I think it’s something to think about.”
Someone knocks on the window, startling us both.
“Stop making out in the driveway and come in for dinner,” Brielle says and gestures for us to come inside.
“I guess she’s home from work,” Daphne mutters. “Although, I’m not hungry. Between beignets and Miss Annabelle cooking enough for an army, I may never eat again.”
“Let’s go in with the others.”
The dining room is big enough for all of us to fit around the table. Platters are passed back and forth, and there’s a lot of chatter and laughter.
It’s as if we do this every week.
Maybe we did in another lifetime.
“You have a strange look on your face,” Millie says across from me. “What’s on your mind? Why aren’t you two eating?”
“We already ate.” I shrug a shoulder. “I have questions about these past lives.”
Everyone around the table quiets and listens.
“You can ask anything,” Lucien says. “I remember it all.”
“That is an incredible burden to carry,” I reply. “I was just thinking that we all fit together here as if we’ve done it many times. It’s not awkward at all. No adjustments. So, I guess I was just curious if we’ve done this before.”
Lucien swallows his food and purses his lips. “Well, in some lifetimes, we all lived together under one roof. It was the culture of the time. So, yes, we’ve done it before.”
“Explains a lot,” I say with a nod. “Also, is it horrible that I’m finding it hard to wrap my head around it?”
“Not horrible at all,” Millie replies. “I’m still sorting it out, and I have memories. We’re in an unusual situation.”
“How is Oliver?” Miss Sophia asks.
“Oh, he looks so much better,” Daphne says. “Like a whole new man. I was so relieved when we walked into his room and found him smiling, looking refreshed, and appearing at least ten years younger.”
“Oh, that’s so great,” Brielle says.
“Who knew that being dehydrated could do so much damage?” Millie asks.
“Oh, there’s Miss Annabelle now,” Daphne says when her phone pings with a text. “She sent over the photo she took of you and Oliver at their house today. It’s really a great picture. We’ll have to frame it.”
I glance down at it, nod, and then do a double-take.
“What’s on him?” I ask.
“What do you mean?” Daphne says and looks closer. “It looks like shadows.”
“There are no shadows on me.” I take the phone from her and zoom in on the image. “Jesus. Oh, God.”
“What is it?” Miss Sophia holds her hand out for the phone, and I pass it down.