The Council, A Witch's Memory (17 page)

She took the phone from me. “Hi, Jackson. I’m sorry I didn’t call you or Mara. Yeah, Zane’s here with us too. No, you don’t have to worry. We’re fine.” She winked at me. “Uh, I’m not sure when we’ll be home. Henry’s parents invited Zane and I to spend the week with them in North Dakota. Remember when we went last year? I showed you the pictures.”

I smirked. Actually, we’d stayed at a house my parents rented and pretended to live in while we were there. Venna and Zane never suspected. I couldn’t bring them to the compound with me.

Venna let out a relieved sigh and clutched the phone in both hands. “Great, of course I’ll call and check in. Yeah, nine, actually. I think we can do that. Okay, bye.”

“Well?” I asked when she handed me back the phone.

“Mr. Langley, I just bought us a week of freedom. They think we are flying out tonight.”

“Smart thinking, Miss Greer.” I met her eyes, feeling her apprehension. “What’s the catch?”

“We have to have dinner with them before we leave.”

I stood. At least they would let Venna stay with me for a while. Hopefully a week was enough time.

We went to make lunch, and although I could feel she was still upset with me, Venna was warming up as the minutes passed. She even managed a few smiles.

I found Zane rummaging through the cupboards when we entered the kitchen.

“What are you looking for?” I asked. This wasn’t Zane’s home, but it might as well be. He spent enough time here with Venna and I to know his way around.

He dumped a bag of sugar on the counter. “Stuff.”

Venna went to the fridge and got out what we needed for sandwiches. “For?

Zane straightened and crossed his arms. “Flora and I are baking cupcakes.”

She laughed. “Boy, hanging around with has changed your view on cool activities.”

“Baking is a science.” He glanced at a cookbook open on the counter and went back to the cupboard.

“Since when have you enjoyed academics?” I asked.

“Dude, its butter and sugar, need I say more?” He turned around and shouted, “Flora, did you find the blender?”

She came out of the pantry scowling. “For the last time, it’s a mixer, Zane.”

By the time we were getting ready to go to Mara and Jackson’s, the kitchen was a disaster. The mess didn’t bother me. I was happy Zane and Flora were at least trying to get along. They could surprise us all and become friends. Though I had a feeling that would take a while.

A tub of blue frosting sat on the counter next to a tray of still warm cup cakes, and every baking utensil I owned. Next to that the mixer was half full of unused batter. Sprinkles, food coloring, and flour covered the countertop. Bruno wound around our legs, mopping any fallen crumbs off the floor with his tongue. I tried feeding him the dog food that had appeared in the pantry, thanks to Zane, but he was more interested in the human treats.

Zane insisted on icing one of the cakes as soon as it came out of the oven, it sat in a big squishy lump on a napkin.

“Is it supposed to look like that?” He poked it with the end of a spatula.

I was not a good cook by any means; I did know enough to realize that a warm cupcake would melt frosting.

Venna packed the cooled and frosted cupcakes in a plastic tub to take to Mara and Jackson. “What if they figure out we’re lying?”

“They won’t.” I glanced at the faucet to turn the water on and sent dishes flying across the room into the sink, while putting away leftovers.

“You don’t know that.”

“If the Hall’s find out, I’ll make them forget.”

Venna put her hands on her hips. I felt her temper flare. “Uh, no. Sorry, never happening.”

“It’s perfectly safe.”

“Tell that to my feet.”

“Right, sorry. I’m talking about a different kind of charm.” I said, but she wasn’t listening, and turned back to her cupcakes.

Zane took a messy bite of the gooey blue cupcake and grinned at Flora, waving frosting covered fingers in the air.

She shrieked at him. “Don’t come any nearer!”

“What are you going to do, charm me to death?” he licked his fingers.

I rolled my eyes and hit the lights. We had plenty of time, so we left through the back gate covered in ivy and took the trail to the Hall’s house.

Venna seemed a little uneasy walking through the woods. She felt even more so and looked back at me a few times. I smiled, trying to convey she didn’t have anything to worry over. It was till light out. I didn’t sense anything threatening, and neither did Zane or Flora.

We were climbing the back porch, about to go inside the hall’s house, when Flora gasped at the sight of an old apple tree in the side yard. “Oh, no. What happened to you?”

Zane lowered his voice, “Uh, Henry, is she talking to a tree?”

I grinned, knowing Flora was finally getting comfortable enough to be herself around Zane and Venna. They were in for a surprise. “Yeah.”

“It’s been like that for years.” Venna said. “Jackson is debating chopping it down.”

Flora ran for it, appalled. “Why would someone do that?”

We watched her walk around the tree, whispering, talking to it in a sweet voice. Zane and Venna eyed her like she’d lost it. Soon though, the tree started to come to life. No longer wilted and rotted. Its leaves were green and vibrant. Crisp red apples slowly appeared.

“That is so freaking cool.” Zane’s voice cracked. I laughed and he punched me in the arm. “Hey, a few years ago, you sounded just as strange.”

“Oh, my lord!” a shrill voice nearly busted my eardrums and Mara pushed past me, throwing off her frilled apron. “Jackson, come look at the tree!”

Zane and I helped Jackson fire up the grill and we fixed hamburgers for dinner. Venna and Flora provided the side dishes with Mara. We had a pleasant evening out on the back porch. Flora, who was a diehard monopoly fan, coerced us into a game that lasted two hours. Zane ended up losing all his money to her, and was in debt by at least ten thousand dollars from an I-O-U.

Mara sat back in her chair and studied me over the rims of her blue, horn-rimmed glasses. She was a round little woman with a hearty laugh and puffy white hair. She reminded me of my grandmother. She was warm and caring, and had a tendency to worry we weren’t being fed enough.

“So, North Dakota?” she asked as the evening was winding down. We would have to leave soon, pretend we had to make our flight with my parents.

I nodded. “We’re going to go jet skiing on the lake behind my house.”

Jackson tugged on his ear, smirking. “Is that what they are calling it these days?”

Venna went pink and Zane burst out laughing.

Mara threw her napkin at Jackson, “I wish you would behave yourself. Venna and Henry have good heads on their shoulders.”

The phone rang, and Jackson went to answer it, grumbling about how no one seemed to have a sense of humor anymore.

Mara looked at me again, and tapped her fingers to her chin. I was starting to get a tad uncomfortable when she smirked at the tree. “Nice handy work.”

I stared at her. “I’m sorry?”

Mara glanced at my cousin, who looked ready to melt out of her chair, and winked. “Don’t look so worried, Flora.”

We stared at Mara, speechless. She merely waved her hand through the air and gurgled with laughter. “Please, you all look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“You know?” Venna came up out of her chair.

“Of course I know.” She reached out to nudge Zane in the ribs until he started laughing. “How could I miss it? He’s fast, but he’s not that fast.”

Venna planted both hands on the table and leaned forward. “How much do you know, exactly?”

“I know you’d scrape a knee when you were little, and it’d be healed in two or three days. It wasn’t natural. I also know who Henry really is,” Mara smiled at Venna. “I know what you are…” She shrugged, her eyes misty, “and I know you’re going to leave someday. I just hope you wont forget me.”

Venna rounded the table to hug Mara, “I will visit any chance I get. I promise. Besides, Zane still has to finish school.”

Zane nodded and hugged her when Venna went back to her seat. “But how did you figure all of this out?”

“It was the Langley’s. They were a funny family, and so private. Show up and buy the house that nobody could afford or wanted, and not long after we were given you and your sister.” She said. “At first I didn’t suspect anything, but they were so attentive. Always coming up to us in town and wanting to know how Venna and Zane were adjusting. So I went over one day, rang the bell, and asked them right out if they had any connections to my foster children.”

I was in disbelief, mostly. “And the fact that we’re magical, doesn’t bother you?”

“Darling,” Mara patted my shoulder. “I nearly fainted when I found out about witches and warlocks. Then, I just decided I didn’t care anymore, and that I would never tell Jackson.”

Venna let out a heavy sigh and slid down in her seat. “Must have been Mrs. Langley’s charming personality.”

Chapter 21

Venna

The sun beat down on my head. It was lovely and warm. I tilted my face up to let the rays heat my skin until it felt tight and perspiration gathered on my brow.

I opened my eyes.

I stood behind a little white cottage. The backyard was a small area of grass littered with toys and a sand box and a large, wispy tree. The house sat on the crest of a small hill; slope easing down to a rocky shore. A rotted dock swayed with the choppy waves of murky green-blue water and a thick layer of sea foam covered the top.

The wind picked up, sending my curls in front of my face. I heard a snap and held back my hair, watching as one of the boards on the dock broke and dropped into the foam below.

I turned my face into the wind and let go of my hair, walking around the side of the house under a clothesline draped in sheets. Running my fingers along the damp fabric, I wondered why the atmosphere felt so still and quiet.

I neared the front of the house and saw a much younger Zane. He had to be around four or five.

He was knee deep in a pile of dirt with a little blue shovel, wearing a plastic fireman’s hat, saying something about digging a hole to China.

My brother’s crazy antics started at a much younger age than I realized.

I came to stand behind him. My gaze followed the white railing of the porch up to the front door of the house.

Zane dropped the shovel, wiping his hands on his shorts and streaking them with dirt. “Daddy!”

I looked up to see a man strolling along a skinny stone path to the gate. He wore black pants and a black dress shirt. Not nearly as tall as fourteen-year-old Zane, who was still growing and approaching the six-foot mark. The man’s hair was blond, clipped very close to his scalp and so lightly colored it could have been mistaken for being white. His presence brought an ominous air, as if seeing him standing at our gate should be a bad sign.

Zane started toward him. I grabbed the back of his shirt.

It was pure instinct that made me restrain my brother.

Eyes black as night met mine. “I see you listen very well to your mother, Venna.”

I raised my chin, giving my father my best brave stare.

“
How I long for the day you will trust me.” he said, his raspy voice sounding sad. It was an act. I held tighter to Zane and backed up.

“
Take your brother into the house, Venna.” I heard the softest, most beautiful voice say behind me. I turned to see my mother step gracefully down the front porch. She pushed a few wild, red curls from her face.

“
Mother?” I breathed. She didn’t hear me and immediately I knew I wasn’t in control of my situation, just along for the ride. This was a memory, playing like a movie in my head. I couldn’t change it. I couldn’t stop myself from scurrying up the steps and into the house, dragging Zane with me. He started to whine about having not seen our father in a really long time. I told him to go play in his room, and if he behaved we’d get to spend some time with daddy. He went, very reluctantly, hanging his head and shuffling down a sunny yellow hallway. I sneaked back to the door, cracking it open and peaking out to see what my mother and father were doing.

“
You are not welcome here, John Greer.” I heard my mother say, her beautiful voice turning cold. “Or should I call you Craven?”

“
I have not come to argue, Charlotte,” he said with a tone so gentle and soothing it contradicted the malice in his eyes.

“
Then what do you want?”

“
To collect my family.”

She gasped. “No!”

“
Pack your things.”