by Lenore Wolfe
TWENTY-FOUR
CLAIRE
Claire watched as her friends appeared from the woods. When they’d up and disappeared, she’d walked down to Main Street, searching for them. When she didn’t find them anywhere downtown, she came back to Ravenwood and asked Morgan if she’d seen them.
Jack told her that they’d seen Tara walking down the path out back, but he hadn’t seen Sophia and Kira since she’d said she was taking her daughter downtown for some ice cream earlier that day.
Morgan came into the room as he said that. “No, she didn’t,” she said. “Tara was watching her walk toward the woods outback earlier, and followed her.”
Claire’s gaze lit up with unanswered questions. As soon as she’d headed out back, she sensed Morgan and Alex right behind her. They made it across the clearing, but as they got close to the woods, they saw Tara, then Sophia and Kira, come walking out of the woods into the bright sunlight.
Claire knew, by the expression on their faces that something had happened. She started towards them at a dead run, Morgan, and Alex right behind her.
When they caught up to the three, they were breathless.
“What’s happened?” Alex nearly yelled, searching them over for any signs of being harmed, then eyeing the woods like he expected someone to come running out after them.
Tara folded her arms. “Oh, you know, the usual, Sophia visited her mother—in the woods.”
Claire saw Alex frown, confused. “Huh?”
Obviously, Morgan hadn’t had a chance to catch him up on their suspicions. He’d be blown away by this.
Tara’s brows shot up. “Yeah, it would seem, she’d been visiting her mother those three days, years ago, when she disappeared, too.”
Alex blinked, then eyed Morgan.
Morgan’s eyes went wide. She stared at Sophia. “So, it’s true? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Well, actually,” Tara defended, now, “any thought of doing that had probably been blown away as soon as she saw the way we reacted to the Gargoyle that night,” she answered for Sophia, feeling bad for her now.
Sophia nodded, flushing.
Claire came forward, hugging her. “You have to know how much we love you.”
Sophia giggled nervously. “Yeah—but will you? When you know exactly who—and what—I am?” She shrugged her slender shoulders. “Or will you be afraid of me then?”
Alex gawked at them, clearly pole-axed. Claire glanced up at him in time to see the cloud of confusion lift. His eyes cleared as dawning broke.
“You’re Fae?” he said, excitement evident in his voice. “Sophia—you could have told us that!”
Sophia looked up at him now too. “Really? But you guys were so scared that day,” she said, hope tinging her voice.
“Yeah, silly,” Morgan laughed. “A massive beast came to life in front of our very eyes. We wouldn’t have been afraid of you.”
Sophia beamed and picked up her daughter. “Did you hear that, Kira?” She hugged her close then, gazed at her friends and sobered. “But will you guys feel the same—when you see what I can do?”
“What can you do,” Alex asked, curiosity evident in his voice.
Claire chuckled, linking Sophia’s arm, pulling her towards the house. “Yeah, I think we’ll leave that for another day. I think there have been enough surprises for one day, don’t you?”
Sophia actually giggled. Something Claire hadn’t heard her do in a very long time. Too, long.
Alex frowned. “Wait,” he looked at Morgan as she grinned at him, “I wanted to see what she could do.”
Morgan put her arm around his waist. “I think we’ll learn that soon enough,” she said, leaning up to kiss him.
Claire smiled, watching them. Happy for her sister. Not only had she found her way home, but she’d found Alex again, too. The two of them had something special. It had always been there, even when they were children. They’d even had a little wedding for them once, as children. Maybe one day they would have that wedding for real.
Claire hoped she’d find someone as good as Alex for herself, one day. She eyed Sophia and Tara. She hoped they’d find someone, too.
Sophia’s news both amazed and thrilled her. In her wildest dreams, Claire never imagined they had such powerful friends. More than that, she never imagined they had access to such information, as the Faery tribes would afford for them.
Sophia hid an incredible secret. Right now, Claire wanted to be angry with her, because her secret made everything different. But, as Tara had pointed out, they hadn’t exactly engendered trust in her by freaking out about the Gargoyle. Not as kids. Not even as adults.
Still, she didn’t feel like she knew Sophia, now. She almost felt like they never knew her at all.
No. Sophia had brought them something they needed in a bad way. But Claire knew it would be a while before she trusted her the way she had before. She might understand her reasons, but that didn’t change how she felt about being lied to for all these years.
That would take a little more time.
She hoped it wouldn’t take too long. They needed the love and trust they’d always had between them, for this kind war.
Claire climbed the stairs to the attic to get back to her training as super-witch, so she could try and protect her family. Even the Faery tribes couldn’t save them, if they didn’t prepare. Besides, she needed to get her mind off her troubles—and she saw no better way to do that than by staying busy.
Claire spent the next couple of hours working on her own potions before heading down to help with the meal.
That evening, when they sat down to dinner, they were pleasantly surprised when Claire and Morgan’s aunt finally showed. She rang the doorbell, but when Claire answered the door, she squealed, scaring the others who still sat at the table. They all came rushing to the door, only to find Claire fiercely hugging her aunt.
She glanced back at the group standing there watching them. She spotted Morgan hanging back. She rushed forward, grabbing her sister’s hand, dragging her behind her to her aunt.
Their aunt Jacelyn eyes filled with tears as she looked at her niece. “I searched for you for so long,” she said, softly.
That propelled Morgan forward. As she hugged her aunt, they both cried. By the time they were through, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
Morgan finally released her aunt, glancing at her friends. She laughed as she whipped the tears from her damp cheeks. “Well,” she said. “Now the family is complete.”
That set off a whole new round of smiles as the rest of the group stepped forward to hug Jacelyn, and welcome her home.
Claire took her aunt’s hand and led her to the dining room as Jake went to the kitchen to dish another plate, and Jack put together a place for her at the table.
“Hey,” Claire said when it finally dawned on her, “where’s Nate?” she asked.
Her aunt glanced up at her, already holding a fork in her hand, obviously hungry. “Oh, he will follow this weekend,” she said. He couldn’t get away from an important engagement, and I didn’t want to wait.” She smiled at Morgan. “But he understood.”
Morgan stared at her aunt. “You’ll have to tell me about him,” she said, grinning.
Her aunt chuckled. “I have a feeling we’ll be up all night, catching each other up.”
Morgan nodded at this. She eyed Alex. She’d missed him, even for the night. But she’d be too excited if she tried to sleep anyway.
Claire looked at the two of them. “I hope you’ll include me,” she said. “Or—actually—us,” she said, including Sophia and Tara.
The two beamed at her for the asking, but Sophia begged off. She knew that staying up all night didn’t bode well for a young mother. She’d pay for it when her daughter woke early in the morning. Tara begged off too. She knew the sisters had waited a long time for this reunion. They might all be family, but the three of them deserved this moment.
Tears sprang to Tara’s eyes when Claire considere
d her, and there were tears in her own when she whispered, “Thank you.”
Claire had the feeling of having come full circle. What an amazing feeling. They would need to talk to their aunt about all she knew about this shadow—but that could wait until morning.
But tonight. Tonight, was for family. Tonight, was for them.
