Returned (7 page)

“Cora, I know you better than you know yourself. I've spent the better part of my life protecting you.”

Tabitha held her gaze, her reply was lost somewhere on route to her mouth. Breaking contact, Cora looked at the book that Tabitha had placed on the table. Gold looping letters were etched on the front of the leather bound book. She jerked away as the book flipped open and the pages starting flapping erratically. As suddenly as they had started, they stopped.

             
An eerie silence filled the shop. She moved as close as she dare to the archaic book, the epitome of this shop, and peered at the exposed page. It was blank.

“That is your page, Cora.”

She almost laughed. Her fear and anger were now a past memory, this whole situation was ludicrous.

“The page is blank because your path is yet to be written, this page will fill with important everyday events you experience. When you look through the book you will read about the members of your family. Your mother came up with this ingenious idea, she wanted you to be able to look back and read about your family. It had never been done at the time and it has never been done since.”

“I’m sorry but you're talking rubbish. I know who my mother is because I live with her. I don’t need a book to tell me that. Plus, the trick doesn’t work with me, the book looks fake.”

“I can assure you that
was
no trick. The book is real.”

“Well, I know my family history... so you're lying.” She couldn't think of a better reply. She had to be lying because if this was true, her life was one big lie.

Smiling, Tabitha didn't seem the least bit affected by her inability to comprehend what she was telling her. “Yes, you know your family history as you believe it to be, but your blood line is very important. It guides you to who you will become, who you are inside. Cora, you have returned. You can now take your place.”

She was at a loss for words. Clearly this woman was a mental patient who had escaped. She had saved her, but that didn’t stop her from being crazy.

Even as she thought that Tabitha was a liar, why were the creeping tendrils of doubt snaking its way up her spine?

“I don't understand.” She shook her head. Her mounting frustration appeared to make the wind pick up speed outside. “This can't be true.”

“In 1612, members of the Device family were tried and killed as witches,” Tabitha began, focusing her eyes on her, the gleam from the light making them shine like emeralds. Cora locked stares with her. It wasn’t easy to do this.

“Cora, you are a descendent of this family. Their blood flows through you; this means you are a witch.”

“No. No I'm not.” She shook her head adamant that this woman was lying to her.

“You have powers. You've had them since you were born because you are the most powerful witch of your kind. After the witch trials I cast a spell which diminished your power.  There have been some cases where the trigger switch doesn't flick back on which could mean you would forever be normal.”

Cora couldn't believe what was coming out of this woman's mouth. “What?”

“I held back your powers because it made things easier for your mother. Your powers have developed and I can’t tell you how much of a relief that is. I must admit I was swimming in guilt over the lack of your abilities. We were sure you would have them by now.”

“I'm really sorry that you're sick.” She had to be, there wasn’t any other explanation for it. “I'm sorry that you have to live in a home but you need to go back. I'm sure people are looking for you.”

“No,” Tabitha laughed. “Bless you. I'm not sick. I do not live in a home although I do have a lovely home upstairs.”

“I'm not a witch.”

“How do you explain the wind?”

She opened her mouth to answer but no words followed.

“So, to continue, Alizon Device was a powerful witch, the most powerful witch I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. She was someone who had a great deal of spirit and determination, she was also one of the kindest people I knew. She had such a stubborn streak in her,” she smiled. “I can already see you're very much like your mother.”

Cora didn't dare move because this was a dream, it had to be.  The wind pulsed around her, an obvious sign that something was amiss.

“Of course your mother, for all intents and purposes, was to tell you about your family history when the time felt right, I'm afraid this has taken us both by surprise. I suspect you want me to tell you about your family?”

Cora was semi aware of her head bobbing up and down in answer to Tabitha’s question.

“Your mother, I believe, was betrayed by someone, we do not know the identity of that person. At the time there were thousands of people to blame for the witch trials. During the reign of King James I witchcraft was brought into a bad light. The king believed that witches had made so
me sort of pact with the devil-”

“Did you?” she interjected surprised at herself for asking.

“No. I cannot abide by witches who use their craft for evil. But King James believed this, and once he became King of Scotland he began the witch trials. England was unaffected for a short while but it was only a matter of time. He became King of England some time later and so the witch trials spread like wild fire.

             
“
We were trying to remain under the radar but the Chattox family, our friends, or so we thought, turned us in to the law. We could not defend ourselves, to show magic was disastrous for our kind. You must know that people with our abilities cannot show themselves. There are rules against commoners knowing about what witches can do-”

“What are commoners? Sorry, but you mentioned it before and I don’t know what it is.”

“It is fine, I’m sure you have lots of questions. It is a name we give to people that are not witches. We didn’t like using the terms humans because we are also human. As I was saying, people in this very village were baying for the blood of a witch, any punishment would do but they favoured hanging and burning at the stake. Cora, I can understand that this is difficult for you to comprehend but you must come to terms with it, you are a witch.”

“Huh.” It was the response she could muster.

“You’re a witch.”

“Please stop saying it.”

“It wouldn't change anything,” Tabitha said trying to contain a smile.

It couldn't be true. If any of this was true then she'd just been told that her mother wasn't actually her mother, that her birth mother had been murdered because she was a witch. It wasn't real. It couldn't be.

             
But, that creeping doubt still played a deadly tune along her spine. What if it was real? What if she was a witch? This did explain the wind and the laughter. The pain that had now gone.

The deadly tune stopped, her lungs stalled as the truth came boxing at her ears.

Chapter 8

THE TRUTH WILL OUT

Shaking her head in denial, she looked at Tabitha.

“I know what you’re doing. You are playing with my insecurities, you somehow know that I never felt like I belonged in this life but this is because my mother pushed me from home to home.”

“Yes, we had to move you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I believe you, I was moved around because I'm a witch.”

“I believe I'm responsible for this and I deeply apologise. You don't know me... but you should. I have visited you every year for... let’s say a lot of years. I clean out your memory which makes it easier for Laura to keep up with the act of being your sister, aunt, or mother.”

Whilst her head was falling apart she found that her mouth was asking another question. “What do you mean by clear out my memories?”

“We had to keep your true identity from you, you would see yourself everyday and question it.”

Question what? The only thing she was questioning at the moment was the right time to ring the home to take Tabitha away. “This might sound like a stupid question but this whole conversation is absurd, seriously have you sought medical help?”

Tabitha laughed. “I can see why I'd appear insane to you. I can assure you, I'm perfectly normal. Well, as normal as a witch can be.”

If what Tabitha was telling her was true, she didn’t want to go there just yet. She'd spent all those years moving around because of her.

“Why is it happening now?”

“Jack,” Tabitha replied bluntly.

Startled, she dropped her cup on the table and watched the chocolate contents fly in all directions. She abruptly stood and dragged her coat off her shoulders to wipe up the spill.

“What are you doing? Here you'll ruin your coat, step aside.”

             
She stumbled aside as Tabitha spread her hands over the table. Heat instantly fired up around her, she could feel it dance happily alongside her power. The chocolate evaporated. The heat vanished. Cora’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“My gift is not unusual, please don’t look so terrified,” she chuckled. “I have the gift of fire, it is quite clearly a very useful gift. Elements are very useful when they are controlled properly.”

             
She bent and quickly looked under the table to see if there was a hole that let the liquid disappear. It could have been a trick. It was a far better trick than the book. She felt the wind pulsing around her, responding to the turmoil she felt.

“Does your...power speak to you?” The question popped out of her mouth.

Tabitha's eyebrow shot up. “No, does yours?”

“Yes. No. I don't know,” she sighed in frustration.

“What does it do?”

“It laughs,” she mumbled meekly.

Tabitha laughed again. “Great, well obviously one part of you is happy.”

How was any of this great? She could hear the wind laugh. She was a witch. She'd moved too many times to count because she was a witch.

Tabitha coughed. “Rather regretfully, Cora, you haven't controlled your element and we have a bit of a problem on our hands.”

This wasn't just a
problem,
it was a train wreck.

“Well, if I'd known about this before I'd been attacked then maybe you wouldn't have this dilemma to deal with. You're to blame for that, not me. Jack said he knew, he said he'd been warned about this. Where was my warning?”

“I was afraid Jack would already know. I didn't tell you, that decision was made by Laura and I. We didn't think you needed forewarning. Your element may never have developed, and what then? You would know you were a witch without having an element, are you to convince me that you wouldn't have felt inferior? Or in fact that you would have believed what we told you?”

“Still, you had no right to hold this from me. You could have warned me yesterday when I was here. You witnessed firsthand Jack’s temper, right here at the shop, yet you did nothing,” she snapped but her anger subsided when she thought of the pain. “The pain was so bad I thought I was dying,” her voice broke.

“Oh, Cora, I'm sorry that you went through that alone. Yes, I could have told you this yesterday but you wouldn't have believed me.”

“I would have...” her reply trailed off.

She knew that she wouldn’t have. Tabitha smiled as though she knew what was going through Cora’s mind.

“Okay, fine. You mentioned that Jack was the reason my powers have surfaced?” Rubbing her fingers over her eyes she tried to shake the first stirrings of a massive headache. She picked up her cup and then quickly remembered her contents had been lost to the table.

“What did you do to your hand?”

Cora stupidly looked at the flapping skin. Her throat bobbed up and down in its attempt not to gag. “I fell, well, that's not entirely true. I was pushed. Who knew concrete could do that? I sure as hell didn't.”

“Wait a moment.” Tabitha stood and made her way to the door behind the counter. She came back holding something in her hands. “Here.”

“What is it?”

“It will help.”

She allowed Tabitha to wrap the warm towel around her hand and immediately smelt summer heat and flowers. “Jack?” Cora prompted Tabitha.

“Oh yes. He is the only living descendent of the Chattox family, that makes him-”

“Not a very nice person,” she interjected.

“Well, yes. I believe the anger you have for each other is the important key as to why this change has started. I can only assume this is the reason why your powers have emerged so quickly. I believe when faced with someone who is a threat to you, your power c
ame into being, how else were you
supposed to protect yourself?”

“My fists?”

Tabitha shook her head, a smile tugging at her perfect lips.

“Oh, that wasn’t a question, was it?”