The Silver Rose (27 page)

Rosa's heart skipped a beat. The rose bloomed for her too. Why? All these years she had worn it without an inkling of its history, and yet here she was in the arms of the man who had crafted that very rose.

“Marylebone gifted it to my mother. Maybe she had an inkling she was about to die, as she handed it to me barely weeks before her passing. I wear it to keep her memory close to me.”

“You must continue to do so. It's yours now. It was the shock of seeing it that sent me spiraling into a black hole. I'm sorry I frightened you. After my last child passed away, Anton invited me back to Marylebone. I've worked my way back up the ranks. Believe me, it's been a bloody hard road. It took centuries for me to stop wishing I had died with them. I thought nothing would ever draw me out of the despair I'd sunk into. I swore on the death of my last child I would never love or marry another. I would do as the coven directed, carry out their wishes and work tirelessly in atonement. I've hurt so many people. My family and Goran in particular. I have much to atone for.”

Rosa didn't know if she could bear to hear any more. “You have nothing to apologize for. Not in my eyes. Let's just enjoy what time we have together now.”

Aden jerked up onto an elbow to peer down at her, “That's what I want to tell you … ”

Rosa shushed him with a finger to his lips. “No more talking.” When he protested, she silenced him with a kiss. Then another and another until he stopped talking and they made love. Sated, they both slept wrapped in each other's arms, knowing there was much to discuss but not wanting to spoil such a momentous night.

• • •

Rosa snuck from the bed in the early hours of Sunday morning. Aden lay asleep, arm flung over his head, a small smile curling the corners of his mouth upwards. He looked … happy. The bed was a rumpled mess, the top sheet tangled about his legs. She loved him so much. She ached with a love she knew she would have to sacrifice but she would never regret the past few hours wrapped in his arms. Rosa took a final, thirsty look consciously taking a mental snapshot of Aden, knowing it would have to sustain her for a lifetime.

She kissed the tips of her fingers, touched them lightly to her heart and then to his.
From me to you,
she mouthed silently.
I will carry you in my heart. Always.

• • •

Rosa wasted no time in tears, no matter how pathetic she felt. It was her last day as a magical being. The bells would toll for her a final time tonight. She showered, changed, then made her way to Zelda's.

“Gracious, girl. What is it? You look dreadful.” Zelda led her into her kitchen and went straight to the drinks cupboard. “You need something to straighten that spine.” She thrust an overfull, crystal-cut glass of brandy into Rosa's hands. “Drink up.”

Limbs heavy, Rosa took the glass, glancing briefly at the clock on the wall. It was ten in the morning. Fourteen hours until witching hour. Until everything would change forever. “It's no good,” she muttered, more to herself than to Zelda. “Brandy won't do me any good.”

“Maybe not,” Zelda told her, “but it will make me a whole lot happier. Go on, drink all of it.”

Rosa knocked back a swig. The amber liquid burned the back of her throat. She coughed, and her eyes watered.
Do not cry
, she sternly instructed herself.
No more feeling sorry for yourself!

Zelda topped the glass up. “That's it. Give yourself a reason to cry if you need to. Now, tell me what the trouble is. By all accounts, last night was successful. The rumor is you went into Lavender Cottage in the wee hours of the morning with Aden. There have been no reports of you leaving the house after that. So why the hangdog face?”

Rosa wondered at what time this rumor made it to Zelda when only the hardiest souls and churchgoers were likely to be out on a Sunday morning. She supposed it was her cronies on the Supreme Council.

“It was wonderful.” Rosa could not hide the truth from the woman who knew her heart so well. “Aden was amazing. It was the best night of my life.” Her lips quivered, damn it, so she downed more of the brandy, the warmth seeping into her chilled veins, giving her the fortitude to remain strong.

Zelda clasped Rosa's hand. “What's happened, then, to send you here at this hour?”

“Aden happened,” Rosa's lips trembled again.

“I don't understand. Isn't it what you wanted?”

“Yes!” Rosa tugged her hand from Zelda's grasp. “It's what I wanted! But it's not going to happen. I can't do it to him.”

“What?” Zelda was shocked by Rosa's outburst. “What do you mean
you
can't do it to him? Can't do what?”

“I can't bind my magic with him.” Rosa hiccupped into her drink. She took another swig. “It's over. The festival is over. I'm not going to find anyone else.” Her voice rose as her next words broke her heart. “I don't want anyone else.”

“But he's for you,” Zelda said. “That's why we sent him to you.”

“But he's not!” Rosa knocked back another swig. She needed some of that backbone Zelda had mentioned was missing for what she was about to say aloud. “I'm … I'm giving up my magic at the appointed hour tonight. I'm surrendering it so I can remain with my sisters. Marylebone can give it to someone more worthy. I don't want it.”

“You must have sustained a head injury overnight! Did Aden bang that head of yours against the headboard one too many times.” Zelda's eye's held a smidgen of worry in them, her tone stern. “Of course you want your magic. It's your life's blood. It's who you are.”

“Once, maybe. Not any more.” And it was the absolute truth. Aden was her life's blood now. “He will leave once witching night has passed. He will have no further reason to stay once my magic is gone. I'm never going to settle for anything less than what I feel for him.”

“So he said no again.”

“I never gave him the chance. Once I learned his story, I knew I could not ask him again.”

Consternation shone brightly in Zelda's eyes, lips pursed into a thin line of vexation. She stood up. Paused. She sat back down. The old woman was more agitated than Rosa had ever seen her. “I didn't go to the trouble of raising you so you could give up at the crucial hour. You're stronger than that.”

Rosa endeavoured to explain. “I love Aden. I think I loved him almost from day one, even when I denied it to you all, but … I can't allow him to bind his life with mine.” She spilled everything she had learned of Aden and Lydia's past.

“Even so,” Zelda asserted when Rosa finished her tale, “all is not lost until the last second of the last minute of the last hour.”

Rosa was emphatic. “No.”
My heart is already lost
. “Tonight at midnight, I'll relinquish my magic. You know what happens to witches who do not do so. They go insane, are hunted down and burned by Marylebone's dragons until there is nothing left of the body. Besides, I can't leave my sisters. Especially now, when they're both so vulnerable.”

“Rosa.” Zelda blinked back an exasperated tear of her own. “They're vulnerable by their own making. But the bells haven't tolled for them. Their magic will return. Sacrificing yours is final. There's no going back if you do.”

A solitary tear slid down Rosa's cheek to splash into Rosa's brandy. “There's no need to tell me what I already know.” Another tear fell.

“My dear, sweet girl.” Just as she had done all those years ago when Rosa's parents had passed away, Zelda tugged her into her arms and rocked her backwards and forwards while whispering soft words of solace into her hair.

Rosa hiccupped as the brandy smoothed out the edges of her anguish. “Aden needs to wait for the bells. He deserves to find his true mate. An immortal true mate. He will find her one day and forget all about me.”

Zelda
tsked
. “You are so very, very wrong. What am I going to do with you?”

“Nothing,” Rosa told her. “Absolutely nothing. You've done what you could. I'm in charge of my destiny now. I choose sacrifice. Please, don't even think of interfering.”

Acutely disappointed to discover Rosa gone upon awakening, Aden lay in his bed, his hand splayed on the sheet where she'd lain. Early morning sunshine filtered through the windows, casting light and shadow over his skin. He wished she'd felt comfortable enough to remain at his side. He'd wanted to waken to see her lying next to him, her head on his chest, her hair splayed between his fingers. Still, he smiled, his heart lighter, the burden of his past gone. He'd never expected to feel this way again.

It was time to live. It was a pity Rosa had left so early. He had much to tell her, but if he was to set his decision in motion, it was time he galvanized himself into action. With only the rest of the day in which to act, he surged from the bed, turning his attention to imbuing Rosa's gift, the scrying bowl he had so painstakingly crafted over the past few weeks, with its final spell. An infusion of love in every particle of silver. And then he created a complex layer of safeguards so it would never tarnish, scratch, or dent. It would be impervious to damage of any kind. Rosa would never suffer the loss of a scrying bowl again.

Wrapping the finished article in tissue paper, he set it down at Rosa's back door, knowing she would find it upon her return. He had made an attempt to reveal to Rosa last night of what he planned next, but she had effectively silenced him with her kisses. In the light of a new day, the idea that had come to him when dancing on the embankment morphed into a fully formed decision.

But before he could implement his plan of action, he needed to return to his family to advise them of his decision. He owed them that much. A strange injection of happiness as well as sadness spiked his veins, intoxicating, invigorating him into decisive action. The past few hours had been jammed with life-changing events. And now he was about to embark on an even greater change. Creating a link in the veil, he linked with the ley lines surrounding the planet and transported himself from Raven's Creek to the family enclave in Cyprus within the space of a heartbeat.

• • •

Rosa went directly to Beth's after leaving a still protesting, worried Zelda. Alanna was there as well as Goran. They sat round the table, the mood in the room festive, all believing Rosa's future with Aden was now sealed. That she was safe.

When Rosa arrived, her face tear-stained, her aura tainted with anguish, they were all startled out of their chairs.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Alanna was the first to speak. “And why can I smell whisky?”

“What happened? What's Aden done to bring you here so distressed?”

She owed it to them to reveal her decision, as much as it pained her to do so, so once more, she launched into the retelling of Aden's tale.

Goran remained mute throughout her entire explanation, his lips tight with disapproval when Rosa declared she was to give up her magic. “I cannot allow you to do so.”

“You cannot stop me,” Rosa rubbed at eyes that felt blurry and tired. Tomorrow, when it was all over, she would hide away from the world and re-evaluate her life.

Alanna refused to accept her decision. “Are you crazy? You would give up what is essentially your soul for a stupid, blind warlock? We can hide you,” Alanna insisted as she paced the small room.

“How? I've stopped using my magic as a result of its unpredictability. Any hint of distress or anger seems to exacerbate the release of uncontrollable surges from me without my raising a single spell. I could inadvertently hurt whoever was hiding me. It's too risky.”

Beth took the news in her usual quiet fashion. Rosa sensed her fear nonetheless. When Alanna ran out of steam, Beth finally spoke. “All is as it should be.”

Alanna shot Beth a look of absolute disgust and slumped into one of the chairs next to Goran. “You might as well tell her the rest.”

“Tell me what?” Rosa stared at both of them, refusing to allow one iota of hope to lodge itself anywhere in her heart.

“I know you haven't made your decision lightly,” Beth told her. “But if this is the right path, then I suppose that's what the message means.”

“What message?”

“They're the words I found embroidered on your wedding tapestry when I awoke this morning.”

How could that be possible? “You mean the tapestry wove itself?”

“Apparently. Unless someone snuck in during the middle of the night.” Beth shot Alanna a suspicious look.

“It wasn't me!”

“Could it have been the fairies?” Rosa queried.

“No. I haven't seen a single one since we called Goran down.”

Rosa's heart went out to her sister. She knew Beth loved her little friends. “Show me.”

Beth delved into her tapestry bag. “Here.” She handed it to Rosa.

Unfolding the material from a small, carefully folded square, Rosa gasped. Embroidered in gold across the center was the most exquisite script.
Everything is as it should be.
She traced the words with her finger and lamented, “It's so … unfinished.” The entwined golden rings remained incomplete. She looked up, a question in her eyes.

Beth was apologetic. “I thought it meant you and Aden were finally together. Now, I've no idea what it means.”

“It means I must follow my heart.” Her heart told her it was time for sacrifice.

“Sacrifice,” said Goran, as if he could read her mind, “is not always a bad thing. But I want you to promise you will consider binding yourself to me as an alternative.”

• • •

Marylebone Coven Council, presided by Grand Dragon Anton, was in session. He lived and breathed magic, chartered the covens of earth, approved and denied applications and permits for new witches and warlocks, admitting them to the realm of magic. Sometimes ejecting them as well. As the head of the governing body for all covens, he dealt mostly in administrative matters.