heartbroken when I heard you’d missed your reunion. One day you’ll need to tell me the story of how you survived.”
His eyes were glassy as he nodded and chuckled. “I will be delighted to tell. Thank you for helping them.”
“Of course. We are family, after all.” Mom walked back over to Bettina and Tennessee. “Hope - I mean Bettina, I had met Tennessee in 1692 so it was easier for me to make the connection. But for you, your mother had overpowered my mind. I guessed it that day when you showed me the runes in your magic. I felt your mother’s magic and I saw the way you looked similar to your brother but…I did not want to hurt either of you by telling you something that was incorrect. I knew it would not be long until it was discovered. Especially with that one on the case.”
Tegan grinned. “I take that as a compliment.”
I bit my lip and looked up to Riah, remembering a time when he’d said the same thing to me, but I had not been nice in return. He winked down at me.
“You look so much like your mother, Hope, even with the dark hair and blue eye. You should know that.” Mom brushed Bettina’s hair back and smiled. “Riah? So you’ve met Michael, from back in the war?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Does Tennessee look like him?”
“Wait, we all met Michael.” Cooper frowned. “At the party when he came for Jackson.”
Bettina’s jaw dropped. “Ohhhh right. I guess I did kinda meet him?”
“Please don’t remind me,” Jackson grumbled.
Uncle Leyka chuckled. “He would’ve disguised himself if Hope and Haven were there.”
“We were,” they both said together.
Uncle Leyka shrugged.
“I met Michael,” Timothy said softly. “That day Ruth called for him. I always thought he was half Micah, half Michael.”
“Ah, but you wouldn’t have seen his true form.” Mom’s eyes sparkled deviously. “Riah on the other hand…”
“I saw his true form, yes.” Riah smirked, then glanced to Tennessee. “I knew who he was twelve years ago when I spotted him as a five-year-old. Saffie and I saw him floating on the lake in the park. Remember?”
I started to shake my head when the memory rushed back. It was so strange to still have to force memories out, but three centuries worth of them was a lot. I grinned as I remembered the day in question. “Yes. Jonathan and I were eating a cake for breakfast up in the tree. I told you he would be my friend one day and you said he looked like an old friend of yours named Michael.”
Tennessee frowned. “Not gonna lie, this is a little creepy.”
Riah chuckled. “The part of us watching you or the part that you are a spitting image of your grandfather?”
“Definitely both.” He pursed his lips. “Also the not sharing the cake.”
Everyone chuckled.
Bettina smacked his arm. “Okay, but am I the only one of us here who wants to know how us Proctors are all related? You, me, Saffie, Myrtle, Kenneth…”
Tennessee scowled. “Yeah, Myrtle, how? Because I thought Saffie was your only child? Then she mentions a Cyrus a little while ago…”
Mom smiled at me. “Saffie is my eldest but not my only.”
Everyone turned to me.
My face warmed. “Cyrus.”
Mom nodded. “Do you remember him?”
“Yes. When I was going through the tunnels I came out and saw us…the day you brought him to meet me.” If we didn’t stop talking about this stuff I was going to start crying again for sure. “And then I saw the last time he visited me with you.”
Mom pulled me into her arms and I let myself go into her embrace. A hot lump formed in my throat as all the other memories of my little brother flashed through my mind. They had practically lived with me for decades from when Cyrus was a few months old until he grew up. They would come and go frequently, never leaving me for more than a couple weeks and sometimes staying as long as six months in a row. We’d basically been a happy family in those days. Even Uncle Leyka and Keltie would visit frequently. But after Pierre passed away and Mom became a Crone…and Cyrus had become a grown man with his own life to lead, my visits had grown to once or twice a month. And then he’d brought his son with him…but by the time Cyrus had passed, his son and grandson would only visit a few times a year. I’d never known Cyrus’s great-grandson, though I’d