The Rose Witch - Chandelle LaVaun Page 0,11
for you—”
“Mum, that makes no bloody sense at all. I would remember red smoke pouring from my hands or paintings moving—”
“Do you remember The Coven?”
I froze. Only my eyes slid over to granny. “The Coven? As in those fun bedtime stories you used to tell me when I was a little girl?”
She grinned over the top of her teacup. “Yes, those.”
The Coven had already crossed my mind, back in the hall at Oxford. The fact that she was bringing it up somehow only made me more nervous. I swallowed through the emotions fighting their way up my throat. “Y-yes, I remember them. I think? Why does that matter?”
She sat her teacup back on the saucer and reached for a biscuit. “What do you remember about them?”
I sighed and threw my hands up, shaking my head. “What?”
“What do you remember about those stories, love?” My mother poured milk into both of our cups of tea. “Just try.”
I blinked and rubbed my temples. “Um, okay…they were witches, right? Wait, no, there was another word for them—”
“Arcana,” granny said softly with a little smirk. “Arcana means witch in their ancient language.”
“Right. Right.” I sighed. Again. I didn’t understand why they were asking me about old fairytales when I needed real answers — unless those weren’t fiction at all. My heart stopped as it hit me. “Are you telling me those weren’t stories at all?”
Granny pursed her lips. “Well, they were stories, but they were not fictional.”
My breath left me in a rush. I leapt to my feet and started pacing. “What do you mean they’re not fictional?”
They exchanged sharp glances.
“Granny? Mum?”
Mum sighed real hard and sat her cup of tea back down, and I noticed her fingers were trembling almost as bad as mine were. “When you were little we wanted to teach you the truth about who and what we are, but you assumed they were just bed time stories…and well…we figured there was no harm in letting you believe that. You were so young, and after losing your father—” her voice broke.
“The truth. Those stories were true?” I stopped pacing between the two sofas. “You can’t possibly be trying to tell me that we’re witches? That I am a witch.”
“We are. You are.”
“Since bloody when?” I threw my hands out to the side and red smoke burst from my palms. I squealed and leapt back but that only made it spread out around me.
Pale lavender mist shot through the air then wrapped around my red smoke over and over until it was gone. Then it flashed and vanished. I gasped and looked up – and found my mother holding what looked like a wand.
“MUM?”
Her cheeks flushed a deep pink. She bit her bottom lip and held her wooden stick up in front of her face. “This is my wand, Chloe. You’ve seen it your whole life. I kept it in that glass case on my boudoir.”
“It’s a wand…a wand.”
She smiled. “I was never quite as powerful as you or your father. I am not a Lancaster…but I knew quite a few tricks with my wand back in my day.”
“Not a Lancaster? What does that mean? Are you saying all Lancasters are witches?”
Granny shook her head. “Not all of us, no. Some are human. Same goes for many old family names.”
Mum chuckled softly. “The humans were always drawn to us, wanting to be like us so much they took our names. Can’t say that I blame them though.”
“Oi.” I waved my arms wildly. “Can we back up one bloody minute? What do you mean we’re witches?”
“We told you the stories, Chloe—”
“Tell me again!” I slammed my mouth shut and took a deep breath. “Please. I am losing my mind after this morning. Please. Pretend I’ve never heard this story and tell me again.”
“All right.” Mum took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “First, you should know that there are thousands of us. Witches. Our species lives all around the world. In every major city you could think of, and then in the little ones, too.”
“Okay…”
“So our history starts with the fall of the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve fell.” I must’ve made a face because she held her hand up. “When they fell, it caused a ripple effect and subsequently let evil and darkness seep into our world. It set everything off-balance. In an extremely vague explanation, this is what caused supernatural species to be born. But their presence weakened the veil between Heaven, Hell, and other dimensions—”
“Other