Chapter 56

Chapter 56 of 56 · 6-minute read

The chatter among my daughters and their partners suddenly dies down.

Virgil stops raking and looks up with a wary eye. He’s become so protective of me. We talk daily about everything and nothing, and I can feel our concrete connection growing stronger by the moment. He’s not going to allow anyone to criticize me, not even my beloved sibling, and I relish how he stands up for me.

Shelby flings his hands into the air, sending droplets of wine everywhere. “No, nothing terrible,” he insists. “Just… kinda weird. Um. Like I said, I don’t know how to say this, but, um, do you believe in woo-woo stuff?”

Everyone within earshot bursts into laughter. Poor Shelby looks confused.

“You know,” he continues, “like supernatural stuff? Um. Ghosts?”

I raise both eyebrows. “I have no idea what you mean,” I answer, joking.

Virgil nearly swallows his tongue to keep from howling with laughter.

“Oh. Well, maybe I’m losing it. I sure couldn’t tell anybody what I saw, or they would’ve had my security clearances revoked.”

Now I feel guilty. He has no idea who his big sister is or what I can do or what I’ve seen. We’ve got lots of catching up to do.

“I’ve seen things, too, Shelby. Tell me what happened.”

Though he knows everyone is listening, he lowers his voice. “Just after Mom died, like a minute after but in my time zone, she came to me. I saw her, like, all the time.”

Try as I might, I cannot tamp down my jealousy. Why didn’t Mama come to me before today?

“At first, it surprised me. We were pinned down, and the fighting was relentless. Then I saw her. Or, well, a younger version of her. Like when she was maybe seventeen. Wearing this cream-colored sweater-girl sweater. She just walked right into the middle of everything and… and we were able to relocate. Like she created a distraction. And after that, she was with me every day, talking to me. Asking my forgiveness for stuff she didn’t do but thought she should have. Telling me how much she loved me.”

I look around the porch before locking eyes with Virgil, who gives me a slight nod of acknowledgement.

“Shelby? Do you see her now?” Because I don’t.

“Aw, hell, no. She’s been with me from the minute she died until around an hour ago.”

Around the time a couple of strangers passing through town stopped for lunch in a small diner that had been Mama’s favorite and were compelled to buy my salad and sugar-sweetened tea.

Lashes wet with fresh tears, I blink up at my tall, little brother. “She’s been right where she was needed.”

Christabel titters from the other side of the porch. “Raven, do you realize that the longer you stay in this little town, the more pronounced your Southern drawl? You’d almost lost it before I met you. It was barely noticeable, and now after being here half a year, you’ve gotten back what you lost.”

In more ways than one.

“So, Mom?” Rhiannon clears her throat as she loops her arm through Shelby’s. “What if we all came back here and made it our home base? Can we talk about the future?”

Future? As in, beyond today? I’ve been busy trying to sort out my future alone or with Virgil. I haven’t even thought about my un-emptying my empty nest. A spark ignites inside me as I allow myself to consider something new: a future where we all remember what it once was like and make plans for how we want it to be now… together… instead of how to escape the past.

“So, anyway, Declan and I were talking about your visit when Emmie was born, about all my memories of visiting Grandma on the farm, and what we want for our family. I know you never planned to stay here, and you’ll be leaving after you get Grandma’s probate stuff taken care of here, but⁠—”

I’m not sure which strikes me as more poignant: the adoration on Declan’s face for his wife and baby daughter or the look of worry on Virgil’s.

“Anyway, we’re selling our start-up and launching a new one, and we want to live and create and raise a family in the wide-open spaces. I’ve already talked to Uncle Shelby, and he doesn’t want to live in Grandma’s house but I do, and we can buy it from you both. We’d totally refurbish it and keep up Grandma’s gardens, and Emmie would learn to walk in the same house where Sonnet and I took our first steps running to Grandma. And-and you can visit us anytime you want.”

I can see it already: windows up and breezes flowing through the house again, love and light filling it and replacing all the negative energy of the last two generations. Healing the past by writing over it with joy.

I sigh loudly, locking gazes with Virgil to reassure him. “But I’m not leaving.”

Everyone goes quiet.

“But Mom,” Sonnet says, stepping forward and jostling her sleeping niece, “all you’ve ever talked about is how you couldn’t wait to leave this town when you were growing up. I thought you hated it here.”

“I did. But I’ve made a decision to stay. I have more reasons to stay than to leave, especially if your sister and her family are going to live here.”

I’ve always associated my hometown with the people here who bullied and wounded me because my abusers were the people all around me who built walls to keep me in and keep me made in their rigid image. In the last six months, that’s changed. I have a heaping handful of new and old friends here now, and it’s a cleaner slate. The gossips and bullies are still here, but I’m happy enough in my own skin that they can’t touch me now. I’ve cleared the shadows of my past, and I can handle any new ones as they rise.

“You’re staying here?” Rhiannon shoots a worried glance at her husband.

“You can still have Grandma’s house. It’s not where I want to live.”

Virgil drops his rake, picks up his stag-headed cane, and limps up the porch steps to join me. His hand at the small of my back and his blue energy entwining with mine, he’s all smiles.

These days since my mom’s death have been such a strange and bittersweet time, but I’ll take the sweetness without complaint. It’s because of the bitterness that I understand just how sweet my time with him is and not to waste a minute. I saved his life, and he brought me peace, and the most astonishing part of it is that the love blooming between us could never have been pure magick until now.

Everything we’ve both encountered had to happen for the way we feel about each other to come to pass. How we are now, both individually and together, is the sum of all that has come before, and we know exactly how precious it is to have something real and enduring.

My troubling visions are gone—prophecy serves the purpose of giving you a chance to change the timeline, or prepare for it, and I did.

The only visions now are the ones I create of how my future looks: bright, and full of all the love I’ve ever wanted.

⁂

If you loved Virgil and you’re interested in his particular form of witchcraft, he makes an appearance along with Lady Zephyr, a.k.a. Veronica Winzler von Windlach, in the Witch Out of Time Series. His first appearance in Altered Destiny takes place several years before he and Lauren cross paths in their hometown in Rite of Reckoning. The Witch Out of Time and Secret Lives of Librarian series are more urban fantasy than the Rites of Passage trilogy but still include deep immersion in the world of magic.

THE END

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If you haven’t read the other books in the Rites of Passage trilogy, be sure to pick up Rite of Awakening and Rite of Letting Go.

In Rite of Awakening, Southern witch Lauren Hartford is ready for a fresh start. After years of enduring a toxic marriage, she takes a bold step to reclaim her life and spirit. But breaking free isn’t as simple as signing divorce papers—it means unraveling a lifetime of illusions and facing the hidden truths that haunt her past.

The series continues six years later with Rite of Letting Go. As Lauren’s powers grow, she and her new husband navigate life’s greatest joys and occasional heartbreaks. She’s learned to own who she is, mistakes and all. But is the sudden downturn a natural cycle or a rival’s curse?

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