“Tell me
a story,” Selah said as she laid her head in Talia’s lap.
They were in the gardens.
Beneath the sunlight and surrounded by flowers. Bryon was off somewhere on
Business and Caden was off playing the messenger.
Talia looked into her sister’s
eyes with an easy smile, “What kind of story?”
“Comedy?” Talia played
with one of Selah’s curls as she continued, “Drama?”
Selah
rolled. “Are you done?”
“Do you
want me to search my mind for a fairy tale?”
Selah
shook her head. “Talk to me about them.”
Their parents. She wanted
a story about them. Selah usually avoided talking about them. Talia usually
trotted them out when she was trying to teach Selah a lesson her parents taught
her.
“Something real,” Selah
finished as she spun a grape between her fingers.
Something real?
Translation, something not weighed down by some allegorical less? Searching her
mind she nodded and stretched her legs out jostling Selah.
Selah shouldered the thigh
closer to her and readjusted herself so she remained in Talia’s lap. This was
reminiscent of so many of the picnics Talia used to have for her when Selah was
younger.
They would cuddle together
reading, braiding each other’s hair. Talking about school. Or Talia’s latest
commission. Their picnics times turned into movie nights, then Selah became a
teenager and her friends took center stage in her life. Talia had missed this.
“Okay. How about the first time I cast a spell?”
Her coven
felt that children were better about not abusing their powers when they learned
at an older age. Training began in earnest around nine or ten. Before then, the
youngest of the coven had their powers bound. An image rose to mind and Talia
laughed.
“I was
ten.” Frowning she took a beat, “maybe Eleven…”
“You were
one or two. Mom was trying to teach me how to tap into my core. She wanted me
to levitate an apple. But it was so boring.”
“I know
right,” Selah teased impishly.
Talia
ignored her sister’s response. The basics were always boring but they were
necessary. Learning wasn’t always fun, but how could you expect to do anything
complicated without the right foundation?
“Patrice
told me all I had to do was think of air.”
“She said my instinctive
ability would do the rest. What Patrice did not tell me that air and wind were
two different things,” Talia smiled as the scene played out in her head. She
did not think she had ever seen her mother quite so surprised.
Selah chuckled in
anticipation of how this story would end. Her eyes trained on her sister’s
face. Talia did not talk about her parents often. Thinking about them felt like
a stab to the heart most days. She had not been the best daughter to them.
“I sent
the apple flying across the room and hit dad right in the face. His nose
ballooned and started bleeding in seconds.”
Their
father hadn’t even been angry. In fact Talia thought he sounded a little proud
as he tried to explain where she went wrong. Their mother just laughed as she
looked down at Talia with exasperation. A common look on her face, even then.
Selah
smiled. “You never told me that story.”
“It does
not show me in the best light.”
“It is
better.”
“Mom used
to say you were her second chance.”
Talia
sighed. Before her mother died, their relationship had been strained. She
always expected more from Talia. Better from her. She always said Talia had the
power to become the greatest witch of this century.
Those
days Talia had been struggling to find herself and figure out what she wanted.
Her regressions had been horrifying experiences and she was not sure she wanted
anything to do with Coven business. Talia wanted to travel and paint, not lead
a group of witches.
“All the mistakes she
regretted with me, she was going to avoid with you.”
Selah frowned. “When?”
“Right before she died.”
They had just fought
because Talia felt as her parents had stopped listening to her. Every chance
they got they seemed to force their plans for her, irrespective of what she
wanted for herself. She was just expected to be the good little witchling and
follow the flower strewn path they set for her.
“I don’t
think she meant it in a bad way. But it bothers me sometimes, when I look at
you.”
“In what
way?”
“Mom and Dad did not get
me all the time. They thought I rebelled because that is what teenagers did.
When really I think I just wanted to get as much living done as possible.”
Selah looked up at Talia
as if she were in deep in thought. The fact was Talia could feel herself
becoming more like her parents. The way they invaded every part of her life and
pushed their views off on her. Before Selah’s abduction she had thought it was
the only way to honor them. Now she was trying a different tactic.
“I could
not talk to them.”
Talia
pulled a lock of Selah’s hair. “We talk. Sometimes I forget that I am the adult
and I just want to be your sister. Then I remember that I am not just your
sister. And I feel like I am the world’s worst parent.”
Talia
shrugged. “So I over compensate.”
“You
definitely do sometimes.”
Talia
poked her in the belly gently. “And you run away.”
Selah sat
up and crossed her legs. “I am supposed to run away. It is what kids do, Talia.
I do it because I know I will always have a home to come back to.”
Talia smiled
wryly. “Somehow that is not comforting.”
Selah
picked up another grape and threw it at her. “You need to have a baby.
Something small and helpless to focus on.”
Talia’s
eyes widened in shock as she exclaimed. “That is not happening.”
“Imagine.
A boy with sweet deep dimples and wide set eyes.”
Talia
placed a hand on her cheek. “I have enough on my hands with you and the secrets
I know you are keeping.”
Jen A. Durand
Completed Works
Secrets, Lies, & Betrayal Series:
The Virgins Club:
Lipstick Diaries:
Solo Romances:
The Young and The Powerful
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