Stranger Than Witches (The Witches of Secret Hallow Book 3) (12 page)

T
he next day
dawned sunny and bright. Not a single cloud in the entire sky, within or without.

Kimberly awoke in bed tangled up in Maddock, his breath warm in her hair. He hadn’t slept in. He’d gotten up to care for the most essential chores, such as feeding the chickens, and then returned to hold her. She appreciated the gesture. It wasn’t necessary, but sometimes it was the least necessary gestures of love that were the most meaningful.

She had never felt so cherished before.

Kimberly stroked Maddock’s cheek with her thumb. He didn’t open his eyes, but he smiled faintly.

“Good morning, wife of mine,” he murmured.

“Good morning,” she said. “Have you thought about my suggestion?”

“I’ve thought of little else in my waking moments.” He spread his hand over her belly, and Kimberly knew that he was imagining the same thing that she was: what it would be like to plant the seed of new life in her womb once again, growing another witchling. A brother or sister for Keene. “You know that two children isn’t twice as hard. It’s exponential.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“I don’t want you to feel overburdened with childcare,” Maddock said. “You know I’ll do all I can to help, but someone must work the fields.”

“Keene will be in school from now on. And we will have much other help. Dear husband of mine, childcare is not a burden at all,” she said. “It’s a blessing, and one I eagerly undertake—though we may want to discuss moving Jason into the guest room to help us in the early weeks.” Kimberly knew her limitations, and she also knew that she missed having Jason around. His assistance would be priceless. “Jason, and his cats.”

“A wonderful idea,” Maddock said. The cats were likely the selling point for him. The mouse population had been getting terribly bold lately, and while the magical mice of Secret Hallow were too smart to get caught by cats, they would also likely leave their grain stores alone if Jason’s felines were hunting them.

“So what do you think?” Kimberly asked, pressing her hand atop Maddock’s. Their joined warmth radiated through her belly.

“Yes,” he said. “A thousand times yes.”

She kissed him and slipped out of bed, her heart soaring with joy.

For once, she had beaten Keene to consciousness. It allowed her to poke her head into his bedroom and watch him slumber, chest slowly raising and falling. Though he was no longer a baby, when he slept, she could remember when that little round face had been much littler. He snored in much the way he had as an infant. And he hugged Poke just as fiercely.

A sibling for Keene.

Her heart was already beginning to grow to make room for both of them. The son she already had, and the child she anticipated coming.

If Thorn could do it, so could Kimberly.

She began breakfast. Maddock kissed the back of her neck before heading out into the fields again. She savored his touch with her eyes shut.

Then Kimberly awoke Keene to feed him. He ate, occasionally spooning some of his eggs into Poke’s beak.

“Is he all full?” Kimberly asked.

“All full!” Keene said cheerfully.

Kimberly herded Keene to the car. Well. Maybe Keene herded her to the car, once he figured out that she was going to take him to school. Kimberly wasn’t reluctant; she was just going too slowly for Keene’s tastes.

“School, school, school!” he sang.

Kimberly smiled and buckled him into his car seat.

He sang happy babble to the songs on Kimberly’s phone as they drove.

They headed down the hill into Secret Hallow. Everyone was awake and moving, even those who shouldn’t have been alive for decades.

The ghost of Hephaestus Hallow waved at Kimberly from the window of The Penny Spindle, a general store where she would need to run errands later. She didn’t need to wave back because Keene flailed his hands excitedly over his head.

“Boo!” Keene shouted in his spookiest fashion.

They passed Java by Candlelight. Emilia Ash sat outside with Bronson, her Saint Bernard familiar, warming her feet. He had water in a mug that matched hers in between his front paws. Droplets dangled from his jowls when he lifted his head to watch her pass.

Nana Winterblossom and Iris Westerly were arguing on the corner, most likely over who baked the best pies. But even they stopped squabbling long enough to wave at Kimberly’s passing car.

Everyone knew she had gone away, and everyone was happy to see her come back.

She parked outside the Ash Academy. For as long as Kimberly had lived in Secret Hallow, the site had been little but ruins—a lot of collapsed walls and rock tinted similarly to those within the tower of Castle Hallow, along with an empty field overgrown with weeds.

The amount of work it had taken the coven to restore the Ash Academy had been incredible. It had been months of labor, laughter, and sweat.

All of that struggling had made it seem almost impossible that they would ever defeat Emilia Ash’s wards and create a new building.

But they had.

In truth, Kimberly believed that if the coven came together, they could accomplish anything at all.

She spent too long sitting behind the wheel, gazing with fondness at the vine-covered school, which sparkled with magic more vivid than any Kimberly had seen before. Coming into her power had opened her eyes in so many ways. It was very distracting.

But only for Kimberly.

Keene saw the school and mostly saw his favorite place, full of his friends, and wanted to be inside of it.

He started to struggle with his car seat and grunted when he couldn’t manage any of the buckles on his own.

Kimberly couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s okay,” she said, climbing out of the front seat and circling back to him. “Give me a second, kiddo.”

A second still seemed like too much time—and then, to Keene’s distress, he’d kicked off his shoes in his frustration, so it took them another couple seconds to get those settled again—but soon enough, he was running across the grassy field to where the other children were playing.

Kimberly locked up the car and followed, stopping where Gemma was seated on a bench to watch the kids. She had a tablet resting beside her thigh. There was a video chat open on the screen, but nobody was in Fox’s chair at the moment. All Kimberly could see was the artist’s drawings taped to the opposite wall.

“Hey!” Gemma said happily, getting to her feet. She didn’t hug; Gemma wasn’t a hugger. It was one of the things Kimberly liked about her. Kimberly also liked that she could tell Gemma would have hugged her if she was a hugging person. “It’s good to see you and Keene here.”

“Thanks,” Kimberly said. “Do you have anything fun planned for them today?”

“So many things! We’re going to do some artwork to celebrate Beltane,” Gemma said. “The fairies are going to come by with glitter-dust, and we’ll be using mushrooms as sponges for the paint!”

That did sound like a lot of fun. Kimberly almost wished she could join them.

Keene had found his way to Fern, who was practicing her magic with Rowan again. Kimberly couldn’t help but hold her breath when a gust of wind Fern created went a bit askew in Keene’s direction, but Keene just giggled and dodged the gust like Fern had made it chase him on purpose.

He was really okay at the Ash Academy. He was growing up around witchlings and could take good care of himself. And for the occasions that he couldn’t, the adults were watching him. They would keep him safe.

“You sticking around for long?” Gemma asked.

“I was actually thinking about going back to the farm and working on my magic?” Kimberly knew she shouldn’t make it a question, but she couldn’t help it. That Keene was at school and probably would be for a while was huge for her. She could take baby steps on everything else.

“Oh, nice! I loved seeing your feathers at Beltane.” Gemma held out her arms like they were wings. “So cool. I wish I had some of that power.”

And Kimberly would have gladly traded it for Gemma’s technologic powers…well. A few days ago, maybe.

Now she had embraced the eagle and wouldn’t have given it up for anything.

Keene’s shrieking giggles drew her attention back to him, and her lips twitched into a smile.

Almost
anything.

“Would you like to see a full change?” she asked. “I can leave the car here. I don’t need to go back to the farm to change.”

Gemma’s eyes brightened. “Oh,
please
.”

Kimberly grinned, and with a quick check for Thorn with her power, she was pushing off the ground, her arms replaced with wings. Not fighting the change and actually seeking it out had meant that she hadn’t dreamed about flying last night or woken up with feathers after. Who needed dreams when the reality was better?

She circled once several feet over Gemma’s head—Gemma was beneath her, clapping—and did one quick pass over Keene, who waved and went back to playing with Fern as Kimberly pulled away and headed for the trees next to the school.

Thorn emerged from where he’d been waiting. He asked without words how long she wanted to go out.

Kimberly was pleased to tell him that she wanted the entire day.

They turned and flew.

S
unset found Kimberly back
at the school where her car was parked.

It was amazing how easily she returned. Now that she knew that her urge to be an eagle was only part of her magic, and not the urge to leave her family, she didn’t fear getting lost within herself at all.

She and Thorn had spent an entire blissful day flying and hunting, and she had no drive to remain an eagle.

When she landed, she found the Ash Academy empty, haloed in fairy glitter that still glowed faintly in the last of the dying sunlight. The kids and teachers were gone, so Maddock must have picked up Keene earlier. It just meant that Kimberly was that much more eager to get home to join him.

The drive was quick, and the smell of the food cooking inside was almost as welcome as Keene running by, hoisting Poke over his head. He stopped long enough for a wave before he kept running.

“Is that you, wife of mine?” Maddock called.

“Yes!” Kimberly called back, walking through the living room and into the kitchen. She kissed Maddock hello. “Thanks for picking up Keene.”

“Thanks for taking him to school.” It sounded casual, but someone who didn’t know Maddock might miss how intensely he looked at Kimberly afterward. He knew what it meant to her to hand her son off to someone else, and trust them to care for him while she took a few hours to herself. “Dinner’s going to be a few more minutes, if you want to entertain our son until then.”

Keene looked pretty occupied on his own, but Kimberly meant it when she said, “I’d like nothing better.”

She played branch for a moment by lying on the living room floor on her side—all the better for Poke to land on, of course. Playing with Keene was always fun, but she was tired after an entire day in flight. Being able to play with him without actually moving was a blessing.

“How was school?” she asked.

“It was okay,” he said.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

A smile crept over her face. “Nothing at all?”

“Nope,” Keene said. “Nothing.” He bounced Poke along Kimberly’s side.

“Nothing to do with…fairies? Mushrooms?”

“Oh,” he said distractedly. “Yup.”

He was even cuter than usual when he was pretending to have no idea what was going on.

“Do you know what I did today?” Kimberly asked, propping her head up on a hand. “I went flying.”

He stopped moving Poke. “Like a birdy?”

“Like a birdy,” she said.

He grinned broadly, revealing all of his square white teeth. “I wanna go with you.”

She ruffled his hair.

“Maybe you will someday,” Kimberly said, her throat unexpectedly thick.

The doorbell rang.

“We expecting anyone?” Maddock called from the kitchen, where his magic was still sending pots and pans flying across the room, banging noisily. “How many people are outside the door? I could make more.”

Kimberly didn’t know who was waiting for them. It was entirely possible that they were supposed to have visitors. In Secret Hallow, it was hardly uncommon to have a random person or seventeen show up for dinner at any given house.

She frowned and straightened, kissing Keene on the head as she went for the door.

If it was someone from the coven,
Kimberly
should have been the one making food. After all, they’d all done so much for her family when she’d taken a day to herself.

She raised her eye to the peephole, and—

“Wife of mine?” Maddock called.

The doorbell rang again, and Keene ran up and grabbed Kimberly’s leg.

“Just a second,” Kimberly said, loudly enough for both her husband and the visitor to hear. She took a moment to pat Keene on the head before pulling the door open.

Kimberly’s eyesight hadn’t failed her. Standing on the threshold, on the other side of the door, was none other than Mary O’Malley.

Her mother was wearing the same Stevie Nicks casual that she had worn in the forest. Chances seemed good that she hadn’t changed for days. She didn’t look terrible for a woman who had been living in the forest, though. Magic had been gentle with her.

Kimberly swallowed hard. “Hello.”

“Hello,” Mary echoed. “I found your place.” Kimberly was courteous enough not to point out how obvious that was, as Mary couldn’t have been on her doorstep if she hadn’t found the Leif farm. “A nice older woman in town pointed me this way. She was very helpful when I told her who I was.”

Kimberly nodded. She imagined that was true. Anyone in Secret Hallow would have instantly embraced Mary as family. “Do you want to come in?”

“I don’t want to bother you. It must be dinner, and…”

She trailed off, and when Kimberly followed Mary’s gaze, she realized Mary was looking at Keene, who had emerged from behind Kimberly to see who she was talking to. He was still firmly attached to her leg, like he was any time someone he didn’t know came to the door.

“Who…” Mary cleared her throat, and Kimberly could see tears in her eyes. “Who’s this?”