Call Out My Name

EPISODE TEN

Grace Rosebourne shrugged off her coat, walking silently to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine she had hidden in one of the cabinets. I drew in a shaky breath, exhaustion finally catching up with me. A kitchen chair flew towards me and I took a grateful seat.

“I’m never going to get used to that” Grace shivered. I didn’t know if I was to keep calling her ‘mother’. Now that I remembered, it didn’t feel right anymore. She was not my real mother anyways, she wouldn’t be offended if I called her Grace.

She took a seat in front of me, twirling her glass of wine. I gestured for her to pass me the wine bottle. She did so with little hesitation. It had been legal for me to drink for more than a hundred years. I sipped the wine, it was sour and lacking compared to the wine in the Moonlands. The Moonlands. My home before King Ethan drove us out and killed the lot of us.

“Tell me everything” I urged.

“I wouldn’t know where to start” she shook her head, tears brimming in her eyes.

“Start from where you can. Where you remember”

“Well….” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. My heart broke for her, she had probably lost everything too. “I was buying ingredients to prepare my daughter’s birthday meal. Her favorite. She was born on the same day as you but unlike you, she was born under the sun not the moon. I had just gotten to my home when it burst into flames. Hilda was inside, she was sewing when I left. My husband too. King Ethan burnt them to the ground. I was hysterical” she sniffed, her chin dropped to her chest.

Pain was etched in every word she spoke.

“I knew I had to flee if I ever wanted revenge. Sarani is my sister. I met her when I was going up the hill in search of her. She was with Ruth and you were asleep in Ruth’s arms. Our only hope as beautiful as night. They told me about your mother’s spell and her wish. So I followed them, it was easy getting to the gate. The portal was open and people were rushing through it”

“Were there other witches with us?” I asked, eager to know everything.

“Thousands of them. We made it through. We were fortunate. When we got here, Sarani said she had to gather the surviving witches.

You see, we were separated once we came through the gates and to search for our sisters the moment we came through those gates would mean certain death. I mean… King Ethan had ordered his men who were stationed at the gates in this realm to kill any witch that came through. A few fell victim because they couldn’t control their anger and frustration, they used magic.” She stared at me, pointedly.

I understood her perfectly. Cowards survived and the hotheads like me, died.

“This realm was different, they had advanced quicker than we had. It was 1800s here but back in our realm__”

“We were in 273AC” I finished, understanding dawning on me. “We should be in 473AC by now”

“We should” she smiled sadly.

“Sarani left Ruth and I to find others. We didn’t have a plan. Our only aim was to keep you alive by any means possible. Years passed, you were still asleep. After a hundred years, Ruth left to find Sarani. I stayed with you. We moved from place to place so no one would notice that you and I weren’t ageing. Each new town, each new city, I spun the same tale. I told them you were my daughter and you had been in an accident which put you in a comatose state. Three years ago, you woke up. I was so very hopeful that finally we could go back home, get justice for our sisters but you couldn’t remember and I couldn’t find Ruth or Sarani anywhere” she sipped her wine.

“So you lied to me about everything. You did the best you could with what you had” I encouraged her.

She nodded, a faraway look in her eyes.

“What will you do now?” she asked.

“I’ll find the witches. Every single one of them and then we’ll go home” I said.

Come Monday morning, I felt strange. My body was still weak from the awakening but the weakness wasn’t the problem, the strangeness was. I felt different. New, reborn. I didn’t like the feeling too much. The responsibilities, the duties my mother had passed on to me weighed heavy on my shoulder like lead. I hoped I wouldn’t break beneath its weight. Grace had said nothing about my mother. She probably didn’t know if the queen was alive or dead and even though I held onto the hope that my mother was alive,

I suspected she wasn’t.

In the kitchen, Grace struggled to make breakfast, her movements were slow and clumsy—not her usual self. She must have stayed up drinking, long after I had gone to bed.

“Grace?” I spoke her name softly. “You should go back to bed. I’m not completely useless. I’ll handle everything” I placed my hand on her back and led her to her room. She settled on the bed in her shoes.

I took them off and covered her with a blanket. Her soft snores followed me out of the room.

Brady, Leah and Carl were seated around a table, whispering to themselves. I rolled my eyes, sauntering over to where they sat. They glared at me as I dug into my food.

“What are you doing?” Leah hissed.

“Well Leah, I never realized you were blind but sure. I’m eating”

“No. She means what are you doing here? Sitting with us?” Brady asked like I didn’t get the message.

I stared into her eyes, beautiful swirling greens. “If you have a problem. Say it and stop playing around. We’re past childhood. I know I am”

“You killed Toby” she choked back her tears “And now you want to pretend like everything’s fine”

“Poor Brady. Toby didn’t tell you he was a shifter. A prince too at that. He tried to kill me in the woods. You saw it. Do you still think you know everything?” I questioned her.

“We know enough” Leah piped.

“You think you do but you don’t even know the drop of it” I laughed.

“You’re different. You’re not the Alphea we know” Carl mused, frowning at me.

“I have evolved. You would do well to follow my lead”

“You can shove it” Leah gritted.

I scoffed “Says the girl who doesn't even know what or who she is” I looked at her, intrigued. Reaching out, I wiped the stray tear that fell from her eyes and tasted it. Just like that, I saw everything.

I burst out laughing. Perhaps fate brought us together for a reason.

“What are you talking about?” Carl asked.

“Leah…what is she talking about?” Brady clutched her hand.

“The sleepless nights, the way water seems to freeze around you. The way it gets cold when you step into a room. The way bad things always happen to people around you. Seventeen years and you still pretend you don’t know that you’re supposed to be dead” I tried to catch her eye but she avoided me.

“It’s not true” she murmured, running her hands over her face.

“Your parents brought you back to life with the help of my people” I hissed “And yet they preach against us” I scoffed.

“What?!” Brady and Carl yelled.

“Your…..your people as in witches?” Carl stuttered.

I glanced at him. “Yes”

“You’re a witch. Back in the woods. That fire…..the….the fire that came out of your hands, none of the other creatures can do that. None except a witch.” Carl hissed, glancing around to make sure no one heard him.

“Witch? Witches are extinct. Killed for what they are. You heard the high king, they’re evil. I admit what happened in the woods was bad but Alphea can’t be a witch” Brady chuckled nervously.

“Witches aren’t extinct. They’re not evil either. I know because I died and witches brought me back” Leah sniffed, her eyes finally meeting mine.

I smiled.

The necro child had spoken.