11
When Ashton Security took Tonya into custody, Helen was living in a rented trailer behind the burned remains of her store. She had paid contractors to haul away the wreckage and replaced it with a trimmed lawn and tidy flower beds. In the rush to start classes immediately after her release, Tonya hadn’t yet met up with Helen.
Set behind a freshly paved parking lot, the new Herbal Healing Shop drew Tonya’s eye up three stories of mirrored glass. How could Helen have afforded such expensive renovations?
Heaviness filled her stomach. Had Helen sold the store? Lately, a rash of for-sale signs speckled Loon Lake, but the shop was more than Helen’s livelihood. Serving the community with her charms and cures—even when it broke the rules—was Helen’s calling. Tonya couldn’t imagine her in any other job.
She rushed in the door where rows of shelves divided a bright, high-ceilinged space. “Helen? Anyone here?” She strode across the front of the store, looking down each aisle for customers or staff.
Empty.
Everything looked too clean, modern, and antiseptic. Medicine smells from cough syrup-sweet to bitter and sour invaded her nose. Bottles of vitamins and supplements stood beside makeup displays. The white walls and packaged goods looked too clinical.
Shortly after giving Tonya her first summer job, Helen had taught her to avoid electricity because it leached power out of herbal magic. They had used a manual treadle sewing machine to sew sachets for remedies and charms. It was sweaty work without air-conditioning, but laughter filled that log cabin long before Tonya discovered Helen was her birth mother. Sometimes remembering that summer filled her with nostalgia, but months in prison had given Tonya time to see things clearly.
On her own, Helen could charm animals and influence people. Together, they could channel power, allowing Helen to cheat death and destroy Waldock but at the price of Tonya’s health.
Before that battle, Tonya would have done anything for Helen. But the florescent lights, junk food aisle, and rows of over-the-counter meds made her wonder. Her birth mother was the ultimate nature girl. Why build a commercial drugstore hostile to nature and magic?
Overhead, something heavy dragged along the ceiling towards the back of the store. Following the sound, Tonya slipped behind a counter completely unlike the antique one in the old shop that used to hold weird-smelling preserves, unguents, and healing oils.
A door on the back wall led to a narrow metal staircase. On the second floor, Tonya hauled open a fire door. Wow.
Helen had replaced her modest 1940s-era apartment with one enormous living space. The entryway opened directly into a high-ceilinged room with a stone fireplace against the far wall. L-shaped leather couches divided out a living area in the center, with rugs and seating surrounding the hearth.
To the right side of the couches stood a dining room table with a modern china cabinet and a sideboard. Underfoot, polished barn board harmonized with a rustic chandelier hung from the ceiling, which was ringed with bannisters overlooking the room from the top floor.
To the left stood an open kitchen with marble counters, a generous island with cutting board, and cabinets in shades of oak and blue stain. Every antique pull on the drawers and cabinets was unique. If all this belonged to Helen, she had come into money.
“Anybody home?” No answer. So, what had made the scraping sound? Moving to the bottom of a wide wooden staircase, she shouted up to the third floor. “Hello!”
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Helen appeared with folded sheets in her hands. Dropping the laundry, she raced downstairs like a kid instead of a middle-aged lady with white hair like Tonya’s.
“Tonya!” Helen flung her arms open.
She stepped into Helen’s embrace, but that touch released a flood of terrible memories. That hospital room in Toronto. Waldock moaning and shriveling away from Tonya’s life-siphoning touch. It had saved Loon Lake, but Helen had used her.
“Nice place. Did insurance pay for it?”
“You look good.”
“I knew it! You charmed the insurance people, didn’t you?”
“All that matters is we’re alive, and you’re finally free.”
Tonya cleared her mind before she opened their telepathic link. It’s good to see you. During Helen’s visits to the cells under City Hall, bars had kept them apart and the Staff of Storms had prevented telepathy.
When did class get out?
“Hours ago.” But Tonya didn’t feel like explaining the detour to Kirkdene’s farm.
Do you want me to beat up Marta for you?
It was their usual joke, since Marta was a high school bully, but when they laughed, it choked up Tonya. She had missed this. “How did you know she’s in my class?”
“People talk. Have you made any new friends?” When Tonya shook her head, she pushed. “Try. You hate being alone.” Helen gave Tonya a searching look. “What about your old friends?”
“Don’t worry. I’m following the rules and staying away, but the minute my parole is over, I’ll find Priya and introduce myself. I need my best friend back, even if she never remembers. And I can’t live without Drake.”
“Don’t.”
“We were in love.”
“If you awaken his memories, Ashton Security will erase his mind again. Each spell reinjures the brain, and Donna would enjoy hurting him to punish you.” Helen’s cheeks were hollow, the lines on her face pronounced. The past few months had aged her.
“Someday”
“Never. The closer your relationship, the more danger of stirring Drake’s memories.”
“But after I’ve finished the magic course …”
“Sorry. The Mundanes can never know.”
Helen wouldn’t lie about that, which meant the only way to get back Priya and Drake was to convince the City Council to hold another tribunal. How could she, a teen without magical training or connections, make them listen? It seemed impossible, but if there was a way, she had to find it.