Derick was easy to notice. He stood waiting at the entrance to the station. Leo looked back at me with a reassuring smile and ushered me forward. As we got closer, a metallic taste and fur covered my tongue again. It seemed Derick indeed returned to his old ways.

“Derick,” Leo greeted.

“Bro.” Derick gave a slight nod.

“You both ready?”

Leo glanced at me and took my hand, “Ready.”

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Leo made small talk with his brother. While Leo did not like what his big brother was up to, it seemed he wanted to keep his relationship with him or at least get some information from him.

“How long have you been staying with her?”

Derick did not once look away from the road, “I’m not staying with Ma. I’m in Uncle Ronnie’s house.”

“Eh?”

“I still visit nearly daily, but it’s easier with Ronnie. Ma tries, but it’s awkward.”

“…Awkward?”

“You won’t remember… Ma wasn’t the greatest at being there. As a mother. She still struggles, but she is trying.”

He pulled off the road onto worn tracks leading away from the main road and continued into a line of trees, which appeared out of nowhere. Looking back, the ‘road’ had not changed.

“A concealment.”

I looked to our driver to meet his eyes in the mirror, “A little bumpy here. Nearly there,” Derick announced.

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When we emerged from the trees, I couldn’t help but ask, “Where are we exactly?”

“Near Loch Ore.”

Stone-walled cottages lines with slate roofs created a picturesque, cosy village. One house was separated away from the others and smaller in size. Derick pulled up in front of it.

“Home, sweet home,” Derick muttered.

I sighed slightly, looking at the tiny house. The metallic taste nearly tripled, making my lips smack at the taste. Leo looked over his shoulder at me as Derick got out.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. How are you?”

“I… I don’t know.” Leo looked off to the side, “We will talk later.”

His eyes lingered at the door of the smaller cottage.

There stood his mother, Morgan.

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She watched from the charming wooden door at the front of the house. Her long black hair was braided over her shoulder. Derick was the taller male version of his mother. As we reached the front door, she greeted us.

“Hello. Nice to finally meet you both.” Her eyes shifted between us.

The awkwardness began to build within, “Hello,” I politely answered.

“Please come in. I have put you both in the spare room.” She held the door open, allowing us both in.

Entering the house, I found it was much larger inside, and I couldn’t help but look around.

“Woah,” I whispered.

The tiny cottage was magically altered to house larger rooms on the inside. Old wooden beams ran across all areas of the ceiling. Walls were lined with herbs, bones and talismans. The whole house was dressed for yule, Including a pine tree in the corner next to an open fire. A witch’s cottage indeed.

“Here.” Morgan gestured to the first door at the top of the stairs, “Watch your head. Not used to having tall visitors.”

She gave a look to Leo over her shoulder and opened the door. I quietly gave thanks and dumped my things inside.

“Morgan?” I asked.

Before she descended the stairs, her attention was on me.

“I’m glad for the hospitality but don’t appreciate your underhandedness.”

“That’s a large vocabulary.”

“You know exactly what I mean.” I gave her a knowing look, “Emergency repairs?”

She glanced at Leo behind me, “I knew you wouldn’t have come sooner even if I asked.”

“Now, tea? We have much to discuss.” She carried on down the stairs, abruptly ending the conversation.

The door moved next to me; Leo closed it shut.

“Obscuravale.”

“I can see why you don’t like her,” I muttered, arms crossing.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Leo sat on the bed before replying, “I thought I’d have more time to prepare…”

I sighed with him. The last we ‘spoke’ was the astral. She has been trying to communicate through letters but never pulled us back into the astral as if it were her doing.

“Well… First thing I’d like to know. If she indeed had nothing to do with the curse or the jinxes for that matter,” I said, leaning back against the door.

“Agreed. Then, I want to know how she can help us.”

Leo stood swiftly, holding the door handle next to me. He gave a swift kiss before opening it to find a black raven standing just outside.

“I thought I could hear someone snooping.”

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I followed Leo into the smaller kitchen, “Watch-” “Ouch!” “out…”

Leo rubbed the side of his head, banding down slightly, and he re-tried entering.

“Formavolve,” Morgan whispered.

The house walls shimmered green, along with her hands and eyes. She pushed the low-hanging beam upwards with an unseen force. It lifted higher, allowing Leo to move in and out of the door without injury easily.

The green died down, and her eyes returned to normal. I would have to remember that one.

“Soona.” I placed my hand over Leo’s and soothed the minor injury. He was not bleeding, but a small bump would probably form.

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The raven skittered across the table towards Morgan. She had a smile on her face as it did so.

“So…” Leo trailed off, looking at me, “If this is going to work. We need to cut the bullshit.”

“Cards on the table,” I added, “the truth Morgan.”

“I understand you are both apprehensive… and I have been withholding the truth…”

“So, about Cynthia,” I started, satisfied with her answer.

Leo and I recited the story. Starting with what Noel saw to the final knot around Rowan. Morgan's eyebrows furrowed in deep concern. She listened intently to the story we told.

“I didn’t know,” she stared at the table before her, “I have never, ever, wished harm on Cynthia… Or your father.” Morgan looked at Leo.

“I understood his decisions, and shortly after you were born. We both realised our… incompatibility…and our split was amicable. In fact, I was glad they found each other.”

Leo was taken aback. This was not what he expected; he told me his Da never mentioned his past relationship, and Derick painted a different story when they were kids.

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“Witnessing your magic kind of confirmed it,” I looked to Leo, “The knots and her magic are similar, not the same. What your Da saw… Could mean a morph.”

“Into another human? Is that possible?” Leo asked.

I looked to Morgan, “In theory…”

She nodded, “It is written in the red book, but it takes… Much preparation and magic. They might have had some others helping…Someone trying to mimic me? What would they have to gain by posing as me? Other than framing it on someone else.”

That would raise more questions and speculation.

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“How did you know what would happen at the abbey?” Leo asked, changing the conversation.

“A prophecy.” Morgan got up from the table and went to a small room in the corner of the house. It looked to be her working room.

“Lexi. Your father brought me this and told me what he had found.”

She placed a piece of paper on the table and retook her seat.

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I opened it carefully. It was clearly aged, folded and refolded again. Grandma Greenwood's writing stared back at me. It must have been part of a missing page from her book.

They will meet. To Whitby, the small coven goes. The couple will be at The Haggerlythe at 8:07 pm on July 28th.

The next day, she will meet death at the Abbey.

Cornelius has help. Warn her.

- Vera

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“Greenwood was amazingly talented,” Morgan praised, “From the minute I knew the letter had reached you. I watched you.”

“Watched her?” Leo tensed beside me.

“Well. You, Leo. Then, when Lexi woke up, I watched her. How you woke up from Vitamortum…” She shook her head slowly in disbelief.

“While on the topic of Vitamorum. My father.”

“Hm?”

“You gave him the spell.”

“Uh, not quite,” Morgan's eyebrows pinched together, “He came to me after searching for weeks trying to find someone in necromancy and past lives – me.

“I simply taught him the basics of contacting the dead. But your grandma… Langton…? Didn’t want to be contacted.

I told him to keep trying, perhaps when the veil thins,” Morgan explained, shaking her head.

“I never gave him or taught him that spell. Very few books exist, and people know about that spell and how to perform it. I’m also curious as to how you managed it.”

“Then… Where did he get it from?” Leo piped up while I took in the information.

“I don’t know. I have a book that holds it, but I never once took it out or showed it. Maybe he was looking for it all along?”

“Maybe someone wanted him to find it…” I trailed off, “I saw the spell in a book. It also came to me clear as day when I needed it.”

“… But her Ma said the spell was never there…” Leo finished for me.

“Curious indeed,” Morgan stated. Her raven croaked and jumped onto her forearm.

“What is it?” she asked it.

It stayed silent, head tilting left, before pecking a necklace from her chest.

“Ah. Did your father find the necklace he was after?”

Leo and I shared a glance, “He didn’t. I found it last year.”

“Hm.” She leaned back into her chair, “Have you brought it?”

“No.”

“Good.”

Confusion appeared on my face. As it appeared in all our past lives and my father wanted to find it, I thought she would be after it or even want to see it.

“Have you destroyed it?”

“No.”

“You probably know. Death follows you with that necklace. Did you have it on in the Abbey?”

“No. It was-” “Don’t tell me.”

“As long as it is safe. I have a feeling I know what it is, but we need to find the main cause of the cycle. Speculation is all I have.”

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She tapped the side of her empty cup, thinking before she spoke, “I admit, I have not played fairly. However, What I said to you in the Astral is true, Leo.

“A way you can break the cycle in this life is to walk away.”

“Leave him.”

“No,” he refused.

I felt his hand grab mine under the table, and he squeezed it slightly, making me look at him.

“That’s a last resort.”

“I only say this as it will be more painful if one of you passes.”

“I know,” Leo swallowed, “I can’t give up before we have started.”

“We can’t give up yet,” I added with a small smile, “Plus, I think someone is rooting for us on the other side.”

We shared a smile, and I squeezed his hand lightly.

“Rooting for you?” Morgan asked, confused.

“Grandma Langton greeted me at the Abbey. She told me something before I woke up.”

Morgan waited almost impatiently, and Leo encouraged me to share.

“You must go back… Find the truth. Break the wheel. Your fated story must be fixed. Beware the Crow.”

“Crow?” Morgan asked once more.

I just nodded, “After the Abbey, crows are there whenever we have been in the Astral. Following us.”

“That’s not all…” Leo hinted, “The book of shadows.”

I tried to think back, my head slowly building in tension, “I found her book of shadows. It was clear this took over her mind and my father's. She said to follow the necklace through the timelines. I suppose the ‘go back’ means going through past lives?”

Morgan nodded.

“And… The crows serve another. someone she could not see. I don’t know if Grandma Greenwood was able to see anything…”

“Interesting…”

She thought momentarily before getting up, “We can start tomorrow… It’s been a long day for you both, and I think I need to check over my enemies.

“Feel free to borrow the car to get food or look around. No one here will harm you.”

With that, she stood bidding a goodnight and retreated into the small room in the corner once more. Her raven following.