Maria beamed at him. “Aye, it’s me. It’s been so long, Da.”
His father crumpled to his knees next to Ariana, tears streaming down his face. And yet Owen didn’t think he’d ever seen him look so full of joy. “How is this possible?” he asked, still reaching out to Maria. Or Lucy. And wait, did she just call him…
Owen staggered over to Ariana and shook her shoulder. He needed answers and Ariana was always the one to turn to for answers.
“Is that—”
“It’s your sister,” she said. Her eyes never left Maria, who looked totally different somehow. She was still Maria, but the glow that had been deep in her eyes all this time now surrounded her, casting a warm halo of light around her and obscuring their vision so she looked like someone else. “My cousin. My real cousin,” Ariana continued.
Maria, no, Lucy, stepped forward and took his father’s hand. Their father’s hand. “Owen called me,” she said. She leaned over and wiped away his tears. “I’m okay, Da, really I am. The others have accepted me.”
“Owen called you?” he repeated, pulling her hand to his cheek and pressing it there. “When? How?”
“He didn’t mean to, of course, but I’ve been watching over him since he was small. I wish we could have played together.” She turned to Owen and smiled. He’d seen portraits of the half-sister he’d never met and he could swear that was who he looked at right that moment. He faltered on his feet but didn’t crash to the ground like Ariana and his father. “I’m the one who led you to the spell book,” Lucy continued. Because that was all he could see. It was as if Maria were gone. He was too stunned to be worried for her and shook his head.
“Why?” he asked in anguish. The thing had been nothing but trouble and had nearly cost them everything.
“I didn’t mean anything wrong by it,” she said in a meek voice. “I could tell you were powerful and thought I was helping. And I have been helping, all this time.” She was pleading now, like a wee child who didn’t want to get in trouble.
“You helped him?” their father asked, still clutching her hand to his cheek.
“Yes, to try and keep him out of trouble. He has lots of talent but barely any control.”
“What should I do about it?”
Owen caught his breath at these words out of his father’s mouth. He didn’t like the sound of them at all and he scowled at Lucy, about to stick up for himself, but she spoke up faster than he could.
“Teach him, silly Da. You know you can. They know you can. You’re the only one who doesn’t see it.”
He nodded vigorously. “I’ll try, my sweetest child. I miss you so. I’m so sorry—”
She held up her free hand, cutting off his words. “Stop.” She still sounded young but there was authority in her voice now. “You’re not to blame. It bothers me that you think so.”
“I’ll stop then, darling.”
“Tell Uncle Julian to stop as well. He still thinks it was his fault because he gave me the horse. But I loved that horse and she made me very happy. You and mum and Uncle Julian and Miss Serena all made me very happy.” She pulled out of her father’s grip and frowned. “I have to go soon. Maria’s ready and wants out.”
“But what about your mother? Is she with you?”
It caused Owen’s chest to tighten to see his father’s previous look of unabashed joy turn to profound sadness. Lucy’s mother wasn’t his. The whispers he heard of her around the village were that she’d gone mad after Lucy died. That perhaps she was evil. But still his father had loved her.
Lucy frowned and looked past them all into the distance. She slowly shook her head. “Mum’s gone. I don’t think she suffered but she’s not with us. She’s just… gone.”
Their father looked stricken, but Lucy only shrugged. She moved to Owen and kissed him on the cheek. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. He could scarcely believe his half-sister had been the one he’d been trying to wrangle information from all this time. A hundred questions swirled in his mind but none made it out of his mouth. He only smiled regretfully. He had a feeling she knew everything he was trying to say, anyway.
“We’re supposed to leave our power with someone when we go,” she told him, staring him right in the eyes. “I didn’t, though, because they told me Da didn’t need it and Mum shouldn’t have it. But now I’m going to give it to you.”
He almost pleaded with her not to, but something about her wouldn’t let him argue. She was his big sister, after all.
She turned away and went back to their father, kneeling beside him and wrapping her arms around him.
“I love you, my little Lucy. Forever and ever and a day,” he said, holding her tight. Owen remembered him saying that to him when he was small and felt his eyes welling up.
Lucy wiped his tears and kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you again, Da.”
The light surrounding her faded and Maria collapsed backwards, eyes closed, unmoving.
Chapter 21
Ariana slowly managed to shut her mouth. Her jaw actually ached from hanging open the whole time Maria, no, Lucy, revealed herself. She looked past Owen and Uncle Kostya, too shaken by it all to react to Maria’s collapse. She stared at the neat little grave she had to
