Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON TWO (Ongoing)

Part 2.8

"Just Lily," I say. "There's no need for the 'miss'."

"Of course, Miss Lily."

She ushers me to the lounge where a tray of steaming scones waits for me in between two plush sofas.

"I don't think I can eat that many scones..." I start.

"Nonsense," Hilda chides me. "You're a growing girl. Eat."

I obey, just like I did when I was little. She beams as I place a scone in my mouth, and watches me chew as if her entire life has been in preparation for this one meal. She's slightly stouter than I remember, and there's grey peppering her hair, but she has those same oval-shaped amber eyes, the ones she inherited from her Mamauri grandmother.

"How have you been, my sweet girl? I hear you're working for Witch Doctors Inc. That's what Seraphine has been telling everyone, anyway. Take another scone."

There's no point arguing. I'll eat as many scones as Hilda orders me to, and that's that. I can't say no to Hilda.

"Seraphine's been saying a few other things about me too," I mutter, in between gulps of scone.

Hilda rolls her eyes. "She's been on your case since day one. When you were born with purple hair, she had a field day. Since neither of your parents had quartz-coloured hair, she declared it an omen. You were to herald a new age of destruction."

I cringe. Even frauds get it right sometimes.

"Your stepmother is playing right into her hands. The money is disappearing from her pocket faster than roses set before a mini hippopotamus. Fake charms to ward off evil." Hilda shakes her head. "And that 'special' mirror she walks around the house gazing into so she never gazes into the eyes of an evil spirit. What does it do that an ordinary mirror can't, I ask you?"

I snort.

Hilda frowns. "Miss Lily, that is not a ladylike noise."

"Sorry, Hilda."

"At any rate, don't pay any mind to Seraphine or her silly talk. That woman's head is as empty as a crystal ball."

"I'm glad no one else thinks my mother's vengeful spirit is back," I say.

"Your mother didn't have a vengeful bone in her body. She was kind-hearted - too kind-hearted. People took advantage of her, and she knew it. That's why she liked the phoenix so much. She admired its strength and resilience. She always worried that she was too weak. You don't think you're finished, do you?" Hilda smiles dangerously. "Take another scone."

I wince.

"Emmeline is a fool to listen to Seraphine, but then again, she was never the clever one. That was your mother."

I shuffle my feet nervously. "I actually wanted to ask you about my mother."

Hilda beams. "I have so many stories to share with you."

"Hilda...I want to know what happened the day my mother died. Everything, from start to finish."

Hilda is no longer smiling. She's become still, as if a shard of time had crystallised a around her. "Lily, are you sure?"

"Yes. I need to know the truth."

Hilda sits back in the sofa, her face unreadable. She watches me for a long time before speaking.

"Your mother was upset that day. She had found out that Emmeline was back in town, and that your father had been seeing her. She knew Emmeline still held a torch for your father. Your father refused to believe that Emmeline was up to anything sketchy. He said they were just two old friends catching up.

Your mother wasn't hearing any of it. I've said it once and I'll say it again - Harmony Hartfeld was a smart woman. People thought she was stupid because of her kind heart, but she wasn't. She knew her old nemesis better than anyone.

When you saw her storm out the door, you were frantic. You were just a child; you couldn't have known she was only leaving to stay with a friend while she cooled down. To you, it must have looked like you were losing your mother forever.

I tried to comfort you, but to no avail. You wailed as her cart pulled out of the driveway. You could see it through the window. I held you tight as you cried and screamed. You said you wouldn't let her go."

Dread lodges in my throat. "Then what?"

Hilda seems to deflate. "Then what? After you cried yourself tired, I gave you some milk and put you to bed. Later that day, a Mirror Guardsman knocked on the door. He said..." She closes her eyes. "The cart hit a wall. Your mother died at the scene."

"Was I sleeping when it happened? Were you with me?"

"I don't know what you were doing the exact moment it happened. The Zilitron Guard only gave us a timeframe."

"But was I normal? Did I do anything strange?"

Hilda frowns. "Normal? Of course you were normal. What else would you be?"

I hate doing it, but I dig deeper. I have to be sure. "I didn't close my eyes at any point? Or seem focused on something other than what was in front of me?"

Hilda fixes me with an odd look. "No. You were a normal three-year-old child you witnessed her mother leave. You didn't do anything, Lily. Your mother's death was an accident."

"What if I did it by mistake?" I blurt out. I clap a hand over my mouth. I shouldn't have said that. Under Hilda's gaze, I've become a child again.

Hilda takes me by the shoulders and looks me straight in the eyes. "Now you listen here. There is nothing wrong with you. You are in no way responsible for your mother's death. Seraphine is an opportunistic quack who failed high school. Do you hear me?"

I draw a deep breath. I don't know what I expected her to tell me. I don't know how I expected her to know the answers. Maybe I thought she'd make the bad things disappear, like she did when I was a child.

"I could easily accuse Emmeline of being responsible," Hilda adds. "But I don't, and do you know why? It was an accident. There is no reason to assign blame for an accident."

"But she hated my mother," I say, egged on. "What if she did something to the cart? She could have loosened a wheel...or tampered with the fire quartz - "

Hilda shakes her head. "Now you are doing what Emmeline is doing. You are assigning blame for an accident. Your mother was an exceptionally bad driver. She usually had someone drive her, but that day she decided to take off by herself. Combine that with the fact that she was very upset, and you can see what happened." She knocks on the side of her head. "Common sense, Lily."

I smile. "Logic."

It's a beautiful word right now. Logic. It tells me that I am not a monster.

"Emmeline and my mother weren't actually friends, were they?"

Hilda thinks on it. "They were, in a way. Emmeline was always trying to outdo her, so they ended up spending a lot of time together. They went on outings and such. But they weren't true friends, I suppose, not like Robert and Adriel."

I blank. "Who's Adriel?"

"Adriel, Adriel." Hilda clicks her fingers like I should know who that is. "I know you girls have that funny nickname for him..."

It's like I've been dumped headfirst in a lake full of cold, buzzing stars.

Adriel.

Adriel Valence.

I do know who that is. He's been beside me the whole time, but I've been calling him by a different name.

"My father," I croak, "was friends with Big Boss?"