Penny didn’t know if she should laugh or roll her eyes over his pettiness. Damien could have let the matter go, after all, no one could prove her or Caitlin to be witches. With the ability of purification that she possessed, nothing could harm her or the person near her. It would have been a whole different matter if Caitlin and she were separated by distance.
With the crowd that had dispersed themselves and the woman who had closed her store so that she could wash her face, she wondered if the shame she was put through was harsh. For the woman, it was her bread but at the same time, she had gone too far by accusing them to be a pair of witches that could have got them killed.
She saw a scrawny man with glasses making his way towards where they stood. It was Kreme, Damien’s assistant in the council.
“Master Damien, I have been searching all over for you,” the young human appeared to look livid at the fact that he was left in the middle of nowhere when Damien had disappeared on him, “Lady Penelope,” Kreme bowed his head when his eyes met the woman and seeing another lady next to her, he bowed his head.
“Didn’t you get lost?” Damien teased the man with an absolutely serious expression on his face. Kreme couldn’t say yes or no but he pursed his lips.
“I found the witch here. She lives in one of the houses up there,” Kreme turned to twist his body and point his finger towards the alley of the village.
“There’s a witch here?” Penny questioned Damien, “White or black?”
“Black,” Damien answered her, “The woman posed herself to be a white and she is attending the church with the rest without others knowledge. A recently turned white from black,” he explained to her.
“Council orders?” she asked to see him shake his head.
“I was looking for something in the other town and came here when one of them mentioned about her usage of forbidden magic,” Damien placed his hand on her arm, “Did Father Antonio and the rest of them leave?” Penny gave him a nod, “I see. You both should head back home. Do you have the carriage?”
Caitlin was the one to answer, “Yes, we parked it outside the village.”
“Have fun at work,” Penny wished before leaving his side.
Leaving the village, Penny and Caitlin got into the carriage and headed back to Quinn’s mansion. On the way when Penny was looking outside the window, she heard Caitlin ask her,
“How did you do that? The spray…It should have affected us,” Penny realized that her aunt was unaware of this part of information when it came to her. She wondered how she had missed it.
Penny then said, “I have the ability to purify the air,” her aunt made an O in her mouth.
“I think I remember a bit of it. Damien mentioned something about him not being affected by the poison because he was standing next to you but when he went alone it had started to affect him,” Caitlin remembered making Penny nod at her words.
“When it comes to the air, it happens without me needing to do anything but when it comes to liquid, I need to concentrate to purify it,” Penny explained it to her aunt.
Caitlin nodded her head then asked, “Are you feeling alright? I mean back in the village…”
“Ah, that yes. Don’t worry about that, Caitlin. I have heard many more things than this,” she gave her aunt an assured smile.
“I am sorry to hear that. I wish you didn’t have to go through it…” Caitlin placed her hand on top of Penny’s hand, “I don’t know what your mother must have done to have the people around to give you the hate which you didn’t deserve to listen to,” the woman had her eyebrows furrowed as she said those words.
Caitlin didn’t have to know how Laurae was. The woman appeared to be sweet to only be the kind who leeched on a person and sucked the very soul of the person. Both Penny and Laurae had somehow come to the point that Laurae was somehow responsible for Penelope’s father’s death. The woman was not only vile but she lacked any morals and most of it came from being a black witch.
“I wonder at times why she is the way she is…” Penny said, speaking about her mother, “I wonder at times if she ever had a change of heart, after meeting me…and then I realized maybe she never changed. She and her brother…they killed their very own parents…”
Caitlin put her arm around her niece’s shoulder and Penny placed her head on the woman’s shoulder. Her eyes mellow as she stared at the empty seat in front of her.
“Things will get better in good time. Every person gets a time, Penelope and when that time comes to forget to seize it,” Caitlin whispered to the girl and the carriage continued to ride through the thick forest on either side of the road.
Reaching the mansion, Penny walked through the corridor with Caitlin before they each took another path to head towards their room. Penny walking up the stairs went to the room and closed the door behind her.
She took herself to read the books and once she was done, she stared at the books that she had stacked.
Today was the day. It was the day she would be putting the rest of the books in the fire and there would be no evidence of the books to be existing ever. One part of her mind wanted to preserve it, after all, there was no one but the people who were related to the first generation witch Lady Isabell’s family who could read the books. While Penny raised her hand ready to put them into the fire, she stopped her hand from going any further.
These books were the last things of Lady Isabell before her son. Changing her mind, she took the books and placed them in the rack of the room shuffling them around. Her heart had been unwilling to throw the books away she had come to be so fond of.
With a loud sigh, she took herself to sit on the bed.
Though there were some things weighing in her mind right now, and with her mother was possibly on the run as her picture was plastered and pasted on every side of the Bonelake. She put her hand in her left pocket to pull out a crumpled paper she had picked up in the fair that had stuck to her boot while walking.
Unfolding the paper, she looked at her mother’s picture where a bounty of gold was written on it. Dropping the paper to the side of the desk, she let herself lean back while taking in the changes that had taken place so far. Time was moving quickly at times where she had no hold on it but to only watch it go past her. With Father Antonio and the rest of the white witches gone, her time at the church had come to an end and she would be working alone.
It made her wonder if this was how most of the witches went through where one had to walk the path all alone. Suddenly she felt Damien’s lips on her lips and his weight on her with the bed that had suddenly come to dip down. He moved his lips against hers, kissing her and she kissed him back with a smile on her lips.
Penny’s hand made its way to the nape of his neck, holding the shorter ends of his hair between her fingers. Their tongue mingling with each other as if they hadn’t seen each other for weeks or months. She didn’t hold back to show how much she loved him and her own lips matched his passionate lips that nipped and played with her to leave her panting on the bed.
Damien pressed his forehead against her and Penny couldn’t stop the smile that was on her lips.
“I love you,” she whispered to him, her eyes closed as she breathed in and out.
“Love you back,” said Damien, going back to kiss her again as he wasn’t done claiming her lips.
