The Clearing: Origins

Chapter 18

Victor gazed at the determined woman who sat before him. Sarah stared at him with rage-filled eyes. Suddenly, he remembered something the professor had said about his eyes his first year with the Grants. They'd sat in the study together sharing a pot of tea when Professor Craig explained why he'd given him 'Birgit' as his original surname.

Strange how you both have the same sweeping dark lashes and such piercing emerald green eyes. It's the first thing I noticed about you. You have eyes like Gran Birgit.

The professor had called his great-grandmother Birgit a fantastic woman who most likely possessed magical talents. Could Granny Sarah be speaking of the same Birgit? He knelt, ready to meet the harridan who faced him with eyes blazing. Still, I don't remember Papa singing Birgit's praises after I turned twelve or so. I don't remember him mentioning her again.

"I don't know what you think you're doing here, but you best be going before I call the law," Sarah stated. "You come to me with Birgit's eyes on her orders. Hasn't she done enough to hurt me?"

"I've never met Birgit, ma'am," said Victor, his tone polite and respectful.

Sarah reached out a gnarled hand and grasped Victor's chin. "You're the foundling. I've watched you dance. Such talent." The face grew cold again. "Or are you a changeling?"

"Fairy tales again, always blaming the fae," muttered an irritated Gigi. "Kinda hard to help her when she fights it. This Birgit must've really pissed her off."

The little masquerading fae turned to Sarah, and Victor nearly yelped when he heard how Gigi spoke to her. "Blimey! You've got bouts of clarity again, Sarah, and now you're slagging the boy and talking like you've lost all your bloody wits! He's done nothing evil to you, love. Hear him out."

Sarah turned her head toward the faux older woman. "Aye, you think I should?"

Gigi gave a big cherub smile that didn't fit the elderly face she wore. "Aye, I do. The boy's addled, but he does my heart good."

Victor took a seat next to his grandmother after sending the fae an annoyed look. "Tell me about Papa. What happened to him? How did Birgit hurt you?"

Sarah sighed. "My Craigie was a lively child, a proper boy but mischievous. Cared nothing for lessons, hated science. He was such a wonderful football player, the opposite of his late father, David, who was quite intellectual and couldn't play a lick of any sport."

He sounds kind of like me. Victor bit his lip. "What happened to your husband, Granny?"

"David became a schoolteacher. He'd occasionally make trips to London for meetings or seminars. On that last trip, there was a car accident. I didn't know David... had...had...." The milky eyes teared up. "That same day, Craigie suddenly fell ill with an extremely high fever. When word reached us of David's accident, I fell apart. But not Birgit! She insisted on tending to my boy, barely a tear for her grandson. And you'd think David had come back to life when Craigie got better—through my son!"

Victor nodded.

"Everyone who knew Craigie saw he wasn't the same boy. So bloody unnatural. He seemed so disconnected from his former self, leaning more on Birgit than anyone else, even me." Her mouth twisted into a snarl. "I felt something the day of the accident, like a goose walking over my grave. Even as a wee child, I knew when I first set eyes on Birgit that she was the center of some bad happenings. She was so possessive of David after his father, Alan, died."

"Papa said she disappeared. One of her daughters visited, and Birgit was gone when she returned from making tea," said Victor.

"Mrs. Rys, a woman from our neighborhood, came to visit me after I moved back to London to apologize for the past. She spent years near that devil woman and knew her essence. She said the spirits told her Birgit was a bad egg." Sarah sighed, rubbing her wrinkled hands together. "I had to get Craigie away from her. It's why I moved to America the following year."