The Forsaken Keeper

Chapter 30

"there's a name i knew that's carved into an ancient evergreen. there was a time it once was mine. now it's all that i'll ever be" ~ the house i grew up in by Ash the Ghost

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The rest of the day was a mixture of Rosalind sleeping and others taking their time to come see her. Natty and Imelda spent their time catching up on typical things old friends would. Neither party brought up the fact that Rosalind was the dark wizard they had been chasing for so long.

It was late, well past sunset, when there was a knock on the door. Sebastian was reading a book near the fire. Rosalind's eyes had been closed but opened at his movement towards the door.

There was whispering when Rosalind spoke up.

"Who is it?"

"Tell my stupid brother to move out of the way!!"

"Sebastian let Anne in." Sebastian huffed, and moved out of the way. Anne pushed past him, giving him an earful of allowing everyone in today but her.

Anne stopped in front of Rosalind, a hint of something flashing over her eyes. Before she pulled Rosalind into the tightest hug of the day.

"Oh I just know they're all treating you like glass aren't they? As if our own undead witch can be hurt with a simple hug." Anne pulled back from Rosalind, her hands on her shoulders. "Now, you're going to tell me exactly why you thought running away from us was a good idea."

"Anne," Sebastian let out a warning tone. The last thing he wanted was to add more stress onto Rosalind today. Anne's head turned to him.

"I wasn't asking you. You don't have to hover you know that right? Get out, it's girl time." Sebastian let out an exasperated sigh, looking to Rosalind for back up. Rosalind simply shrugged back to him. He knew she was in no danger by being left alone with Anne. But he was struggling to leave her side.

"Go on now! Go be useful and help Ominis or something." She waved him away with a flick of her hand. Sebastian slowly left the room like a scolded dog. After the door closed behind him, Anne looked back to Rosalind with a roll of her eyes.

"Honestly, you would never guess he was the dramatic one." Rosalind let out a giggle at Anne's words. Anne studied Rosalind's face, before her own turned soft.

"You know, I don't know if I would've been able to recognize you if it wasn't for your eyes."

"Really?" Rosalind looked down to her hair. "I always thought it was my hair that gave me away," she let out with a chuckle. Anne laughed along with her.

"Well, it's definitely not hair you see every day that's for sure. But when I saw your eyes glow, I remembered something."

Anne watched Rosalind freeze as her head dropped a bit. She had her suspicions about what had happened for a long time, but this had confirmed it.

"I have a memory, it's very vague and fuzzy. But I remember your eyes glowing, back at the house in Feldcroft." Anne waited until Rosalind looked back up to her eyes. "It wasn't a Ministry official that came and cured me was it?"

Rosalind let out a big sigh, before looking away from Anne's eyes and to the ceiling.

"No. The Ministry would never have someone able to do what I did."

Hearing her say it aloud still gave Anne a bit of a shock. Not only was it Rosalind all along, just like Sebastian had thought, but she had no recollection of it.

"Why?" Anne let out in a small whisper.

"I couldn't leave you like that Anne. Of all of the people I had felt wronged me in my life, you were never one of them. I knew I finally had the power to save you. You deserved so much more than the hand life had dealt you." She looked back towards Anne. "And look at what it got you. A great job, a loving husband. You have a family."