Charlotte After Dark

Chapter 23: The Cursed Greymalkin, Part II

Cassandra looked at Cormac for a moment before looking back at me. She clasped her hands together, and let out a harried sigh.

"The first time I saw you, I was living with Charles back in Boston when you came running through my kitchen," Cassandra said.

"I'm confused," I uttered. "I've never met you before tonight."

"It wasn't really you," Cassandra clarified. "It was the Sight.

"The Sight?" I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"I have Seen you five times since that moment, and this is only the second time I have met you in person," Cassandra admitted.

I glanced over at Cormac, and even he was surprised.

"What are you saying?" I released my hands from Cormac's.

"I think you need to delve a little further in the past, Cass," Cormac reprimanded her.

She looked at Cormac, unsatisfied with his suggestion, but pushed on unwillingly as she looked back at me.

"Your father and I have a lot of history, more than I would care to admit to most," Cassandra said, getting up from her seat to pace around the room. "I not much older than you when I met him and he had just entered the Arcane Academy under Atanas Daskalov, a brilliant alchemist at the time. I was good friends with your aunt Ellinora since we were children, but Stellan was always elusive, gallivanting off with Padraig Mooney on some ill-advised adventure. Your grandmother had hoped entering the Arcane would have stifled this desire some, but it only made it worse.

"He saw something in me. To this day, I'm not sure what it was, but soon we spent every waking hour together, we were inseparable, until..." Cassandra trailed off, like she was replaying a scene in front of her too painful to bare. I felt Cormac grasp my hand tighter, the longer she paused.

"They showed me you for the first time," Cassandra began again, collecting herself. "And then I knew that your father was not meant for me."

"They?" I asked.

"The powers that be, those who reside on the other side, whomever gave me this ... Gift," she listed off, grimacing at the last item. "They have many names, but their purpose is always a mystery. I've spent my whole existence trying to understand them, but I have a feeling I am never meant to know."

"How did you know I wasn't your child?" I asked.

She let out a laugh. "I am never to have a child. That has been made very clear to me."

"What did you see?" I asked, my voice cracking a little as the words were difficult to force out.

"You were young, but so beautiful," Cassandra began. "You look so much like him, even then. He loved you more than anything, you know."

I saw how painful this recollection was to Cassandra. Though I knew she would not admit it, she still loved my father and talking to his daughter from another woman must have made the pain all that more real.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I told you before, I've Seen you many times, but this is our second meeting," Cassandra reminded me. "I have to say, our first meeting was not the most pleasant."

Cormac remained silent beside me, not even uttering a word. I wondered if he knew this story as well as Cassandra did, or if he really just was unsure of what to say. He had told me that he did not know my father, but knew of him. I looked over at him, and he seemed as surprised in this story as I was.

"You couldn't have been older than three when he brought you here. I've never seen your father like that before. He was desperate," Cassandra continued.