“Wait,” I said, reaching out and grabbing her wrist. “You’re not wrong.”
“About what?” She knit her eyes together.
“About me.”
“You?”
“About who you think I am.”
“Who are you?” She narrowed her eyes as though she wanted to be sure before she said anything else.
“I can’t... I can’t say,” I said. “I’m—"
“You’re bound.” Her eyes widened.
“Yes.” I nodded.
“And the only reason you’d be bound is if you or someone close to you didn’t want you to be known here,” she continued. “You’re Ava.”
I smiled.
Mallory’s eyes widened even further, then she nodded once.
“You have her eyes,” she said matter-of-factly.
We all do. But I couldn’t tell her about my sisters. At least, not yet.
She straightened up. It could have been my imagination, but she seemed to clam up.
“How can I help you, Ava?” The words felt cold, especially after such an enthusiastic response.
“My mother recently passed away and her death has unfortunately left me stranded,” I said, trying to choose my words carefully. I wished I’d had the foresight to craft some sort of speech I was allowed to say without giving away too much while letting her know what I needed. I felt caught and my words came out clumsy.
The façade of indifference broke, and Mallory’s eyes lit up with all sorts of painful emotions.
“Come, come sit down.” She looked over her shoulder at the cute little blonde girl cleaning down the benches. “Janie, I need you at the counter for a moment, if you wouldn’t mind, dear. Thank you!” Mallory took my hand and tugged me over to a table where she sat down with me, tucked in the corner of the café. “When did this happen?”
“Um...” I swallowed hard. “This morning.”
It still felt strange that it happened so recently. To me, it seemed like it was a lifetime ago.
Mallory reached over and touched my hand. “Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry.”
The sincerity seemed real, but it was difficult to get a read on her. I wondered if it was because magic was so prevalent here and could help mask falsehoods.
Goodness, I wished Mother taught us more about the magic realm.
I shrugged. I didn’t want to make a big deal of her death, because no matter what I said, this woman couldn’t understand how big a loss my mother was to my life.
“Yes, it is rather tragic,” I said, “but her death has also left us relatively destitute, so I was hoping to speak to someone that could help.”
I hadn’t meant to sound so snippy. I also hadn’t meant to brush my mother’s death aside like it didn’t mean anything to anyone because clearly, Mallory cared about my mother and of course, I did too. But talking about the same thing over and over again without propagating any sort of change was getting tiresome and I wanted to actually do something about the pain inside me.
There was a flicker of disapproval in her eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it had come.
She nodded. “Of course,” she said. “I’ll help however I can.”
“I’m looking for family,” I said slowly, dropping my gaze to my lap where my fingers tugged on the skirts of my dress. “People who might not be aware of my mother’s passing. I think it’s right to let them know what has happened, and I would like a chance to get to know parts of mother’s family I am yet to meet.”