The Witches #2

 ‘I wonder how long you can carry a broken heart within you?’

The witches looked at their sister, then at each other.

‘I don’t know,’ one said softly, her words kind and honest in their uncertainty. She took her youngest sister’s hand and held it tight. She did not want Daphne to feel this pain, did not want to see either of her sisters cry for a hurt she could not fix.

If she could Tulip would have protected her family forever, but life was inevitable and… that was why they loved it so.

‘I think,’ Lilac mused, touching Daphne’s shoulder, ‘it depends. How much you loved, how well they cared. How it began, how it ended. I think… I think those things take a lot longer than we expect.’

‘I wish we could brew something,’ Daphne whispered, smiling distantly and a touch shakily. ‘Make it vanish.’

‘We could,’ Tulip said, on her feet in a moment.

‘We could,’ Lilac agreed, feeling something inside her shift.

‘But we shouldn’t,’ Daphne concluded. She appreciated her sisters, the fact they would have done it, would have done anything if it would have made her feel better. But she knew well enough that love was not something to be tampered with, not with potions and wishes and spells, not even when it hurt this much.

‘You will heal,’ promised her sisters, pulling her to her feet.

‘Yes.’ She smiled at them but didn’t quite meet their eyes, gazing instead over the river, the current rippling over shallow stones, willows dangling their leaves into the still water by the bank.

The world, in that moment, was so peaceful. So still.

The three witches, holding each other as tight as they could. The river gurgling softly along, dancing over its own heartbreak while Daphne felt completely immobilised by her own.

‘Come.’ Her sisters tugged at her hands, breaking her kindly from her thoughts.

‘Even if we can’t fix this,’ Tulip said, linking her arm through one of Daphne’s and resting her head upon her little sister’s shoulder.

‘We can still brew up one hell of a potion,’ Lilac finished, taking Daphne’s other arm and strolling down to the waters edge with her sisters.

The Witches is a serial story, published every week on Thursday/Friday. See you then!