Witch Is The New Black (Paris, Texas Romance #3)

“Surprise,” she muttered.

Baba sighed into the hot breeze. “Yet, I couldn’t understand how I had no knowledge of your existence and why you hadn’t shifted to get yourself out of county. So I made an executive decision and wiped everyone’s memories clean, including the police, and brought you back to Salem with me. And that’s when I concluded you had no idea you were a witch or how important your powers truly are. That also meant I had to do some digging into Eddie, and I needed time to do it. So I bought some by keeping you near.”

Months of frustration spilled out of her mouth. “Then why didn’t you just tell me at that very moment? Why did you treat me like a criminal?”

Baba gave her an admonishing look. “Would you have listened? Did you ever listen? Were you at all receptive to us? You went along for the ride, but I knew you still didn’t believe. I couldn’t let you loose on the humans, knowing what I knew.”

Bernie sighed, wiping her forearm over her cheek. “Okay, that’s fair. I was pretty messed up, and I’ve done my fair share of damage in the past because I didn’t know. But imagine thinking you’re a human then finding out every disaster in your life can be attributed to blood magic you didn’t even know you had.”

Baba pulled her to the bench under the pecan tree and motioned her to sit, patting Bernie’s hand. “You were a mess, Bernice. But I needed you somewhere safe while I investigated this Eddie. I’d hoped while you were with us, you’d learn about who you’d become. Yet, day after day, month after month, you refused, which made you reckless if we sent you back into the human world. And we certainly couldn’t afford to have Eddie find you again.”

Bernie winced at the memory of her prison stay. “I didn’t want to be a witch. I was pretty freaked out.”

“And pretty stubborn. Neither here nor there now. When I realized no amount of prison time was going to change your mind, I decided to send you here. To Winnie. To the people of Paris. I knew they would help you to accept who you are, and there was a modicum of peace in that for me.”

“Why risk sending me here, where I was unprotected, on the off chance Eddie’s interaction with me hadn’t been innocent?”

“This is going to sound crackers, but you were the biggest case of failure to thrive I’d ever seen. Sending you here was a small risk compared to letting you continually suffer in prison. Things had been quiet for so long, with no sign of Eddie, I thought surely he’d gotten what he wanted and maybe, by some crazy coincidence, you were just in the mix by mistake after all. That maybe he knew nothing of your true status. Of course, we continued to look for him because that book is very dangerous in the wrong hands, but I truly thought you were marginally safe.”

“And he managed to find me anyway.”

Baba shook her head, her eyes sad. “I’m sorry, Bernie. But you were getting further away from us rather than closer. I knew once you were here, you’d tap into this incredible power you have with Winnie’s help, and you’d use it. You were alone for so long, Bernice, and none of us knew about it. I wanted you to flourish, find acceptance, learn, while I dug around to find out how this all happened.”

Those words warmed her, reminded her of one of several reasons she’d decided to dig in her heels and really try to do this witch thing—her need to belong.

“P/s, I already know how this happened. Eddie told me all about it while I had a guillotine ready to fall on my head,” she said sarcastically, still not quite ready to forgive Baba for leaving her to suffer One-Eyed Lorraine.

“Then you must also know, Marie Haversham was one of the kindest, most nurturing white witches alive, and what she did to save you, while totally against every rule ever written, she did it out of tremendous love. For you. For your mother. It was an enormous risk. She knew the kind of collateral damage she was up against, being the keeper of that book.”

Tears stung her eyes at the mention of her mother and this mysterious woman she’d never know, and whom Eddie had come upon by dumb luck.

Baba used tender fingers to wipe her tears away. “Seeing Eddie with the book could only mean one thing—he’d known Marie. Somewhere, somehow. So I traced his every move since her death as we searched high and low for him, and that’s when I found out about her relationship with your mother. The rest was a bit of a puzzle your friends here in Paris solved all on their own.”

She’d never be able to thank them enough for finding her. “And the book? Am I the new guardian of the book? Because you might want to rethink your strategy on that. I do set barns on fire, you know.”