Jarring disbelief consumed the front yard of Blanchard House. Seth’s mouth hung open like a garage door as he stood blank faced and speechless. Artemis was at a similar loss for words as Olympia stepped onto the porch to greet her returning granddaughter. Beside the old woman fluttered the shadow of Nacaria who hovered there a moment before dashing off to disappear around the side of the house.

  “She’s what?” Artemis muttered.

  Salem squeezed Arielle’s hand in solidarity. “She is my sister, Aunt Artemis. This is Arielle.”

  “You don’t have a sister,” Seth gruffed.

  He was staring Salem down now with the angriest eyes she’d ever seen cross his face. He was almost shaking with fury. This was not the welcome Salem had expected. She knew he wouldn’t be warm to the idea at first, but she had underestimated the power of their childhood resentment toward anything Obreiggon. That resentment still lurked within him deeper than she knew.

  “We both have a sister,” Salem reminded him with a gentle tone, hoping to douse a little of his rage. “And here she is.”

  “She’s not welcome in this house!” Seth shrieked, charging forward closer to Salem. The intensity in eyes frightened her a moment.

  “Maybe this was a bad idea, Salem,” Arielle whispered, retreating back behind the car door.

  Salem whipped around to look at Arielle, slinging her hair across her shoulders as she did. “You’re staying!” She ordered Arielle. She turned back to her brother and asserted, “My sister is welcome here because I want her here.”

  The vein in Seth’s neck bulged as every muscle in his body tensed. For a split-second Artemis thought he might hit Salem. She took a step forward to stand between them.

  “Calm down, Seth,” she cautioned.

  “Salem,” Seth grimaced. “If you want to associate with Obreiggon’s then you aren’t welcome in this house either.”

  Artemis should have been more worried about what Salem planned to do, because to everyone’s surprise Salem Blanchard reached back and slapped her brother across the face. He charged at her until Artemis flung her arm out to stop him.

  “I’ll give you that one,” he growled. “But the next one, I hit back. And I hit a lot harder than you.”

  “I guess you forget I can blow you up with the flick of a wrist,” Salem huffed.

  “And I can bring a bolt of lightning down on you to fry you like catfish!”

  “That is enough!” Olympia shouted from the porch; her frail voice thundered with a force the Blanchard kids rarely heard. “Seth, stand down. Salem, back off.”

  It wasn’t often that Olympia Blanchard got riled, but when she did it caught everyone’s attention immediately. She left the porch and made her way down the front steps, gesturing for the frightened young guest to come forward. Arielle did so meekly.

  “Arielle, we have met before. I am Olympia Blanchard.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she replied. “I know.”

  “You are welcome in this house,” Olympia announced more to Seth than to Arielle Obreiggon. “If it is important to my granddaughter, then it is important to all of us.”

  “I don’t want to cause problems,” Arielle stammered. “I’m sorry Seth, if I have upset you by being here. I just wanted to meet my brother.”

  Seth flared his eyes. Turning on his heels he stormed off across the lawn.

  “I can leave, Ms. Blanchard,” Arielle told Olympia. “I don’t want to cause trouble.”

  “Seth is a prick sometimes,” Salem said, directing her sister up the porch steps with a steady hand. “Ignore him. We all do.”

  The two of them went inside the house leaving the screen door to slam behind them. Artemis exchanged concerning looks with her mother. Olympia raised a brow and shook her head, then she clasped her daughter’s arm and they joined the others in the house.

  Seth stomped around the property for a while, trying to clear his temper and make sense of his sister’s stupidity. After about an hour, he had made no progress at all in accomplishing either. As he made his way back towards the house he was met by his grandmother and aunt near the pumpkin patch where they were removing the best of the garden for Halloween and wedding décor.

  “Feel any better?” Artemis asked Seth, wiping her cheek where a disoriented gnat decided to rest.

  “Not one bit.”

  “I suggest you make peace with it, son,” Olympia suggested calmly. “We must have respect for Salem’s wishes.”

  Seth kicked at the ground, loosening a clump of dirt with his feet. “Hecate, have you suddenly lost all of your marbles?”

  “Watch it, boy!” Artemis scolded. “Do not speak to your grandmother like that.”

  “I do not trust this girl,” Seth insisted. “She’s one of Atheidrelle’s children. That alone makes her dangerous. The Obreiggon’s are evil.”

  Olympia rolled an almost perfectly shaped orange pumpkin to the side, cut its vine with her clippers, and gave it a friendly pat on the side. She then looked up at her grandson and clarified, “The Obreiggon’s are not evil. Xander Obreiggon is a kind man. Weak, but kind.”

  “Excuse me, “ Seth corrected sarcastically. “The D’Angelos are evil. Atheidrelle’s family.”

  “Again, you are not necessarily correct, Seth,” Artemis began, “a long time ago there was a woman who loved your mother very much—”

  Artemis was cut short in mid-sentence by her mother by a stern look..

  “That is not our secret to tell,” Olympia warned.

  “It might help him to understand,” Artemis argued. “Atheidrelle’s sister-”

  “All Seth needs to understand is that he has a sister here. A sister he has never known. It is time that he did.”

  “I don’t trust her,” he repeated.

  “Salem does,” Olympia said. “That’s good enough for all of us.”

  Upstairs, Salem and Arielle unpacked in Salem’s room. Arielle ran her fingers along the quilted bedspread under the suitcase. The entire room was charming in her opinion. White plank boards covering the walls, beautiful flower arrangements placed on the nightstand and dresser. The curtains looked hand sewn in lace and frilly ruffles. Arielle felt a peace in the room she had never felt in her room back at Oleander.

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  “I love this house,” she said. “The whole house is so crisp and clean and light. And I smell flowers everywhere.”

  Salem grinned. It delighted her to see her little sister appreciate the beauty of the house she had grown up in. Sometimes Salem lost sight of just how tranquil Blanchard House could be until she saw it through a stranger’s eyes. It was a vast difference from the austere coldness Arielle had been raised in.

  “Hey, I’m sorry about Seth’s behavior. He’s normally not an ass.”

  “I understand,” Arielle shrugged. “It was the same at Oleander. We were raised to believe the Blanchards were awful people. The enemy. Of course, I figured out early my mother was a terrible person, so I didn’t buy into her version of events very much.”

  “I’m glad you understand,” Salem said with a grateful nod.

  “It’s not really crazy for him to react this way,” Arielle continued. “With all that happened to your mother, it was natural for you guys to think of my mom and our dad as the bad guys. You and I have had some time to get to know each other. And you even got to meet our father. But we just kinda sprung me on Seth without warning. I get it.”

  Salem thought about what her sister said and realized Arielle was incredibly wise for her age. She hadn’t played fair with Seth. She had expected him to greet Arielle with open arms, but why? She had also been wary of Arielle at first. How could she expect Seth to so blindly trust? She and Seth spent their lives blaming Xander and Atheidrelle Obreiggon for their mother’s removal from their life.

  As they grew up and came to understand their mother’s role in what happened, Salem and Seth came to resent Nacaria as well. Only recently had Salem learned to forgive her mother once she had met their father. Seth did not have that privilege. He did not have any closure. Salem knew now she owed her brother an apology.

  She found him sitting by the pool in a lounge chair. It was getting colder out, but he had lit a fire in the firepit nearby. The crackling wood sent tiny sparks into the air every so often to mix with the wafting smoke. He saw her approach but did not leave, nor did he acknowledge her.

  “I came to apologize,” she said.

  Seth acknowledged her presence with a grunt.

  “It started at the Consort,” she explained. “Arielle introduced herself to me after the cremation. Her mother and her sister Cassandra were not very kind to me. She offered me sympathy. And she took me to meet our father.”

  “You met him?!” Seth asked. “You actually saw him?! What was he like?”

  Suddenly his anger was broken, replaced by curiosity for the man they had never known very much about. Seth found himself wanting to know about him, what her impressions of him were. That trumped any amount of anger he bore.

  “I was not very kind to him at first,” Salem admitted. “But I heard him out. And I have to say I believed him.”

  She paused to grab her brother’s hand. He did not snatch it away. This was a bond they had always shared—the dream—and Salem had accomplished it. She had been in the presence of their father, and Seth wanted details.

  “What did he have to say?”

  “He loved her very much,” Salem began. “He still does. He told me that their affair was wrong, but he’d loved her too much to end it. He was planning to leave Atheidrelle to be with our mother, and with us. But he was too late. Mother had already gone back in time and committed her crime before she knew he had chosen us. When she returned it was too late, the Consort knew what she’d done.”

  “How did they find out?” Seth wondered.

  “He didn’t say. I don’t think even he knew. Mother was arrested by the Consort, and they tried her. She was going to be hanged but our father advocated for her. He made a deal with his wife that if she would intervene to punish Nacaria in a different way, he would relinquish his rights to us and share his Council seat with her. He did not know beforehand how the Council would curse our mother. Xander still believes she will be returned to us one day.”

  “So now you’re besties with his daughter?”

  “It was sweet, actually,” Salem explained. “She phoned me in Atlanta, worried about how I was doing at home alone. She came to see me. We got to know each other. She actually lives with me now. She saved me. She really did.”

  “I would have gone back with you,” Seth scoffed.

  “I know you would have,” Salem said, laying her head on her brother’s shoulder. “But you have your own life to live. The point I am making is that Arielle has had a miserable life. She doesn’t have a close, loving family like ours. We each always have someone on our side. Someone looking out for us, but she has been very alone.”

  Seth’s eyes changed from angry to slightly sympathetic, but only slightly.

  “I care about her a lot. I’d like you to try and know her.”

  “I can’t promise anything.”

  “Just try,” Salem asked. “She’s been every bit as wounded as we have. All she has is her father, and he has been a shell of his former self since our mother went away. Arielle just wants to be part of a family. I like having her around.”

  Taking the night off from work, Artemis prepared an elaborate meal for the family. It was a special night with everyone home. In a few days, Seth and Yasmine would be married. And once they returned home from their honeymoon, Artemis would be at the restaurant all the time, and Yasmine would be taking over the family meals. Artemis spared no culinary expense to make the last big family meal under her watch spectacular.

  “I would like to make a toast,” Olympia announced, raising a glass of wine to the table.

  “Oh Hecate, just eat while you can enjoy it,” Fable laughed. “This is probably the last time we will have a decent meal. I don’t relish the idea of Yazzy’s cooking after The Cobblestone opens.”

  “Hey!” Yasmine whined.

  Artemis chimed in at her niece’s defense. “I’ll have you know that Yasmine has already learned quite a bit. She will do splendidly. Besides, it is much better than Demitra taking over.”

  “I’ll have you know that my husband loved my cooking,” Demitra argued.

  “No, he didn’t,” Artemis revealed. “I always left him a plate of whatever I cooked in the fridge, and he’d sneak down after you went to bed and eat again.”

  “He did not!” Demitra said.

  “Oh, he did!” Seth laughed. “Uncle Larry and I used to have 10 o’clock supper together all the time.”

  “Mother, your food was bad,” Beryl chimed in. “Fable and I used to ask Hecate for lunch money every day because we did not want to eat the leftovers you put in our lunch boxes.”

  “You are all worrying over nothing,” Yasmine snorted. “My meals will be great.”

  Seth kissed her softly on the cheek, “Don’t worry, baby. I will eat whatever you prepare. If I get sick, Beryl can always heal me after.”

  Everyone had a hearty laugh at Seth’s joke. Arielle smiled too. She had never experienced anything like this. Most of her life she had taken all of her meals in her bedroom alone, until she’d reached 16 years old and was expected to sit at the formal table with her family in complete silence as meals were consumed. Sitting so casually around a table amid laughter and good-natured insults was refreshing to her. No one was dressed up. Elbows were on the table. Bowls of food were simply laying in the center for anyone to help themselves to more if they wished. This was a new experience.

  Olympia cleared her throat, “Anyway, I was attempting to make a toast to the bride and groom.” She raised her glass to Seth and Yasmine. “May you both have every happiness this world can provide. And may your love for one another remain its own source of power for the remainder of your lives.”

  Everyone sipped their wine to her words as Seth stood up himself. “Thank you, Hecate. I would also like to make a toast.” He looked down at his bride-to-be. “First, I would like to toast my best friend, and soulmate—soon to be my wife. I promise to make you the happiest wife that ever lived. I promise to protect you, love you, be faithful to you, and tell you off anytime you make me mad—lovingly, of course.”

  The family chuckled.

  “I would also like to thank Hecate, and my lovely aunts for making me the man I am today.”

  “Should we throw our glasses at them for that?” Fable asked her sister.

  “I’m not finished,” Seth continued. “I would also like to thank Fable and Beryl for being tolerant of me all these years. For being my sisters and not just cousins. I would also like to toast Salem. My big sister. Thanks for always being there for me, loving me, forgiving me, and especially for always freezing Beryl whenever she was winning one of our wrestling matches when we were kids.”

  “I knew it!” Beryl cried.

  “He was littler than you,” Salem laughed.

  Arielle was smiling at the scene around her, but she was also drifting off in thought. Behind her smile lingered a twinge of sadness for having missed out on a family like this. She and Cassandra never bantered. They had never been close. Arielle hadn’t realized how much she’d missed out on in life until sitting there at the Blanchard table.

  “And lastly,” Seth finished, reaching across the table and tapping Arielle gently on the shoulder to get her attention. “I would like to welcome my new…sister.”

  Arielle was not prepared for that bit of unexpected sentiment. She glanced up at him with disbelieving eyes, certain she’d misheard, but hoping that she hadn’t.

  “Yes, sister. My new little sister. I hope we will get to know each other. I am actually glad you are here.”

  There was no concealing the happiness Seth’s words brought to Arielle. Her eyes were full of moisture and joy . She smiled and whispered a thank you. She nervously looked up at all the members of the family now staring at her with warm, welcoming smiles. Salem reached over and squeezed her hand.

  “Welcome to the family.”