"Our father's name is Joss Weaving." Hugo says, sipping on a cherry soda.
"What does he do for work? Does he know about me?" I ask, wringing my hands together nervously.
"He's a telemarketer, and like I said on the phone, I don't know if he knows about you."
"Is he a warlock?"
Hugo nods. "My mother is a witch too."
I nudge him. "Obvi, if she wasn't, you wouldn't have magic."
"Really?" Hugo looked genuinely surprised. "I thought you just had to have one magical parent to be a witch or warlock."
"Nope!" Aislynn explains. "If the mother isn't a witch, the children won't be either."
"Back to more important topics. If our dad doesn't know about me, how did you find me?" I ask, poofing up a soda for myself.
"He told me about an affair he had seventeen years ago. He told me her name was Moira Stefansdottir, that she was unmarried and the affair lasted two weeks."
"Our maiden name is Stefansdottir." Aunt Fiore whispers, barely loud enough for us to hear.
"So, out of curiosity, I searched for her on Meinhexenbuch. I-"
"You searched her on what?" We're all confused.
"Meinhexenbuch. The German language version of Mywitchbook. Anyway, I found her as Moira Logan, and her son Keith. I thought 'oh, that'd be funny if he was my brother'. But then I looked through Keith's pictures, and saw the picture of his father, who we know already passed, and the resemblance was uncanny. I figured that was it, I didn't have another sibling, but then I saw the list of profiles he'd visited. Keith checks your profile a lot, Taryn."
"I know, that's why I blocked him." I say.
"When I saw your face, I knew. We look exactly like our father."
"That's us Stefansdottir girls, we always look like our fathers." Aislynn says mirthlessly.
"I found out last year, but I didn't want to tell you right away. I didn't want to scare you off, but since my parents don't have profiles on Meinhexenbuch, I thought it'd be okay to put you on my profile as one of my heroes."
"Awww. Do you have any pictures of him?" I ask, smiling.
Hugo is about to speak again, when his phone begins to buzz. The caller ID says 'Dad'.
"Um, hallo?" he says nervously, putting the call on speakerphone.
"HUGO ALOYSIUS WEAVING, WHERE ARE YOU?" The voice on the other end shouts so loudly we all jump. I find it strange that he doesn't have an accent like Hugo, but I remember Hugo saying he'd moved to Germany, not that he'd returned.
"Um, not home?" Hugo's voice is shaking.
"Not home? Not in the country is more like it! What the hell are you doing in New York state?!"
"Dad, I'm sorry, but I'm really busy right now. I have to go. I'll be-"
"Don't you dare try to hang up on me! Your mother is worried sick, you're fifteen for God's sake, you can't just go poofing around wherever and whenever you like! What are you doing in New York?!"
Hugo sighs heavily, and looks at me. I nod, squeezing his hand gently.
"Dad...Dad, I found my sister."
There's a long moment of silence before the voice speaks again, this time much calmer. "Hugo, that's ridiculous. You're an only child."
"No, I'm being serious, Dad. Do you remember the woman you met in Florida seventeen years ago?"
"Moira Stefansdottir. She lied and told me she wasn't married."
"You got her pregnant, Dad. You have a daughter." Hugo looks up at me and smiles. "She's right here with me."
Heavy breathing. Finally, the voice speaks again. "Are you sure? Absolutely sure?"
"Why not come see for yourself? That's okay, right?" Hugo directs the second question towards Aunt Fiore, who nods.
The line goes dead, and Hugo looks sad. "I guess he-"
A loud bang comes from the right and we all jump again. A tall, stern-looking man stands before us, wearing a navy blue business suit. He looks us all over, then stops when our eyes meet. The recognition sets in, and his face softens.
"Hi." I manage. "I'm Taryn."
He doesn't say anything, he keeps staring at me. I can see the flood of emotions coursing through him. Surprise, elation, sadness, regret, love.
"All these years...all these years and I never knew. My little girl, I always wanted a little girl." His eyes begin to tear up, and mine start to sting as well.
"I'm not little anymore, but I'm still yours." I choke up.
"Dad, she's real. She's right here." Hugo grabs my hand and walks me closer to our father, who's frozen in place.
I slowly reach out for him, and touch his arm. He seemingly snaps out of his frozen haze and looks down at my hand, as though he's making sure Hugo's telling the truth, that I am real.
"Mein kleines Mädchen." He whispers, and pulls me into a tight hug. I rest my head on his shoulder, and wrap my arms around him, smiling as tears run down my face. "Mein schönes kleines Mädchen." I don't know what he's saying, but I can only imagine it's wonderful things.
We stand there for a while before Aunt Fiore clears her throat. We all turn to face her.
"Well, I don't want to interrupt this moment, but the girls haven't eaten yet. You're welcome to join us for breakfast if you like."
Hugo begins to laugh loudly, doubling over and holding his stomach. Aunt Fiore looks at him, utterly confused.
"What did I say?" She asks, glancing at me.
"We live in Germany, we had breakfast like, five hours ago!" Hugo is still doubled over laughing, and I roll my eyes. Fifteen year olds, I swear.
"Well, you're still welcome to join us. I'm making blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs. Taryn, could you help me out in here? I'd like you to cook up some sausage."
I nod. "Yes, Aunt Fiore." I open the refrigerator and take out the sausages, heating up a pan on the far right of the stove.
"Mom, what can I do?" Aislynn asks.
"Set the table for five, without using your magic, please. I don't need my tablecloths getting zapped weird colors again." Aunt Fiore puts on her favorite apron, which she usually wears to bake. It always smells of vanilla and lemon.
"Mo-om, I was ten when that happened, and it was an accident!" Aislynn whines.
"Aislynn..." Aunt Fiore warns.
"Okay, okay. No magic."
While the sausages are cooking, I help Aislynn set the table. I get out the orange, apple, and cranberry juice, start up the coffee pot, and pour the respective juices into Aunt Fiore's homemade pitchers. Aislynn puts our embroidered placemats in front of our usual seats, and places two blank ones in front of Hugo and my father. After a few seconds, the placemats embroider themselves with their names.
"Wow, you guys really go all out, don't you?" Hugo asks, gingerly touching the placemat now labled with his name.
"This is breakfast every day for us." Aunt Fiore smiles at them, piling a large plate high with blueberry pancakes. I take the plate and set it on the table, and return my attention to the sausages, which are almost fully cooked. We all like our sausages to have crispy skins, I personally enjoy the 'snap!' they make when you bite into them.
"Hmm. I usually eat cereal and bread rolls." Hugo glances at our dad.
"Hugo, your mother has tried many times to teach you how to cook, but you're just too lazy."
"Muesli tastes good, Dad! There's nothing wrong with just having cereal!"
"I didn't say that, I just said you're too lazy to learn how to cook."
"Trust me, when he tastes Aunt Fiore's food, he'll be begging to learn how she does it." I say, loading the sausages and eggs onto a plate and placing them on the table. Aunt Fiore takes the coffeepot and places it onto a potholder on the table.
"Taryn, would you like the honors of cleaning the kitchen?" She asks, mussing my hair up.
"Okay." I turn to the disaster zone, take a deep breath, and focus my magic.
"This kitchen looks so obscene,
Let it be wiped clean!"
A gust of wind blows through the kitchen, and the pots and utensils all tremble, then poof out of sight. I hear the pots and pans clatter into place in the cabinet, and I smile, satisfied.
"Let's eat!" I say excitedly, reaching for some pancakes and a sausage. Hugo and our father both reach for the sausage and eggs, and Aislynn just grabs a pancake. Aunt Fiore pours herself some apple juice and treats herself to a pancake and eggs.
"So Taryn, I've noticed that you've gotten taller. Are your clothes fitting you okay?" Aunt Fiore asks.
I nod, scooping up some eggs. "My clothes fit fine, but I've had a ridiculous appetite ever since the unbinding spell. I've actually lost some weight since then, too."
"Yes, I noticed that too. When someone's magic is inhibited the way yours was, the release can cause the body's metabolism to speed up. You might actually keep your good metabolism if you eat right and exercise."
"I already do that." I say. "I've done that my whole life, well at least the eating right part. Kinda hard to exercise with broken bones."
"What?"
At that moment, I'm reminded that the father I never knew existed is sitting at the table with us. Hugo swallows hard.
"Joss, I'm sorry. There are things you need to know about the way Taryn was treated by her mother and Keith, but they can wait. Let's just-"
"I'd much rather know about them now. I assume there's a reason she's living with you instead of her mother, yes? And what's this about an unbinding spell?"
I slowly stand up, facing my father. "I want to finish my breakfast first. A lot has happened in the past three months since I moved in with Aunt Fiore, but I would rather talk about them after I've eaten."
"I agree, let's finish eating first and then we can talk about how shitty of a person my aunt is." Aislynn muttered.
"Aislynn!"
"Sorry, mom. You know it's true, though."
"That doesn't negate the fact that you're living under my roof and there is a strict 'no profanity from persons under the age of twenty' rule in this house, and last I checked, you're nineteen."
Aislynn sighed. "Yes, mom."
After that, the rest of our meal is uncomfortably quiet. I loose my appetite at some point, a fact I don't realize until I look down at my plate and see a mush of pancakes, eggs and sausage in the middle of my plate.
"Eww." I push my plate away and walk to the couch, sighing as I sink into it's familiar and warm plushness. I look up at the ceiling, the blank white staring back down at me. The last time I'd talked about my past abuse was with Rachel. I'd ended up crying in her arms at some point during the night. I'd spent so much of my life trying to block it out, and even when I'd first ran away to Aunt Fiore and Aislynn, I let Aunt Fiore search my memories instead of telling her myself, mainly because she insisted that she could handle it because of her past work with young abuse victims. Talking about it brought those memories back, memories I desperately didn't want.
I feel the couch sink slightly, and l look over to see Hugo looking at me, sadness in his eyes.
"They broke your bones?" He whispers, his voice trembling.
I nod. "My brother. Well, half-brother."
"Brothers don't break their sister's bones. Siblings aren't supposed to hurt each other." Tears are welling up in his eyes now. "How often did it happen?"
I begin to cry. "I can't remember. I was always covered in bruises, and Keith broke my bones multiple times. It was so awful."
Hugo lets out a silent wail and hugs me tightly. I bury my face in his hair, trying not to be loud, but failing miserably. I've cried so many tears in my life, it still surprises me that I have any left.
Hugo pulls away from me and wipes his eyes on his black sleeves, then puts his head in his hands. He's still trembling.
"I never...I never imagined it could be so bad. I thought it was weird that Keith was always on your profile but never posted anything, that you didn't have either of them as friends. I didn't know they were hurting you."
"No one knew, not until I was fifteen. My mother did everything she could to cover up all the damage she did."
"I hope I never meet her. I'd send her flying off the tallest cliff I could find."
I'm about to playfully scold him when my father and Aunt Fiore walk in having a heated argument.
"Joss, there was nothing I could do, Moira kept us magically numbed to Taryn's existence for most of her life. If Taryn hadn't come looking for us, who knows what could have happened! The fact of the matter is that she's here now and she's safe, she's happy! Why can't you let her have that?!"
"I'm just finding out today that I have a teenage daughter who was abused for most of her life. She's coming back with me, where she belongs, and that's final!"
"You can't just take her away from me, especially not in the middle of her training! She's happy and loved here, she's protected from Moira and Keith here. She has friends, she's made a life here and you to want to drag her off to a country she doesn't even speak the language of in the beginning of her junior year?"
"You think she's safe living in the same city as those monsters? What if one day, she's walking down the street and she gets snatched up by one of them? Then what, Fiore?!"
"Stop it!" I yell. Both of them turn to look at me. "First of all, just because I'm your daughter doesn't give you the right to take me away from my aunt. Second of all, once November hits, I'm going to be eighteen, which means neither of you will have legal custody over me. Until then, I still have the choice of who I want to stay with, and I'm choosing Aunt Fiore. She's done so much for me, she uprooted her life just so I could spend the rest of my time in high school happy and motivated, so that I could spend more time with my cousin and build a stronger relationship with her. In the short time I've been here, Aislynn has become the older sister I always wanted, just like the last time I was here. It was in fact, Aislynn's idea for them to move to a new unplotted apartment. Only witches can find us, and my mother and brother are magically barred from entering. Forever."
"Dad..." Hugo looks up expectantly.
"What is it, son?"
"You know, it's not like we can't visit her often. We're warlocks after all, we can teleport whenever and wherever. You don't have to take her away to have a relationship with her. Please, Dad."
Our father glares at the floor for a while, then returns his gaze to us.
"You promise me that you're happy here? They're doing all they can for you?"
I nod vigorously. "If I weren't happy here, I'd just run away again."
"Please keep in touch." He looks at Aunt Fiore. "If you need anything, anything at all-"
"I'll let you know, Joss. I promise."
He nods, and gestures to Hugo. "We'd better head back home, your mother is very upset with you right now."
Hugo sighs, and hugs me tightly. I kiss his head and return the hug, promising him under my breath that I'd pop over as soon as I could. After another life-squeezing hug from my father, they both pop away, and I let out a long breath, looking at my aunt and cousin.
"Things just keep getting crazier, don't they?" I ask.
"Well, that's what happens when you're a witch." Aislynn says, and we all laugh.