Liam cleared his throat before he continued, “That day. When your mother died. I saw it. Last night I had a dream and I was her and I saw you and the people who killed her and I watched her die, I felt her die. Her thoughts, her feelings, I felt them all. Everything.” 

Heather stared at him in shock. “You felt her die? You were there?”

Liam nodded his head, too shaken to talk.

“Oh, jeez. That…That must have been a lot…I only ever got a couple of those dreams but nothing like that. I can’t even imagine. Liam,” she assuaged, rubbing his back. This time, he didn’t push her away. “Liam, I can’t imagine what you’re going through. When my powers awakened I was very young. I don’t remember much of what happened, but I will do my best to help you. My knowledge is pretty limited. You saw how young I was when my parents passed away. I went to my uncle’s like she told me but no one wanted to take me in. I was a curse to the family and keeping me around would only bring death. After I was passed between family members a few times, I decided to just live on my own. Unfortunately, all I know is what I learned from our grimoire. I can let you read it, but it doesn’t leave this house. Do you understand?”

Liam nodded his head again. He had too many thoughts, his head swarming with questions. 

“You should try to get some rest. We can talk tomorrow when you wake up. Your powers are going to be all over the place. The best thing you can do right now is try to relax. Keeping your emotions in check is really important, especially when your magic is this volatile. You need to eat a lot and rest well,” she advised. “Tomorrow, I will lend you the book and we can go over it together.”

Liam got up and trudged to his bedroom. He felt like his body weighed a thousand tons. He had planned to read the book he got from Arthur but now all he wanted to do was sleep. He was completely drained. Collapsing onto his bed, Liam replayed the conversion with his mother over and over again in his head. How did she hide her powers his entire life? How come her eyes don’t look like his? Why did she have to be such an asshole about everything? He pulled the blankets over him as he rolled over, looking out his bedroom window. 

Tomorrow, I’m going to go see Arthur. I don’t really want to be here right now but I’m too exhausted to move. Liam drifted off to sleep as he filed through all of his thoughts. 

The smell of bacon woke Liam out of his restless sleep. He felt like he got hit by a truck. He laid on his back and stared at the ceiling, struggling to get up. Why am I so stiff? My whole body is aching terribly. A sharp pain shot through his skull as he sat up. Ugh, it feels like the worst hangover ever. It took a few seconds before he mustered the strength to move to the kitchen. 

Liam’s feet drug as he walked into the kitchen. He yawned, scratching his stomach, then stretched before he noticed the woman making breakfast looked nothing like his mother. He froze in the doorway like a deer in headlights.

The woman turned around, smiling meekly as she placed a plate on the kitchen table. “Good morning, Liam. How’d you sleep?”

What? He looked behind him like maybe she was talking to someone else. 

“Yes, I’m talking to you. Sit down and eat. I told you last night that you’ll need to be eating a lot,” she said cooly, gesturing to the chair tucked into the kitchen table.

“What is going on? Why do you look like that?”

“Well, that’s pretty rude to say to your mother.”

“You know what I mean. You look completely different,” Liam chidded. 

“I figured I would stop hiding things from you since you know now. This is what I actually look like. I don’t really age anymore but people would get suspicious if the years never showed.. Now that I don’t have to hide myself at home, I can save a lot of energy,” she replied as she sat at the table to eat. 

Liam was baffled. I knew I was in for a lot of new things but this takes the cake. For starters, she made me breakfast. When has she ever been this nice to me? He sat down across from his mother, unable to take his eyes off of her. She’s actually really beautiful. She had the same pin-straight, jet-black hair that he did. She was no longer overweight. Thin, but not skin and bones, no lack of  muscle either. She probably earned that from the years of manual labor jobs. The wrinkles on her skin were all gone. Her face was now baby smooth, not a single crows foot around her golden eyes. 

Wait. Her eyes. They are golden. Not deep and stormy like mine but they are golden for sure. They look like sweet honey glowing in the sun.

“You’re beautiful, Mom,” Liam said softly.

Heather’s fork stopped midair at his sudden compliment. “Oh, um, thank you. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to show my real self. I almost forgot what I looked like. Im’m sorry I hid it from you.”

“Your eyes are golden too. I never knew that we had matching eyes,” he pointed out. 

“Well, it’s the most important thing we have to hide. Speaking of. That needs to be one of the first things that you learn. I can’t let you go out, running amok with a giant target on your face. Now that your powers are awake, your eyes will be visible to everyone unless you hide them. At home, you can be yourself. But if you think you can just go outside whenever you want, you’ve got another thing coming,” she explained, matter of fact. “Keeping your emotions level is going to be really important. I know I sound like a broken record but the more upset you get, the harder it will be for you to control your magic.”

“Like when I blew up the lightbulb last night…”

“Yes, just like that. Thankfully we live in these rundown apartments, everyone probably thought it was the shoddy electric surging. We really have to be more careful from now on. It may have been three-hundred years but I doubt everyone has forgotten about us. It won’t take much to stir up some trouble. I’m going to do my best to correct my attitude. I know nothing I can say can make up for the way I’ve acted but I hope not to be like that anymore. I just need you to be a little patient with me. I’ll stop hiding things from you too. Okay?” She asked wholeheartedly. 

Liam stirred the food around on his plate, thinking. It’s really hard to believe anything that she says. How can someone just turn one-eighty like that? It’s going to take more than some breakfast and empty promises for me to accept that you’ve changed. 

After a bit of thinking, Liam told his mother, without looking up from his plate, “no more drinking.”

Heather sighed, she knew he was right. “Okay, I think I can do that. Drinking was an easy way for me to lessen my magical presence. Now that I don’t have to keep up my appearance all the time, I’ll have more energy to spend on protecting the apartment. I’m not strong enough to cover up when your magic lashes out, though.”

“Thank you. Can you also keep your mess cleaned up? It really drives me crazy.”

“Yes, I can do that too,” she agreed. “Finish your breakfast so we can get to work.”

Liam nodded his head and finally began to eat.