Chapter 4 She never abandoned you

"Why didn't you just tell me that?" she asked, tears welling in her eyes. "All these years... I thought she abandoned me."

Leah pulled the car gently to the side of the road and stopped. Her own hands were trembling as she reached for a tissue and wiped Aurelia eyes.

"She never abandoned you, dear. In fact, she loved you so much. She always has and I know she still does." Leah looked at her, her expression raw and sincere. "I can't tell you the full story. Not yet. You're not ready. But you have to believe me when I say your mother loved you. And she was just as stubborn as you."

Aurelia gave a small, tearful smile, comforted yet aching with questions.

"Then... can I at least know where she was buried?" she asked softly.

Leah's eyes shimmered with tears. One slipped down her cheek before she quickly wiped it away.

"She wasn't buried," Leah said, her voice barely above a whisper. "None of them were."

She turned back to the wheel and began driving again. Aurelia stared at her, confused by what she meant but something in Leah's expression told her not to press further.

Not yet at least.

They drove home in silence. The tension from the earlier conversation still lingered in the air, but neither of them said a word.

Once they got home, Aurelia went straight to her room to start packing her clothes for boarding school. She moved quietly, folding each item with care, while her aunt had already placed some new supplies and essentials on the bed things she had picked up for her earlier in the day. Toothpaste, notebooks, a new set of sheets. Everything was ready.

Meanwhile, in another part of town, inside a warm, well-lit house, a mother and daughter sat together on the floor of a pink-and-purple-themed bedroom. They were surrounded by folded clothes, hair products, snacks, and a few magical trinkets subtly hidden among the more mundane items.

"Mom, do you think they won't find out we're witches?" the girl asked nervously, glancing at her mother. "This part of the country has a huge grudge against our kind."

Her mother gave a small smile, brushing a lock of hair away from her daughter's face. "That was more than ten years ago. Times have changed. And I heard most of those people left this area... something about them never truly finding peace here."

She stood and stretched, brushing off her hands.

"Tidy up your room, dear. Let me go make dinner," she said gently as she walked out.

The moment her mother left, Sheila shut her bedroom door and locked it. Then she stood in the center of her room, raised her hand slightly, and whispered three times:

"Escucha, Madre Naturaleza, ordena esta habitación."

As the final word left her lips, the room shimmered with faint green light. Books stacked themselves neatly, clothes folded and flew into drawers, and her bed sheets straightened on their own.

Sheila smiled to herself.

"How can anyone hate witches when we have the sweetest power?" she said with a chuckle, then climbed onto her bed and began scrolling through her phone, completely at ease.

"If you people don't have a proper way to handle all the supernatural kids, then why ask the parents to bring them here in the first place?" Nico said sharply, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall of the crowded office. "Why insist on these boarding requirements when most of them are going to be just regular human beings?"

"It's a school," Principal Heather replied with a calm that sounded more forced than real. "That's why we have you. You're the strongest of both the old blood and the young generation. You can't die, Nico. And we know you have the power to make them all obey."

Nico gave a dry laugh, devoid of humor. "You want me to make a bunch of supernatural teenagers obey school rules and not hurt their human classmates? Yeah, I'm not doing that."

Heather's smile faltered. Across the room, the tension thickened.

"Well if we had a witch, we could've used spells to keep the situation under control. But unfortunately, we don't have any left in this part of the country. You guys figure out a way to control them. I don't care how," Nico replied coolly. "But if I catch any of them doing something stupid or dangerous, I'll handle it my way. I can beat them up for you." His smile then was sharp and cold not really a smile at all. Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked out, leaving the room in a heavy silence.

Sheriff Stiles sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Looks like the only option is to call them all in. Threaten them a little. Keep people on patrol and on the lookout."

"Where exactly are we supposed to find the right people to keep an eye on supernaturals?" Mr. Brown asked, frustration rising in his voice.

"This is annoying," muttered Mrs. Carolina. "Why won't Nico just help properly?"

"Well, technically, he's older than all of us," Priest Rex said, adjusting his collar. "He has every right to decide not to help."

The council fell into a bitter silence. No one had a real solution. The meeting ended not with answers, but with uncertainty. All they could do was brace themselves for whatever chaos would begin when the school opened its doors the next day.

Later at dinner, Aurelia and her aunt Leah sat across from each other at the small kitchen table, the gentle clatter of cutlery the only sound for a while.

"So," Aunt Leah said, giving her niece a knowing look, "tell me about the boy that made two girls want to fight with you."

Aurelia chuckled, amused. She began telling her aunt how she and Nico started talking, recounting everything that had happened in her calm, straightforward way.

"That's a lovely adventure," Leah replied with a warm smile.

"Do you like the boy?" she asked, her tone casual but curious.

"Aunt, I've only known him for like one day," Aurelia said, laughing.

Leah chuckled too, shaking her head gently. The conversation drifted on, the dinner continuing with small talk and easy laughter. The night felt light, the earlier worries of the day tucked away for now.