บท 107: Just a Label

- DOMINIK -

Luka delivers that news and then just leaves—walks out the door—leaving my mind spinning with the new information. He and I are related? We are descended from witches? Witches?! Really?

Vanessa takes my hand, and I pull her into an embrace as if to comfort her when in reality it is comforting me just as much. I'm tall enough that her head fits under my chin, and I stare at the rest of this large, luxurious, impersonal room wondering about everything that was just said. 

"You did know I was cursed at Mad River," Vanessa says, voice muffled against my chest. "And how to cure it with the river." 

"Because my mother was a healer. Not because she was a witch." The words come automatically, and for some reason the need to defend my family against that word—witch—is instant. 

"Witch is just a label," she says, finally tipping her head up to look at me. "It doesn't mean she was bad."