Chapter Text
December 23rd
The forest was cold and the ground was covered with a thin layer of snow and ice. The soles of Zelda's boots were easily slipping on it, but Satan's forbid, a little snow wouldn't have stopped her from wearing her favorite shoes.
She was holding a bundle of blankets in her arms and hanged to her left elbow, there was Leticia's black lacey cradle. Zelda had enchanted Leticia's blankets so that the babe wouldn't be cold. It was the first time she left the house, apart from the time when Zelda kidnapped her and brought her home, a few weeks prior.
Zelda's heart was pounding in her chest, she was nervous and worried, and walking in the cold wasn't helping at all.
The sky was dark, it was almost midnight. The witching hour. Of course, if something was to happen, it had to be at that time.
She knew the way to Mary Wardwell's isolated house, she had walked that path before. It was the first time, though, that she was walking there completely sober.
Zelda stood before the closed door and held her black fur coat; she knocked twice firmly, even though she wasn't sure of anything at that precise moment.
It took Mary a few moments to reach the door. Wearing an emerald dressing gown, Madam Satan peeked through the crack between the door and the door frame. Her fake smile turned in a grimace when she noticed it wasn't the youngest Spellman at her door, as she thought, but the eldest.
“Zelda,” she said, eyeing the bundle of dark blankets the other woman was holding to her chest, “what can I do for you?”
Zelda looked around with circumspection as if she feared someone had followed her. Her heart was about to explode in her chest, but she rose her head with dignity, trying to at least look fierce.
“Father Blackwood called me on very short notice, I have to go and check his son. My sister, niece, and nephew aren't home and you told me you would have look after the babe if needed.”
Zelda would have never asked if it wasn't extremely important. When Blackwood called, she panicked. Fearing he might decide to go visit her himself, she grabbed Leticia, wrapped her up in a few blankets and left the house.
Hilda and Ambrose were dating their boyfriends, Sabrina was spending the night at Susie's; Zelda appeared lost for a moment before she decided that desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Please, come in.”
Mary let her in and closed the door behind them. The fire was burning in the fireplace, a nice warm sensation welcomed them and Zelda could breathe a sigh of relief. The baby in her arms was sleeping peacefully, but Zelda's hands, ears, and nose were freezing.
“Would you like something to drink?”
She heard Mary ask, but she shook her head no, as she put down the cradle and turned to face the other witch. Personal space was a stranger to Mary Wardwell, and whenever they were in the same room, the space between them was always minimum. That was no exception. The only thing that kept them apart was Leticia's little body.
Things between Zelda and Mary weren't defined, and they both liked it that way. Zelda tolerated her way better after the last time they'd seen each other, but that house was bringing to her mind memories she would have liked to erase, rash decisions and pain.
“Will you look after her for a couple of hours? I will check upon baby Judas and be right back.”
For a moment, Mary's face went blank, and it took her a few seconds to reply; but after that, her eyebrows rose up to her hairline as she held her arms out to take the baby.
“Why, of course.”
Zelda stepped forward and let Mary hold Leticia in her arms, reluctantly. Zelda's hand was still on the baby's tiny head, as she was fixing the blankets to cover her up. Leticia was still asleep.
From there, Zelda could sense Leticia's sweet smell mixing up with Mary's peculiar scent: woodsmoke and something sour she couldn't quite figure out. It was strangely comforting; against her expectations, she wasn't terrified at the idea of leaving baby Leticia in the hands of Mary Wardwell.
Keeping her eyes on her, Zelda leaned forward to place a soft kiss on the baby's forehead.
“May the Mother of Demons bless you, my child.”
She had prayed to Lilith the night of the Solstice, with all she had, all through the night; she had asked her to watch over her and to protect her baby, and she hoped the Mother of Demons had listened.
When she finally met Mary's glare, her icy blue eyes were indecipherable.
“Everything she might need is in the cradle. I fed her and changed her, she shouldn't wake up, but if she does and starts crying, there's her pacifier and her rattle. If that doesn't work, she loves playing peekaboo. That'll do.”
Zelda didn't want to leave her. She didn't. She couldn't.
She stayed there, in silence, close to Mary. One hand clenched to her fur coat, above her heart, and the other holding the baby's head; she was looking at her without really thinking about something, she was just enjoying her beauty. She was trying to calm herself, before the moment that would have inevitably arrived.
Zelda didn't know how long it had been before she heard Mary's voice.
“Shouldn't you be on your way? Before Father Blackwood starts to suspect something?”
It hit her like a cold shower. She stepped back and straightened her back, nodding. Zelda fixed her fur coat, then her hair.
“Yes. Yes, I'd better go. I'll be back in a couple of hours. Thank you.”
Without any further due, Zelda turned her back to them, walking away and leaving the house without hesitation.
If she'd turn her head, if she'd say something else, she wouldn't be able to leave. She wouldn't hold back the tears. She loved that baby as if she was her own.
Zelda started walking through those colds woods again, alone, and she couldn't stop thinking about Leticia, not even for a second, while the icy wind was drying the tears that kept rolling down her cheeks.