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Chapter Text

The thrown pebble wasn’t large enough to cause any real damage, but it stung Ben’s cheek nonetheless.

“Witch! Witch! You’re a Witch!” The gaggle of taunting children chanted at him on the little elementary school playground.

“You’d think, after all this time, you could come up with something more creative! You’re all unimaginative little dung beetles!” Poe yelled back loudly enough to be heard over their high-pitched voices. He put his arm around Ben’s shoulders and began pulling him away from the swings.

The recess monitors were conveniently ignoring the disruption. Why would they bother themselves about protecting kids from the Skywalker family? It would only lead to trouble with the other townsfolk, who preferred to shun the clan at every opportunity.

“Come on,” Poe said. “Let’s go home. They won’t care if we leave early.”

Ben didn’t trust himself to speak. The taunts had hurt more than the stone, thrown as they were barely a fortnight after his father’s death.

Despite his brave reaction in front of their classmates, Ben noticed Poe letting tears of his own slip down his face once they were out of sight. Poe may have been adopted only a few years ago, but he had loved their Dad with his whole heart.

The two of them made their way along the narrow sidewalks of the little New England village and across the bridge to the island. The Skywalker family’s ancestral home was built there, looming like a many-storied majesty over a craggy walk to the waves below. Their Uncle Luke waited for them in the sprawling garden, and he was already serving up slices of freshly baked chocolate cake at the outdoor table.

“Cutting class?” he asked with an understanding wink.

“Yes,” Ben said, taking his slice and sinking into a metal garden chair.

“Were they bullying you again?”

Ben swallowed thickly. “Why do they hate us so much? I’ve only ever tried to be nice to them.”

“Because they’re a load of thick-witted nincompoops. Who cares what they think, anyway?” Poe answered angrily, beginning to disassemble his cake slice with large bites. Chocolate smeared his lips.

Luke smiled at him. “Your brother’s right, Ben.”

“They don’t hate us, sweetheart,” his mother’s voice called out as she approached through a wooden trellis. “They’re just afraid because we’re…well…different.”

Her face fell when she took in the bruise rising on Ben’s cheek.

“A little witch-hazel for that, I think,” she said. “And I’ll have a talk with the Principal. I can’t believe this is starting up again!”

“It’s because of…of Dad dying. They think it’s because of the curse. And it’s reminded them we’re…different,” Ben explained to her. “Mom, is the curse why Dad died?”

He’d barely allowed himself to think the question in the days following his father’s passing. The implications were more horrifying than his eleven-year-old mind wanted to wrestle with. But his fresh anger and pain from this afternoon made him throw caution to the wind.

Poe stopped his aggressions against his snack, and regarded the two adults with a frightened face. Leia sank into her seat and did her best to smooth the crumpling of her features.

“I’m afraid so, sweethearts,” she said, looking between her boys. “I heard the deathwatch beetle ticking his life away for days before the accident. It was just like with your Grandmother Padme. And Aunt Mara.”

Ben clenched his fist around his fork in sudden rage. “Is there no hope then? Anyone we fall in love with will die? All because of some asshole who cursed Grandpa Anakin?”

“I’ve…tried to find a way to break the curse,” Luke said softly, but his voice cracked and he shook his head. He’d loved his wife enormously. Ben’s father had also been one of Luke’s oldest friends. His only real friend—other than his twin sister.

“There’s some hope for you, Poe, dear,” Leia said. “We don’t know if the curse will affect you or not. I tried to explain that to your parents when they named me your Goddess-Mother, but they said they couldn’t imagine another member of the Coven taking care of you if something happened to them. And I’ll be honest….despite everything, I’m very glad they ignored me.”

Poe smiled at her as she lovingly smoothed his rumpled black curls back from his forehead.

Ben watched his mother carefully. She was doing her best. Trying to remain cheerful for their sakes. But his keen eyes caught the dark shadows that loomed under her once bright eyes. He saw the extra effort she had to put into tugging the corners of her mouth upwards. This is what comes of a broken heart, he thought.

“Come on,” Luke said. “That’s enough of thinking about things we can’t fix. Since you’re home early, you can practice your spells.”

“What about our homework?” Ben asked.

“Pish tosh! You two will learn things here you could never learn in that ignorant school. Come on.”

Ben followed obediently—he wasn’t sure he liked magic that much anymore. It had killed his father, after all. And he seemed doomed to follow his mother’s sad fate.

***

The townsfolk always came scratching at the back door when they wanted magical assistance. This woman was no different. She’d scoff in the street at them regularly, but this evening her fingernails tapped anxiously as she peered through the distorted glass pane.

Ben looked up from his practice spell book with trepidation. The villagers asked for a range of things, and he didn’t like some of the smells his mother and uncle had to brew up. The little stones he was levitating continued to spin happily in front of his face. Poe—who was crouched on top of the table like a cat to watch Ben work—stopped chewing his chocolate covered strawberry. His glance toward the door was excited. He loved it when Luke and Leia meddled in the lives of their neighbors.

“Get the cauldron boiling,” Luke said softly to his sister.

“Get the Book,” Leia answered wryly, seeing who it was at the door.

Ben and Poe were shuffled upstairs out of the way, but crept down to the landing to watch anyway.

“He needs to leave his wife! I want him to want me. I love him so much I can’t stand it!” the soppy-faced woman was saying.

“We can’t take away free will like that,” his uncle said, as Leia added ingredients to the brew. “But we can help you to become more noticeable. Perhaps that will affect things in your favor. Or attract you someone else?”

“No, no,” the woman said, ignoring his explanation and shoving a roll of money into Luke’s hands. “It needs to be him. Why else would I be here? I want a spell! A spell that will give me the love I deserve!”

There was a long pause. “The love you deserve. We can do that,” Luke said at last.

The woman nodded triumphantly, and tossed one of her hairs—the final ingredient—into the cauldron. The flames shimmered blue for a heartbeat in response.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Leia cautioned softly, silent tears making their way down her solemn face.

Ben watched the falling tears with a leaden feeling in his heart. He lay his head on Poe’s shoulder and hugged his brother tightly.

“I hope I never fall in love. I hope I never fall in love,” he whispered. Love meant heartbreak and death.

“I can’t wait to fall in love,” Poe said, voice shining with barely suppressed glee.

***

“She’ll hear my call a mile away,” Ben said softly, moving through the house’s large glass conservatory under the pale light of the full moon. He plucked a white petal from a fragrant rose and added it to the wide wooden bowl.

“She’ll come from nothing, but be my everything,” another petal was added, this time from a different bloom.

“What are you doing?” Poe asked from the steps that led up from the indoor garden to the cavernous kitchen behind him. The moon light illuminated both of their pale faces and glistened in their dark hair. It turned their white pajamas into a haunting blue.

“Summoning up a true love spell for myself, called Amas Veritas,” Ben explained, before consulting his little spell diary and continuing. “She’ll have hazel eyes, and freckles. Her favorite shape will be a star. Her soul will be an echo of mine. We’ll always find each other, no matter what tries to part us.”

More white petals were sprinkled into the bowl, followed by one lush bloom from the star jasmine. The heady scent filled Ben’s mind as the spell began to hum its beginnings.

“I thought you never wanted to fall in love,” Poe said, trailing in Ben’s wake as he made his way up the many flights of stairs to the balcony of their shared bedroom.

“Don’t you see? The person I’ve dreamed of doesn’t exist. There’s no such thing as Soulmates, anyway. So if she doesn’t exist, and I cast a spell on myself to only fall in love with her, then I’ll never have to live with a broken heart. And I’ll never get anyone killed because of the curse.”

Poe watched solemnly as Ben completed the spell. He held the shallow bowl out before him at shoulder height and gazed at the moon.

“I’ll only love you. Come to me, love of mine,” he whispered. The petals swirled in the dish briefly, before sailing up and away on the fresh Spring air.

***

Seven Years Later

“Get the door, Ben!” Poe laughed, slinging the heavy duffle bag over his broad shoulders.

Ben barely managed to pull open the little glass door to the balcony before Poe stumbled giddily out into the night air and tossed the bag down to the muscular man waiting for him. The man caught it and grinned up at Poe.

“Haha! Ben, you have got to try this. Love is so much fun,” Poe said, gripping the railing and looking over his shoulder at him. Ben crossed his arms glumly.

“Yeah, but are you sure you love this guy enough? You know. To marry him?”

“Oh, come on, Ben. What’s enough? I hate it here! I want to go where no one has ever heard of us. Or the Coven. Or magic. I want to live somewhere warm and have fun and stop being so damn somber all the time.”

“You haven’t even finished high school.”

“Whatever. There’s only a few weeks left. They can mail me my degree.”

Ben fought the war of emotions rising in him. Alone. I don’t want to be alone, he thought.

“I feel like I’ll never see you again.”

“Are you kidding me?” Poe said, gripping Ben’s bicept now. “We’re going to grow old together. I bet we end up even crazier than Luke and Mom. We’ll have a ton of cats and do whatever we want with our lives. Together. It will be great.”

Ben met his brother’s eyes and tried to edit out the mournfulness he knew was lurking amidst the hope in his gaze.

“Do you swear?”

Poe grinned and leaned back over the railing. “Honey? Can I get your pocket knife?”

The man smiled goofily and tossed a small folded blade up to Poe, who caught it neatly.

“Here.” Poe unfolded the blade and scratched his palm, then Ben’s when he held it out. “My blood. Your blood.”

They clasped their hands together over the wounds. “Our blood,” they chanted together. The wounds healed instantly as the brother-sworn pact was sealed, but it left behind faint scars. Ben’s throbbed faintly as Poe pulled back his hand.

“We’re in this together, Ben. I’ll always be there for you.”

“I’ll always be there for you too.”

I just wish I didn’t feel so alone.

***

“Well, that didn’t last long,” Leia chortled as she held Poe’s letter open against the summer breeze. “Apparently he’s in Orlando now. Did you hear that, Luke? He’s in Orlando. And that Charlie fellow is history.”

Luke tutted as they walked back from the little Post Office. The mail service refused to visit their island, so they liked to stop by after picking up vegetables at the farmer’s market. Like most witches, they preferred physical letters to texting. The paper allowed for the transfer of feelings so much better than electronic communications.

Ben trailed behind them morosely.

“They were only married for three weeks,” he sighed. Summer had barely started and Poe had been gone for only a month.

“Ha! Apparently he’s found someone new already. He says that she’s a DJ at some club he likes to go to,” Leia continued to chuckle over Poe’s letter.

“I really miss him,” Ben said.

Luke looked over at him worriedly, and placed a loving hand on his shoulder.

“Maybe I should take a page out of his book? It’s been long enough. A rebound guy might be a good idea,” his mother mused to herself, looking up from her letter to eye the local mechanic’s back side as they walked past his shop. The man was bent over a dirty car engine.

“I don’t think that’s a great idea, Leia,” Luke cautioned hastily as he followed the path of her eyes. “Remember my rebounds? Never ended well. Stirred up all kinds of trouble.”

She sighed. “I suppose you’re right.”

Ben’s eyes caught on the owner of the grubby car. He was looking angrily over the mechanic’s shoulder and huffing as he heard about the repairs that would be needed.

Ben noticed a slim, teenage girl doing her best to fade into the background of the shop as she waited for the angry man to finish speaking with the mechanic. She had elfin features and brown hair that framed a face lightly dusted with freckles. Ben smiled uncertainly, feet pausing their journey as if they had a mind of their own. Hazel eyes met his.

Chapter Text

Thirteen Years Later

“Dad! Dad! It’s almost time for school! Are you going to get up today?” Breha’s excited voice dragged Ben from his cocoon of depressed slumber just before her small body landed squarely on his stomach.

“Ooph!”

“Padme says she’s going to wear her mouse ears to classes today and hex anyone who says anything about it!” his eight-year-old informed him in a teasing voice, clearly trying to rouse a smile from his features.

Cracking his eyelids, Ben peered up at her. Her soft brown curls and hazel eyes reminded him of…someone. A hole inside made the almost-memory ache. It was there. Just on the edge of his awareness.

“What?” he asked, voice still groggy. “No magic!”

His mouth tasted like it hadn’t been brushed in days. Come to think of it, maybe he hadn’t brushed yesterday? It was easy to lose track. Things blurred together now. Ever since his wife had died.

“Are you going to get up, Daddy?”

Ben grumbled and grabbed Breha into an enormous bear-hug before cuddling against her.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m just so…so…,” a yawn cracked his jaw, “tired.”

Breha’s voice was soft and understanding. “It’s okay, Daddy. I miss her too.”

A small, soft hand was pressed to Ben’s cheek in comfort. “Grandma says she’ll take us to school, but you should eat something this morning.”

“Mmm. Okay. Say thank you for me, will you? And brush your teeth before you go.”

When his older daughter slipped from his bedroom, he half-listened to her footsteps thundering down the wooden spiral staircases. Ben had moved them back into the old Skywalker house. He hadn’t been managing to take care of them on his own. Hadn’t been able to face the pile of floorboards he’d ripped up in the living room of their little home in a futile attempt to catch the deathwatch beetle ticking her life away. Here, he could collapse into the heap he needed to be.

But guilt nagged at him anyway, as Padme’s disappointed voice echoed up the stairs. Six and eight-years-old were too young to be dealing with the loss of a mother without their father present. His mom had handled this so much better than he was doing. But he just couldn’t muster the energy to rise. Ben knew he needed help.

Holding the palm of his hand up over his face, Ben examined the scar—tracing it with a finger.

“Poe,” he thought in a silent sob.

***

“Ben,” Poe whispered back, after hearing his brother’s voice echo to him through their oath. He caressed the scar on his palm, and turned to begin packing for the long drive.

***

“You’re breath stinks, you know,” Poe said softly, by way of greeting.

Ben cracked his eyes open. The low light of the moon was supplemented by a fire Poe had started in the hearth. His brother lay facing him on the little bed.

Tears began to fall. “I was really happy, Poe.”

“I know.”

***

“I’m sorry I was away for so long,” Poe said, silently waving the snack tray under Ben’s nose and encouraging him to take yet another bite.

Ben selected a cracker this time, and broke it into pieces, ignoring the crumbs that got all over his sheets.

“Have you been happy?” Ben asked.

“Yes. I think. I have a million friends. I date and hang out by the pool all day. I have sunshine and fun. There are no more whispers or stones being thrown. But I have missed you. I want to see your girls before I head back home. I don’t think I’ve seen them since Padme was a toddler. Will you get out of bed to re-introduce us in the morning?”

Ben felt a small swell of excitement for the first time in ages. “Yes. Of course.”

Poe regarded him carefully. “What was she like? I don’t…remember her…very well.”

Ben’s brow furrowed. “She was…she was…,” but he trailed off. An emptiness rose inside him, like his mind wouldn’t let him think clearly about her. He knew he loved her, but the details…they were fuzzy. “She was amazing.”

He sobbed on his knees in the family kitchen the night she died. He’d found the Book and riffled through the pages.

“Please! You have to bring her back! I know you can do it. I found the spell in here after Dad died.”

“Sweetheart,” his mother’s voice had been sadder than he’d heard it in years. “We can’t. We can’t do that. We don’t do that. What we’d bring back wouldn’t be her.”

“Resurrections are Dark, Ben,” Luke said. “They usually bring back something twisted and unnatural.”

“I don’t care! I just want her back! Please do this for me? PLEASE? Please!”

His mother and uncle had only clutched each other and stared at him with lost eyes.

“I’m still surprised you got married,” Poe said. “After that spell you cast when we were kids.”

Ben vaguely remembered the little spell diary. “Yeah. It must not have worked. I was still learning back then.”

“What about now? Mom says you’re refusing to use magic.”

“I just…can’t. Don’t you see? It’s broken everything. It just want to be normal. I want my girls to be normal.”

“It isn’t magic’s fault, Ben. It was Sheev Palpatine, and the curse he cast on Anakin. He was to blame. Nothing else.”

“But I still married her. I knew what would happen. I just…couldn’t help it. She was…,” his mind spun into emptiness again. Memories were swathed in dark smoke.

“It’s not your fault. You fell in love.”

Ben’s eyes rose to meet Poe’s. “Have you felt it yet? The real thing, I mean.”

Poe shrugged. “I’ve been married a few times, and dated a lot. I’ve liked them all, and enjoyed the romance. But…maybe not. Not yet, anyway. I’m still looking.”

Ben fought not to say what he was feeling. That Poe was better off never falling in love for real. That it would spare his love an untimely death, and save him from this heartbreak.

***

Three Years Later

The childish chants from outside the brewery were carried in to him on the Spring breeze billowing through the cracked door. Ben shifted his attention from the meeting with his employees to gaze in consternation toward the voices.

“Witch! Witch! You’re a Witch! Witch! Witch! You’re a Witch!”

“You’d think after all this time, they could come up with something more creative,” he muttered to Kaydel, his head of Sales and Marketing. She pursed her lips in mute understanding as he began to stomp from the back room and out onto the sidewalk.

He was alarmed at the size of the crowd surrounding his daughters. At least a dozen children mocked them—and more than a few of their parents were joining in. Little Padme, who was only nine, wore a fierce expression as she tried to shield her older sister from the tormentors.

“What is going on here?!” his deep gravelly voice echoed menacingly in the street.

Ben’s rage seemed to cool the fervor of the crowd. Even without the lurking threat of magic, Ben would easily have been an intimidating figure. At a muscular six-foot three-inches he towered over the rest of the villagers.

“Your trouble-maker started it! You should keep a tighter leash on her, Mr. Solo,” said Sarah Everclear as she clutched her son, a snot-nosed boy with a sneer on his face.

“Liar!” screamed Padme. “She wasn’t doing anything to Sammy!”

“I hate you!” Breha screamed at the boy, raising a finger to point at him.

“Put your finger down, Breha,” Ben said to her softly.

“No!” her gaze fixed on Sammy with a meaningful light in her eyes. “I hope you get chickenpox!”

The crowd gasped. Mothers pulled their children back in alarm. Ben grabbed his daughter’s wrist and pointed her finger down.

“She was kidding. But you all need to leave my kids alone!”

None of the assembly seemed to believe him that it had been a joke.

“She wasn’t kidding, Dad,” Padme said unhelpfully as the townsfolk began to disperse.

He knelt in front of Breha. “Sweetheart, we do not cast. Especially not aggressively. Even if they are awful.”

“No!” his daughter said. Tears ran down her little cheeks. “You don’t cast! And I bet you couldn’t, even if you wanted to.”

With a sob she began walking down the sidewalk toward the bridge to home. Padme gave him a miserable look before chasing after her sister. When she caught up, the two of them clasped their hands together as they walked. Their dark brown curls blew in the breeze over their tiny purple backpacks.

“He has all this power, and he’s too afraid to use it!” Breha’s voice could still be heard, even from the distance.

“I think you hurt Dad’s feelings,” Padme answered her softly.

***

Ben sighed deeply as the hot steam from the shower filled his nostrils. The smell of fresh mint and oatmeal bodywash always calmed him, so he lingered to enjoy it.

What did she look like? he wondered sadly. Ben strained to fill in the details.

He had to approach these memories slowly. Observing them only from the corners of his mental vision. He would lean in and sense them, glistening and beautiful. They float through his mind like ephemeral soap bubbles. Easy to pop. It’s only in moments like these, as his mind relaxes and the scent of her favorite soap fills his nose, that he even knows there are memories there to recall.

For the space between heartbeats he sees her—hazel eyes, freckled nose, brown wavy hair illuminated by the fresh light of the morning sun. Then the bubble of memory pops, and washes away from his mind like the soap down the shower drain. He forgets even to be worried at the lack of the memory. He doesn’t even know it’s missing.

***

Dear Ben,

I’ve met someone special. He’s so intense. So beautiful. I bet he’ll be able to survive the curse, if it affects me.

His name is Jimmy Angelov. We met at a house party thrown by some friends. He’s got this whole Gothic cowboy thing going. It’s very dark and sexy.

There was a huge fire in his apartment building a few days ago. I honestly thought he’d been killed. Some of the residents said he was still inside. But he showed up that night on my doorstep, right as rain. Said it never pays to listen to rumors. Maybe he’s a cat with nine lives. Either way, I don’t care. I was so relieved to see him. I’m going to ask him to move in with me.

What do you think?

Love,

Poe

The letter in Ben’s hand radiated Poe’s excitement, but Ben sensed something else lurking in it too. It made his spine tingle unpleasantly, like a ghost was whispering over the hairs on his neck and running a finger down the vertebra. Out of an abundance of caution, he flicked his fingers out in a ward sign. Nothing happened. Maybe a premonition, then?

But as the thought crossed his mind, he tried to push it down. He didn’t do that anymore.

Ben pulled his phone from his pocket. They may still prefer letters, but texting was nice for a quick check-in.

[Ben]: I got your letter. You okay?

[Poe]: Yeah, why?

[Ben]: Just a weird feeling. It’s probably nothing. So you’re asking Jimmy to move in?

[Poe]: Already did. It’s great. Thank Goddess for belladonna, or I’d never get any sleep… ;)

Ben’s brow furrowed.

[Ben]: What the hell are you taking that for?

[Poe]: Lol. Not me. I just give him a little now and then in his tequila. It helps him relax so I can grab some shut eye

[Ben]: You don’t think that’s a little…weird? You have to drug your boyfriend in order to sleep?

[Poe]: thanks, mom

[Ben]: Okay. Okay. I get it. Just be careful. I love you

[Poe]: I love you too

Ben sighed and returned his phone to his pocket. It was time to get the kids off to school, and then he needed to head to the brewery. Rose had some hot new idea for a flavored seasonal beer and she was gearing up to convince him to go for it.

As he made his way down to the kitchen, he heard his mother speaking in low tones with the girls.

“Did the curse kill Mommy?” Breha asked.

“I’m afraid so.”

“Is that why Daddy doesn’t do magic anymore? Was he good at spells when he was little?”

“Why doesn’t Daddy talk about it?” Padme’s voice chimed in.

“Well…you’d have to ask him, sweethearts.”

“What’s going on, kiddos?” Ben asked as he entered the long room.

His daughters were sitting with their grandmother in tall chairs at the huge wooden workbench that ran along the center of the room. The enormous stove sat behind them, and putrid smells of some potion or other wafted to him. Ben didn’t know how the girls could stand to eat their toast and marmalade near it. The black cat, Samantha—who had belonged to his wife before her death—was perched on the workbench beside their plates.

“Daddy…,” Breha said softly, a small furrow between her narrow eyebrows as she regarded the cat, “what was Mommy’s name?”

“What? Her name was…it was…Padme!” his younger daughter jerked guiltily. “I see you sneaking that into your backpack! You can’t eat chocolate cake for lunch. I don’t care what Luke says. I made sandwiches. Go check the top shelf in the fridge. You too, Breha. It’s almost time for school.”

Padme made a face and returned the plastic container to the workbench. She slid off her chair and beat a hasty retreat for the refrigerator. Her sister followed.

“Talking about spells?” Ben fixed his mother with a neutral, wry expression.

“They’re just curious, Ben.”

“So long as you don’t teach them any of your nonsense. I want them to have a chance at being normal.”

“We’d never teach them nonsense, dear.”

From the small pantry off the main kitchen hall, Ben could hear the girls riffling through the refrigerator.

“Daddy didn’t answer my question. What was her name? I…can’t seem to remember anymore,” Breha said softly.

“Silly! Her name was Mama!”

“Oh!” Breha laughed at her own foolishness. “Of course. I don’t know why I was forgetting that. Maybe it’s just that we were little when she died.”

“Yeah. Hey…can you help me grab the cake on the way out the door? I’ll distract Dad, and split it with you.”

“Padme!” he called in warning.

***

Rey Sands did her best to be heard by the speaker phone beside her over the sounds of traffic, and inwardly cursed her broken headset. Today’s rental car was baking hot in the Arizona sun, even with the air conditioner running at full blast. She hated overheated cars. And Arizona. They reminded her too much of her lonely childhood, spent moving from town to town through the desert before her foster father eventually took them to New England.

“No, Finn. I can’t seem to find any confirmed sightings of him. I’ve been driving all over town to check with his known associates. I just keep hearing about some new boyfriend, but no one seems to know where they’re living.”

“What about the fire? Did you follow up on that?” her partner’s low voice murmured through the phone.

“Yeah. Looks like it was arson. Probably a rival trying to take him out over some petty grievance. I have three eyewitnesses who swear he died from smoke inhalation. One was pretty shook up. She says she saw him passed out in the hall before the ceiling collapsed right on top of him. But the firefighters never recovered any bodies, and a few of his friends seem to think he made it out.”

“Okay. Well, be careful. I’ll keep digging to see if we can trace those purchases. Maybe it will get us an address.”

“Thanks, Finn. Please tell me the hotel is going to be decent this time.”

“Hah! Very funny, Rey. It’s the U.S. Marshals. You’ll be lucky if the motel doesn’t have bedbugs.”

Rey shuddered. She hated bedbugs too. A brief memory floated through her head like a soap bubble. A flick of her fingers, and chanting of words to make the bedbugs in her little room vanish. Someone had taught it to her. Someone important.

The bubble of memory popped. She blinked and stared in confusion at the car in front of her. That was weird, she thought. I must be tired.

Rey had been on the road for weeks tracking Angelov. Field work was still pretty new for her. She’d mostly worked out of the office as a grunt since joining the Service a few years before. But she wasn’t going to let a little wear and tear take her down. She had a job to do. She was going to catch that slimy bastard and make sure he couldn’t hurt anyone else.  

Chapter Text

Dear Poe,

Sometimes I think there’s a hole inside me. An emptiness that seems to burn. I think if you lifted my heart to your ear, you could probably hear the ocean. And the moon tonight has a circle around it. A sign of trouble not far behind.

I have this dream of being whole. Of not going to sleep each night alone. Wanting. When the wind is warm or the crickets sing, I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for.

I don’t know. Maybe I’ve had my happiness. But I don’t want to believe that. I can’t escape the feeling that she’s out there still. The moon seems to be hiding something from me. But it’s there. I can feel it, sometimes.

Love,

Ben

The candle dripped onto the flap of the closed envelope, and Ben pressed his thumb into the hot wax when it had cooled slightly. Poe would be able to feel the emotions he was trying—and failing—to convey with words. That desperate sense of loss, and longing, but also hope. The tang of dread, that something was coming for them.

His late night walk to town was refreshing, and he dropped his letter into the Post Office mailbox with satisfaction. The moon stared down at him as he made his way slowly home. He’d barely reached the white picket gate when the house’s old landline telephone began to ring.

Ben’s heartrate picked up in a terrified staccato.

“Poe,” he whispered, and started running. Up the path, the wooden steps, across the porch. He came barreling through the door and down the hall to the kitchen.

“Ben! It’s Poe!” his mother called, voice concerned, as she ran down the spiral stairs clad in her fluffy bathrobe.

“I know!”

The heavy metal phone receiver was pressed to his ear.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded.

“Ben! It’s me. I’m scared.”

“Where are you?”

***

“Okay. I’ve got a flight out of Logan. He’s in a motel just outside of Oklahoma City. I’ll text you when I land, but don’t expect many calls from me. I want to get to him quickly,” Ben said twenty minutes later as he thundered down the stairs, carrying a small duffle. It held a change of clothes for each of them, his wallet, cash, keys, and phone charger. Nothing else mattered right now.

“Okay, dear. Please be careful, and give him our love when you see him.”

“Don’t you think you should take some wards with you? Maybe an amulet or two?” Luke fussed nervously.

“No! We’ll be fine. He’s just hiding out in a motel outside of town. He took Jimmy’s car and got away already. So I just need to go get him and make sure he gets to the airport safely.”

“Okay. Don’t worry about the kids. We’ll take them to the Solstice Celebration with us while you’re gone,” Luke said, voice now sounding please as well as reassuring.

Ben was not reassured.

“What? No! Why can’t you just stay here?”

“We can’t back out now!” his mother said, sounding scandalized. “We’re on the Committee! We’re presenting.”

Ben sighed, sensing he had already lost the battle.

“Fine! But I do not want them dancing naked under the full moon.”

“No, of course not, dear. Nudity is entirely optional. As you well remember!” his mother said with a grin.

***

Ben jogged across the little motel parking lot, his small bag hanging from one shoulder. Poe had driven farther out of town than he expected, and it was dark by the time he managed to pull his rental car into the lot. The asphalt still radiated a baking heat from the day’s sun, and the air was filled with a moist, unpleasant aroma from the large garbage bins by the ground floor office. He took the outdoor stairs to the second level three at a time, then found the door he was seeking.

“Poe, it’s me,” he whispered to the chipped wooden paint. His voice didn’t carry, but he knew Poe would hear him anyway.

The door cracked open into the dark room. It smelled like ancient carpet when he pushed his way in. He locked it firmly behind him.

“Hey. It’s okay. I’m here.”

Poe’s arms were around him. He’d rarely seen his brother look so vulnerable, and it terrified him.

“The room service here sucks. I haven’t been out all day,” Poe said.

“Okay. It’s okay. I picked up some vending machine snacks at the airport. They’re in the car. Let’s get you out of—,” he voice caught. The moon light shining through the crack in the heavy curtains was enough to illuminate a dark bruise on the side of Poe’s face.

That bastard. I’ll kill him myself.

“It’s okay. Let’s get out of here. Like you said. I want to go home,” Poe said, gripping his arm nervously.

Ben took a deep breath. Focused on the calming exercises his wife used to do with Breha when she was a toddler, first learning to regulate her emotions. Ben had benefited from the instruction as well.

“Okay. Let’s get your stuff.”

They made their way down the little concrete steps outside, glancing around. Wary of shadows.

“He’s been crazy, you know? Driving for ages. Zig zagging. Like he was arguing with himself. Kept saying we needed to get there. Whatever that means. And drunk off his ass, too.”

“What happened?”

“Hell if I know what set him off. He’s been getting weird for days before that. It was slow at first, so I didn’t notice it. Anyway, he said he wanted a jelly doughnut. So we pulled into this shop and he asked the kid there for a jelly doughnut, with cream. The kid looked confused so I said ‘Honey, jelly isn’t a cream.’ So then the kid laughed and I laughed and then he punched me. Real hard too. The bastard.”

Poe stopped suddenly, sneakers catching on the asphalt. Ben glanced over, alarmed that maybe he had missed something.

“Blood on the moon!”

Ben glanced up. Damn. Shit. Double damn.

“Okay. Get in the car.”

“Where’s my tiger’s eye? No, Ben we need this. Where is it? I think I left it!”

Poe took off suddenly for the second row of cars, presumably to find his lost amulet.

“Poe! I’m sure it’s here somewhere,” Ben said, riffling through Poe’s duffle. No sound answered him.

“Poe,” he said, trailing after his brother. “Come on. Forget the damn—,” but his eyes fell on the open door of the car Poe had been walking toward. It gaped open, and the interior was pitch black.

“Poe?”

When he bent to look in, his heart seized in alarm. Poe had been dragged to the back seat by a large man with a snarl on his face and a dangerous light in his eyes. He held a glinting knife to Poe’s side.

“You drive,” the man said to him.

***

The dark highway disappeared past them in an agonizing crawl. Ben kept his eyes on the road, but his awareness on the backseat where Poe was breathing shallowly. Jimmy seemed to be arguing with himself again, under his breath.

“Have to do them both. No. I’ll do it my way.”

Ben’s eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror. Poe’s face was shadowed but his eyes were clearly round with terror. Jimmy was shaking his head in jerks, like trying to flick water from his loose bangs. He’d thrown Ben’s and Poe’s phones out the window as they left the motel parking lot.

Stay calm. Stay calm, Ben told himself.

His eyes moved between the road and the mirror again, monitoring the hand Jimmy had around Poe’s shoulder. A thick silver ring with a skull on it glinted from his middle finger in the light from the passing cars.

“Well, Benjamin,” Jimmy said. “At last we get to meet in person. I feel like we’ll have so many things in common. There’s so much for us to discuss.”

Jimmy’s voice seemed to change pitch and tone as he spoke. Ben, however, was barely listening. His eyes were dragged up to the rearview mirror again as a thrumming sound filled his ears. His eyes met his brother’s through the reflection.

In Ben’s mind, Poe spoke softly. “The belladonna. It’s in my bag. Small side pocket.”

Ben nodded in understanding. Jimmy took another swig from the large bottle of tequila. Even from the front seat, Ben could smell it on his breath.

“I bet you don’t know I’ve been thinking about you all for a long time,” Jimmy continued. “I thought Poe and I would drive for a little visit, but this is much better. We’re going to have so much fun.”

As he spoke, Jimmy pressed the blade slightly into Poe’s side, making him gasp in alarm. Ben saw red and jerked the steering wheel to the side, twisting around and screaming. Hitting wildly to get the man off his brother.

“Don’t touch him! Don’t you dare, you bastard. Stop it!”

“Watch the road! Watch the road!” Jimmy screamed back.

When the knife was withdrawn slightly, Ben grabbed the neck of the bottle and jerked it out of Jimmy’s hands.

“Give me that! I need a drink if I have to listen to you for one more minute. Try that again and I’ll plow us all into a tree!”

He returned his gaze to the road. Thankfully there wasn’t much traffic nearby, so he’d risked the maneuver. Trusting his magical instincts to save them from real harm. But the moments of wild driving had the effect he’d hoped for.

“Whooeee!” Jimmy said, breathing easier now that the car no longer seemed at risk of crashing. “You’re a spirited one. It’s a shame. Tut tut. Such a shame.”

Ben put the bottle to his lips and tipped it back, pretending to take a sip but keeping his lips carefully sealed. When he finished his little act, he shoved the bottle between his thighs to keep it steady.

As Jimmy continued to laugh and talk to himself in the back, Ben’s hand slid quietly to Poe’s duffle where it sat in the passenger seat beside him. Side pocket. There it is. Small glass vial. Little cork stopper. Easy to flip out.

Eyes still on the road, Ben moved as if to grasp the bottle again. Deftly, he tipped the contents of the little vial into the tequila. A small spell, rusty in his mind from disuse, set the contents of the bottle swirling to blend them.

***

“He should have passed out by now. Did you give him enough?” Poe asked softly as they gazed out the car’s rear window.

Jimmy was pissing along the side of the dirt road he’d had them pull over on. He drank deeply from the bottle as they watched. It was almost empty now.

“You were always on my mind!” he sang, voice warbling drunkenly as he spun the ring of car keys in his hand. “You were always on myyyyy miinddd! Stop it, you idiot. I hate that song. No! You stop it! I’m doing this my way!”

“I gave him plenty,” Ben whispered back.

“What’s he going to do?” Poe asked, voice anxious as Jimmy began weaving drunkenly back for the car.

“Just stay calm.”

Jimmy unlocked the door, and climbed into the back seat with Poe.

“You were always on my mind. I’m sorry, my love,” he said, voice low and threatening.

Poe sobbed. “Come on, Jimmy. You don’t want to do this.”

Jimmy lunged for Poe’s throat. Huge hands crushed at him.

Ben was up and over the seats before he had time to think. The three of them smashed into a tangled ball of punches and growls.

“Get off him! Get off!” Ben said, knuckles colliding with Jimmy over and over.

“Ben! Ben! It’s okay! He’s out! He passed out!”

Ben gasped with relief, and pulled the limp form up and off his brother where they sprawled along the back bench seat.

Poe’s gasp when he took in Jimmy’s face made Ben’s blood freeze.

“Oh shit! Ben!”

***

The chest compressions weren’t working. Poe continued to hammer away at Jimmy’s unmoving chest, with occasional breaks to try to breath into his mouth. It had been fifteen minutes. Jimmy was still limp. No pulse. No breathing.

“Oh, God! Oh, Goddess! Angels and spirits!” Ben chanted softly, begging anyone and anything listening to help them.

Poe sat back on his heels at last, panting. Seeming to realize his efforts to revive the dead man were futile.

“How much did you give him?”

“I don’t know, Poe,” Ben snapped. “I wasn’t using a measuring cup! He was trying to kill you!”

“Oh, Goddess! Get us out of this! Please! I’ll be good. I’ll settle down. I’ll stop drinking. I’ll have babies!” Poe sobbed, hands pressed together as he prayed at the sky.

“I have babies, Poe! I had normal. And I worked really hard to get that normal! And now…I’ll never have that normal again!”

“I know!” Poe sobbed harder. “I know, Ben. I’m so sorry. I’ve ruined your life. I didn’t mean to.”

Ben sighed deeply, trying to get thinking again. His mind was a swirl of anger and panic and adrenaline. The shaking wasn’t helping.

“Get in the car. We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Ben said at last. When Poe didn’t respond, Ben hoisted the limp Jimmy up off the dirty ground and tossed him in the back seat.

“Get in the car,” he repeated.

Ben drove them slowly back to the main highway. His head rested tiredly against his palm, and he gripped the wheel in his other hand while he thought.

“We have to go to the police,” he said finally. Voice low and depressed. “It was self-defense.”

Poe scoffed. “I don’t think they’ll buy that. Can they even tell if he’s had belladonna in his system for ages? And I’ve had purchases for it on my credit card before this. No. They’ll think we were abusing him. That I was slowly poisoning him to death or something. And we’re in Oklahoma. They’re not exactly the most compassionate. Best we could expect would be manslaughter charges, probably.”

“You don’t know any of that.”

“Do you? I don’t have a degree in any of that CSI stuff. And I’m no lawyer. Do you want to risk it?”

“What’s your alternative? We bury him somewhere and hope for the best?” Ben asked, voice heavy with sarcasm. “That will be way worse.”

They drove in silence for a few more minutes. Tears ran down Ben’s face.

“I really don’t want to lose my girls,” he choked out.

“I know. I know,” Poe said, voice thoughtful.

A bright light of an idea seemed to shine from Poe’s aura suddenly.

“What?” Ben asked.

“When your wife died, you went to Mom and Luke, right? You asked them to bring her back.”

“Yeah. They said they wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t. Not couldn’t, right? It is possible?”

“No,” Ben tried to explain. “They were right. They said she’d come back as something dark and unnatural.”

“Jimmy already is dark and unnatural! I don’t care what he comes back as, as long as it’s with a pulse! That will get us off the murder charges.”

“No, Poe. That isn’t an option. It’s not a choice.”

“Ben! We don’t have a choice. This is our choice!”

Ben gritted his teeth, thinking. Then nodded in silent acceptance.

***

The gravel drive crunched under the wheels of Jimmy’s car as Ben pulled up to their family home. No lights were on. Everyone must still be at the Solstice Celebration, as he’d hoped.

It had taken them a full twenty-four hours to make it here—taking turns driving while the other dozed in the seat beside them, Jimmy’s body hidden on the back seat. As they lugged the asshole’s limp form up the front steps, Ben growled at his brother.

“You owe me big-time.”

“I know. Watch his head!” Poe grunted as they dumped him unceremoniously onto the large wooden workbench in the kitchen.

“You watch it. I don’t care if he gets banged up,” Ben retorted, gasping for air. “By the way, you should know. You have the worst taste in men.”

“Well, gee. Thanks, Ben. I hadn’t figured that out yet. Maybe I’ll ask for your sage advice next time,” Poe had the audacity to snark as he went to find the large Grimoire from the storage room that adjoined the conservatory.

Ben huffed with annoyance, and followed after him to collect the necessary ingredients.

***

“Okay, Jimmy. I’m going to get you out of this. But after I do, we are definitely breaking up!” Poe muttered as he cut open the front of the corpse’s white t-shirt with a heavy pair of scissors. He added a smack across the cheek of the body for good measure.

“What on earth are you doing?” Ben asked as he came back into the kitchen, arms laden with supplies.

Poe looked embarrassed. “Nothing.”

Ben dumped the vials of herbs, candles, and braided sage smudges onto the table. He spent several minutes organizing things and lighting twin candles beside Jimmy’s head with a breath of air through his pursed lips.

“Poe. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Poe looked between the body and Ben’s eyes with determination. “Absolutely.”

“Okay, the instructions say we need to touch the lit smudge of blue sage with the braided wheat straw. Insert needles through eyes of corpse.”

“Through the eye? Gross! No way.”

“Yep. In the eyes.”

“I think we should wait for Mom and Uncle Luke,” Poe said, confidence wavering.

“It’s not like he’s going to stay fresh, Poe,” Ben retorted, lips twisted in disgust. “Okay, I need something white to write on top of the star.”

Poe turned reluctantly to look through cupboards.

“This is all I could find,” he said, holding out a spray can of shelf-stable whipped cream.

“Oh. No, that’s good!”

Ben squirted over the charcoal star drawn on Jimmy’s chest with the cream, then consulted the Spell Book again.

“Okay, we insert the needles quickly. Then we’ll purse our lips, emit wind over tongue in purring motion. Teeth on edge.”

Poe tried to follow his example as they completed the instructions, but he was even more out of practice than Ben was. Still, they managed it. Ben felt the brief hum of a spell just coming to life.

“Okay. Chant with me,” he said. “Black as Night. Erase Death from our Sight. White as light, Mighty Hectate make it right…”

The room filled with an echo as their words bounced back at them, as if they were shouted into a deep cave. A path to the Underworld, perhaps. They chanted them again and again. Dark winds moved up from the invisible Beyond. Rippled through their hair. Caressed Ben’s neck. The tiny hairs there stood on end as his animal instincts froze his body in place.

Three heartbeats passed. One. Two. Three.

Jimmy’s glassy eyes opened. They were cloudy and empty, but he blinked at them before grinning evilly. Ben and Poe dropped the needles and gasped, stepping back. Waiting for a reaction from the Raised man.

Dead eyes shifted back and forth between the brothers as he sat up. Assessing. Then he was launching himself off the workbench. Hands closed tightly around Ben’s throat. He struggled to pry the hands from him. They were unnaturally strong.

“I’ll do it myself now! I wanted his whole line to suffer for eternity. But now that I’m back properly, I can wipe you out. Hahahahah!”

The unhinged cackling was cut off abruptly when Poe smashed the heavy cast iron skillet into the back of Jimmy’s head repeatedly. The body fell limply to the floor. Dead a second time.

***

“I really mean it, Poe. You have the worst taste in men.”

“I know,” Poe huffed as they dragged Jimmy’s body out onto the lawn beside the garden trellises.

They puffed and panted in the unseasonable rainstorm as they dug the grave, then rolled him in. They buried everything—including his clothes, shoes, wallet and ring.

Their hair was plastered to their faces as they filled in the hole and carefully replaced the cut turf. They stomped it into the ground as much as they could to flatten it. Make it seem level with everything else. Then, in one last nod to the necessity of magic this night, Ben whispered a small spell to help the grass reseal and re-root. By the time they walked hand-in-hand back up the front steps, trailing splotches of wet mud with them, all signs of the grave had been erased from sight.

“Ben, I just want to say. Thank you. For being my brother.”

Ben turned exhausted eyes on him. “I love you, Poe. I’m here for you. Remember?”

They hugged, drained and desperate for comfort.

“It’ll be okay. No one will find out,” Ben said, trying to sound like he believed it.

***

Rey stood in the baking sun of the dingy motel in Oklahoma and watched as the rental car company’s representative climbed in, ready to begin the long drive back to the city. She could have had the car impounded, but she’d already combed it carefully for further evidence. There hadn’t been any. Only a handful of vending machine snacks. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, so she answered. It could only be work.

“Hey, Finn. What’d you find for me?”

“You were right. I don’t know how you do it. The boyfriend’s brother flew in eight days ago. Their last names don’t match, so it took some digging. It’s Ben Solo, by the way,” Finn said.

A tingle began at the base of Rey’s spine. Where do I know that name? It sounds so familiar.

“He rented the car at the airport,” Finn continued, while he dug through files. She could hear the splat of pages as he tossed them around his little desk. “It doesn’t make any sense though. Why would he meet up with them, and then abandon the rental car? It would have been a great way to ditch Angelov’s vehicle. Jimmy knows he’s on the no-fly list, so driving is his only option. You’d think he would know to leave the car we’re searching for.”

“Yeah. Something about this isn’t right. None of it is. There are too many strange things going on. Did you get the address? For the brother?”

“Yeah,” Finn said. More shuffling of pages could be heard. “Looks like he’s in a little town in Massachusetts. Right on the water. I’ll text you the address. They’re probably all there.”

Rey gritted her teeth. It would take her a couple of days to drive that alone. So airplane and a new rental car it was.

“Can you set up a ticket for me? To Boston?”

“Yeah. No problem. Hey, Rey? Are you sure you don’t want backup on this? I saw some more of the crime scene photos. This guy’s a real nut.”

“I know. And yes, I’m sure.”

Rey didn’t know why she was sure. It was just a feeling. Her sixth sense, perhaps. She’d gotten a tingle when the case was mentioned, and she’d gone to some lengths to ensure she’d be the one put onto it. Somehow it was calling to her. The photos she’d seen of Jimmy Angelov’s victim only solidified that this was the right choice. She’d find him, and make sure he faced justice. And if he was hiding out with Poe Dameron and his brother, this Ben Solo—if they were in on it, somehow—then she’d make sure they faced justice too.

Chapter Text

“Remember, not a word to Mom or Uncle Luke. They shouldn’t be a party to this. If we ever get caught—,” Ben swallowed thickly as he peered through the wavy glass window. Padme and Breha hopped from the back of the old car. Uncle Luke and his mother began climbing out of the front.

Beside him, Poe nodded. “Not to mention, they’d probably kill us for trying that spell.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think the girls will like me? It’s been ages,” Poe said nervously, watching as they dashed excitedly up the little path to the front door.

Ben eyed the flower wreath still adorning Padme’s head with some trepidation. His parenting hackles were up as he wondered what exactly they’d been doing while away. Had his mother been teaching them spells?

The crash at the front door narrowly preceded the kids. They tore around the corner to the front sitting room, expecting to see their Dad, and pulled up short at the sight of their uncle.

“Oh, my gosh!” Breha gasped excitedly.

“Uncle Poe! Uncle Poe!” Padme shrieked and launched herself into his arms.

“Ooph! Wow! You two are so big! Look at you!” Poe said, kneeling so he could hug both girls at once.

“Dad!” Breha said, deciding it was his turn for a hug.

Ben knelt with relief and scooped his daughters into his arms.

“Did you two have fun?”

“Yes! It was so great! You wouldn’t believe it! We had cake for breakfast every day and Grandma let us try a sip of her mulled wine!” Breha informed him triumphantly. Ben’s eyebrows quirked at this news.

“And we danced naked under the full moon!” Padme added. Ben’s lips pursed. Still, free childcare was nothing to scoff at.

“Oh, my dear boy,” Ben heard his mother say softly, voice heavy with sadness. He glanced up to see her gently brushing the bruise on Poe’s face.

“Hi, Mom,” he whispered before pulling her into a hug.

Luke came around the corner, laden with everyone’s bags, and dumped them in the entrance hall.

“Someone could have helped me, you know,” he griped before spying Poe. “Oh, kid. Look at you. Let’s get some comfrey and aloe vera for that right away. Breha! Come help me get a spell going for your Uncle Poe.”

Ben’s objection was rising on his lips but Breha was already booking it for the conservatory ahead of Luke.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” his mother said, hand still on Poe’s cheek. “I’m sure he’ll get what he deserves.”

Poe’s eyes flicked to Ben’s. They were round and barely suppressing the worry.

“Right. Yeah. I’m sure.”

***

“Eye of newt and toe of frog,” Leia chanted as she poured orange liqueur over the ice in the blender.

“Wool of bat and tongue of dog,” Luke said, adding a hearty dose of tequila.

“Adder's fork and blindworm's sting.” A touch of agave joined the other ingredients.

“Barbados lime is just the thing.” Luke added a small pitcher of freshly squeezed lime juice.

“Cragged salt like a sailor's stubble,” Leia intoned, as she bedecked some glasses.

“Flip the switch and let the cauldron bubble!” Luke finished their little, silly spell. Ignoring the switch on the side of the ancient beast of a machine, they flicked their fingers out toward it and it spun to life.

***

“Wakey-wakey,” Poe’s voice was alarmingly close to Ben’s face. He jerked awake.

“What the hell, Poe?”

“Shhh. Listen.”

Ben quieted and strained his ears. A distant sound of ice crushing in a blender could be heard echoing up the stairs. Despite himself, he grinned. They hadn’t done this in ages.

“Midnight margaritas!” he and Poe chorused together.

They danced their way down the stairs to the sound of the music now playing softly on the little kitchen speakers—not loud enough to wake the girls, but enough to give the downstairs the air of a mini, secretive party.

Brudder bought a coconut, he bought it for a dime

His sister had anudder one, she paid it for de lime

She put de lime in de coconut, she drank 'em bot' up

She put de lime in de coconut, she drank 'em bot' up

As Ben’s bare feet hit the cool dark wood floorboards of the kitchen his mother handed him an enormous glass with salt crusting the rim. He drank greedily. Pleasures were few and far between these days, but the wild unconventionality of his family did have its plus sides.

Luke was clearly already several shots in. He was wearing his billowing Hawaiian print bathrobe again, as well as his dilapidated carpet slippers, as he danced in place and refilled the blender.

She put de lime in de coconut, she called de doctor, woke 'im up

And said "Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take?"

I said "Doctor, to relieve this bellyache?"

Poe sashayed his way around the workbench in the kitchen, sipping his own drink.

Ben wasn’t much of a dancer, but this was an inhibition and judgment-free zone. Midnight margaritas were sacred. His hips swayed as he found the rhythm. Distantly, he remembered the feel of his wife dancing with him while the taste of salt, lime and tequila filled his mouth. Instinct made him grasp for the memory, but it flitted away and disappeared.

Now, lemme get this straight

You put de lime in de coconut, you drank 'em bot' up

Put de lime in de coconut, you drank 'em bot' up

Put de lime in de coconut, you drank 'em bot' up

Two tall glasses later and they had moved to the little table in the kitchen nook, too drunk to dance and too keen to enjoy more tequila to continue trying. Ben was about four shots in, and wondering if another one would be worth the raging headache tomorrow. Tequila hangovers were the worst.

“No, this is serious!” Poe slurred, grabbing again for Ben’s palm. “Hold still, or I’ll mess up the lines.”

Ben chuckled at the sight of Poe lifting his hand to inspect it closely, like he was trying to see something hidden.

“I see a woman in your future! She’s…whoa…she’s gorgeous.”

“Awww,” his mother sighed happily, face resting in her palm as she listed slightly to the left.

Ben snorted. Yeah, right.

“She is! And you’re scared to death…hahahaha….,” Poe cackled evilly. “Huh. Sorry. Don’t know where that came from. That was weird.”

“He made all that up,” Luke said, now sipping straight from the bottle.

“I did not!”

“Kid, I love you but you were always hopeless with predictions. But don’t worry….you’ve got your own magic. And we all know what it is…hahahahah…”

Poe wrinkled his nose and stuck his tongue out at Luke.

“Oh, please. Since when is being promiscuous a crime in this family?” Ben chuckled.

A roar of laughter filled the room, but his mother seemed to have latched onto a thought.

“Oh, honey. What would you know about it? After you met…your wife, before you even married her, it was so clear you’d never go for anyone else. You fell so hard and fast. Reminded me of…of…,” a furrow formed in her brow as she strained in thought. “Reminded me of your father when he met me.”

“Guh,” Ben muttered softly, reaching to pull the bottle from Luke and struggling to aim correctly to pour another shot.

“Little things I should have said and done…,” Luke began to drunkenly sing. He couldn’t hold a tune to save his life, so his voice warbled up and down dramatically. His mom’s superior singing picked up the words, and joined in for the next line.

“I just never took the time…You were always on my mind. You were always on myyy miiiind.”

A creeping chill spread through Ben as he recognized the song. He looked up at Poe, who was already gazing at him in wide-eyed discomfort. As they continued to sing, Ben’s heart began to pound. Something was wrong.

He turned the bottle to read the label. It was hauntingly familiar. Identical to the one he’d poured the belladonna in.

“Where did you get this?” he croaked.

“Someone left it on the porch…,” his uncle sang, still trying for the tune of the song even as he answered the question.

“Someone left it on the porch…,” Leia joined this time, laughing as if at a great joke.

“Shit!” Poe said, snatching the tequila. He stormed to the large, hammered copper sink and smashed the bottle into its depths. The tinkle of breaking glass seemed to snap a cool breeze of awareness through the room. They all blinked in alarm.

“Ben. Poe. What is going on?” Luke’s voice was suddenly lucid and stern.

They were all on their feet now, crowding around Poe where he stood looking in horror into the sink. His hands flexed at his sides.

“Ben!” His mother demanded. “What is going on in this house?”

“Nothing,” Ben said. Trying to keep his voice calm despite the organ hammering away in his rib cage.

“Something is going on. I can smell it,” said Luke.

“Yes, it’s a very distinct smell. The smell of bullshit,” Leia replied, glancing between her sons.

Poe was now looking to Ben, eyes uncertain.

“We…had a problem. We handled it,” Ben said.

The kitchen broom fell of its own accord from where it rested in the corner. The handle smacked the floorboards with a loud snap.

“Broom fell. Company’s coming,” Luke said, eyes thoughtful.

“We deserve an explanation,” his mom tried again.

Ben rolled his jaw but remained silent. Poe was frozen. Blinking rapidly. Lips unmoving.

“Fine. Have it your way, you two,” Leia said at last.

“Come on, Leia. Let’s go,” Luke said, nodding his sister toward the stairs.

A chilled silence filled the kitchen after they left. Poe and Ben were both panting. Staring into each other’s eyes. A small lift of Ben’s eyebrow made Poe shake his head in denial.

“No,” Poe said. “No, it’s not possible. I mean, don’t even think it.”

“Then tell me how that got here, Poe. Tell me, how did this bottle get here?” His finger pointed accusingly at the pile of glass in the sink.

***

“Leaving like this is a harsh lesson,” his sister whispered to him as Luke riffled through a drawer, grabbing spare clothes.

“It’s a lesson they must learn on their own,” he answered.

“But what about the little ones?”

“Don’t worry, Leia. We’ll wake them up before we go. Put a couple of Anakin’s talismans on them. Make them promise not to take them off for any reason until we get back.”

Leia was nodding, then left to find the carved necklaces.

Luke sighed, already planning ahead. There was one more stop he would need to make on their way out of town.

***

Luke parked the old car in the little mechanic shop’s parking lot. The early light of dawn was just peaking its way tentatively across the sky. They’d waited a few hours to let the alcohol clear from their systems before heading out, but they’d still slipped from the large house before anyone else had risen.

“You get some snacks for us,” he said to Leia. “I’ll get the tires checked. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

“Okay. I still think they looked fine.”

“I just want to be sure before we get going,” he said, climbing from the driver’s seat.

He waited a moment for Leia to made her way to the little coffee shop that always opened before first light, then knocked on the apartment door beside the mechanic’s shop.

Several minutes passed before a bleary-eyed man answered.

“Hey, Luke. What’s up?”

“Sorry to bother you so early, Han. My sister and I are taking off for a few days and I’m worried the rear tire on our car has low pressure. Could you take a quick look?”

“Yeah, no problem,” his friend answered, sliding his feet into some shoes by the door.

“So, how’s Chewie doing?” Luke asked as they made their way to the car. The golden retriever in question padded along stiffly beside them.

“Oh, the same. Medical miracle the vet says. He’ll probably outlive us all. But maybe his joints are a bit sore lately.”

Luke brushed his hands over the dog’s back as Han bent to inspect the tires. Chewie wagged and looked up at him in silent recognition.

“Never could fool you, boy,” Luke said softly so Han couldn’t hear.

The spell left his fingertips as they trailed through the shaggy fur. Chewie wagged and walked more easily as his joint pain eased. When he finished, Luke flicked his fingers up toward the mechanic’s shop and apartment, setting the ward to protect them from whatever danger might be targeting the family.

“It looks fine to me,” Han said, voice befuddled.

“Huh. My mistake. Sorry again to bother you. I just wanted to be sure, you know?”

“Don’t worry. I get it. So…did you say your sister is around?” Han asked hopefully.

Luke suppressed a smile. He’d had to wipe their memories scores of times over the years, sometimes after finding them in bed together. The two of them always seemed to find each other. Guilt hung heavily around his shoulders, but it was the only way to protect Han from the curse. He couldn’t let what happened to his mother and Mara happen to his friend.

“She’s getting snacks. We’ll need to take off pretty quickly though. And you’re still in your bathrobe.”

“Oh, right,” Han said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “I guess I’ll see you when you get back to town. Have a good trip.”

“Thanks. Take care, my friend.”

***

Ben’s mouth tasted like stale disinfectant and cotton balls. The pitter-patter of little feet running down the wooden stairs to the kitchen roused him though. Right. Kids’ breakfasts. School. Bleh.

His head swam and pounded as he stumbled into the kitchen. Padme was already getting started playing a song on her kazoo. The assault on his ears was painful enough he almost missed that it was a disturbingly familiar tune.

“Make her stop. I’ll pay whatever it takes,” Poe grumbled behind him, making his way into the kitchen.

“Sweetheart, can I see that a second?” Ben asked.

“Sure, Dad.”

Ben took the little instrument and chucked it up above the plates cupboard where it would hopefully live for the next century.

“Hey!” Padme shouted, hands on hips.

“Please, sweetheart. Inside voices.” His eyes caught on the necklace she was wearing. “Hey…where’d you get that?”

“Grandma gave them to us,” she explained, voice only marginally quieter.

Ben frowned, but began assembling some cold cereal for the kids’ breakfasts. No way could he cook this morning. The idea of food smells were repulsive.

“Ugh, where’s the aspirin?” Poe asked, opening and closing cupboards as softly as possible.

Ben shrugged. “Let me know if you find it. Hey, Breha? Can you get some mint from the garden? Daddy and Uncle Poe may need something for their tummies.”

His older daughter had been standing by the bank of windows in the kitchen nook, staring out at the garden and ocean beyond. She held unnaturally still.

“Sweetheart? Did you hear me?”

“I’m not going out there while he’s here.”

Ben frowned, moving to the window. “While who’s here?”

“That man. Under the roses.”

“What? What roses?”

Ben glanced out the window as he came up behind her shoulder. He could feel Poe trailing after him.

“That man. Under the roses,” Breha repeated, pointing.

“I don’t see him. Are you looking at him now?”

“He’s right there. I don’t like him. He scares me.”

“Were those roses there yesterday?” asked Poe.

“They grew overnight,” Breha answered.

Ben felt a chill as he realized exactly what spot the swarm of thick rose branches was now rising from. Even from a distance, the heavy thorns were visible on the stems leading to each blood red flower.

“Oh, shit,” Poe whispered.

“Okay, sweetie. Forget the mint.” He turned to Poe. “Can you go get mom and Luke?”

“They left,” Padme’s high-pitched voice informed them from the kitchen.

“What? What do you mean?” Ben asked.

“They said to give you a message. ‘Clean up your own mess.’”

Oh, shit.

“Okay. Okay. Okay,” Ben chanted softly, trying to think through the headache. “Poe...can you get the girls on the bus after breakfast? I’ll handle it.”

“He’s making them grow, Ben. He’s trying to get to us by making them grow.”

“I know. I’ll handle it.”

Thirty minutes later, Ben was hacking at the growths with an enormous pair of gardening shears. Sweat dripped down his face as he worked. The stems had swarmed up and over a trellis, and were rooted all over the grave. He must have looked like a madman, chopping down ostensibly beautiful blooms. Each gave off a sickly sweet scent that twisted Ben’s hungover stomach.

Along the base of the sprawling rose bramble were red, spotted mushrooms. Amanita muscaria, he thought. Poisonous.

His arms stung where he’d been scratched. The bush seemed to go out of its way to harm him. Little trickles of blood marred his bare forearms, and his black t-shirt already had a few holes in it where he’d been snagged.

“Interesting approach to handling roses. Most people like them.”

The melodious woman’s voice from behind him drew his battle to a halt. It was achingly familiar, but he couldn’t place its source.

Ben turned slowly, sweat dripping from his brow and plastering his shirt to his chest.

She stood by the little herb garden, face illuminated by the morning sun. The world vibrated.

Chapter Text

She was beautiful. Painfully familiar. And yet, a total stranger.

The ocean breeze ruffled her wavy brown hair around her cheeks, which—he noticed—were dusted with light freckles. Hazel eyes regarded him with an unreadable expression.

“Can I help you?” Ben felt his mouth ask.

For some reason, the question almost came out differently. Can I have you? Or maybe, Can I marry you? He mentally rewound the words in a moment of panic to make sure the right ones had actually been uttered.

“I sure hope so. My name is Rey Sands. I’m a U.S. Marshal, based out of Seattle,” she said, flashing a badge he couldn’t seem to focus on. Her face was too interesting. Then the words registered.

“Oh. You’re a long way from home.” His heart was now pounding for entirely different reasons as adrenaline coursed through his veins.

“I’ve been traveling even farther in pursuit of a fugitive. I was kind of hoping to talk with your brother, Poe, if he’s around. He might have some information on a case I’m working on.”

“Oh. Ohh. Right. Right.” The garden sheers dropped to his feet and Ben began to disentangle himself from the rosebush he’d been trying to murder. Sweat mingled with trickling blood from the scratches he had sustained, stinging his arms.

“I’ll uh—just—go get him. He’s inside,” Ben said, stumbling as he tried to walk backwards. Afraid to lose track of her with his eyes.

“I’d be grateful.”

“Uh, how did you know that I’m his brother?” Ben asked. Despite their shared dark hair, they didn’t look alike at all.

“Oh. Lucky guess.”

“Right. Um. Why don’t you come inside? I’ll…uh…get you some lemonade. While I go up. To get him.”

Her smile seized his throat in a painful lump. So familiar. How do I know her? But…if I know her…how could I forget her?

***

Rey stood in the enormous kitchen of the house, looking around and ignoring the lemonade Ben Solo had poured for her with trembling hands. If Jimmy was here, he’d be hiding already. She’d have to see what she could learn from Dameron. But focusing on the reason for her visit was proving curiously difficult.

The black stained wood floors contrasted with the white, painted cupboards and old tiles. A dark wooden island table was centered in the room, larger than most dining tables. It made for a huge workbench. She wondered idly what on earth they would need to cook that would take that much space.

The room, the house….it all felt so familiar. But nothing felt more familiar than the man. Ben. She’d had a feeling about him before even arriving. The letter he had written to his brother had been forwarded to her along with the rest of the case file updates she would need to review. The moment it had fallen out of the large manila envelope, her eyes had caught on the neat, old fashioned cursive script.

When her index finger lightly brushed the impression his finger had made in the hot wax seal, something inside her clenched.

And then, out in the garden, his eyes had locked on hers. They’d been standing far apart, but she knew immediately how it would feel to press against him. Run her fingers through those chin-length locks of black hair. Her words of greeting had been breathless. All she could do to play it calm. Cool. Meanwhile, something hidden in the dark corners of her mind was pounding on locked doors. Desperate to get her attention.  

He had disappeared upstairs a moment before, and Rey was grateful for the reprieve from his gaze. She wandered through the room slowly. Her eyes caught on a little child’s drawing taped to a cupboard. It depicted a family. Two little brown haired children and two adults. One labeled DADdy and the other MoMMy. Her brow furrowed. No. He’s not married. I didn’t see that in the case file. A widower, perhaps? Or divorced?

The bright sunlight pouring from the adjoining conservatory tempted her down the several steps to the room beyond the kitchen. The rich smells of plants and wet soil and dried herbs filled the air. It made breathing easier. She liked this room. A small haven of peace from the rest of the busy house, where the girls would often crash through the halls in games of tag whenever they visited.

Rey blinked. Where had that thought come from?

***

“Poe!”

Ben unceremoniously ripped the earphones off his brother’s ears, where he sat listening to some kind of calming meditation track in one of the attic’s old spare bedrooms.

“Gah!”

“Poe! There’s a U.S. Marshal downstairs. She’s looking for Jimmy. She wants to talk to you…and…I think I’m having a heart attack.”

“Okay,” Poe said, taking a deep breath and holding his hands out beside him, fingertips still touching his thumbs in a gesture he probably meant to look wise and centered. “Just calm down.”

“Calm down. Okay.”

“What is the question? The question is: how much could she possibly know? The answer is, not that much.”

“Well, gosh. She seems to know an awful lot, because she’s here. She’s based out of Seattle. And she says she’s been all over looking for him.”

“Ben. This is easy. Why are you the one suddenly freaking out?”

“It’s just…oh, my God. Poe, I know this sounds strange but…but I don’t think I can lie to her.”

“Oh, my God!” Poe rose to his feet, eyes round and tone decidedly less calm now. “Of course you can lie to her. Breathe. Okay, with me now. Breathe.”

“Breathe. Right.”

Ben’s shuddering inhale did little to help the weird vibrations coming from his chest. His thoughts felt like a muddy swirl. His mind kept flashing from thinking about her freckles and hazel eyes to feeling dread about the roses outside. How she might learn what was hidden under them.

“Okay. Here’s the story, right? Here’s the story,” Poe said, voice calm again, like he’d recaptured his mood after meditating.

“The story…”

“I left him…”

“Left him…,” Ben repeated.

“Because he hit me.”

“Hit you.”

“And we haven’t seen him since. It’s as simple as that. You just let me handle the rest.”

“Okay. Good. Okay.”

“You alright?”

No, Ben thought. “Yes,” he said.

As he made his way numbly back to the stairs, Poe’s question caught him off guard.

“Is she cute?”

“What?!?”

“Is she cute? You know. Flirting never hurts,” Poe explained, now riffling through a small closet where Ben had stashed some clothes for him.

Conflicted thoughts battled their way through his mind. Goddess above, yes, he wanted to say. But also, back off, Poe. She’s mine. And, oh no no no, bad idea. She’s a cop.

“Ben?”

“Um. Yeah. You know. In a very…penal code sort of way. Yeah.”

“Great,” Poe said, returning to his clothing selection.

Ben stomped down the stairs, trying desperately to remember the story. I left because he hit him. No, wait…Poe left because I hit him. No…what did Poe say?

She was in the conservatory. Something about seeing her there felt…right.

She was fingering some of the glass vials of medicinals on the little shelf, and Ben nearly swallowed his tongue when he recognized the one she was handling as belladonna.

“Just herbs,” he said, voice gruff.

She turned, and he again felt dizzy and breathless. Self-conscious of his sweaty and dirty body. The slow glance of her eyes up and down his form didn’t make him feel like she disapproved, however.

“He’ll be right down,” he added.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“You—.”

“Did you—.”

“Oh. Um. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said, smiling softly at his awkwardness.

“It’s just…you seem very…familiar. Do we—?”

“Hello, there,” Poe’s flirtatious voice filled the kitchen behind him. Ben resisted the impulse to turn and kick his brother in the shins.

“Good morning, Mr. Dameron.”

“And you are—?”

“Sands. U.S. Marshal Rey Sands.”

“Rey. Lovely name.”

Ben gritted his teeth, but she seemed to have the situation well in hand.

“Listen, I’m not going to beat around the bush. I need to find your boyfriend, Mr. Dameron. James Angelov. Is he here?”

“No. And I wouldn’t call him my boyfriend. He’s more like…a big mistake.”

Rey eyed the bruise still fading from Poe’s cheek. It had retreated to a splodgy green color but was still plainly visible.

“Is that his handiwork?”

“Yep. If someone hits me, they only do it once. I’m out of there.”

“That’s very understandable, Mr. Dameron. So, do you know where I can find him then?”

“I’m afraid not. I haven’t seen him since he hit me. Left that night. Ben came to get me and we drove back here.”

“Right. Excuse me.” She turned and paced up into the kitchen to be closer to Ben, who had been trying to hide behind the corner while still keeping the other two in sight.

“Ben, was it? Whose car is that in the driveway?”

“Huh?”

“The car. The one with the Arizona plates.”

“Oh,” Poe interrupted, trying to regain her attention. “That’s my car.”

“Your car?”

“Uh huh.”

“Really? Plate number 2-2-9-M-O-B? That’s James L. Angelov’s car.”

Ben felt panic rising in him. He saw it happening as if it were someone else experiencing it. He’d thought he would be so calm in this situation. Why was he freaking out like this?

“Come on now,” Rey Sands said, voice now edging toward accusatory.

“We…we stole it. And it’s a crime. We know. But…he basically kidnapped Poe!” Ben blurted out.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. He kidnapped you?” Rey said, turning to Poe. Poe’s round-eyed look of consternation had Ben backpedaling without a plan.

“Well, no, no, he…he…he didn’t really kidnap him. Sort of. Like. Just a little bit. See…the thing is…Would. It. You know the. Thing. He. See Jimmy…he…Poe wasn’t. Hit him. Jimmy hit him. And we. It was a problem. So I flew. But we had to. Drive. Obviously. So the car. Really you should just know that Poe has the worst taste in men!” Ben spluttered out the complete sentence at last with relief.

Poe’s expression had morphed to quietly mortified and concerned—like he was worried for Ben’s sanity. Rey was taking in his ranting with a face that told him plainly he was digging his own grave. But somehow he just couldn’t make himself stop.

“Well, you do, Poe. Hahaha. So, anyway. I drove Poe back here. And…we would be just so happy to…to…to give him back his car. Because it’s a crime. To steal a car. And like you say, you just…don’t know where he is to…,”

“You have a little something…on your neck…,” Rey was now reaching for him with a tissue she’d pulled from her purse.

She dabbed gently at what felt like a rosebush scratch, probably trickling blood down his throat. Ben swallowed nervously.

“So, what you’re saying is, you don’t have any idea where he is?”

“Mmm,” Ben mumbled, desperately trying to say something that wasn’t true. He shook his head instead. That felt easier.

“Would you two mind if we sat down for a minute? I’d like to show you something.”

“Sure. That’s…fine.” Ben bit his tongue before it could get going again. He really liked the idea of her staying in his home a bit longer. The feeling was confusing as hell.

As she moved off toward the little table in the kitchen nook, Poe glared daggers at him.

“What is WRONG with you?” he mouthed to him silently behind her back.

“I don’t know,” Ben whispered back, equally as frustrated.

Ben perched nervously in his chair when he joined her. Rey selected the seat beside him, close enough to make him nervous all over again. Poe lounged across from her like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Okay, then,” Rey said, pulling a large envelop from her bag. When she held out a set of large, glossy print photos, Ben’s stomach twisted nauseously.

“What is this?” Poe asked, voice low and horrified.

“Crime scene photos. And family portraits. We believe James Angelov is responsible for his murder.”

The young man’s name washed over Ben’s awareness, but all he could think about was how closely he resembled Poe. His jaw clenched.

“So, I’m sure you can understand why I’d be interested in speaking with you both,” Rey said. “Any help you can give me in finding this…ex-friend of yours…would be appreciated.”

Poe’s voice was genuine and sincere now. “I had no idea. I…this is…awful. I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could tell you that would help.”

Rey’s expression was guarded, but Ben searched her face carefully. She seemed skeptical of this answer.

“Okay. Would you mind if I looked around a little?”

***

The Marshal part of her mind told her that Ben’s reaction to her question had been suspicious as all hell. Despite that, she’d been strangely relieved by his seeming inability to form coherent thoughts around her. It meant she wasn’t the only one. Being close to him seemed to cloud her mind, as her thoughts pushed and pulled at each other.

She made her way slowly through the house. There was nothing suspicious. Just an overly friendly black cat and a nagging feeling of familiarity every once in a while, when she’d spy some random object or piece of furniture. The little child shoes piled in the entrance hall made her throat hurt.

The car outside was another story. She combed it carefully, plastic gloves on. In the driver’s seat she found a dusting of small pebbles—like some kind of salt crystal, maybe. Or a homemade medicine of some kind. Drugs, possibly? She scraped them carefully into a small plastic evidence bag for analysis.

On impulse, she made her way back to the rose bush Ben had been battling earlier. Was it her imagination, or was it larger than when he’d been kneeling in its midst?

Bending down, she grabbed a cut red blossom—petals still lush and plump—from where it rested on the ground. The smell made her stomach twist. It was sweet but also vaguely rotten.

***

“Poe, if you’re going to work here could you…you know…work?” Ben asked tiredly, as he scrolled through the spreadsheet in front of him.

Poe finished draining the pint of beer and placed the glass back on the counter with a click. His upper lip was decorated in a frothy mustache.

“I’m testing the merchandise! This stuff is great, by the way. Chocolate stout was it? Rose, did you say there’s a new seasonal variety of the IPA?”

“Sure is! I can get you a sample if you like.”

Ben huffed and clicked to close the document, before pushing back from the desk in irritation. The metal legs of his chair made a grinding noise.

As he stormed from the brewery’s office, which doubled as a small tasting room, he could hear Poe speaking behind him.

“Was it something I said?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rose replied. “It’s Parent Group elections today. He’s like this every year. All the parents of school kids in the village get together and vote on an organizing committee to oversee school activities and stuff. Only, Ben’s never chosen because he’s a…different.”

His mood was not improved when he noticed Rey Sands standing on the sidewalk outside, speaking with a group of village residents. Her little spiral notebook was open and she was scribbling in it furiously.

“They’re cooking up a placenta bar! That’s why the twins never age!” one old man gossiped.

“On Halloween, they jump off the roof and fly!” called a little girl.

“We’re not saying they murdered him, but…I don’t know…it’s very mysterious. Maybe they, like, shook his hand and he died later or something,” Sarah Everclear said. Her shrill voice carried to him easily.

“When they don’t like you, they hex you!” her son explained from beside her. Ben grimaced when he realized the boy still had faint traces of chickenpox on his skin, finally starting to heal from his recent case.

“Anyone who dares to love one of Anakin Skywalker’s family will live for a few years before meeting an untimely death.”

“The curse? I’ve been hearing about that a lot,” Rey said in a wry voice, still diligently taking notes.

Ben swallowed nervously at Rey hearing these sort of village rumors. Clearly she was now considering the possibility that Jimmy was missing for more sinister reasons than simple evasion of capture.

Rey seemed to notice him looking, and Ben dropped his gaze to the ground as he walked toward the little school at the heart of town.

***

Ben did not fit very well in the tiny children’s desks, so he’d opted for dragging over one of the few adult-sized chairs kept at the back of the room for classroom volunteers. The other parents—mostly haughty looking mothers with pearl necklaces and expressions that turned scornful when he tried to speak with them—clustered near the front of the room like eager students. Jodi Everclear, Sarah’s sister, was standing at the teacher’s desk at the front and reading off the results of the election.

“The second member of next year’s Parent Group will be…Anthony Faulkins!”

Polite clapping and little nods of congratulations for Anthony filled the room. Ben tried not to roll his eyes. He hated that he still felt the need to come to these things…it wasn’t like anyone would ever vote for him. But he also didn’t want to add ‘uninterested parent’ to his reputation.

The classroom door opened unexpectedly, and Ben’s anxiety spiked when Poe swaggered into the room. Little gasps of recognition could be heard from the cluster of parents.

Poe grinned evilly at the attention and sashayed across the front of the room.

“Is that a snake tattoo on his arm?” one mother stage-whispered to her companion.

“Yes. And there’s one on his butt too,” the second said distastefully, failing to note that sharing this information would reveal something about her own personal knowledge of the situation.

“That’s right, everyone! I’m back!” Poe said loudly, voice delighted. “Hang on to those husbands and wives!” His wink included a flirtatious glance at Anthony.

“Oh, God,” Ben said under his breath, trying to hide his face in his hands. The only thing missing from this nightmare was him realizing he was actually naked at school.

A polite cough at the front of the room did—in fact—make things worse.

“Sorry to interrupt. I was wondering if I could sit in here for a few minutes? I have plans to interview some folks after the meeting,” Rey said with a smile.

“Of course!” Jodi replied.

***

Rey rather enjoyed the way Ben Solo’s cheeks pinked at his brother’s embarrassing display, and felt even more pleased when he blanched after noticing her. She made her way to a small child’s desk in the back corner of the room, where she could observe everything unobtrusively.

Poe had swung an adult-sized chair around backwards and straddled it as he sat next to his brother. He rested his chin on his hands and grinned over at him conspiratorially.

“Didn’t Dameron sleep with Toby Halfacre?” came another stage whisper from a gossiping mother. The two brothers noticed, and shot her glowers.

“Ow!” the woman shouted, sucking her finger after the three-ring binder in front of her snapped closed unexpectedly.

“Don’t do that,” Ben Solo breathed to Poe. Rey could just barely hear them, even though she was only a few feet away.

“It wasn’t me.”

“Well, I certainly didn’t do it.”

“Liar. It was totally you,” Poe whispered back, nudging him like a class prankster appreciating a good joke.

“Finally…,” the woman at the front of the room said from the teacher’s desk, now riffling through a pile of little paper ballots. “Oh, I’m so pleased to announce this. The final member of next year’s Parent Group will be…one moment…,” she frowned at the papers in front of her. “Um…it looks like…it will be. Um. Ben Solo.”

“What?” little whispers of outrage bounced around the room.

“Wooo! Go Ben!” Poe said loudly, clapping his hands. He was the only one. He leaned toward his brother and whispered again, “Now, that was me.”

***

“Are you following me?” Ben asked Rey angrily after the meeting broke up.

He’d already been on the receiving end of affronted looks from the other parents who’d had to swap phone numbers with him for the first time, and he wasn’t in the mood to see her calmly writing in her notebook and preparing to speak with a few of them in the hallway.

“Should I be?” she snarked back at him.

“Well, if there’s something you want to know, you should just ask me.” Ben hadn’t realized he was getting far too close to her until they was almost toe to toe. It was not a distance that respected a stranger’s normal personal bubble. It was far closer. More like how he used to stand with his wife.

The thought had him instinctively dropping his gaze to her lips. They were plush and pink. Her chin was pointed. He could easily hold it in his broad hand if he wanted to tilt it up for a kiss. Oh, God. Where did that thought come from?

“Ha, ha. I already did ask. And all I can tell you is, there appear to be a few things missing from your story. So, it’s getting late. How about I finish up here and we meet again tomorrow. I’ll stop by your house?”

Ben swallowed nervously. “Okay.”

“Ten o’clock, maybe?”

“Okay. Yeah.”

“Good. It’s a date,” she said.

Was it his imagination or did her eyes glance down to his lips briefly? He watched her walk down the hallway and approach the parents she’d arranged to speak with. When they turned the corner out of sight, Poe’s voice interrupted his chaotic thoughts.

“Way to go, Ben. I’m impressed. I honestly thought if one of us was going to seduce the cop lady it would be me.”

Alarmed, he spun on his heels. “What? What do you mean?”

“I’ve never seen you look at someone like that. You looked ready to push her up against the lockers.”

“That’s horse shit. I did not.”

Poe’s teasing expression morphed slowly into a worried frown. “You do seem to act really weird around her. Did I hear her saying she wanted to come over and interview us again tomorrow?”

“Yeah. And she’s been poking around town too. Asking about us.”

Poe’s eyes were definitely concerned now. “Okay. Well. That’s worrying.”

“Yeah.”

Chapter Text

Ben woke when a freezing cold breeze blasted through his room. He’d left the windows open to let in the warm, fresh air, but this felt different. Dark and light danced eerily around his room as the tree outside blew in the wind, casting moving shadows in the moonlight all around him.

“Jimmy? Is that you?” He asked. He wasn’t sure why he was certain someone—something—was watching him.

“Noooooo,” whispered an old voice in his mind. The hairs on his arms and neck stood on end. He hadn’t actually expected an answer from the empty room.

“Who—who are you?”

“Hahahahaha…”

Ben jerked awake for real this time. Just a dream. It was just a dream, he thought desperately. Warm summer air blew gently through the open windows. He lay back, trying to calm his pounding heart. But as he stared at the ceiling he realized the sense of being watched was still there.

“Go away,” he whispered. “Leave us alone.”

***

Poe’s dreams had been anxious and disturbed. Full of running for his life through dark places from someone with Jimmy’s face but an older, more malevolent aura. It had been a relief to wake at dawn...a time he normally preferred to greet from the other end, after a long night of partying.

Rey Sands was going to be a problem, and Poe had had plenty of time that morning to think up a solution.

“Okay…,” he read, finger traveling down the helpful little index in the Book that his mother had created ages ago. “Animal Friendship…Astral Projection…B. Ah ha! Banishment. Here we go. To Banish unwanted persons it says we need…blessing seeds. Breha, honey, can you find those? I don’t even know what they are.”

His niece turned helpfully and began searching through the shelf in the little herb drying room.

“Here!” she said helpfully, holding out a jar. “They’re labeled ‘nigella seeds’ but it’s the same thing.”

“Oh. Wow. Is it? Good. You’re really good at this.”

“Why can’t we tell Daddy we’re sending the Marshal lady away?” she asked with the unerring habit of young children to ask uncomfortable questions.

“Because your Daddy likes to pretend he doesn’t do magic, so we can’t leave it to him. And she might cause some trouble for Daddy and me. So we’re going to Banish her for his own good.”

“Oh. Okay. What else does it say we need?”

“Um,” Poe glanced over the instructions again, but noticed Padme had drifted over to their little work table. “Padme, sweetie, I thought I asked you to listen at the door for Ms. Sands.”

She gave a little gasp of recollection and pushed the door open again, leaning out into the hall to continue monitoring the front door.

“Right, so we need milk thistle, three fruits of barberry…”

“Uncle Poe? Was this Daddy’s?”

“Huh?” Poe looked up to see a small spell diary in Breha’s hands.

“Oh, wow. Yeah. Where did you get that?” He took the familiar little book from her and glanced through the neat and tidy scrawl Ben had left behind years before. Breha had bookmarked a page, so he flipped to that one.

“She’ll hear my call a mile away. She’ll come from nothing, but be my everything. She’ll have hazel eyes, and freckles. Her favorite shape will be a star. Her soul will be an echo of mine. We’ll always find each other, no matter what tries to part us,” Poe read aloud, smiling fondly at the memories it stirred.

“Was it about Mommy?” Breha asked.

Poe’s mouth opened and closed a few times, unsure how to respond. Padme abandoned her post in order to creep closer to hear his answer. He looked between the two little girls, faces upturned and hazel eyes hopeful.

“Well…I don’t think so sweetie. See, the truth is, this was a spell your Daddy cast—or tried to cast—when he was a little boy. About your age, Breha. I don’t think it ever worked right.”

“What did it do?” Padme asked, face confused.

“Well, it was a love spell, to Summon his true love. See, he was afraid that if he ever fell in love…well…he didn’t want to have the curse affect anyone. And he didn’t want to end up with a broken heart,” Poe said awkwardly, fully aware that he was speaking to two little girls who had lost their mother to the curse. “So he made the spell be about someone who didn’t exist. That way…he thought…it would all work out.”

Their sad eyes dropped to the diary for a moment before turning back up to him.

“Does Daddy have a broken heart now?”

His stomach lurched at the question. “Yes. I think he probably does. He loved your Mommy…so much. And I know he doesn’t regret loving her. Or having the two of you. You two are…everything to him.”

He seemed to have finally found something to say that would ease their minds. They smiled brightly at this.

“I can’t wait to fall in love!” Breha said, looking over the diary with excitement.

The echo of his own words from long ago, uttered on the very night Ben had attempted this spell, came back to him. His face twinged where Jimmy had hit him. He knew it wasn’t his fault that Jimmy had treated him like that, but panic still seized him at the thought that Breha might someday follow in his footsteps. That she might fall prey to someone like Jimmy.

“Hey, Breha?”

“Hmm?”

“Listen…do you ever put your arms out and spin and spin and spin really fast until you feel dizzy?”

“She does it all the time!” Padme answered for her sister.

“Well. Love is a bit like that. It makes your heart race. It’s fun. And…it can turn your world upside-down. And…if you aren’t careful…if you don’t keep your eyes on something still, you can lose your balance. You know? You can’t…see what’s happening clearly around you. You can’t…see that you might be about to fall.”

Poe was shocked at how choked up he felt. At the moisture in his eyes. God, how I’ve screwed up my life. The partying was fun, but I should have looked closer at Jimmy. Somehow…I should have known. There must have been warning signs I missed.

“It’s okay, Uncle Poe,” Breha said. Her tiny palm cupped his stubbly cheek in comfort. “I won’t let you fall down.”

The doorbell rang, shattering the little moment.

“She’s here! She’s here!” Padme was suddenly shouting at full volume, as if he hadn’t heard.

“Okay! Go make sure to convince her to stay for breakfast. Go on. And uh…keep her away from here. We’ll finish up the Banishment spell. Breha, can you find the maple syrup? I’ll add the charm to that.”

***

“Hi! You came for pancakes!” the little girl said when she answered the door.

Rey blinked down at her for a moment, taken aback. If Ben had felt familiar, this little one felt…more. More familiar. Like Rey’s arms wanted to reach out and crush her into a hug. What a weird impulse. Knock it off. You’re here for a job.

“No. Uh. I actually just came to have a word with your Daddy.” The girl could only be Ben’s. He’d been at that silly, judgmental Parent Group meeting after all. But for some reason she also felt sure there was a second girl around here somewhere.

It was probably just that you noticed two sizes of child shoes the other day, she scolded herself. Stop being weird.

“Great! He’s having pancakes too. Come in! My name’s Padme. What’s yours?”

“Rey. Rey Sands.”

“That’s a nice name! I’m named for my Great-Grandma Padme. And Breha is named after Grandma Leia’s adoptive mom. Grandma says she was really nice. I wish I still had a mom!”

The child spoke non-stop, flowing easily from topic to topic at light speed. Smiling, Rey found herself guided by little hands down the hallway, through the kitchen, and down the steps to the conservatory. Her mind filed away the comment about a missing mom—a missing wife for Ben—with careful interest.

“I like your dress,” Padme said.

“Oh. Thanks,” Rey murmured. A dress was not standard attire for her, but she’d opted for the flower-print one this morning. Her fingers selected it from her bag as if they had a mind of their own. She wasn’t sure why, but she did want to look nice today. The jacket and work belt she wore over it were a concession to her job.

“You can wait here. He’ll be right down. He’s probably trying to find clean pants or something. He wants to impress you,” the girl informed her with a grin.

“Oh.” Rey couldn’t think of a better response, but it didn’t matter. Padme was already disappearing into the kitchen and yelling at the top of her lungs. “She’s going to stay! She’s going to stay!”

***

Rey fingered the little glass vial in the conservatory again. The medicinal pellets inside were very familiar in color and shape.

“It’s belladonna,” Ben’s voice said from behind her. “It’s a sedative. People put a little in their tea to relax. Calm their nerves.”

“Some people also use it as a poison,” Rey said neutrally, turning to look at him.

“Which people?”

“Witch people, maybe,” she replied with a knowing look.

“Ah. Yes. You found me out,” his voice was low and…was that an edge of flirtatiousness?

“Guess I did.”

“Yeah. You should come here on Halloween. Then you’d really see something. We all jump off the roof and fly. We kill our spouses too. Or is that outside your jurisdiction?” he said, tone dripping with sarcasm. Rey wasn’t in the mood to play, though.

“Do you have any idea how crazy all this sounds?” she asked, waving her little notebook in his face. “I’ve got people telling me you folks are cooking up a placenta bar alongside the beer in your brewery. Saying you worship the Devil—.”

“No,” he said firmly. “There’s no Devil in the Craft. But…why do I get the feeling you know that?” His gaze was thoughtful as his eyes traced the lines of her face.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you ever get a tingle? In the base of your spine? Like a feeling, whispering to you? I think…I think you might have the Gift, Rey.”

“That’s nuts. You don’t know me!” The denial was out of her mouth before she had time to consider. She did get those feelings. Like how she knew she needed to be put on this case.

She could feel his warm breath, ghosting over her lips now. “Why do I get the feeling that I do know you?”

He was so close again. Her heart was beating alarmingly fast against her ribs. Rey was mortified to realize she was gazing at his mouth.

“Magic isn’t just spells and potions, you know,” Ben continued softly. “Your badge, for instance—,” he nodded with his chin to her belt.

She pulled it out to show him. He fingered the metal star on the black leather.

“It’s just a star. Just another symbol. Your talisman. It can’t stop criminals in their tracks. Can it? But it takes on power because you believe it does. Everyone has that power—belief. But in you, it may be something more.”

He looked curiously sad as he handed it back to her and turned to walk up the stairs to the kitchen.

“Mr. Solo. I need to know. Are you hiding James Angelov?” She hated that she had to ask. She’d avoided it until now, but she couldn’t any longer. It was her job.

“Not in this house,” he answered with a firm shake of the head.

“And…did you or your brother…kill James Angelov?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah. A couple of times.”

“That’s not funny, Mr. Solo.”

***

“Dad! I’m cooking!” Padme said as he walked into the kitchen, Rey on his heels.

“I can see that. Be careful near the burner, sweetheart. Where’s Uncle Poe? I thought he was going to make the pancakes.”

“He’s making the syrup.”

“Oh.”

“I can help,” Rey said kindly, moving up beside the kitchen chair Padme had dragged in front of the stove. “Here, why don’t you step back so you don’t get hurt. Shall I help you roll up your sleeves so they don’t get covered in batter?”

“Yeah! Thanks!”

Ben’s lips quirked up into a smile at the sight of Rey fussing over Padme. It looked…natural, somehow. A memory stirred uncomfortably in the shadows of his mind. He reached for it…stretching. But it was ephemeral. Like a soap bubble. It popped as he approached it. Even the knowledge that there was a memory there to recall vanished from his mind.

He blinked. Rey was now spooning batter into the hot pan, somehow managing to work it into little designs that looked like badly formed stars.

“I’ll cut up some fruit,” he said, casting about for something to do. “And set the table.”

As he got to work slicing strawberries and banana, and picking the stems off of some blueberries, Ben spoke to Rey over his shoulder.

“You’re really good with kids. Do you have any?”

“No. No it’s just me,” her voice sounded sad, and Ben instantly regretted asking. “I’d like to have children though. I don’t really have any other family, so someday it would be nice to make one of my own. For now, it’s just me.”

Ben was surprised at her openness with him…a possible suspect. But he got the strangest feeling that she couldn’t help sharing herself with him, just as he couldn’t help doing the same.

“I’m sorry. That…must be tough.”

“Yeah. It gets lonely sometimes,” she said, flipping the pancakes. “But when you come from nothing, you appreciate everything. Like…I like my job, and everything I have, I know I built for myself.”

“I guess I can understand that. My family life was different, obviously. But…well. You’ve heard the villagers. It was a lonely childhood.”

Padme was watching Rey work with an open-mouthed expression that Ben couldn’t quite interpret. Maybe it was just admiration for an adult woman in the home. She didn’t get to see many of those. But then his daughter started glancing back and forth between the two of them with a worrying look on her face.

“So…how did you come to be a U.S. Marshal, anyway?” Ben asked, seizing on a fresh topic.

“Oh. I was in the foster system growing up, so I developed a…personal interest…in finding people, I guess you could say. This was just taking that to the professional level. I actually keep wondering if I ever lived here as a teenager.”

“How do you mean?” Ben paused cutting the fruit. Could this be why she was so familiar?

“Well, my foster father and I moved around a lot. It’s sounds awful, but most of these little towns start to blur together in my mind. But still…things feel…familiar here.”

Rey stepped away from the stove for a moment and opened a cupboard without looking. She removed a large serving plate, somehow knowing instinctively where they were kept, and began stacking the completed pancakes on it.

“I don’t think you lived here,” Ben said. “I would remember you.”

He was pleased to notice the flush that appeared on her cheeks.

 “What’s your favorite shape?” Padme suddenly asked her.

“Oh. A star. Like my badge,” Rey answered patiently. “I tried to make these pancakes into stars but I don’t think they turned out that well.”

“Do you have freckles?” Padme said, now standing on her tiptoes in order to examine Rey’s face more closely.

“Padme, sweetie. What’s with the twenty-questions game? Can you take these forks out to the table in the garden?” Ben interrupted before Padme could continue her interrogation.

“Sorry about that,” he said, after his daughter had slipped from the room.

“Oh, it’s no trouble. I like kids, as you noticed. And she’s…really cute.”

Rey was definitely shooting him little covert looks, but she wasn’t as stealthy as she thought she was. Somehow, he knew she was regarding his backside, and he was glad his snug black denim jeans had been clean. He tightened his abs and puffed his chest up a bit, just to improve the view.

***

“Napkins under your chins!” Ben said to the girls as he carried the serving tray of pancakes and a large bowl of fruit to the metal garden table. Breha and Padme were whispering excitedly in their chairs and shooting little looks up at Rey.

“Here, I’ll get them,” Rey said, lifting a cloth napkin and tucking it into the front of Padme’s shirt.

“It’s nice to meet you. You must be Breha?” Rey said, as she repeated the napkin tucking for Breha.

Normally his older daughter would have been able to do it for herself, but she was staring up at Rey with some kind of rapture on her face, like she was seeing the sun for the first time. Ben understood the feeling, but it was weird coming from Breha.

“Do you have hazel eyes? I have hazel eyes. So does Padme.”

“Yeah, I do,” Rey said with a smile. The girls instantly squirmed and shot each other excited looks.

What the hell is up with them today? Ben wondered.

“Here, if you’re anything like your girls you’ll want this,” Rey said teasingly, reaching up to tuck a napkin into his collar as well.

He froze as her fingertips lightly brushed his neck. Where they had touched, his skin burned pleasantly. His chest began aching from lack of breath. Rey’s eyes rose to gaze up into his, and he noticed the pink now suffusing her lovely cheekbones.

“Here we are!” Poe’s voice interrupted Ben’s open-mouthed observation of Rey’s features. “Ms. Sands, you must try my special syrup. I season it myself to give it more flavor!”

Ben’s eyebrows quirked. Poe must have learned some fancy new cooking thing, because as kids they’d never have dreamed of contaminating the perfection of maple syrup.

“Here you go,” Poe said, taking a seat and holding a little white pitcher of syrup out to Rey across the table.

“Oh, thanks!” Rey replied, reaching for it.

“No!!!” Breha shouted, jumping up from her seat.

“No! No, no, no!” Padme joined in. The girls seized the pitcher between them before Rey could take it and began running with it across the lawn.

Ben watched them, befuddled. The girls stepped carefully across the rocky slopes at the edge of the lawn and went to the little overlook on the waves ten feet below. There, they chucked the pitcher into the ocean. Their hoots and hollers of triumph filled the air, like they’d achieved something significant other than losing one of their Grandma’s pieces of tableware.

“I guess they didn’t want that,” he said with a nervous chuckle. “Probably hated the idea of flavored syrup, Poe.”

Poe was watching them with a shocked expression on his face. Ben noticed with anxiety, however, that Rey was now looking at Poe with a closed off expression he associated with her business face. It was stern, and a bit suspicious.

Her right hand reached up and behind her, as if to touch a tingle at the base of her spine. Ben understood immediately what she was feeling, because suddenly his was tingling too. He looked to Poe in accusation, wondering what could have caused it, but Poe was also touching the base of his spine. A strange sound came from farther along the garden’s edge.

“Bleh. Bleh. Bleh.” It sounded vaguely like a cat with a hairball, but when they all walked to the other side of the garden to investigate—the tingle in his spine told Ben it was important to do so—it turned out to be a large toad sitting under the grave’s rosebush. Sickly sweet smells still filled the air, and the rose stems seemed to stretch and grow as he watched.

“Bleh. Bleh. Bleeeehhhh!” With a final heave the toad expelled from its mouth a large, silver ring. Ben frowned at it in confusion, before dread set in.

Poe seemed to catch on quicker than him. “Oh, that’s uh…our pet toad. That’s his party trick. Haha!”

But Rey wasn’t buying it. She knelt—a disposable plastic glove appeared from her jacket pocket—and she scooped up the ring carefully.

“What are you two playing at?” she demanded. “This is James Angelov’s ring. I know for a fact he never took it off. It was his souvenir from his murder of Mr. Finchburn.”

She looked between Poe and Ben in consternation when they only gaped at her.

“You two better get yourselves a damn good lawyer. Don’t even think about leaving town. And what was in that syrup?”

She scowled once more at Ben, eyes flashing angrily, then was stomping back toward her car. When she slammed the door and peeled off down the driveway, Ben found his voice again.

“What was in that syrup, Poe?!”

“It was…just...I thought…a Banishment.”

Ben almost screamed at him, but shoved his anger down and raged back into the house silently. The kitchen was a mess, and he was no longer hungry, so he began to wash and put things away. Slamming drawers closed and throwing things in the sink with loud clangs.

“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” Poe was saying, either to reassure himself or Ben, he didn’t know. “You know. No body, no crime.”

Poe’s elbow caught a large pottery bowl on the counter filled with apples, and knocked it to the floor. Shards and apples exploded across the floor.

“Oh, God. I’m sorry. I’m just…I’m feeling like shit. I’m not sleeping well. I just…”

“I. Me. Mine. God! That’s all you think about, Poe! Isn’t it? Yourself. No thought for what position this puts me in. Or the girls. Do you want their only parent to go to prison? And I don’t know what you were thinking with that Banishing spell! Rey’s…she’s…,” he floundered to express exactly how Rey somehow felt like someone who belonged here, making pancakes with him and the girls, while she was also investigating them.

Poe stood suddenly from trying to scoop up pieces of the broken bowl. “I don’t want to fight, Ben!”

“Don’t walk away from me! We need to talk about this.”

“No! I’m not doing this. You know I didn’t mean this to happen.”

“I know! But I’m just…I’m so sick of cleaning up your mess! I feel like Rey…something’s special about her. And because of all this I can’t…I can’t…,” Ben huffed in frustration.

“What? Because of this you can’t what?”

Ben ground his teeth, hands on his hips. Memories were stirring uncomfortably in his mind and he felt something building in him…like a rage-filled thunderstorm. Anger at what had been done to him. To them. To his family. But he couldn’t find words or thoughts to fit the feelings. They didn’t make sense.

“That’s all you can see me as, isn’t it. A big mess? Just one big mess!” Poe was yelling now. “Well, at least I’ve lived my life. At least I’ve tried to have fun and make the best of things! You cower here in this stupid old town with ignorant people and try to pretend you’re normal. Well, were not normal, Ben. We’ll never be normal. You need to stop hiding and live your life.”

Ben frowned. This argument was all over the map now. Small resentments and unspoken frustrations were frothing to the surface haphazardly. Like someone was poking around in their minds and stirring everything up. Making it darker and more twisted. The realization was brief. It popped like a soap bubble. All that remained was the anger.

“I want you gone! Out of this house! I want…out of this whole damn mess,” Ben roared.

Poe’s face went calm in cold anger. “Fine. You want me gone? I’m gone. I’ll be gone tonight.”

“Good!”

“Fine!”

Ben stormed for the entrance hall and grabbed his car keys.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m doing the right thing.”

“What?!?! No, no, no! You are not going to go tell her what happened.”

“You know what? From the moment she has walked into my life, that’s all I seem to want to do. I want to be honest with her. I want to make things right so I can…so I can…,” he swallowed thickly.

“And what are you going to do, exactly? Get down on your knees and beg for mercy?”

“You want me to be true to myself? Stop hiding? Well watch this!”

And he was out the door, footfalls heavy on the front steps as he ran for the car.

***

“It was Jimmy’s ring!” Ben shouted as he hastily parked his car beside her and threw himself out of it. He’d driven so fast he’d arrived at the little Bed and Breakfast Rey was staying at only moments after her. She was still climbing from her car with a scowl.

“Oh, really? You don’t say.”

“I know you know that already. But I needed to tell you. I’ll tell you everything. I want to be honest.”

Her face softened slightly. “Listen, I was serious back there. You should get yourself a lawyer before we talk anymore.”

“I don’t want a lawyer. Just you.”

Rey’s eyes were curiously worried, but she radiated calm professionalism.

“Alright, then. Come inside.”

She guided him through the little entrance hall of the B&B, then up the stairs to her room. Ben self-consciously noticed the curious eyes of several people on the ground floor following them as he trailed behind her.

“You can have a seat. Excuse the mess. I wasn’t expecting company,” she said as she flicked on the light.

The bright light of morning shone through the billowy white curtains hanging over the window at the far side of the room, illuminating the single bed. It was scattered with photos and documents and folders.

He crossed the room to sit in one of the two little chairs at the tiny coffee table under the window. Rey began gathering up still more files from the table to clear a space. When she shifted some, Ben’s breath caught at the sight of an envelope with the impression of his finger stamped in wax. The seal had been pealed up in order to open it.

“Where did you get this?” he asked, voice hoarse as he pulled out the letter he had mailed to Poe right before receiving his plea for help. The letter was worn, the folds flexible as if it had been opened and closed scores of times.

“Oh. It was in the materials forwarded to me. It’s important to review all the evidence. Of the case.”

Rey removed her phone from her purse. “Do you mind if I record this?”

“Sure,” Ben said absently, still looking over his words.

“Mr. Solo,” Rey began, and Ben felt a twinge of irritation that she was using his last name again. “Can you please tell me, where is James Angelov?”

“I think he’s in the spirit world. Or maybe something else is that’s using him. He was acting…strange.”

“You think he’s dead?”

“I think he’s haunting us.” Ben looked up to her face at last, and held the letter out before him. “What evidence did you get from reading my letter? It was very personal. I don’t see what could have interested you.”

She shifted guiltily but evaded his question with one of her own. “Mr. Solo…Ben. Did you or your brother kill James Angelov?”

Ben looked down again, grinding his teeth. His earlier anger at Poe had vanished. Now that he was away from the house, all that was left was the memory of Poe’s protective arm around his shoulders after the village children had thrown stones at him.

“Poe didn’t kill anybody.”

“Poe didn’t, but you did?” Her voice was soft. Heartbroken. Worried, perhaps.

Ben raised his eyes again to meet hers. Why are their tears in her eyes? Oh, please don’t cry, Rey.

“And what would you do if I told you I did? Would you…what? Send me to jail for the rest of my life because the world was short one monster like Jimmy Angelov?”

She shook her head. “It’s not for you or me to decide how he should be punished.”

“Well, he has been held accountable. He has been punished.”

Rey’s hand drifted to her phone and tapped the button to end the recording. She rose from her seat and began pacing in the room. As if tugged by a leash, Ben rose with her.

“Ben, I’m serious. You need a lawyer. Now, listen. I know you’re in some kind of trouble. I…really want to help. I’m…not sure why. But…it feels wrong to…to…pursue this.”

“Do you feel this too?” he asked, heart in his throat.

She shook her head, as if in denial, but he could tell she knew she was lying. The wet on her face was too much. It made him hurt. I always hate seeing her cry. Ben blinked at the thought. When had he ever seen her cry before?

He wasn’t aware he was crowding her until she was forced to stop by the edge of the bed. Tentative, but following some instinct he couldn’t understand, Ben raised his fingertips to her cheeks. Tenderly touched the trail of a tear. Then leaned in and kissed it away.

He realized what he had done when his heart squeezed painfully in his chest. The warm and wet on his lips from the touch was enchanting. As he leaned closer to her still, Ben could smell the lingering traces of her soap—fresh mint and oatmeal bodywash. The same kind he still kept stocked in his shower.

“Ben,” she sighed, her fingers tracing lightly up his chest. She leaned her head to the side, exposing her slim neck to him. He leaned in and breathed deep, letting the scent waft over and through him. A memory floated closer. Tantalizing. Telling her he loved her.

“Rey,” he whispered, undone. He didn’t know how the memory was possible, but it was real. He knew that.

Their lips met. The memory expanded. It was early morning. He held her in his arms and kissed her softly. Lovingly.

Ben pulled back. They gasped for air as their dazed eyes met. Confusion and longing and guilt coursed through them both.

“I’m sorry,” he said automatically, not sure exactly why he was apologizing. What could be more natural than this?

“I shouldn’t,” she said, seeming to echo the feeling.

He jerked back as if burned, but her fists gripped his shirt again and pulled him back to her. This time the kiss was long and deep, at her insistence. He retained more awareness of the present but his mind was still a swirl of confusion.

And then the bubble of memories popped. He was kissing a U.S. Marshal. She was investigating him and Poe, possibly for murder. What the hell am I doing?

He pulled away. Her hazel eyes met his.

Hazel eyes. Freckles. His daughter’s questions echoed in his mind, and stirred a different memory. One of a little spell diary.

Oh, God and Goddess above. Is this the spell? Is that why we’re so confused and messed up? I cast a love spell on us, and we’re losing our rational minds?

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he wailed, and leapt away. He was tripping down the stairs and running out onto the street before he knew it.

Ben stood on shaky legs, gasping in the clear ocean breezes and desperately trying to sweep the cobwebs of the spell from his mind. He closed his eyes, seeking a calm emptiness. As the world became more sane, a dark foreboding crept over him.

His spine was tingling. A shadow behind him…inside him…seemed to laugh in a low, cruel voice.

“Daddy!” Breha’s sobs screamed in his mind, like a distant echo. “Daddy, help!”

Padme’s silent cries followed her sister’s.

“Ben!” Poe called for him, reaching out through the throbbing ache of the old scar on his palm.

Rage and protectiveness surged through him. His daughters were in danger. His brother was in danger. He would end anything threatening them.

As he threw open the car door and smashed the key into the ignition, he heard the deep masculine laugh from his nightmare, filling the back of his head.

“Hahahahaha…”

Chapter Text

Rey sat on the edge of the bed and trembled. Ben had thundered out of the room, his footfalls heavy enough to echo as he crashed down the stairs. Her mind was still awash in a daze from their kiss, and her memories swirled uncomfortably. Something in the shadows of her mind pounded and sobbed on locked doors, desperate to get out.

She felt guilty, yes, as she should, given what her job would think about what they had just done together. But the feeling was distant. Less important than her current need to grasp whatever it was that was hidden from her. But it was like trying to grab smoke.

“Gah!” she roared, fist pounding the mattress beside her in frustration.

She knew him. She did. She’d seen something for a moment there. Reflected in his eyes. A morning together? No. Years. Years together. But they were faded.

“Help!!!”

A young girl’s piercing scream reverberated in her mind. Rey’s head snapped up, eyes dilating in alarm. Her ears had heard nothing, but somehow she could still sense the sobbing. A second child was crying.

“Breha. Padme!” She didn’t know how she knew it was them, but she was already running from the room. Some instinct—long buried—was raging to life at the sound of their calls.

The car. That would be faster. She ignored all traffic laws and relied on her high-speed pursuit training to peel around corners and make it over the bridge to the island in record time.

The front door of the house was open. Ben’s car was sitting on the front lawn rather than in the driveway—he’d clearly driven right over the mailbox and up the path to the front porch in an attempt to arrive faster. It was still running and the driver’s door hung open, but he was nowhere in sight. When Rey threw herself from her own car, the girl’s cries could be heard from inside the house, audible now with her ears.

She hadn’t even realized she’d grabbed and unholstered the gun she kept under her seat until she was moving into the house, pointing it low as she made her way up the spiraling stairs. Following the noise.

Hurried steps thundered above her, and three flights up she met Breha and Padme. She knelt on the stairs and both girls threw themselves around her neck.

“Up there! Up there! It has Uncle Poe! Whatever it is has Uncle Poe!” Breha said through her tears.

“Okay. It’s okay. Get downstairs, sweetheart,” Rey said calmly, carefully holding the gun out and away from them.

They nodded and Breha began tugging her sister down and around Rey, who stood and made her way up still more stairs. Around and around she went toward the attic.

“Get out of him! Now!” Ben’s voice boomed loudly as she peeked around the corner of a bedroom tucked under the rafters.

Poe Dameron lay on a small twin bed. His face was pale and he groaned in pain, thrashing wildly side to side.

“NOW!” Ben yelled again. Then he spread his arms wide before flexing them together…straining to make his hands meet out in front of him, as if an invisible force were fighting him.

Her eyebrows crinkled in confusion, but she watched—spine tingling and eyes transfixed—as he gritted his teeth and growled into the effort. When at last his hands joined, Poe’s body arched up off the bed in a surge. Then it was falling back, gasping in relief, as a ghostly apparition was forced up and out of his body.

Rey’s gun was pointed at the figure a heartbeat later. How is this possible? How is this possible?

“You aren’t Jimmy,” Ben said to the specter, voice low and menacing.

It looked like Jimmy though. Only grey and semi-transparent. But Rey could see what Ben meant. It’s eyes glowed frighteningly.

“Haha. No, my boy. He died in a fire. I used him as a conduit after I raised him myself. But Raisings never work so well from Below. I had to share the body with him. I couldn’t fully cross over…until your little Resurrection. Thank you for that. It’s a pleasure to be meeting you at last. I’ve only been sensing you from afar.”

The figure spoke in the creak of an old man’s voice, evil and twisted.

“Who are you?” Ben asked.

“Don’t you recognize me? I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”

Ben’s fists clenched at his sides, knuckles cracking.

“Palpatine.”

The figure only nodded, a terrifying smile on his face. A chill ran up Rey’s spine. Then another. Sheev Palpatine. How did she know that name?

“What do you want?” Ben spat, voice livid. “You already killed my wife!”

“Did I?” the specter’s eyes had drifted to Rey, and her heart clenched in primal fear. “I thought so to. But perhaps I did not succeed. It’s hard to know for sure from Below.”

“What do you mean? Your curse killed her three years ago!”

The ghost was smiling at Ben again with a condescending expression.

“A curse? Is that what you think you’ve been dealing with? Hahaha. Anakin always was a fool. No, dear boy. You aren’t cursed. You’re haunted. By me. And as for what I want…well, I’ve wanted his entire line to suffer as I did. But now? Now I’m here. IN the world again. Perhaps I’ll take your body and live anew. Oh, the fun I could have.”

Rey swallowed at the threat, and watched the ghost’s eyes drift again to her. It licked its lips, as if hungry for that life.

Ben seemed to notice the direction of Palpatine’s eyes this time. He twisted and saw her there. His face blanched.

“Rey…get out of here!”

“No!” The gun was steady in her hands as she pointed it at the creature with Jimmy’s face. It stalked toward her, and she planted her feet wide. Preparing for a battle she had no idea how to fight, but determined anyway.

Her memories were crashing into each other now. Turbulent. The name—Palpatine. The mention of a curse. A dead wife. Ben’s eyes. The feel of his lips. The feel of the girls as she’d hugged them, loving and protective.

“Rey Sands,” the specter said as it circled her. “I’ve sensed you of course, and I thought I’d gotten to you. Killing you now will be so much more fun.”

Rey kept her unblinking eyes fixed on it, shifting her footing back and around so as to circle with him. Keeping a distance between them. She made her way to between Ben, Poe and the creature.

“Why?” she yelled at him angrily. “Why did you do this…to us? To…my family?” She wasn’t sure where the words were coming from, but those shadowed parts of her mind were screaming them.

“Because your husband’s grandmother should have been mine. She said yes to that fool instead. And no one says no to me!”

“You’re sick! Stay away from us! Leave this house now!”

“You think you can command me here, little witch?”

“Yes,” she said, voice low and hissing.

His face twisted in a snarl. Then he lunged for her. The bullet went right through him, and he plunged a hand into her chest. Clenched at her heart, trying to stop it.

Ben roared and was thundering to help, but her hand had already reached for something…she didn’t know what it was until she held up the badge in her hand. The metal star glinting in the low light. She smashed the talisman into the side of Palpatine’s face.

He wailed in pain, clutching at the star-shaped burn it left behind on his ghostly skin, and removed his hands from her. She glanced at the improvised weapon for a heartbeat, then lifted it up in front of her. Palpatine gave a shriek, then seemed to puff away like smoke.

Ben’s arms were around her as she fell to her knees, panting. His huge hands were stroking her hair, her back, her shoulders.

“Are you okay? Are you okay?” He couldn’t seem to stop asking.

“She’s fine, Ben. It’s okay now. I think she got rid of him,” Poe said behind them. He stumbled weakly over and sat on the floor beside his brother.

“You…you two will need to explain this all to me, someday. Things are still…foggy,” she said, rubbing her forehead. The shadows were coming back, after the moment of clarity. Had that really happened?

“I’m not sure I can,” Ben said, shaking his head. Looking equally confused.  

***

Ben walked slowly into the garden. Rey was standing by the grave roses, staring as they wilted in the heat of the sun. He hoped that meant they were dying back now. That Palpatine was gone for good.

Rey’s arms were clasped around her middle, hugging herself, and her eyes were shadowed.

“Are the kids okay?” she asked without turning to see that it was him. Somehow she knew.

“Yes. Poe’s baking some cake with them. I said they could have it for dinner, so that calmed them right down.”

“They should have at least one vegetable,” she muttered distractedly. Ben’s brow furrowed at the familiarity of the statement, but other concerns were more pressing.

“Rey, I—.”

“Did I…kill him, back there? Is he…gone now?”

“I think so. And no, you didn’t kill him. You destroyed his spirit, I think. But I’m the one who killed Jimmy’s body. And I’ll tell you how I did it. I’ll tell you where I buried him. I’ll—.”

“Ben! Ben, stop!” Rey face was worried and her hands came to rest on his forearms as she interrupted his rapidly approaching meltdown. He heaved his breaths as he stared down into her eyes.

“Ben—I thought I came here to bring in the bad guy, because generally that’s what I’m supposed to do. But this…I don’t know what the hell this is! You heard that…that…that ghost! He said Angelov died in that fire. I don’t know how to handle any of this! And then there’s…there’s…what the hell is going on here? With you and me? I keep thinking…I keep feeling…,” she spluttered into silence, eyes searching his for answers he didn’t have. Except for one.

“I know why you’re here, Rey. You’re here…because I think I sent for you. A long time ago.”

Ben turned and walked weakly to a little garden bench at the edge of the lawn. He huffed as he sat, starring out to the ocean. She perched lightly in the seat beside him.

“What do you mean?”

“When I was a little boy, I cast a spell, so that I’d never have to have a broken heart or…or hurt someone I loved with the curse.” His brows furrowed as he recalled what Palpatine had said, about how he wasn’t cursed. He was haunted.

“What was the spell?”

“It was a love spell, so I’d only love the woman I Summoned. But I asked for qualities in a partner that I didn’t think could exist. Like a Soulmate. But…,” his eyes sought out her hazel ones. “But you do exist.”

Her eyes darted between his, back and forth. Her sweet mouth hung open, and he didn’t know what hurt more: the pain at his confession or the sudden uncertainty in her eyes.

“You’re only here because I called for you. And you only feel this way…we only feel this way…because of a spell. It isn’t real. I think it’s been…confusing us.”

“That’s what you think has been confusing us? No. No! There’s something else. I have…memories. I can’t even remember they are there most of the time but being here. Around you. Around…the girls…it’s like something inside of me has woken up. I don’t know what it is or what to do with it, but I know I need…someone. To…show me how I belong in all of this.”

Tears were running down her cheeks again, and Ben couldn’t help but cup her face in his hands. Rub the salt and water away with his thumbs.

“I must have read your letter a thousand times, Ben. I touched the wax and it just…called to me. Like an echo of what I’ve been feeling these past years.”

“Rey,” he said, voice strained. “It’s just…a spell. And if you stay here, I won’t know if it’s really you who wants this. Or if it’s just something I inflicted on you. And you won’t know if it’s just because I don’t want to go to prison.”

He could see her throat constrict as she swallowed thickly. “Well, all relationships have problems, you know.”

Her wry smile up at him had him chuckling through his own half-sob. He lowered his hands to his lap. Giving her space.

“But you don’t know for sure, do you? You don’t know if what you’re feeling is real.”

“I’m just…confused. I need to think this through.”

“Okay,” Ben said, heart heavy. “Okay. Well. Why don’t you do whatever you need to do. And I’ll do what I do. And we’ll see where we end up?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

Her voice was distant now, and she seemed to be regarding the ocean as if it might hold her answers, since Ben couldn’t provide them. He watched as she stood on unsteady legs and began making her way along the small, rocky cliff. She followed it for a while, until it sloped down to a beach below and out of sight. Ben watched the sun move through the sky. The clouds billow.

Unease crept back into him as his gaze settled on the rose bush. Was it just him, or did the flowers look plump again? Like the plant was rehydrated? A sickly, rotting sweet smell reached him.

A shadow seemed to follow him as he went back into the house. By the time he stood in the entrance hall, he was panting with anxiety again. Where was it? Where?

He spun, eyes searching. His vision went dark.

***

“Ben? Ben, is that you?” Poe called as he walked from the kitchen toward the entrance hall. He thought he’d heard the door. “Breha wants to know if she can have—.”

He froze. Ben was standing in the hall, shoulders square and head thrown back as he breathed unnaturally deep…like he was savoring the feel of the air rushing into his lungs.

“Ben? Are you okay?”

His brother turned, but the light in his eyes was not his own.

“Oh, shit!” Poe stumbled back.

He didn’t have Ben’s strength for pushing out a Possession, so he pressed his back to the wall and stared. He couldn’t run for the kitchen. The girls were there, and he didn’t want them anywhere near this. His thoughts spun out. Assessing possibilities. None of them were good. All depended on chance.

He turned his back to Ben, as if horrified. Hiding in plain sight like a frightened animal. His brother’s body stalked closer, laughing now in that echoey voice.

“Hahaha. Finally. I can end you all at last. I thought torture forever would be fun, but really…it was the best I could do after Anakin killed me. But now…I can start all over again. Leave you all behind, in the dirt where you belong.”

His breath was tickling the small hairs on Poe’s neck. He tried to steady his pounding heart.

“You first.”

Poe swung around suddenly, fist already clenched. Ben went down like a dropped sack of potatoes.

“Owwww! Fuck!” Poe screamed, shaking his hand. It felt broken from the force of the blow, but at least Ben was unconscious, and probably not permanently damaged.

“Oh, dear.”

Poe’s eyes shot up as his mother stepped through the door, Luke on her heels.

“I see we did not arrive in the nick of time,” she said.

“Your instincts must be getting a little rusty, if you let him sneak up on you like that,” Luke said, nodding to Ben.

***

“He’s squatting inside him like a toad,” his mother said, dabbing Ben’s forehead with a wet cloth while Poe buried his face in a throw pillow in shame.

Luke had mended the fracture in Poe’s hand with a few well-chosen spells and a potion that tasted like swamp water. They had all hauled Ben’s enormous frame over into the sitting room and dumped him in a large lounge chair. He was still passed out. Sweating and mumbling nonsense as he wrestled with the spirit inside him.

“And this is what comes from dabbling,” Luke said scornfully, wagging his finger at the unconscious Ben. “You can’t practice the Craft while you look down your nose at it.”

“We know. We know,” Poe said, lowering the pillow to his lap and lifting his head from the backrest of the couch. “We screwed up. Now tell me how to fix this.”

“Well, that depends. I assume it was your boyfriend you brought back?” Luke asked.

“We tried to. But it looks like Palpatine came through instead.”

“What?” Leia twisted around to stare at him in shock.

“He said…Mom he said it wasn’t a curse after all. He’s been haunting the family.”

Her eyes dropped down to her lap, face awash in grief and rage.

“That bastard. He must have been popping into our minds from the Beyond,” she said. “Seeing who we were in love with and finding them somehow. Killing them. Waiting until we were in mourning to know the job was done.”

Luke’s face was a picture of horror, but it quickly switched to hope.

“Leia? If we could Banish him…properly this time. If we could seal him away somewhere deeper…maybe we could prevent this from happening again. It could be safe to…safe to…,” he trailed off in thought.

“Safe for us to love?” Poe asked hopefully. His uncle’s eyes darted to his, and he nodded. “Okay. So how do we do that?”

“We’d need a full Coven,” his mother answered. “Nine adults.”

“Twelve’s better,” Luke answered. “And they’d have to be local if we want to get him out of Ben before the Possession wipes him away entirely. Do you have any friends?”

***

Poe held Ben’s phone in front of his face, and gritted his teeth in frustration when he realized it was password locked.

“I’m Ben,” he told it confidently. The little phone opened to the home screen obligingly. He grinned, and called Rose and Kaydel first.

“Is there anything else we can bring?” Rose asked.

“No. Just the broom is fine. Thanks for helping.”

“No problem. We’ll be there after sunset.”

Poe disconnected the call and scrolled through Ben’s contacts, looking for more names. Parent Group Asshole #2 sounded hopeful, so he tapped that.

“Hello?” came a man’s voice.

“Anthony! Hi! This is Poe. Poe Dameron.”

“Oh. Uh. Yeah.”

“So, listen. You know those rumors always going around about my family? About, like, hexes and spells and stuff? Well, here’s the thing…I’m a witch! We all are. And, uh,…I need a favor.”

***

“Jodi?” Anthony said into his cell phone while trying to fit the kitchen broom into the back of his car. “I’ve got the best news. Poe Dameron just came out! He’s a witch!”

“Oh, wow! That’s…amazing that he’s owning up to it, I guess.”

“Yeah. Apparently he’s just gotten out of a really awful relationship and the guy is totally haunting him. He’s giving Ben Solo a bad time too, and they’re reaching out to get some kind of Intervention set up. Can you help?”

“Of course! We don’t want unsavory types bothering people in our town,” Jodi said, all business now. “I’ll call my sister too.”

“Thanks. I’m going to call Jess from the Parent Group as well. Do you have a broom?”

***

“Thanks, Anthony,” Poe said, then hung up. He turned to look at his mom. “Anthony and Jess are in. So are Jodi and Sarah Everclear.”

“With Kaydel, Rose, you, me and Luke, that’s only nine,” Leia said, holding up her fingers to double check the count.

“I hoped not to involve him, but I might know a guy in town,” Luke said, scratching the back of his neck guiltily.

“Okay. So ten. We need two more.”

“Well, there’s this U.S. Marshal who’s been helping us,” Poe began to explain. “Her name is Rey Sands and I think—.”

“Her name is what?!” Luke said, eyes wide.

The front door crashed open. They all turned to see Rey herself striding in.

“Hi, Luke,” she said, a stern but loving expression on her face.

“Rey?” Leia’s voice was laden with emotion.

“Hi, Leia. I’ve missed you.”

“How…how much can you remember?” Luke asked, voice low.

“Um, a fair bit? But not everything. Just the important stuff, I think. It’s all still…murky.”

“Remember what?” Poe asked, confused. But then his eyes caught on a man standing behind Rey. He was dark and built. Exceptionally handsome.

“We’ll get into it later, Poe,” Rey said. “Right now, we need to get this asshole out of Ben.”

She seemed to notice who Poe was now starring at, mouth hanging open. The man’s gaze was fixed on him with a tentative smile that warmed his face.

“Oh, this is my partner. Finn Storm. You two should probably meet. I’m going to set you up when this is all over.”

“Huh?” Poe said, looking back to her, stunned.

“Later, Poe. It’s time to save my husband.”

Chapter Text

Rey left Ben sitting on the little garden bench and made her way across the rocky slopes down to the beach. Walking always helped her to think, and she had a lot of thinking to do. Tantalizing little hints of memories kept popping up in her awareness and then billowing away.

The beach was more grit and pebbles than fine sand, but it felt nice under her bare feet when she tugged off her shoes.

Okay, what do I know? Her training as a Marshal had her organizing her thoughts into lists.

I know that Ben is familiar. Intimately familiar.

I know that Breha and Padme are familiar.

I know this house. Especially the conservatory.

I know the family here can use magic.

I know they are cursed…or haunted? And that Ben’s wife died. Or…he thinks she died?

A small bubble of understanding rose above the tumultuous surface before popping again.

Damn it. Okay. Try again.

On and on it went, like trying to climb a sand dune. She’d push herself to run up it, but then would slide back down in the shifting sands. Each time, she made it a little closer to the summit but constantly lost some of her progress as well. It was infuriating, but she kept at it. Teeth gritted.

The crash of the waves soothed her as she thought, so she went closer to them. Dipped her feet in the water, then…ignoring how it would soak her dress…she sat down in the shallow waves.

She’d been feeling something build in her since she arrived. No—before that. Since she felt Ben’s letter in her hands. His kiss had been electric. It stirred things to the point that she knew they wouldn’t settle down completely again. If she left here, now, it would always froth under the surface.

Her eyes drifted closed.

“You’re only here because I called for you. And you only feel this way…we only feel this way…because of a spell,” he had said. She knew even as he uttered the words that they were wrong.

A spell?

A memory came back to her, from long ago in her childhood. She knew instantly the memory was still hers because it came from before whatever this was that was currently making parts of her mind swirl in dark fog.

She was newly placed in her jerk foster father’s house. Hating him and everything about it. She had no friends. How could she? She changed schools and homes constantly. But she wanted someone. Someone who would love her innately. Perfectly. More than that, she wanted hope that someday she’d be sure to find that person.

She felt the first glimmers of a hum and tingle in her mind and body as she walked home, hand darting out to pluck a petal or a flower bud from the neighbors’ gardens as she went. Not many. Not so much that their absence would be noticed. But enough for…whatever it was her instinct was telling her to do.

She’d cast a spell too. Looking for her Soulmate. Someone who would never abandon her. Someone she could love.

Rey’s eyes fluttered open. She could no longer remember the words of her spell, but the impressions of them were there. And she knew she’d wished for Ben, just like he’d wished for her.

The realization snapped her memories into place, and she crested the dune of awareness. There was still farther to go. More dunes to scale. But for now, she gazed out at the new vista before her.

They’d been married here, on this beach. Breha was their daughter. Padme was their daughter. She could remember sitting in this surf, her back cuddled into Ben’s front as their hands lovingly stroked her swollen stomach. Joyful at the miracle they had made together.

There was more still to figure out, but this was the important part. The missing piece.

She tugged her shoes on over her sandy feet, and began making her way back toward the house. In her wanderings, she hadn’t realized just how far she had gone. As she walked, a creeping feeling of foreboding swept through her.

“Rey…,” she clearly heard Ben’s voice in her mind. He sounded terrified.

“Ben,” she said, and started to run.

It took far too long for the rocky slope that led up to the house to become visible again. A familiar figure was waiting for her by her car.

“Finn? What are you doing here?” she said as she puffed up to the porch.

“I’ve been worried about you. It just didn’t feel right to let you be here all by yourself. And…I got this feeling I’d need to be here?” His kind features were creased in a confused frown.

“Okay, well, something is wrong. I think a spell has wiped parts of my memory. And…Finn, I have a husband. He’s in trouble. There was this ghost and I think he’s Possessing him and—.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down! What are you talking about?”

“Never mind. Do you trust me? I need your help but I can’t explain just now.”

“Um, yeah. Yeah, okay.”

The sense of foreboding intensified as she walked up the steps, like she was approaching a danger she only barely understood. But she gritted her teeth with determination. Ben was in there. Her kids were in there. And they needed her.

***

Rey kept an arm around Leia’s waist as the older woman stirred an extra-large spoon in the enormous cauldron on the stove. Leia’s other arm was around Rey’s shoulders. Rey found herself craving the steadying, reassuring contact as much as possible.

“God, that smells awful,” Rose said, coming up to stand beside them and peer into the bubbling brew.

“Well the fumes are great for the pores. Not to mention sealing his nasty spirit back into the grave,” Leia said wryly, leaning over the potion and breathing in deeply as if she enjoyed it.

“Rose, sweetie? Luke says he needs help lifting the chalk bindings or…something. Getting the broom circle in place. Can you give us a hand?” Kaydel called from the formal dining room.

They had been busy as night fell. Stripping the dining room of furniture, art, photos, and other objects, and getting it ready for the Banishing.

“Sure thing!” Rose called, moving away again.

Poe and Finn, Rey was pleased to see, where still leaning against the other end of the large kitchen workbench. Chatting and—she hoped—flirting. From their body language they seemed interested in each other.

“Shouldn’t you be called a wizard rather than a witch, since you’re a guy?” Finn asked, slightly teasing and fully curious.

“Fantasy book fan, are you?” Poe answered with a wink. “Actually that’s a misconception. Witch and wizard are both gender-neutral, but wizards are a bunch of nerds who learn their magic exclusively from books.”

“I could have sworn something called me here. Like…Rey was in trouble and I knew I’d be needed.”

“There’s a little witch in all of us. It shows itself when people we care about are in trouble.”

“Rey, dear,” Leia said softly now that they were more alone. Rey turned her head back to her mother-in-law.

“Yes?”

“I just…wanted to say how sorry I’ve been, about what we did to you. To you both. It’s just that, well, Ben had been hearing the deathwatch beetle ticking your life away. When he called he was frantic. Ripping up floorboards to try to find it. Pulling his hair out. But there was nothing we could do. And after Luke lost Mara and I lost…my husband,” her voice choked up for a moment, “we just couldn’t let the same thing happen to you.”

Rey squeezed around her middle again in affection. “I understand. Leia? When we get Palpatine out of Ben, if we can seal him away better this time…could we…you know?” Rey wouldn’t allow herself to consider the possibility that they would fail.

“Lift the spell fully? Yes, I hope so. Though it seems to be fraying pretty badly if you can remember this much already. If there’s anything left of it after this, we can remove it with some effort. With a full Coven we should be able to do a pretty strong Banishment, so I’m hopeful.”

Rey swallowed and nodded. Breha and Padme still didn’t know who she was, and didn’t seem to be able to remember for more than a few seconds when she said she was their mother. But they were clearly fighting the spell in their own way. They had hugged her instinctively, and kept asking whether her soul was an echo of Ben’s, whatever that meant.

“It looks like the new broom barrier is holding,” Luke said, walking from the dining room to join them. “I scrubbed the chalk out and the circle is taking the full weight now.”

“Great. Who else are we waiting for?” Leia asked.

“Everyone else is on the porch, except for…my friend.”

“Luke?” called an older man’s voice from the front door. A massive golden retriever came bounding through the kitchen ahead of him.

“Ah. There he is,” Luke said. “Hey, Chewie, you good dog. We’re in the kitchen, Han!”

Rey was nearly bowled over by the affectionate animal, who inserted himself between her and Leia in an attempt to cuddle them both simultaneously. Not content to simply wag his tail, his whole back side oscillated back and forth in a frantic greeting. The black cat—who Rey was now remembering was hers—greeted the dog with a dignified but territorial sniff.

The silver-haired man who arrived with the dog walked into the kitchen, waiving a small handheld vacuum cleaner.

“Will this work, Luke? I couldn’t find my shop broom.”

Luck laughed good naturedly. “Oh, don’t worry about it. We had a couple of extras. Thanks for bringing Chewie though. I want him to keep an eye on the kids upstairs. Make sure they don’t sneak down during the casting.”

“Casting? What do you…,” the man trailed off as he took in Leia standing at the stove. He gave a roguish grin and seemed to lose his train of thought entirely.

“Uh, hi.”

“Hi, yourself,” she said back with a shy flirtatiousness that Rey was not expecting. Rey furrowed her brow, trying to remember who this man was. He seemed familiar, but not overly so. Like his features reminded her of someone. Perhaps she’d just seen him around the village?

“Mom?” Poe said, interrupting her thoughts. “I’ve just checked on Ben. He’s getting worse. The moon is out fully now, so we should probably get started.”

“Okay. Potion’s done I think. Can you start to gather everyone into the room?”

***

Luke had told Rey to stay out of the dining room until things were ready, because her presence seemed to intensify Palpatine’s hold on Ben, as if she were taunting him. Now that she had permission, however, Rey was the first into the room.

Ben lay groaning and mumbling on his back on the large-slatted wooden floorboards in the center of a circle of brooms. The end of each broom handle lay on the base of the next, just above the bristles. The edges of the room were lined with rows and rows of candles. Every candle holder or dish that could protect the floor from hot wax held one, and they were all lit. The flickering light should have given the room a warm aura, but instead the darkness contained in the circle dimmed it unnaturally.

“Be careful not to break the circle,” Luke warned everyone as they all shifted along the narrow space between lit candles and the brooms, spacing themselves out evenly. “Don’t step over the line. And don’t break contact between one broom and next, even for a second. They need to stay firmly touching at all times.”

The group was silent as they took in the terrifying sight before them. The darkness in the room seemed to radiate a chill that made their breaths visible, even though the night was hot and sultry.

“Rey…,” Ben moaned painfully, head lolling from one side to the other. His eyes were slits.

“I’m here, Ben,” she whispered back.

“Hahaha.” The answering laugh did not belong to Ben. She did her best to contain the sob struggling to break free.

She came to a stop at the far side of the room from the door, standing between Leia and Poe.

“Alright, at the same time, we will all bend down and pick up the broom in front of us,” Luke instructed. “Grasp it where it touches the brooms on either side, and hold them together to be sure contact is never lost. Don’t lean over the edge. Your fingertips can curl around the handles, but no more.”

When they all nodded their understanding, Luke led them to grasp the brooms.

“Alright, together, stand up and hold the brooms at staff length. Handle to brush.”

Leia began a soft chant. At first, the words traveled over Rey like the creeping touch of a spider crawling up her spine. She shivered, and noticed others doing the same.

The words spun through the room, echoing, almost as if they bounced down into a deep cave and came thundering back, hugely magnified. She found her mouth picking them up. Joining Leia’s.

She heard Poe’s low voice beside her, but the rest of the voices seemed to meld into one large rhythm. As they reverberated, she felt a vibration begin in the boards under her feet. Distantly, she was aware of glass breaking as the vibration grew stronger, shaking the house and knocking pictures off walls in other rooms.

“Grrraaahhhh!” Ben spasmed violently and arched his back up and off the floor. He slapped the boards beside him in pained anger.

“No. I’ll kill him first!” Came Palpatine’s ghostly words from Ben’s throat.

“Ben!” Rey sobbed, but the others kept chanting. She released her broom—trusting that Leia and Poe were supporting it in the circle—and fell to her knees, frantically smacking the floor with her palm to try to draw Ben’s attention to her.

“Ben! Ben! Can you hear me?”

“Rey! No. Help me! Let me go.” Ben’s voice and Palpatine’s seemed to war for the use of his mouth. A savage growl ripped from his throat. Then, like a predator, he spun onto his hands and knees and faced her, snarling.

He launched himself forward, and Rey braced for a violent impact. For a moment, she thought time had frozen, but then Ben was being thrown back by the invisible barrier at the edge of the broom circle. He landed hard, groaning on the floor.

“Stop! Stop! We’re hurting him!” Rey screamed. Leia stopped her chanting at once, and the words subsided from the rest.

“Ben…oh, Ben. I’m so sorry.”

“Mom, what do we do?” Poe asked, voice higher than normal.

“I don’t know. That should have been enough to push him out.”

Rey only half listened while the voices above her continued speaking. Considering things to try. The expression of resignation on Ben’s face had her worried. She lay on her chest and turned her head so she could peer at him better. He panted heavily, maintaining eye contact through a tired, lidded gaze.

“Please don’t leave me alone, Ben. Not when we’ve just found each other again,” she whispered softly, for his ears alone.

“You’re not alone, Rey. You never have been. But I don’t know…guh…I don’t know how much longer I can—.”

Ben. You were wrong. I’m not here just because of your spell. I wished for you too, when I was a little girl. I cast a spell to find you.”

He smiled faintly at that, but his eyes rolled closed again.

“Ben! Ben!” She smacked the floor again. Nothing. Above her, she could hear Leia sobbing faintly.

“Wait! I’ve got an idea!” she yelled, then stood and ran from the room.

***

As a child, Ben had often dreamed that he was in the old family house, but the dream house was vastly larger than it was in real life. Every corner he would turn, there would be some new staircase leading to a previously unexplored attic space. Every room had new doors, leading to branching hallways and lost places. In the dream, all of it had been his home, but so much of it had been unknown.

Ben found himself there again now—in sprawling acres of house that he didn’t know anymore. As he moved slowly down an unfamiliar corridor, the explanation came to him—much as they do in dreams. The house was his mind.

He tried another doorknob but it refused to turn. So many doors were locked. So many rooms were bathed in darkness. And creeping through all of it, hunting him—the dark demon. Palpatine.

He turned another corner. The creature followed him…barely one room behind. If it caught him, he knew he would be lost forever.

Grabbing a thick wooden banister, Ben propelled himself up a staircase to a hidden floor above. Hoping he wouldn’t be trapped by the spell keeping him locked away from his own memories.

***

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Rey? Breaking the circle could unleash him on everyone here.” Luke said, voice worried.

Rey forced down her concern and tried to steady her hand as she held up the red bloom from outside. When she crushed the rose in her fist, a putrid sweetness filled the room, and Ben’s eyelids fluttered open. He growled in Palpatine’s husky tones.

“I’m going to destroy every trace of that plant, and the spell with it. I’ll take a flame thrower to the roots, you evil bastard. I know it won’t do anything to you, but it will be uncomfortable. Won’t it?”

She selected another blossom from the bowl next to her knees, and crushed this one as well. Small thorns on the stem scratched her palm, but she squeezed until it was a mash in her hand. Palpatine’s voice growled again. Rey nodded softly to Luke.

They had placed the broom ring on the floor once more. Luke reached out and grasped the one laying in front of Rey’s knees and began, slowly, to slide it along the floor. Opening a small passage in the circle.

When Rey crushed the next rose, Ben’s body rose up with a growl and swiped for her. Poe shoved her hard into the circle with him, before they closed the breach behind her.

“Join hands!” Leia barked. “Start the words again.” The circle began chanting.

No candle light reached her inside the circle. It was like she knelt in a blackened cave with the Possessed Ben before her, and the cold winds from the Beyond howling past her ears.

“Get out of my husband, you bastard!” she screamed, and seized Ben’s face between her hands.

When she moved her lips over his, Rey felt her mind jump outwards, questing for Ben’s.

She blinked in the darkness, and found herself standing in a hallway. It was dim, and carpeted. Wood paneling ran up the walls. It ached with familiarity, like it was a part of the family’s home. But it wasn’t really part of the house, she knew.

“Ben?” she whispered. Somehow, she knew he was here somewhere, but Palpatine was too. It wasn’t safe to face the spirit alone.

She stepped cautiously down the hall. It was lined with doors, all closed. Tentatively, she reached for a handle. It was heavy and metal. Cool to the touch. At first, it seemed to resist her but then squeaked as it turned. She worried the sound would attract unwanted notice, but slipped through the door as it swung open into the pitch black room.

Almost immediately, she found herself standing on the pebble-covered beach.

This is a memory, she thought. Ben’s memory. But mine too.

Everything was dim, like a shadow was obscuring the sun as it shone down onto the memory, but she could just make it out.

“This isn’t right,” she said. “It was bright and sunny on our wedding day.”

At her words, the shadow was ripped back and away. Sunlight poured down onto her face. She watched the younger versions of her and Ben join hands, giggling and crying joyfully, for the start of the ceremony.

I still need to find him, she thought, and turned to leave the room holding this memory. One step, and she was back in the hallway.

The next door she tried led to their wedding night. She flicked on the small lamps in the room before smiling to herself and leaving. It was tempting to linger and watch, but time was running out.

***

Ben felt sudden light flood a series of memories. First their wedding day—oh, heavens! Rey is my wife!—then their wedding night. He ran as silently as possible up another twisting flight of stairs to a long hallway.

Rey was coming out of one of the rooms. Her eyes widened when she saw him, but he was already crashing into her. Wrapping her in his arms.

“Rey! We need to get out of here. Palpatine…he’s—.”

“I know. But we’re not running anymore. We can face him together. This is your mind. These are our memories. What’s the first rule of witchcraft that you taught me?”

“Magic is always stronger on your own ground. It’s why we keep a big family home, where there’s space for everyone.” As the words left his mouth, realization dawned.

“Yes. And here, together, we have the advantage. Plus, everyone is in the circle with us, right now.”

A creak farther down the hall had them turning. Palpatine stood in the dim light, strong and angry. Ben’s heart jumped, but Rey snarled and grabbed his hand. Together, they charged.

Palpatine hissed, then turned to run. He fled around a corner and into a darkened room.

“This is Breha’s first birthday!” Ben said as he recognized the shapes moving in the dim light. Somehow, it felt easier to see with Rey beside him.

The bright kitchen lights turned on, and the candle on the homemade birthday cake flared bright. A little delighted baby Breha waved her pudgy fists as younger versions of Rey and Ben set the cake down in front of her. Their voices were raised in song.

Palpatine fled through an arched doorway at the other side of the room.

“The hospital! Padme’s birth!” Rey called as they followed him. Little lamps flicked on, illuminating a Rey in labor as she puffed and pushed. A younger Ben’s arms were around her shoulders. He panted in time with her. Praised her strength and beauty.

Palpatine continued running. Around corners. Down hallways. Through arches. Each room they encountered that was dark, one of them would recognize, and shout out the memory. As each became brighter, the shadows of the spell were forced out. Broken and lifted. Ben felt more and more himself with each step. He knew the same was happening in Rey’s mind, as together they rediscovered their past.

As the house of his mind was slowly reclaimed, Palpatine had fewer and fewer places to hide. This was his ground, and it was filled with light and love again. A creature like Palpatine could only survive in darkness and hate.

When at last they rounded a corner and saw the entrance hall they recognized, Palpatine stood panting angrily at the threshold of the front door.

“No! I’m not leaving!” he roared.

“You don’t have a choice,” Ben replied evenly.

Together, Ben walked forward with his wife and pushed Palpatine out of his mind.

***

Ben found himself on his knees, the floorboards of the dining room digging painfully into his joints. Rey was in this arms, and they both panted as they stared at the dark smoke collecting above them.

“Keep chanting!” Luke yelled. “It’s working!”

The words were familiar to Ben, and they shifted from a Dispossession spell to one that would force Palpatine’s shade to take material form. A soft glowing light emanated from all the people around him. His brother. His mother. His uncle. His friends from work. A stranger he didn’t know. Anthony and Jess from the Parent Group. The Everclear sisters. And—his breath caught.

“Dad?”

The silver-haired man looked down at him in confusion.

“Later! We need to get Palpatine out of the house, and back to the grave!” Luke called in warning.

Ben looked up again, and the smoke was now coalescing into a fine black dust. It rained down in the room, a distant scream of rage echoed through the room before falling silent.

“Everyone, grab your brooms! Break the circle and sweep!”

The lot of them began furiously pushing the dust out of the room, down the hall, and through the back door. Up the garden path and toward the rose bush, which was falling over as it shriveled up on itself. Rey guided Ben to the kitchen, where they each grasped one side of the stinking cauldron and carried its boiling contents outside. When they reached the grave, they poured the potion over it in triumph.

The chill winds that had seemed to surround his skin were cut off as the door to the dark places Below clanged shut with finality.

***

When the last of the guests departed, Ben found his uncle at last.

“Do you need any help?” he asked.

“No. Just a few moments. I can’t...,” he choked on a few tears. “I can’t believe we did it. That…we can be a family again. Leia—I’m so sorry. I know you’ll understand, but it’s been so hard not to tell you.”

“What are you talking about, Luke?” his mother asked.

“It’s time to lift the last of these spells. Rey, can you go up and get your girls? And Han, can you come here, my friend? We have some long-overdue reunions to enjoy.”

Chapter Text

Ben’s eyes followed the lines of her cheeks, neck and throat, enjoying the way the blue moonlight made her skin look like it was glowing as she lay on her side facing him. His fingers stroked lazily through her hair, but he tried not to shift too much. He didn’t want to wake Breha and Padme, where they were cuddled on one of the large guest beds between him and Rey.

They’d stayed up late—well past the girl’s normal bedtime—crying and hugging and soothing each other. Eventually the two little ones had started to droop, so he and Rey had carried them upstairs and cuddled in on either side of them until they were fast asleep.

Rey smiled at him as her fingertips ran up his arm, and he knew they’d waited long enough that it was safe to get up again. Carefully, he shifted his weight out of the bed, tugging the blanket up and over Padme and kissing her little forehead while Rey did the same for Breha. Then they joined hands and slipped silently from the room.

Ben led her up another flight of stairs to the bedroom he used, and closed the door softly behind them. She smiled up at him coyly.

“I’ll get started cleaning up our old house tomorrow. I want to move back in with the girls as soon as possible.”

“You didn’t sell it?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I couldn’t. I couldn’t face it, but I also couldn’t get rid of it. The living room is still a mess, I’m afraid. Floorboards all torn up everywhere.”

She nuzzled under his chin. “I’ll help you put everything back the way it should be. We’ll work on it together.”

“Rey. I’ve missed you. So much. Even when…even when I didn’t exactly know who you were.”

“Don’t get me started crying again, Ben. I’m ready to make new memories with you.”

He chuckled but felt a few more tears roll down his cheeks anyway. Then he cupped her face and found her lips with his own. She tasted so sweet. And this time, there was no confusion or guilt in the caress of their lips.

***

Three Months Later

“You can’t eat only chocolate cake for dinner, Padme. I don’t care what Luke says,” Rey told her daughter with a wry smile.

“Grandpa Han was the one who said I could! He made it for me! Well…actually his burned to a crisp because he forgot to set a timer, but he bought one of the nice ones from the Bakery!” Padme argued.

“You can have a piece after dinner, if you finish your broccoli.”

Padme made a disgusted face, but still gave Rey a loving hug before running back inside.

The early Autumn breezes were cooling the evening off quickly, but Rey enjoyed sitting out on the garden bench with Ben, looking at the ocean. They’d moved back into their home in town, but still came over often for dinner.

Poe was digging around in the garden, furiously weeding and trying to distract himself from Finn’s absence. He didn’t need to worry though. Rey had already received the text from Finn that his plane arrived a couple of hours ago, and he was planning to surprise her brother-in-law. Poe was so busy cursing at some nettles that he didn’t hear the crunch of gravel in the driveway.

“Hey there, handsome,” Finn’s voice greeted the kneeling Poe as he came up the garden path.

Poe spun around on his knees. His face lit up with a smile.

“I have some good news,” Finn said, waving a large envelope, which he handed to Rey before turning his attention to the welcoming hug Poe offered him.

“What is it?” Ben asked her softly.

Rey pulled out the letter. “It looks like an official declaration that James Angelov was killed in the fire in his apartment building.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Ben said.

“It’s the truth, you know. Finn just smoothed over the…misunderstandings…about it.”

“Misunderstandings? Ha! That’s one word for what happened.”

“Is it selfish to say I’m happy for this particular…misunderstanding? I don’t know how we would have found each other again, otherwise.”

“We would have. You’d have gotten a feeling about something else that would have led you here. Or I’d have found my way to you. We’ll always find each other. Remember?”

Rey smiled and leaned into the kiss he pressed to her forehead, then turned and snuggled onto his chest to watch the waves crash in the distance.

***

One Month Later – Halloween Night

“So, are you going to tell everyone tonight? Mom’s getting suspicious about why you’re not letting Rey join in on the fun,” Poe whispered to him as they climbed the spiral stairs.

“How did you know?” Ben said, gawking at his brother.

“Dude, you keep running your hands over Rey’s stomach. You two are worse about PDA than Finn and me. Which I know is saying something.”

Ben smirked at this as he went out onto the top story balcony and climbed the ladder to the roof. He was glad Poe had found real love, at last. Finn brought out a calm stability in Poe that he had unknowingly craved for years.

“Yes. We plan to tell everyone after the guests leave later,” Ben said over his shoulder.

Most of the village was waiting on the lawn below, dressed with varying degrees of enthusiasm for the holiday. Monster masks, ghosts, and sparkling fairies grinned up at them. The shining jack-o-lanterns lining the garden path and porch provided a cheerful, if slightly spooky ambiance. His mom and Uncle Luke were already waiting farther along the roof with the girls. Rey—grousing slightly at Ben’s over-protectiveness—was waiting on the grass below with Han and Finn.

When the moment came, the six witches opened their large black umbrellas and muttered a charm together. A cool breeze lifted them up and into the air, where they hovered majestically for a few moments before drifting calmly and slowly to the grass below. They landed amidst cheers and shouts of excitement, before being swamped by the villagers who were now proud of their town’s magical clan.

Ben only had eyes for Rey. Their kiss was slow and sweet, and only slightly interrupted by the amusing sounds of Breha awkwardly flirting with Sammy Everclear, who seemed to have forgiven her for the chickenpox.

***

“A grandbaby?” his father said, tears already gathering in his normally stoic eyes.

“Yeah. I’m…really happy you’re going to be here for this one, Dad,” Ben said with a teary smile.

Han grabbed him and pulled him into a long hug.

“A baby! We’re both going to be big sisters! Woohoooo!” Padme yelled, skipping excitedly through the kitchen with Breha, fueled by too much sugar from the Halloween candy.

His mom was hugging Rey and oscillating between pestering her about whether she should cut back her hours working at the brewery and wondering if she needed any potions for her stomach.

“No, I’m fine,” Rey said. “The morning sickness hasn’t been too bad actually. And I’m enjoying working. Bookkeeping isn’t as stressful as the travel from my old job. It’s nice to stay busy.”

When his dad went to pull his mom into a hug—and kindly rescue Rey from the overly enthusiastic advice—Ben turned to his uncle.

“We’re really proud of you both, you know,” Luke said.

“Thanks, Luke. I…wanted to ask actually. If you would be interested in starting up some more formal magic lessons for the girls? Rey and I have talked about it, and we’re both on board now.”

“Really? I’d love to! But…are you sure?”

“Yes. I’ve had a fresh perspective on magic lately. It brought Rey and me together, after all. Helped us to find each other the first time, and made sure we kept finding each other. Maybe I owe it a second chance.”

“Well, in that case I’m starting tonight. It’s Halloween after all. Best night of the year for certain spells. Breha! Padme! Meet me in the garden. I want to show you how to find a fairy nest!”

Luke moved off toward the conservatory amidst the excited squeals from the girls. Rey’s arm slid around his waist and she rested her head against his chest. Ben pulled her tight as they watched the rest of their family follow the girls outside to see the fairies.

“I feel blessed, you know, despite the time we were apart,” he said.

“How so?”

“I got to fall in love with you twice.”