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"YOUR MOTHER WAS A MYSTERY TO MOST PEOPLE, even me," Mila began, speaking with fondness. "She was calm, much like yourself, and very intelligent. Oh, she was beautiful. I remember all the boys loving her, but she was never really interested in them. Not the good boys, anyway."
She saw the smile on Mila's face, as if the woman was reliving the memories she had of her mother. Margot looked down at the cloak Mila had given to her, which had supposedly belonged to her mother. It was black, but silk and red on the inside. There was also a ring in the pocket, either left behind intentionally or by accident. Margot clutched the cloak tightly.
"Margot, you must swear to me that you won't share this information with anyone you don't fully trust," Mila suddenly spoke in a serious tone. "I don't want you to get hurt like your mother did."
"I thought you said you didn't know how she died?"
"I have my suspicions," Mila explained, before placing a hand on her forehead, taking a moment to choose her words. Margot waited patiently. "Your mother... was my cousin. On my father's side. But I never saw much of her. I only have a few memories. And she was a witch, of sorts."
It took Margot a minute to realise what the woman had said, and when she did, a frown began to form on her face, almost annoyed. Is this a joke? A witch? Before Margot could go off on a rant Mila knew she would have, the woman raised a hand.
"They were like normal people, just like anyone else. But they had abilities in their blood that only the women of the family carried. Hence why I didn't inherit them - because my father is male. They could use their blood to perform acts, and that's why they were deemed witches." No matter how Mila explained it to her, Margot was finding it difficult to wrap her hand around. She stared at Mila - technically her first cousin, as she was now recently informed - with an incredulous look on her face, unmoving. "They were very demonised within all the walls, and so they lived in hiding. That didn't stop the stories made about them. About how they were wicked, evil people who were just as much of a danger to humanity as the Titans. It was all so wrong. The witches were harmless, and far from a threat."
"Witches..." Margot mumbled to herself, scratching the back of her head as she furrowed her eyebrows. "My mother? But, you're not?"
"I told you, only the women of the Boudreaux family can carry that power properly. My father was a Boudreaux but not female," Mila elaborated. "Men born in the family generally died quite early. Their bodies aren't suited for it, and the power is like a sickness to them. My father was lucky to survive as long as he did, but he still died young. The only reason the name Boudreaux was kept is because the witches refuse to give up their last names." That's when Margot began to connect the dots. It was a painful realisation, but one she was bound to make.
