Alexandria pulled out the pocket watch hanging around her neck and flicked it open. In less than one minute, it would be three o'clock in the morning. "Wake up," Alexandria shouted. "It's okay to go. I'm letting you go," she shouted louder still, shaking Matilda's arm. Nothing happened. Alexandria let go of the girl's arm, took a breath, and brushed her tears away. "Matilda," she said in a firm tone. "I'm telling you to leave this place, now."
Matilda's body heaved, her eyes shot open, and she sat bolt upright, then smiled. "Thank you, Alexandria. I will always remember you with kindness."
Alexandria leaned in to hug her, and was about to ask her who did this to her, but there was only air and the white dress where Matilda had been sitting. She turned around. Diana, Caitlin, and the rest of the Rivenfell witches had simply disappeared. Unlike their arrival, their departure had been instant and without fanfare.
Woken from his slumber, the dwarf was now standing up on his barrel. He raised a full glass of elfin whiskey. "To Matilda, and all the adventures that lie ahead of her on the other side. Blessed be."
Cheers echoed all around her. Andrew, a little wobbly on his feet, handed her a glass of whiskey. She shook her head. "Take it. Have a drink for Matilda. I doubt they've got this where she's going."
Alexandria took the glass, tapping it on the rim of Andrew's. "For you, Matilda, and all those on the other side, wherever you are." Then she put the glass to her lips and drank the amber fluid in one gulp.
"Are you okay? Andrew asked gently, placing his hand on her shoulder.
She lowered her head, staring at the empty glass in her hand. "I never got the opportunity to ask her who did this to her."
An elf began strumming a guitar; another coaxed a saxophone into a melodious tune, while others played fiddles, persuading a group of dwarfs into song. Everyone grabbed a partner and began to dance.
"Can I get you another drink?" Andrew asked.
"No, thanks. I think I just need to be by myself for a while, to think."
"You sure?"
Alexandria nodded, then slipped quietly away, finding a quiet spot on the edge of the woods behind the house. She pulled a tangled vine off an old garden bench, hitched up her long skirt and sat down. From her bench, the gazebo under the old tree, ablaze with twinkling lights, reminded her of the many parties her parents had thrown simply to celebrate life. She had never thought that all these years later she would be in this very same spot, celebrating death. She wondered if the spirits of the Harvey Clan had come together for the passing of her parents, just as the Rivenfell spirits had done for Matilda. She would have to add it to her list of questions, which was growing longer each day.
The band began playing another song, and she smiled. Pulling her legs up onto the bench, she rested her cheek on her knees. It was then that she noticed the meteor shower in the night sky above. She knew it was only streams of cosmic debris entering the Earth's atmosphere, and that most meteors were no bigger than a grain of sand, disintegrating long before they hit the Earth's surface, but still, what if it was something else? Spirits free from the human soul, on a journey to worlds beyond. After the day she'd just witnessed, she knew anything was possible. Magic was everywhere if you opened your heart to the possibilities, chose to believe in the unexplained, and she did. If Matilda's death had taught her anything, it had taught her to live each day to the fullest, take chances, leap into the unknown, say yes, just because you could. Follow your heart no matter where it took you, just as Kat had done, because tomorrow is not a given, just a promise of a maybe. She thought about Bran and River, wondering where they were tonight, and if they were looking at the same piece of sky that she was, and marveling at the wonder of it, as she was.
"May I have this dance?"
Alexandria lifted her head off her knees and turned around. She smiled, but did not answer, taking her time to consider her answer, and what the consequences of that answer might be. After a long moment, she reached out and took his hand. "Yes," she said, letting him pull her up onto her feet and into his arms.
He adjusted the wreath on her head, tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. "I've been watching you all night," he said, then leaned down and kissed her, taking her breath away.