Instead, to her utter amazement, the minute the brown powder sifted through the strainer, it sparkled and glittered brightly, raining down on her like fairy dust, disappearing altogether the minute it touched her hair, her skin, her clothes.
“Oh… my… goddess,” Mags breathed.
Phoebe’s mouth gaped open and stayed that way.
Colin’s eyes narrowed.
“That’ll do.” Marian swiftly pulled the strainer and vial way.
“You see!” Sibyl, feeling hope for the first time, a witness to obvious magic (with pixie dust and all!), she shot out of her chair with excitement. “Oh Colin, this might possibly work!”
“Of course it’ll work,” Angie grumbled.
Colin did not appear, in any way, shape or form, to be convinced.
“I fail to see –” he began but she ran to him, flattening her palms against his abdomen, she leaned into him.
“Please do it, for me?” she begged, looking beseechingly into his doubting eyes.
He stared at her a moment and then, to her delight, gave in, though not at all gracefully.
And he did this by muttering, “For Christ’s sake,” before he sat down to get his sprinkling.
When all was done, Colin announced, “I need to make a few calls, I’ll be out front.” And he marched out of the magic room, the very picture of affronted male dignity and, if possible, Sibyl’s love for him deepened.
Oblivious to all of this, Angie chimed in happily, “Time for a cuppa,” and she herded a still stunned Phoebe and an excitedly chattering Mags into the kitchen.
Sibyl hung back with Mrs. Byrne who was cleaning her magical implements.
“Mrs. Byrne. You’ve done so much and at great personal cost –” Sibyl charged right in to begin work on her plan, time was of the essence.
“No cost at all, dear, it’s my pleasure, it’s my destiny.” Although still not fully back to herself, Mrs. Byrne was obviously in her element, enjoying every second of this.
Sibyl approached her and watched her working. “I need to ask you a favour.”
Marian threw her a smile and immediately replied, “Anything.”
Sibyl smiled back at her.
Then she asked, “If you can bring Royce forward, could you send me back?”
Marian’s hands stopped what they were doing and she turned to Sibyl with questioning eyes. “Of course, dear, it’s very basic magic, though a costly endeavour in time and energy but why would you want to do that?”
Sibyl quickly explained, “I’ve been waiting to have another dream memory but I haven’t had one in ages. I think now, if I went back, maybe he would recall me or I could get him to listen to me. If I go back, I can tell him what’s going to happen and he can be prepared for it, fight it, keep himself and Beatrice alive and…”
She trailed off when Mrs. Byrne turned back to her task while shaking her head.
“No, no. As much as I’d like to, you don’t mess with time. Never.” She paused thoughtfully, as if considering it. Then shook her head again, sadly and finished, “Ever.”
“But Marian, don’t you see? If we stop the curse before it starts –”
Marian set down the strainer which had been cleaned with some clear fluid in an oddly shaped, cork-topped bottle and she turned to Sibyl. “Sibyl, as lovely as it would be to allow their love to blossom and grow, if we change time and Royce and Beatrice lived, then the whole world could change. It could be good or it could be bad. We don’t know; we’d have no way of ever knowing. It could be that you or Colin or the both of you would never exist. Or me. Or my children. Or Japan could fall into the ocean. Anything could happen.”
“It couldn’t be that bad and if –”
Marian put her hand out to touch Sibyl’s cheek.
“No,” she said in a quiet voice, trying to soften the blow of her refusal.
Sibyl closed her eyes.
So much for Plan A, now she had to try Plan B.
“Okay, I have another idea.”
“I’m all ears,” Marian informed her and then went to sit down in a plush, worn, plum-coloured, velvet chair with a doily hanging on the back of it. Sibyl took a seat beside her, took a deep breath, pinned her hopes on her words and plunged ahead.
“You can give me the potion you gave Colin and give some to him. But more this time, so that Royce and Beatrice could come forward for long enough to consummate their love using our bodies.”
Marian’s eyes widened and she pulled in a swift breath. Sibyl found this encouraging and she forged ahead.
“The time before, it didn’t last long so it would have to last long enough for them to have time to, um… do it. They’d know each other immediately, I know it. Even though the time has changed, the place has changed and our hair has changed. I know they’d recognise each other. We could…” She stopped because she making up the entirety of the plan as she went along then she hit on it. “Write them a note! Tell them what to do. Then they could stop the curse and give Colin and me time, without this hanging over our heads, to…”
Again, she trailed to a stop when Mrs. Byrne shook her head.
“Sibyl, my dear, that is a very volatile potion. Anything could go wrong with that. I took a grave risk the last time and was very lucky with the outcome. And, it cannot be taken in large doses under any circumstances. It could catastrophic.”
“But why?” Sibyl cried. She needed either Plan A or Plan B because Plan C was unthinkable.
Plan C meant that in order to save Colin, she’d have to leave him. It was all about them being together, Marian had told them that and she knew it was true in her heart. The minute she left, he’d be safe again.
“One of the souls could get stuck, forever, in the present, leaving either you or Colin in some horrible limbo for eternity. Obviously, I either hit it right or Colin has no other incarnations but you could have. What if I brought forward someone else, something else? A bee, for example. A samurai. No, it doesn’t bear contemplating.” Looking at Sibyl’s dejected expression she leaned forward and patted her hand. “I’m sorry, my dear. They are clever ideas but you’re just going to have to tell him you love him.”
She smiled at Sibyl with knowing eyes and Sibyl’s heart sank.
“I already did,” Sibyl whispered.
Marian’s face glowed. “Well done! And?”
“And nothing.” Sibyl answered, “He doesn’t love me back.”
It was Marian’s turn to give a hoot of laughter (a hoot that lasted a good while). When she had her mirth under control she actually wiped her eyes.
Then she said, still chuckling, “Oh, my dear, that’s too much. Do you think Colin Morgan would sit and be sprinkled with magic dust for just anyone?”
Sibyl bit her lip but replied, “He cares about me, I know he does. He wants to keep me safe. He’s very patient with me but if he loved me, he’d tell me.” Marian smiled kindly but Sibyl shook her head, feeling tears stinging the backs of her eyes, tears she refused to shed, for now. “No, Marian, I told him last night and he could have… there’s no reason why he didn’t tell me so he must not feel it. Maybe one day, I can hope but we need time and someone’s trying to kill him.”
“They’re trying to kill you both, you must remember that.” Marian warned softly. “You are in just as much danger as Colin is.”
“I had a dream where his throat is slit, his, not mine. And I have these dreams –”
“I know, my dear Sibyl. You’re clairvoyant.” Marian waved that strange fact away as if it meant nothing. “But we can change what you saw.”
Sibyl felt all hope leave her. They couldn’t change it, she knew it, she felt it.