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Nicholas Vidal-Harkness was both of theirs. Brought forth from both life and death, he was meant to walk the same path as his mother. For as much as his mama loved him, he hadn’t been hers to raise. No, Death could not produce life, and her son had been meant to grow at her side, but his mother had a tender spot in her heart for her wife, and with the magick of other witches keeping him alive, Nicholas had been able to walk a mortal plane his soul was never meant to touch.
Six years he’d been with his mama before his mother had been forced to take him. The moon had hung heavy in the sky when he woke to his mother beckoning him, turning him back to give his mama a kiss goodbye. The kind soul he was, he pressed an extra to her cheek from his mother, knowing just how much his mama loved her. He’d joined his mother at the edge of the clearing, taking the hand she’d presented to him. “Must we go, Mother?”
Lady Death heaved a heavy sigh. “You’ve lingered here too long, mijo. It’s come time for you to journey away from this place. I’ve given your mama as much time as the sacred balance would allow, but that time has passed.”
Her son stared longingly at his mama, sleeping soundly in the bed of leaves she’d so painstakingly made for the two of them. “She will be sad when she wakes. Can we not stay for a true goodbye?”
“No, little love. If we wait, she will only fight me for you. And you are meant for more than your mama knows.”
Nicholas frowned up at her. “What do you mean?”
“Has your mama told you about my work?”
He nodded, barely noticing as Rio pulled him further from his mama’s slumbering form. “She said you have a really important job. That you help people when they die to go to the other side.”
She smiled down at him. “That’s right. It’s why I can’t be with you and Mama all the time. I have a lot of work to do.”
“Is that why you only visit at night? Mama misses you; I know she does. She gets sad when she talks about you.”
Her black heart twinged in her chest. “I miss her, too. More than anything.” She ran a hand through his hair. “Except maybe you, mijo. But I had to stay away. There are people that are even more important than me, and they weren’t happy I let your mama keep you. You were supposed to live with me, you see. But your mama loved you more than anything in the entire universe, and I couldn’t take you from her. Not then.”
He looked up at her again, confusion on the face that mirrored hers so much. “Why can’t I stay with both of you? Spend some time with mama and spend some time with you?”
“Well,” Rio started. “You’re a bit more like me than Mama. Have you noticed strange things sometimes? About other people?”
“I have,” he said, averting his gaze, the two of them meandering slowly along a path that had turned darker, tree leaves changing from green to blue as Rio led them away from the side of the living. “Sometimes I know when people are going to die. I can feel them.” He looked back up at her. “Is that what you feel?”
“Yes, little love, it is. You, as my son, were meant to live and grow with me so you could learn like I did from my father. What else have you felt?”
“The trees speak to me, sometimes. I feel their roots and leaves and trunks. They told me about the plants in the woods. One time I got lost when mama and I were looking for berries and they told me how to get back.”
Rio grinned proudly. “A budding green witch yourself, huh, Nicky? Did you ever tell your mama about it?”
He shook his head, dark ponytail bouncing with the move. “She was so worried when I got back. She hugged me so hard I thought I was going to burst. I forgot.”
“She would have loved to hear about it. She loves magick.”
“Can we visit her sometime?”
Rio let the question roll around her mind. “At some point we could. But your mama is going to be very mad at me for taking you.”
“Then she’ll be extra happy for me to be back.”
Lady Death ruffled her son’s hair. “You’re absolutely right, mijo. But first, there’s a few things for you to learn. We’re getting closer to my home now, and I don’t want you to be scared.”
“I’m really brave; I won’t be scared.”
“I’m sure you are,” she replied. “But when we get to my home, I’ll look a little different. And because you’re my son, you look like me. When we get there, you’ll look different, too. I’ll teach you to change back to how you look now, but it can be hard to control.”
As they passed fully into the valley of the dead, Rio felt her glamour wash away, her true form becoming apparent. She could force her face back together, but it was important for Nicky to see her as she was. For his form would come suddenly upon him in this realm, and he would take after her.
She looked down at him, and he up at her, gaping silently, his newly transformed face the picture of shock. Like her, his face was a mix of bone and skin, a skull from the cheekbones down. Rio had never been particularly ashamed of her face, only crafting a new one for Agatha, though she needn’t have. Her wife loved each side of her as much as the last.
Nicky’s eyes were wide as he regarded her. “Do I look like that?”
“You do. Would you like to see?”
He nodded, and Rio conjured a mirror for him to use, watching anxiously as he studied his new reflection. A smile crinkled his eyes. “I look rather dandy, don’t I, mami?”
“That you do, mijo.”
~The cry of despair Agatha released when she woke to empty arms the next morning shook even the underworld.
~It was many years later that found Nicky meeting his mama again. Where mortals grew and aged at a rather quick rate, Death and their offspring took their time, and now that he resided in the plane he was meant to, Nicky followed suit. Ten years passed, but not a day had touched him, though he learned more and more about his powers as his mother taught him. She had taught him to reap souls, to lead them to the afterlife. How to listen to Mother Earth and her signals of distress that might imply a natural disaster approaching. She taught him the strength of healing, though they were not to interfere in the natural order of things. They could heal non-lethal wounds, but saving lives was ‘strictly prohibited’. It had taken some time before he could make and keep a glamour up, but he had finally learned, and that meant he felt ready to ask his mami an important question.
“Can we visit Mama?” he asked, staring up at her with a very human face.
Rio looked down at him. They’d finished taking the souls of a village torn apart by famine, so they were still in the mortal realm, and, better yet, she could feel Agatha’s presence nearby. “Of course. I’m sure she misses you very much.”
He smiled up at her sweet boy that he was. “I think so too. We should pick some flowers along the way. She always loved the purple ones you left for her.”
A smile curled the corner of her mouth. “Is that so?”
“She kept them for a very long time. I think she even used her purple to keep them alive for longer.”
“Alright, then. Show me what you’ve learned, mijo. Grow your mama some flowers.”
His brow furrowed in concentration, buds peeking through the earth moments later. They were imperfect, but solely grown from him and his love for his mama, and that made them even better than anything Rio could have grown for her.
“Do you remember how to speak to the trees, little love?”
“Yes, mami.”
“Good. Your mama is nearby, and they’ll tell us how to find her. Guide us.”
He closed his eyes, green magick swirling around them, a light breeze picking up. “This way.”
He led them through the woods, hopping energetically over fallen logs and splashing through a river before they came upon a camp. There was a fire still burning and a familiar satchel leaned against a tree. Agatha wasn’t there, but it was clear she was planning on coming back, so the pair waited. Rio foraged for some tubers, herbs, and mushrooms, conjuring a pot to set over the fire. She filled it with water and the ingredients she’d found, wanting a stew going for when her love returned.
Nicky had taken the opportunity to dig through his mama’s bag, delighted to see that she’d kept his bell. He took it from the bag. “Look, mami! She kept it.”
“To remember you by, no doubt, mi vida. Put it away and leave your mama’s things alone. We’re going to have a lesson.”
He groaned, but came to sit at her side, dutifully listing off the herbs she’d collected before she threw them in the pot, along with their benefits.
The sun was just starting to dip below the horizon when they heard footsteps, and Nicky jumped up in excitement. “Mama!”
The steps stopped abruptly, Agatha hovering at the edge of the clearing. The tears in her eyes very visible even from a distance, and she collapsed to her knees. “Nicky?”
He ran full tilt at her, launching himself into her arms. “I missed you so much, mama!”
His weight sent them tumbling backwards onto the ground, Nicky taking no time in cuddling up in his mama’s arms. “I can’t wait to tell you everything! Mami taught me a lot.”
Agatha sat up suddenly, clutching him to her. “Your mother is here?”
“She brought me.” His lower lip jutted out, and his eyes welled. “We had to go in the middle of the night. She said you wouldn’t let me go if we didn’t.”
The purple witch scowled. “She was right. You belong with me. I’m your mama.”
“Mama, you don’t understand. Mami made dinner. Let her tell you.”
Agatha eyed her wife with distrust, but let Nicky pull her back to camp. She sat with him by the fire, taking a steaming bowl of stew from him, but her eyes never left Rio, as if she would disappear with Nicky if she stopped for even a second.
The food was, admittedly, delicious, and Agatha rejoiced to hear Nicky’s chatter. He told her all about what he’d learned. Spells and potions and incantations. “She said I’m important because I’m her son.”
“You’re very important, my love.”
“No, but extra important. The son of Death has extra duties.” He stared beseechingly at her, begging her to understand. “It’s why we had to go.” He looked toward Rio. “Mami, tell her.”
Rio sighed heavily. “I should have told you this sooner.”
“No kidding.” Agatha fired back, still heartbroken to have lost both her son and her lover.
“I’m not the first Death. The only Lady Death, but not the first Death to exist at all. My father coupled with a human woman and produced me, the same as his father before him did to produce my father. We are a long line of Reapers. The child of Death isn’t meant to live. They are born dead and are taken by Death to grow and learn to do what their father did.” She frowned. “I cannot produce life from my body. I’ve tried. It never takes. I thought I was cursed to be the only Reaper for the rest of eternity. And then I met you.
“Nicky was a surprise. I didn’t think he was possible. I should have told you then. Prepared you somehow. But I was selfish. I knew you would hide from me however you could. That you would try to keep him, but he was never meant to walk this plane with a heart beating in his chest.”
Agatha’s blue eyes sparkled with her tears in the light of the fire, the moon’s glow at her back almost making her look ethereal. “You should have told me. I would have understood.”
Rio offered her a sad smile. “I think we both know that’s not the truth, my love.”
She was right. Of course she was, but Agatha was still upset. “He won’t be able to stay with me, will he?”
“No.” the green witch said. “He will not. He belongs on the other side of the veil, learning about his duties alongside me. They will one day belong to him, after all.”
“And what becomes of you then? What happened to your father?”
“I live out the rest of my days as I wish. My father found a woman to love and settle with. I collected his soul the same as he did to his father. It is how these titles work.” She smiled sadly. “I had hoped to do the same at some point.”
“Settle with a woman?”
“Yes.”
Agatha eyed her, the depth of her love for Rio still there, even after all the hurt. “Why not hope for that still?”
“I fear I have several centuries of groveling to do before she will take me back.”
“Perhaps there is still hope. Your kind seem to age slowly, if Nicky is at all to judge.”
Her son pouted up at her. “Mami says I’m a big boy.”
“Oh, you are, my dear,” Agatha said, smiling down at him. “But you’re not quite grown yet.”
“He won’t be for several centuries,” Rio informed her. “We age much slower than you humans. He’s far bigger than he should be for his age.”
The conversation petered off and Nicky sat up suddenly. “I forgot your flowers!” He frowned. “I don’t know where I put them. Mama, watch this.”
A ‘v’ formed between his eyebrows as he concentrated, and more of the purple flowers she loved bloomed before them. Nicky grinned, plucking them from the ground to present to her. “For you.”
Agatha took them with a grin, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “Thank you, dear boy. They’re beautiful.”
“Just like Mami used to leave for you.”
“Just like them.”
They weren’t perfect. There was no instant reunion. No immediate forgiveness. But where there had been no capacity for it in Agatha’s heart before, she felt a space there. It would be centuries before her son was able to fully embrace his role as the new Death, and Agatha thought, perhaps, she could be swayed back into her lover’s arms in that time.