by Blythe Baker
I sighed, sagging against the back of the chair. “Alright, so who else should I add to my list?” I asked.
“Have you asked Mrs. Bickford if you could borrow her gift?” Aunt Candace asked.
“I don’t see how ghost speaking would really help me,” I said. “I can see the creature. It’s not like it’s…” I said, but my words trailed off. “You don’t think it’s dead, maybe, do you?”
Aunt Candace shrugged. “I don’t know, that’s why it might not be a bad idea to have that extra gift just in case.”
My eyes widened. “That, and I could maybe talk to some other ghosts and see if they’ll help. I don’t know if it will make a difference, but it can’t hurt, can it?”
“That’s the spirit,” Aunt Candace said.
Spreading out my abilities was making me feel a lot better about the whole thing in general. I hadn’t thought about maybe using ghosts to our advantage, if they’d be willing to fight alongside us. If we were aware of the darkness creeping into Faerywood Falls, I was certain they were, too.
I picked up the plate of pancakes as Aunt Candace looked over my notes.
“Alright, so you’ve got shape shifting from one of Lucan’s wolves – he okayed that?”
I nodded, trying to swallow the bite I’d just taken. “One of the older wolves that wanted to stay and watch over the estate agreed to let me borrow his gift for the fight.”
She looked back down at the list. “You already have beast speaking,” she said. “And since you inherited it from that girl in the Forest Friends group, you can speak to all the animals in the forest?”
I wiped some of the bacon grease from my lips. “Yes,” I said. “I haven’t really tried it, but I’m going to use it to get them all out of the area before the fight begins.”
“That’s a good idea,” Aunt Candace said. “And you also already have the spell weaving gift, the one you stole from Silvia, right?”
I nodded, picking up the glass of juice and taking a long sip from it. “I also seem to have inherited her spell singing ability.”
“That could be useful,” Aunt Candace said. “Let’s see…what about a psychic power?”
I paused, a bite of scrambled egg halfway to my mouth. “…I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Do you know anyone who has a psychic ability? That might come in useful if you want to predict the actions of the creature,” she said.
“That’s if their particular ability works like that,” I said. “I think it sort of works like spell weavers, and they have all sorts of different specializations.” I tapped my fingers on the desk. “And I don’t even know anyone who is psychic. I mean, a woman at the paranormal meeting a few months ago was mentioned because a guy who went thought she really was psychic, but I didn’t get her name. And I want Zara to be able to fight with us, so I don’t want to ask to borrow her gift…”
The stress was making me lose my appetite.
“I can’t think of anyone else,” I said. “No one else who’d be willing to help me, that is…”
Aunt Candace twirled the pencil in her hand between her fingers, her brow knit together in a neat line as she concentrated. “…Honestly, I can’t either. We’ve already ruled out some of the ones Bliss suggested, and a lot of them are coming to help you already, right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Oh man, I’m so tired of all this. I just want it to be over. Is that too much to ask?”
“No,” Aunt Candace said. “But it’s not possible either, I’m afraid…”
I set down the plate of pancakes, my stomach twisting into painful knots. “I know,” I said. “I’m just…worried is all.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” Aunt Candace said. “For what it’s worth, I wish you didn’t have to do this either. I wish that you could just stay on the sidelines and let someone else take over this for you, but…” She shook her head. “I knew as soon as my sister found you on the edge of that forest when you were an infant that you were special. There was something different about you.”
“Oh, stop,” I said. “I’m not special. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time…or wrong place, depending on how we look at it.”
Aunt Candace shook her head again. “No. I don’t believe that. Bliss has always been a big believer in destiny. I have, too. I really believe that you were – ”
“What, chosen?” I asked. “Come on, that sounds ridiculous.”
“How else can you explain it, though?” Aunt Candace asked. “You just happen to do all these things in your life that lead you back here, perhaps for this one moment?”
“I don’t like the idea that my whole life was leading up to this fight with this monster,” I said. “What about the rest of it? Did that not mean anything?”
“That’s not at all what it means,” Aunt Candace said. “Those important things in your life shaped you so that you’d be ready when this day came. Life is funny like that. It never happens the way we think it’s going to.”
“…Well, I wish it could’ve been somebody else,” I said, realizing how much I sounded like a child.
“Yes, well, I think you’re the only one because you’re really the best one for the job,” Aunt Candace said. “You’re strong, sweetheart. Stronger than most people I know. You’ve stared death in the face more times than anyone should ever have to, and walked away every time. You’ve managed to unite a group of people that likely never would have come together for anything apart from something like this. You’re the image of a leader.”
I shook my head. “…For some reason, all those years ago, when my mother asked the forest for help, it agreed, and gave me its protection. Faerywood Falls has been the only place that ever really felt like home to me. I’ve made friends here, made enemies…I’ve had a good life here.”
My thoughts seemed to race in that moment, until I wrangled them and brought them to a halt.
“And you will continue to,” Aunt Candace said, a firm but frightened look in her eyes. “You’re going to have a long and happy life here. Once this monster is destroyed, all of these terrible things that have been happening around here are going to go away, and you’ll be able to live without fear of finding dead bodies or having to dodge enemies…you’ll be able to live normally. Peacefully.”
The idea of a life like that was pleasing. It seemed impossible, especially from where I was sitting right now, but I liked it nonetheless.
For a moment, I gave myself a chance to imagine a life where I could help Mr. Cromwell at the antique store part time, and maybe pick up some cases with the police – I kept thinking about Mitch telling me that I should join them officially since I was so good at it. And if I was honest, I sort of enjoyed sleuthing a little. With proper distance, of course.
Then I thought about Lucan, and what might happen between us if things weren’t quite so…complicated. The idea excited me.
“…But I can’t think of those things right now,” I said. “I have to keep my eyes on this fight. That life can’t exist unless this fight goes well,” I added, a frown tugging at the corner of my mouth.
“I know…” Aunt Candace said. “But I think you’ll get there. You’ll have that chance.”
I hoped more than anything that she was right.
The phone on her desk started to ring, and as she glanced at the caller ID, she sighed. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I need to take this. I’ll be right back, and we can keep brainstorming about these gifts to borrow, alright?”
“Sounds good,” I said.
She excused herself from the room just as I was tucking into the rest of the bacon Mr. Terrance had brought for me.
Aunt Candace hadn’t been gone two minutes before I heard a soft knock at the door.
“That was fast,” I said, turning in my chair as the door opened.
But it wasn’t Aunt Candace. It was Mr. Terrance standing on the other side.
“Might I come in for a moment?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said. “No
problem.”
He came inside and closed the door behind me. “I do hope everything was to your liking this morning?”
“Oh, everything was great,” I said, gesturing to the plate of pancakes I’d already finished, along with the eggs. “That was delicious.”
“Good,” he said. “I know you’ve been dealing with a lot, and it’s best to keep your strength up.”
“I appreciate it,” I said.
Mr. Terrance had a sudden gleam in his eye. “Miss Marianne…I hope I’m not being impertinent, but there is something I must discuss with you before your aunt returns,” he said. “I was the one who orchestrated the call for her to leave the room.”
My brow furrowed. “Really?” I asked. “Why?”
Mr. Terrance suddenly seemed uncomfortable. He fidgeted with his tie, which was a nice shade of pale blue today. “This will likely come as a shock to you, but…I am actually Gifted.”
My eyes widened. “I knew there was something different about you.”
He gave me a wry smile. “Yes, I knew you and your familiar suspected me.”
“You know about that?” I asked, my stomach dropping. For all I knew, he assumed that Athena was nothing more than an exotic pet.
“I do,” he said.
My mind was racing. “How do you know so much?”
“I know a lot of things,” he said. “Like the fact that Athena is in your backpack right now asleep. And that you met with the monster hunter, Dante Fain last night after the monster attacked you in your cabin.”
Chills ran down my spine as I looked up into the calm, patient face of a man I’d known for almost an entire year now. A man who I’d come to trust, who I’d seen almost every single day. He was as constant of a presence in my life as the Lodge itself was. The kind face of the elderly man standing in front of me was like that of a member of my family…but at the same time I realized –
“I hardly know anything about you, and you seem to know everything about me,” I said. “Why is that?”
He bowed graciously to me, a well-practiced gesture. “My deepest apologies, Miss Marianne. It was never my intention to frighten or upset you. It was also never my intention to make myself known to you, but I am well aware that you are in need, and so I decided it was best for me to step in and try to help in any way that I could.”
I could only stare up at him. “I’m sorry, this is just all so sudden,” I said.
“I realize this,” he said. “May I…sit down?”
“Of course,” I said, moving my chair so he could take the seat beside mine in front of Aunt Candace’s desk.
He sat down, and his back remained straight, his hands placed formally on his lap.
“Miss Marianne, I am what you might call a spell weaver, but my gifts are far more specific than that,” he said.
“A male spell weaver?” I asked. “Those are pretty rare.”
“Indeed,” he said. “I have never sat on the council of eleven, though I’ve been asked many times over the years.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Politics are of no interest to me,” Mr. Terrance said simply. “Besides, I have great pride in my job, and take it quite seriously.”
“What, working the front desk?” I asked. “Wouldn’t the council be more profitable?”
“Perhaps,” he said. “But that is not my desire. When your aunt and her husband at the time purchased this place, I saw there would be great trouble. So I stepped in to help protect them, and everyone inside the Lodge, from the darkness that you have witnessed settling over Faerywood Falls.”
“But how did you – ” I said, then my eyes widened. “You’re psychic.”
He nodded. “Indeed. I am quite the psychic, if I may say so. Like you, I have a piece of the orb of ages, but that came after years of searching. The piece you have seems to have wanted to be found by you, so it lead you to itself.”
I shook my head. “So you’ve seen everything that’s been going on?”
“I have,” he said. “Though, as you’ve realized, being a psychic isn’t always seeing exactly what we want to. It’s often what we’re meant to see. As such, I never knew who your biological mother was, but I was very well aware of you, even before you moved back to Faerywood Falls. I also knew about Bliss moving away, though I was not aware of the circumstances under which that would happen. I am able to do some subtle mind reading as well, though it’s only from a close proximity.”
“So the murders and everything that have been going on around here…” I said. “You’ve known about them? Known who committed them?”
“It’s not quite that simple,” Mr. Terrance said. “Like you, I might have seen glimpses, or moments. But it is not uncommon for the truth of what I’ve seen to come after something has happened.” He frowned. “So, no…I wouldn’t have been any help to you in your investigations. The visions I have are specific, and they come as they want, not when I seek them.”
“I do understand that…” I said, thinking back to the clock I kept seeing in the crystal ball, not understanding why in the world I was seeing it. “So you’re psychic. Why reveal this to me now?”
“Well, I’m not only a psychic,” he said. “I am also what is called a moon-watcher. Very uncommon in spell weavers, it is a highly defensive type of magic.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” I said.
“Neither have most spell weavers,” Mr. Terrance said. “I am the first in almost a century.”
I looked at him with a new appreciation. “So you know what it’s like to be the odd one out, huh?”
“More than you will ever understand,” he said, and the look in his eyes told me that he had many, many stories to back that statement up.
“So why the Lodge?” I asked. “You said you take great pride in your job.”
“That I do,” he said. “I have chosen to protect Candace and her family, and by extension also to protect you, because I knew you’d be coming here.”
“So you protect the whole Lodge?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “That’s why there haven’t been any deaths here, whereas there have been so many in Faerywood Falls as a whole.”
I frowned. “But the girl out in the lake. She was staying here.”
“Yes…” Mr. Terrance said. “My protection only extends so far, though. I don’t know if the water breather knew that somehow, but she managed to take the poor girl far out of my reach. I was more devastated that you will ever know when I discovered the truth the next morning…I felt as if I’d failed Candace, failed you…”
“Why me?” I asked.
“Because I knew who you were even before you did,” he said. “It was likely around the same time that your adoptive mother found you in the forest. I saw a vision of a young woman, who is now sitting here beside me, facing this monster of darkness. A Light. Through other various visions over the years, I pieced together when you’d be back, and how your family, including Candace and Bliss, would be affected. I wished to do my part, and so I made myself known to her early on, and have been here working for her ever since.”
“You did this…to protect my family?” I asked.
“Of course,” he said. “Don’t let me fool you, though. I have had my own happy life living here, too. I married, had some children. Lived the sort of life I always wanted to.”
“When did you ever see them?” I asked. “As far as I know, you’re always here.”
He grinned. “They live in the Hollow. As you know, time moves differently there. That, and they’re all quite busy with their own work and studies, and some of my children even have families of their own now. It’s rather wonderful.”
“Yet you chose to stay out here?” I asked. “Why?”
“As I’ve said, I knew it was my duty to help protect you and your family,” he said. “I may not have understood it fully at the time, but when the orb of the ages reveals something to you, you cannot run from it…no matter how uncomfortable it might be.”
My
throat tightened.
“I can see you understand precisely what I mean by that,” he said. “I’ve seen what you’ve seen. Which is why I’ve decided to give you my gift for the fight.”
My eyes widened. “But why?” I asked. “Isn’t that going to leave you unprotected?”
“Temporarily, yes,” he said. “But I’ve realized that the danger is going to be, unfortunately, concentrated where you are when you fight this monster. I will remain here, though, so I can tend to the guests that are inevitably due to arrive that day, and ensure that everyone here is unaware of what’s going on out there.”
I opened my mouth to protest again, but he lifted a hand.
“Were you not just discussing this very matter with your aunt?” he asked. “You needed gifts to borrow. Mine will be abundantly useful to you. Think how important it will be to have some sort of protection, not just for you, but for all of those who will be fighting alongside you?”
I pursed my lips. “I just…I don’t know. I don’t even know how to use it.”
“You will,” he said, holding his hand out to me. “I will teach you.”
I stared down at his hand, knowing how easy it would be just to reach out and take it. The gift was incredibly valuable, he was right about that.
But fear was still persisting inside of me. What if it still wasn’t enough?
“Go on,” he said, reaching his hand out even further. “Take it.”
It took me a moment, but I held my hand out toward him, as well.
Just before I touched him, I hesitated. “I promise I’ll give you your gift back,” I said.
“I know you will,” he said.
“I won’t keep it forever,” I said.
He let out a small chuckle. “Yes, I know you won’t. Now take it. I don’t want your aunt to know about this.”
“Wait, she doesn’t know you’re Gifted?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, and I would like to keep it that way.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because your aunt has a tendency to worry,” he said. “If she knew some of the things I’ve protected the Lodge from over the years, I’m not sure she’d be able to sleep at night.”