by Jane Kindred
Seeing us through the window as we helped Konstantin up the stairs, Lumi came out with a smile and bent down to his height. “So nice to see you, Koste. And you’re doing so well on your crutches.” She gave him a hug, blinking away moisture in her eyes. “I know your mamma must be very proud of you.” As well-meaning as it was, I wished she hadn’t mentioned Aravella. Konstantin went from excited about the outing to quiet and withdrawn.
As Lumi straightened, I introduced her to Cole.
She gave him the usual warm greeting, though her eyes were curious, glancing from him to me. “We don’t get many visitors around here.”
“I’m not surprised,” said Cole. “I couldn’t find the town myself. I guess I managed to take some back road to get to the Strand. But I couldn’t find Jerusalem on the map.”
Her affable expression changed to a knowing smile. “Oh, it’s not on the map. The town’s unincorporated. It was founded by a bunch of anarchist hippies in the Summer of Love.” She winked. “We didn’t want Uncle Sam telling us what to do. Officially, we’re not here.”
Cole seemed to accept this, but I began to wonder if the Grove had something to do with his difficulty finding it.
When Konstantin needed to go to the bathroom after lunch and Cole offered to take him, Lumi joined me at the table and confirmed my suspicions.
“I have to warn you, Millie. Someone at the Strand didn’t want your friend reaching you.”
“What do you mean?”
“The rådande can manipulate the trees they occupy.”
I regarded her with skepticism. Though I thought I’d seen something when Lukas had rescued his son from the lightning-struck tree, I’d assumed he’d leapt through the hollows. I wasn’t quite willing to believe the trees were animated. “You’re telling me someone can move the trees around through solid earth.”
“It would take a bit of work and someone very determined—someone living or someone in spirit—but it sounds to me like the trees may have obscured the way here. For the same reason, you were able to come through without difficulty when it isn’t the easiest place to find—because someone wanted you here.”
Aravella had brought me to the Strand, but she wasn’t the one manipulating the trees now. A chill traveled up my spine, but Cole and Konstantin were back, and there was no chance to speculate with Lumi about who might be trying to keep me here.
Cole tried to pay the bill, but Lumi refused to accept it, insisting lunch was on the house, and after Cole and I thanked her, we headed out.
“So what do you say, Konstantin?” I asked when we’d reached the sidewalk. “Want to try taking a little walk without the crutches?” He looked dubious. “Just try using one at first, on the side with the cast. Then you can test out putting some weight on the leg while you still have the crutch for support.” I held out my hand to take the other crutch from him, and Konstantin gave it up to me reluctantly. “You can do this. You’ve stood on the cast before. It’s made for walking on.”
He took a tentative step forward, still resting most of his weight on the crutch.
“There you go. You’re doing it. A little more weight on the leg and not so much on the crutch.”
“I can’t do it!” he insisted, suddenly balking. “It’ll break!”
I crouched down in front of him. “Sweetie, it’s not going to break. The bone has mended, and it’s much stronger now than it was a few weeks ago because we’ve been exercising it and you have more muscle around it. I know it’s a little scary, but remember, you didn’t think you could stand or use the crutches, and you did. You even went all the way outside on the boot when you were sleepwalking.”
Konstantin looked up at me sharply at the reminder of the episodes. His eyes, with the intensity of Lukas’s, clearly focused on my bruises. I was sorry I’d reminded him, but it seemed to spur him on. He nodded, white-faced, and when I moved out of the way, he stepped forward.
“You’re doing great, Koste,” I said, walking behind him.
Cole leaned in and murmured at my ear, “You’re doing great. You’re really good with him.”
I shrugged. It was my job.
We walked all the way to the end of the block three houses down, and Konstantin even wanted to try crossing the street. Cole went ahead, and Konstantin grinned back at me as he stepped down from the curb after him while I gave him two thumbs up in encouragement, following close behind.
I heard the rev of the engine before my mind registered what it was.
Chapter Eighteen
Cole’s shout seemed to come in slow motion—not lowered in pitch like a record at the wrong speed, just drawn out longer and slower than it ought to be—as he shoved Konstantin toward me. I fell under the boy’s weight, Konstantin tumbling with me as I wrapped him in my arms and rolled across the curb onto the grassy border of the sidewalk, which met my head with a brutal smack.
Not yet certain what had happened, I lifted my head unsteadily to see a silver Fiat speeding away. And then my mind took in the sight of Cole lying several feet away, in the middle of the street, motionless. People were running to him, and already I heard the sound of a siren. Jerusalem’s volunteer fire department was just a block away.
Shaking, I sat up, raising Konstantin gently with me as he blinked at me in shock. “Are you okay?” I asked automatically. “Does anything hurt?” Even as I asked, I was staring over his head at Cole. I couldn’t let Konstantin see. There was blood. Cole’s body was twisted in an unnatural position.
Konstantin nodded, presumably at the first question, his face pale. “What happened?”
“Someone was driving too fast.” Someone in a silver Fiat.
Lumi came running from the café with Freyr at her heels. “Millie! Oh, my goddess! What happened?” she echoed as she reached us. Freyr looked Konstantin over while Lumi helped me up. “Where’s your friend?”
“A car,” I said, glancing toward the crowd in the street. The paramedics had arrived, and they were moving people out of the way. I shook my head at Lumi’s questioning look, darting my eyes toward Konstantin, not wanting to alert him to what had happened. Freyr had picked him up in his arms.
“Let’s get you inside,” said Lumi, her voice somber with understanding.
“But I need to…to see him.” I took a step toward the street and the paramedics who’d begun to work on Cole, but Lumi held me back and shook her head.
“Honey, you’re no good to anyone out here. You’re in shock, and you need to sit down. I’ll come back out and deliver any information you need me to as soon as you’re settled.” I nodded, my knees buckling, and Lumi kept me on my feet. “You weren’t hit, were you?”
“N-no. Cole pushed us out of the way. I think I banged my head.”
“He’s a good friend,” she said, squeezing my hand, and it was all I could do not to break down completely in front of Konstantin before we made it to the café. He is a good friend, I repeated in my head. Present tense. He’s a good friend. Is. Is. Is.
* * * * *
As promised, Lumi went out to give the paramedics Cole’s information as soon as she’d sat me down in the booth at the front of the restaurant and covered me with a blanket, while Freyr occupied Konstantin. They’d closed up the café for the afternoon, and I was alone. By the time Lumi returned, I was sobbing as quietly as possible so Konstantin wouldn’t hear.
“They’re taking him to Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna,” Lumi told me, sitting beside me with her arms around me while I shook with sobs. “He’s got a few broken bones, but they said it didn’t look like there were any internal injuries.” I caught my breath for a moment at this good news, but her next words wrecked me. “It’s the head trauma they’re worried about. Some swelling in his brain.”
“Oh God.” I shuddered in her arms. “I need to see him. I need to be with him.”
“Of course, honey. As soon as Luka
s comes to get Konstantin, Freyr and I can drive you up to Fortuna.”
“Lukas?” There was something about Lukas. And the car. Lukas drove a silver Fiat. I shook my head. “I can’t leave Konstantin with him.”
“He’s Koste’s father,” she said, as if I didn’t remember. “He’ll be fine.”
I couldn’t tell her I suspected Lukas had tried to run down his own child. It couldn’t be true. It didn’t make sense.
Lukas arrived just as the county sheriff came for my statement—the same detective, Harbinger, who’d questioned me after Aravella’s death—and I couldn’t bring myself to describe the make of the car while Lukas was listening. “It was silver,” I told Harbinger. “I think. Or gray. Late model. That’s all I saw.”
“And you’re sure the driver sped up before the impact.” Harbinger was filling out the report on an electronic tablet.
The word impact set me shaking again. “Yes. I heard the engine rev.”
“But you didn’t see the car until it was driving away. How can you be sure it was accelerating?”
“I—guess I can’t.”
“She’s obviously in shock,” Lukas cut in. “Do you really have to do this now?”
Harbinger studied him emotionlessly. “It’s important to get the details when they’re fresh. At least this time she had details.” I flinched at the implication. He clicked off his tablet. “But I think we’re done here. I’ll be in touch if we have any developments in the case.”
“I’m so sorry about your friend,” said Lukas when the detective had gone. “And very grateful to him. He saved Konstantin’s life.”
A woman came into the café with Konstantin’s crutches before I could reply, and at the sight of them, I burst into tears.
“I’m going to drive her up to Fortuna,” Lumi told him, drawing my head against her shoulder. “You take your boy home.”
* * * * *
I’d gotten myself under control enough to say good-bye to Konstantin before we left, assuring him that I’d see him back at the manor, and that Cole would be okay, even though I was sure the latter was a lie. I had no choice but to leave him with his father, but Alexis’s words repeated in my head: “If anything happens to my nephew, I’m holding you responsible.” Whoever had been driving the silver Fiat, I had to believe he was safe with Lukas. I had to. Or I’d lose it.
“We missed you last night.” Lumi gave me a sidelong glance as we drove through the avenue of redwoods. “Both of you.” I’d forgotten that Lumi and Freyr had been waiting for us in the indoor garden.
I closed my eyes and leaned back against the headrest. “Things got weird.” That was an understatement if I’d ever uttered one. Lumi seemed to be waiting for me to continue. “Lukas kissed me. And then he took off.”
Lumi sighed. “I wondered if we shouldn’t have let you go. Lukas had too much to drink. He wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“I’m an adult,” I said. “I shouldn’t have gone. But I did.”
“Are you okay?”
I let out a shaky breath. “I don’t know what I am, Lumi. Literally.”
She moved her hand from the steering wheel to rest it briefly on my arm. “I know it’s all been thrown at you at once, Millie. Most rådande have years to grow into their ‘limbs’, so to speak. The realization of who you are, what you are, is meant to come on gradually, like sexual development. In fact, there’s usually a coming of age celebration around the same time. You were cut off from the Grove while you were going through those years, so it’s bound to be a bit overwhelming hitting you now.”
I thought back on how my destructive urges, my love of lighting fires, had gripped me as I hit puberty. I’d felt claustrophobic, wanting to be out in the open air. Rooms hadn’t been able to contain me; I’d burned them down. Maybe it had been the “tree” in me yearning to break free.
* * * * *
Cole was in surgery when we arrived, something about relieving the pressure from the swelling in his skull, but I wasn’t the next of kin and they wouldn’t share details with me. The hospital had contacted his family—I hadn’t even thought to do it in my shock—and his parents and sister were flying in from Arizona on the next available flight.
At Lumi’s insistence, I had the ER examine me to make sure I was all right. They confirmed my bump on the head had given me no more than a mild concussion and told me to get some rest. Lumi stayed with me to keep an eye on me until Cole was out of surgery, but it was getting late, and once I knew he was at least still alive and safely through the procedure, I told her to go. I’d spend the night if I had to so I could be there for him when he woke up. If he woke up. Reluctantly, she left me to my vigil, promising to let the Strands know I was staying. I could send for a car in the morning.
* * * * *
Someone shook me awake, and I tried to remember where I was. It wasn’t morning yet. I lifted my head from the metal arm of a chair with a cushion covered in something like orange burlap and looked up, disoriented, to see Ares standing before me. It took me a moment to recall why I was here and who he was. The two didn’t mesh.
“What are you doing here?” I sat up. Aristos was with him.
“Lukas told us what happened, and your friend Luminous called later to say you were staying here. I thought it was a bad idea for you to stay alone.” He shifted his shoulders as if debating whether to add something more, and then apparently decided against it.
“What else aren’t you telling me?”
Ares’s chest rose with resignation. “Lukas was going to come, but I told him that was also a bad idea.” His mouth was set in a stubborn line as if I would have challenged him on it. At this point, I didn’t care about their pissing contest. I only knew I was grateful it wasn’t Lukas standing before me.
“Thanks.” I glanced at Aristos. “That was really nice of you both.”
Ares perched on the seat beside me. He looked out of place in the dreary setting. “Any news of your friend?”
I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. “He was in recovery when Lumi left. I fell asleep sometime after, so I don’t know yet if he’s been moved to a room.”
“Have you eaten anything since lunch? No?” Ares took my hand and rose. “Come on. Aristos will stay here and wait for news. He has your number.”
I resisted as he pulled me to my feet. “I don’t have my phone.” Ares took something from his pocket and held it out to me. “My phone… Where did you get this?” I pressed the power switch and found it fully charged.
“Lukas said he ‘tracked it down’ for you. Aristos has your laptop, also, if you want it while you’re here.” Aristos held a leather laptop sleeve in his hand.
When I glanced at the messages waiting on my phone and saw the frantic ones from Cole, I couldn’t stop a sudden flood of tears. Ares gathered me in his arms without speaking, without any kind of inappropriate comfort, just arms to hold me while I cried.
After a few minutes of indulging in the wave of grief, I got myself under control and pulled away.
“All right now?” asked Ares. “Something in the messages upset you?”
I shook my head, wiping my eyes. “Just messages from Cole. He was trying to reach me for the past few days. He was worried.” And now I was worried. And gripped with despair.
Ares took my hand. “Anything from the cafeteria, Ari? A Coke?”
“No, I’m good.” Aristos gave me a little smile, the first I’d seen from him, and sat down with the leather case on his lap. “Your friend’s name—it’s Cole? Just so I know whom to ask after if anyone comes by.”
I nodded. “Cole Milner.” A tickle of laughter hit the back of my throat, but I swallowed it. We used to joke about getting married before we’d ever been involved with each other. I’d be Millie Milner. It was awful. Dammit. I couldn’t stand it if he didn’t pull through.
I let Ares lead me to the el
evator, letting go of his hand once we were inside. Awkwardness slid between us. “What are you really doing here, Ares?”
A tentative smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “I didn’t like the way you left this morning, thinking I was some kind of scheming bastard after your money. When I heard about the accident, I thought you’d been hit. It felt rather awful. I wanted you to know I meant everything I said to you last night. It wasn’t about the Strand.”
I played with my sleeve, not sure how to respond to this, and Ares elaborated.
“The inheritance was a factor in my interest in you, of course. I won’t deny that.”
I had to laugh at his arrogant brand of honesty.
“Aravella deserved her half of the estate after what Lukas put her through, and it should belong to the family. But my desire for you was genuine. The Strand fortune has nothing to do with that.”
I glared at him a moment, trying to decide whether to believe him. “Well, you’re just…weird,” I said finally.
Ares laughed. “Because I speak my mind plainly?”
“Because you desire me.” I blushed. “Desired me.”
His eyes darkened, and I jumped when he gripped my chin. “I told you to stop devaluing yourself. I desire you. Lukas desires you, despite every instinct he has to the contrary. What more proof do you want that you’re desirable?”
The elevator opened, and his grip on me released. I found myself wishing the door was still closed, remembering his touch on my skin. But Cole was lying on a gurney upstairs. What the hell was wrong with me? Was I actually going through rådande puberty?
“That’s not why I came here,” said Ares as we headed for the cafeteria.
“What isn’t?”
“To seduce you again. That would be crass at a time like this.”
“I’m so glad you think so.”
We reached the cafeteria and found it was a few minutes to closing. I couldn’t think, staring at the uninteresting food choices. Ares picked out a cellophane-wrapped cheese-and-fruit plate for me along with a large cinnamon roll while I poured myself a coffee.