by Anne Haley
"I’m missing something here," Owen mumbled.
El stepped closer to him and leaned toward his ear. "There are certain plants and herbs that are inducers. She was feeding him extracts of the two most potent love inducers. One kind would have been enough actually. If she used it right it would have been very easy to make him fall in love with her," she whispered.
"Are you saying she was… drugging him?" Owen frowned.
El nodded in response with a grim look on her face.
Finn’s face softened slightly. "But something happened."
Mary nodded. "Yes. I started to love him, to love the family. You were such good children, and your father’s love for you made me envious. I wanted to be a part of that. I told Cole, and tried to turn my back on him. But he said if I did that he would come and kill every single one of us. He would torture the children, giving them pain. I had to keep him away from you!" She shook her head. "He’s an evil man."
"Why did you poison me?" Aylin asked quietly. "Did he tell you to?"
Mary nodded. "He said we had to take you first. When I told him that you two had come into town he celebrated by killing three bears, playing with them until they bled to death. I was there!" She was crying harder now. "But I knew you could protect my children. I knew I couldn’t do it anymore." She looked up to Aylin with watery eyes. "You can keep them away from him. He can’t have Terra or Blake."
Mary buried her face in her hands and Finn stood. He waited while Mary’s confession sank in. "Did she kill dad, too?" Terra whispered, tears freely ran down her cheeks.
Finn shook his head. "No. That was not her doing. You needed to hear the truth from her. I did not think you had enough trust in me yet to believe this." He looked down at Mary.
"What are we supposed to do?" Blake asked roughly. Aylin reached her hand to his and laced her fingers through his own.
"That is your decision. I do not think it wise to take her home. Cole is too close and would find her. Shall she be punished? Shall she go into hiding?" Finn crossed his arms and waited.
Blake looked from Terra to Finn, then back to Terra. Her face was crumpled with betrayal. "Can we take a moment to discuss this? In private?" he asked Finn.
"Of course. This is no light matter. Please," he gestured his arm and a path appeared through the trees.
Owen hissed behind Blake, and he had to force himself not to make a face at him. Blake put his hands under Terra’s elbows and lifted her to stand. "I think everyone should be a part of this. She hurt us the most, but I want everyone," Terra said, her voice barely above a whimper.
The five of them walked down the narrow path, and it twisted around and ended behind a wall of birch trees. "I don’t want to see her ever again," Terra spoke first.
Aylin watched her in silence. "Agreed," El nodded. "She can’t be trusted, even if we do know that he was influencing her."
"Wait," Blake frowned. "She never said anything about Cole influencing her. She did it in her right mind. It might have been out of fear, but she made her own decisions. She knew exactly what she was doing." Blake began to pace.
"You’re right," Terra nodded. "I can’t believe I didn’t catch onto that. She made it clear that she persuaded Dad. What are we going to do?" She fell back against one of the birch trees.
"Okay, lets slow down here." Owen, who had only been observing the whole time, finally spoke. "I need to catch up, if you don’t mind." He looked to Aylin. "So Mary poisoned you, for Cole. She brought you to a cave, where he was with some witches?" Aylin nodded. "Okay. Who is Cole?"
"Cole is a legend. He was the first faerie to fall in love and marry a human. This was back when our kind stayed away from the humans. We thought he fell in love with a girl and made her fall in love with him, after he ignored all the warnings from the rest of the fae. He showed her what he was, and she didn’t believe him. She thought he was a freak. She tried to spread the word through town, and he stopped her by erasing him from her memory. That act took everything he had in him, and he only had enough left to crawl into the woods and lay to rest. We thought he was dead. You heard the contradiction from Finn."
Owen mulled this over in his head, and then looked at Terra. "That’s what you were afraid of when you told me? That I would tell others what you were, and you’d have to erase yourself from me?" Terra stared at the ground in front of where he stood and nodded. "I would never do that to you," he whispered. She looked up at him with tears glistening in her eyes. "Never."
"When I was in the cave I thought there was another powerful being in there with me, but I couldn’t see him. So he is here. And he has been meddling with Mary’s mind since before she was ever in their lives. Which means, Cole has been planning this for a long time, and we had been going right a long with his plan." Aylin sighed.
"What happens to Mary? What is Finn talking about punishment?" Owen asked.
"I could think of a few things," El said with a hint of excitement. "I have the least ties with her. Gosh, I don’t think she’s said more than hello to me anyway. I could take care of her."
"No," Blake said with authority. "You won’t harm her. We will send her away. Roberta’s?" He looked to Terra.
"Do you think it’s a good idea?" Terra asked.
"I think it’s our only option right now. We can’t have her anywhere near us. I don’t want to see her again. Roberta will take care of her."
"Who is Roberta?" Aylin asked.
"Her sister. She lives in Alabama and they don’t like each other much. Roberta is very opinionated," Terra said. "All right. Let’s tell Finn." She turned to lead them back, and was startled when Owen appeared at her side, and grasped her hand. He didn’t look down to her, but the tightness of his hand on hers brought a new wave of tears. He was going to be her rock even if he didn’t fully understand her anymore.
Aylin stood between Blake and El, and held both their hands. No one would be left out. When they came back to Finn he stood over Mary, who seemed to be unconscious. "She fell asleep?" Terra asked, surprised.
"Not at all." Finn looked up. "I am many things, but for people like her I have very little patience. She wanted forgiveness when she does not deserve it. I merely suggested that her sleeping would benefit us both."
El’s lips twitched with amusement. "Nice job."
Terra looked down at the sleeping old woman. In her sleep she looked harmless and even kind. "We’ve made a decision. We want to send her to her sister’s in Alabama. Far away from us, from here."
"Let me wake her." Finn laid a hand on her forehead and said two words and her eyes fluttered open. "Mary, you are going to your sister’s." He looked back at the five. "I will take care of it. I have a few friends that can keep an eye on her down there, to make sure she doesn’t try to come back."
"Fine." Terra nodded.
"Terra!" Mary shrieked. "Please, it was him!" she cried.
Terra closed her eyes and turned her back on Mary. Owen squeezed her hand and led her away from Mary.
"No! Please! I can help you! It was him. He made me do it!" Mary was sobbing. "Don’t send me away!"
Blake let go of Aylin’s hand and bent down to look Mary in the eye. "Were you under an influence?" he hissed.
Mary’s lips quivered and she didn’t answer.
"I didn’t think so. Don’t ever speak to Terra or me ever again. We’re being generous with you now, but if you make us regret it we will punish you." He straightened and turned his back to her.
"She will be in punishment," Aylin said quietly. "She will be tortured for the rest of her days by her nightmares." Blake nodded and they continued to walk.
Aylin looked back at Finn. He was crouched over Mary, whispering chants, putting her back to sleep. He looked up and nodded to her. He would return to them soon. He would be back to teach them to fight, to heal, and to win.
As they walked through the forest toward their home Aylin silently wondered the possibilities of their future. To win. Could it be possible they could defeat the wit
ches, and now, what about Cole? She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Finn to watch his own brother, his own flesh and blood, turn into a vicious monster. If she were in his position, would she be able to kill her own sister or brother? She knew she would never be able to answer that question until she was in that position.
Is it ridiculous to feel hope now? She bit her lip in wonder. They had a chance, a real chance to rid the threat to The Rune and to live the rest of their lives in peace.
She let her eyes wander up Blake’s arm to his face. She could hear his heart slowly breaking over Mary. It sounded like stone cracking under pressure. Mary had betrayed their trust, and had killed their mother. She didn’t deserve to be sent to her sister. She deserved the same fate that she gave their mother. It would be a long time before he would be able to talk about it. She heard the doors slamming shut in his head, locking away the misery that he felt now. They were all overwhelmed with this new turn of events.
Blake looked down at her, catching her stare. "All right?" he asked roughly.
She nodded and put her head against his arm. "I’m worried about you."
"I know." For a moment he was quiet and when she looked up at him she saw his eyes were red and rimmed with tears. It made her heart ache for him. He glanced down at her and blinked away the tears. "Just let me have some time. I can’t talk about it now," he admitted to her.
"I can, but don’t shut me out. I can help." She squeezed his hand.
"I won’t." His eyes softened.
"What about Terra?" she asked as they broke through the edge of the trees into Terra’s backyard.
"I don’t know Aylin. She was close to Mary with the store and everything else. I don’t know." Blake stopped and looked up at the house. The gray weathering of the wood of the deck matched the gloom he felt in his heart. The house had orange light shining through the windows, making it warm and welcoming.
Aylin stepped in front of him. He suddenly looked exhausted from the rollercoaster of emotions that they had all been on for the last week. "We have a long road ahead of us. We’ll take it one step at a time." He brought her palm up to his lips. She wanted to wrap her arms around him, knowing that he teetered on the edge of losing control over his despair. But he had said he wasn’t ready yet, and she would let him be for now. Instead she lifted the edges of her mouth into a slight grin. "Come on, let’s see if Terra is okay," she tugged him up the steps.
When the door opened into the kitchen, Aylin knew they were going to be okay. With the feeling of the heaviness of the day’s events on their shoulders, El’s laughter carried them inside, with a feeling of hope.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY