But she had seen it before — at least she had heard it before — just the previous night and so many nights before that. The same lonely call, hauntingly beautiful, luring her and yet chasing her. The image of the man from her dream flitted through her mind. “Remember,” his whisper echoed in her ears.
Shaking her head to try to get the disturbing voice out of it, she glanced over at her brother who was concentrating on driving through the sheets of rain. His jaw was set in a hard line, eyes glinting with anger, and his knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so hard. What had happened to him to cause him to appear so? Laid back was the term she had always thought of when someone mentioned her brother. He was reliable and fun-loving. Though he had her to care for, he did not walk around like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Now, seeing him in the storm, she knew there was something wrong. Something had happened. Had he lost his job? Silence wrapped around them until they were standing safely in their kitchen.
Her hair dripping wet, Magnolia glanced over at the cookie jar then back to her older brother. “Thunder cookies?”
He must have heard the hope in her whispered question because he smiled halfheartedly. “Sure, M&M, you get everything together while I go check on your horse. May as well be sure he has all he needs for the night, since I’m already wet. Doesn’t look like it is going to let up out there.” The door closed behind him after he walked out into the storm.
Soon, the ingredients were lined on top of the counter, waiting for Jace to come back in. Seated on the counter near the almost-empty cookie jar, Magnolia thought back to the days when making thunder cookies filled the storms with laughter and fun. She had not feared them as much then. Now a part of her wanted to curl up in a corner and hide until the thunder and lightning were over. Images of her parents’ deaths haunted her every time there was a storm like this, especially in the autumn. A loud bang brought her out of her thoughts. A puddle had already formed at Jace’s feet.
“Why don’t you get started on them while I take a quick shower?” A lopsided grin helped to put her mind at ease. Whatever had been bothering him before did not have a complete hold on him anymore. Maybe he had just been remembering the night that their lives had changed. After all, he’d lost not only his parents, but his freedom. The guilt ate away at her as she wondered if she could have prevented it. The storm raged on outside, and Magnolia began to hum while she baked the delicious treat her mother had named thunder cookies.
CHAPTER THREE
THE RAIN CONTINUED THROUGH the night, not allowing Magnolia to get any sort of rest. Every time she’d closed her eyes she’d seen flashes of the wolf, blue, and her parents. It was all connected — somehow it was all connected. The distant look that Jace had worn most of the evening seemed to be a part of it all. What was going on?
Lightning zigzagged the black sky before splitting into three long streaks that reached the ground. Thunder echoed through the land. She sat at the mouth of the cave they’d found shortly before the storm hit. How she longed for a fire to take the chill out of her bones. A large heavy cloak was draped across her shoulders, causing her to look up into those blue eyes.
“Cannot have you catching your death here.”
The smoothness of his low voice caressed her, and a shiver ran down her spine.
“If they find you with me, I will be sure to catch my death either way.”
Her glance flicked from his full lips to his entrancing eyes then back to the storm that wanted to claim the world.
“No person shall lay a hand on you.” His voice rose above the thunder and rain.
“It is not a person I am concerned about, it is your mother. What would the queen do if she discovers her son with the likes of me?” A sadness flickered across her face.
“I care not.” He reached out to touch her hair but she pulled away.
A lone wolf stood on the edge of the forest. “My people care. This cannot be.” She turned from him to stare at the wolf. His nose lifted to the sky, his mouth opened and he let out a long, lonely, heart wrenching howl.
The howling in the distance pulled her to the window. Remember, the word was like a soft caress. What was she supposed to remember? She pressed her forehead to the cold glass and peered into the darkness. Something was near the gate of the pasture; for a moment she wondered if part of a branch had come down in the storm. With the next flash of lightning she saw it, a wolf looking directly at her. “Jace!”
“What?” a sleepy grumble hollered back from across the hall.
“Wolf! Jace, Dragoste is out there.” Her eyes locked on the wolf.
Her brother stumbled into her room half-asleep.
“There, see?”
The next flash of lightning illuminated the entire evening sky. A large black wolf with a silver mark over its eye stared in the direction of the house. It stood unmoving, as if the weather had no effect on it. “Dragoste is locked safely in the barn. I checked on him earlier, remember?” His voice sounded hollow. “I don’t think it wants your horse anyway. It would have gone after him already.”
“Why is it just standing there?” The memories of her dream creeped up on her. “I’ve seen it before.” It came out in a whisper.
Jace reached for her blanket and laid it across her shivering shoulders.
She pulled it tightly around her, searching for a form of comfort. “In my dreams, Jace, that wolf is in my dreams. I know because of the silver over its eye.” Her eyes went wide and stared up into her brother’s face.
“It can’t be.”
“I know what I saw.” Fire shot through her eyes at the thought of her brother doubting her. “That’s the wolf in my dreams. It’s always there, in every single one. Why?” The long low howl caused her to jump away from the window.
“I don’t know, M&M, I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with Dad.” His golden-brown eyes looked over at her wall.
The mural had been there for years; it had been studied and memorized by the both of them, especially since their parents died. In the far distance of the forest there was a wolf sleeping. Magnolia had always thought it was sweet that her father had painted animals in the forest, but the wolf was the only one sleeping.
“It is right there. Right there in front of you this entire time. Maybe Dad was trying to tell you something.”
“Tell me what? That I would have awful dreams about a wolf? Jace, that doesn’t…” Her voice trailed off as she walked to the mural and crouched down before it. The wolf in the painting had the same silver mark. “Tell me what, Jace?” Her voice raised.
He sat next to her. “Maybe we need to start going through their things in the attic. Maybe he had a journal or something.”
She knew from the tone of her brother’s voice that there was something else. Something he was not telling her. “Jace, what do you know?”
The muscle in his jaw clenched then relaxed. “When we were younger, Dad used to tell us legends of his people. He loved to tell you about a young girl who was thought to save them from a life of being outcasts, running from place to place. A girl who had a wolf for a guardian. She was supposed to save them all. She was their princess. Though they had no kingdom, they were forced to travel from place to place, searching for a land to call their own. Something happened to her, but I don’t remember what. It was something terrible, and the wolf has been searching for her ever since.”
“The wolf never died?” An eyebrow shot up into the air skeptically.
“It’s a legend, M&M. What do you expect?” He shrugged his shoulders and leaned against the wall. “What if that wolf has really been searching for her all this time?”
“That is crazy.” She shook her head while sliding down onto the beaten-up beanbag chair.
“Crazier than you seeing things in your dreams that come true?” It was his turn to quirk up an eyebrow. His head leaned against the mural. “I don’t know. I’m not Dad. I don’t know much about the legend. I think he would have known about this
wolf, though — why you see it all the time in your dreams, why he painted it here on your wall, and why you have seen it twice in one day. He would have known. Maybe there is something in his things that will help us to find out what is going on.” He shifted his gaze over to her to see her nodding silently. “Get some sleep.”
“Will you stay here?” Her dark brown eyes locked on his, pleading until he nodded. She wrapped the blanket tightly around her as she headed over to her bed. “Just until I fall asleep.”
Magnolia folded her body close to itself just like she used to when she was a child. The lights flipped off, and she heard Jace flop down onto the beanbag chair. Her eyes closed as she thought about the wolf and the girl her brother had told her about until she drifted off to a restless sleep.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE REST OF THE week passed by with more dreams. The diner was not as packed as it normally was on a Friday evening, due to the football game. Magnolia and Jace were able to enjoy their meal without Sarah trying to ruin Magnolia’s life. The waitress had just brought over the milkshake that Magnolia always ordered when the diner door swung open, and Bash walked in. His blue eyes flashed at her as he walked toward them. She popped the cherry into her mouth before looking away.
“How have you been, Jace?” he asked as he sat at a table next to them.
“Good. You?”
“Been looking everywhere for your sister. Then I remembered that you always come in on Fridays after you get paid.” Bash kept his eyes on Jace while he spoke.
“Why?” Protectiveness edged into his voice, making it harsher than it usually was.
“I found this in the greenhouse the other day and thought it might be yours.” Bash shifted his gaze to Magnolia as he pulled his hand out of his pocket to reveal a ring. It appeared to be a Claddagh ring, but in the heart was an etched wolf.
“That’s not mine,” she whispered, staring at it.
“It looks familiar. When we were going through the attic, I found a book and started flipping through it. I think I saw this in there.” Jace took the ring into his hand to examine it more closely. “I am sure that I did. Come on. I’ll show you.” His coat was soon on, and he was paying their bill.
Magnolia left the rest of her milkshake behind to follow her brother out to his beat-up truck. She did not realize until they were home and she was getting out of the truck that Bash had followed them. They said nothing as they walked into the house and followed Jace into the living room. Bash sat on the floor close to the fireplace so he could get warm, folding his legs under him, while Magnolia sat on the arm of the recliner.
With an old tattered book in hand, Jace sat in the recliner. He set the ring down on his lap and flipped through the worn pages. “Here.” His finger pointed at an old sketch of the ring: a heart with a wolf etched into it, a crown atop of the heart, and a hand on each side of it making the band. “It says here it was the ring of Princess Daciana. It was given to her by a prince of Marcello as a symbol of their love. Daciana was the princess I was telling you about, the one from the legend that Dad used to tell us.” Excitement crept into his voice.
“Why did Bash find one like it in the greenhouse?” She peered over her brother’s shoulder at the book.
Bash pulled out his phone and was soon on the Internet, searching for information on the ring. “I can’t find any store that sells rings like these.”
For the next hour they searched different websites and forums for any information they could find about Daciana’s ring. Bash’s voice broke the silence about an hour later. “How did it get here?” He sounded intrigued.
Jace leaned forward in the chair. “This says that Daciana never took off the ring while she lived. When she was found dead, the ring was gone. Some believe that the wolf took it until he could find her again, to reunite her with her love and finally give her people a true home.”
“If she was a princess, why did they not have a home?” Bash leaned back onto his hands to look up at Jace and Magnolia.
“Her people, including the king himself, had been forced from their country by the king’s twin about two-hundred years before she was born. While the king was away making treaties with other nations, his brother rallied people to support his claim to the throne. He used bribery in whatever form he could; he even hired soldiers to stand as his guard while he took the throne. The king loved his brother so much that he did not want to be the cause of his death, so he and those loyal to him never returned to fight for the kingdom. Instead they wandered, living like gypsies searching for a home. Wherever they went, they were chased away because they were thought to be thieves. Some accused them of being witches and warlocks. Others believed they were half-human, half-elfin. That’s why they had no home —they didn’t fit into either race. With Princess Daciana marrying the prince, they would call Marcello home and could finally stop wandering.”
Magnolia found herself drawn into the story. “What happened? What was the prince’s name?”
“Alistair, and it doesn’t say what happened to her. Only that she was found dead with the ring missing. He spent his life wandering the country as if he was searching for something, giving up his claim to the throne.”
“That is sad,” she whispered from behind her brother. ‘Why is it here?” Her hands twisted at the bottom of her shirt.
“Maybe once we figure out the dreams and the wolf, we will figure out how this got here.” Jace closed the book gently then set it on the table next to the chair.
“What dreams?” Bash suddenly leaned forward.
She looked over at him and wondered how much she could share. Would he think of her as a freak the way everyone else seemed to? With a deep sigh, Magnolia told him without detail about the dreams and the wolf. He nodded and took it all in. Never had Magnolia been so grateful to hear her brother tell her that she should start getting ready for bed. She left the two of them in the living room. The legend of Daciana echoed over in her mind as if it were on repeat while she showered and dressed for bed. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she combed out her hair
“Remember…” whispered from the darkness.
She shook the word away, fighting off chills and the urge to call for her brother. Deciding that it had to have been her imagination, she pulled out her journal to write about the events of the day. She had started keeping a journal when she was younger as a way for her to put her dreams down and then not have to worry about them. But recently that was not the case. They were becoming a part of her reality.
The days were growing shorter, the nights longer. The leaves had all turned bright shades of crimson, orange, and yellow. She pulled the cloak closer around her to ward off the chill in the air. Her long hair was pulled back from her face to reveal emerald-green eyes. Walking toward the village was not where she wanted to go, but her people were in need of a few items that she planned to trade for. The noise of the village reached her before she saw it. A glance over her shoulder allowed her to catch a glimpse of the wolf, still there. A hint of a smile crossed her face as she squared back her shoulders and walked with head held high into the bustling village. It was like many she had seen before, filled with people and real houses. Not like what she’d lived in. As always, she looked in wonder at the cottages, wanting to know what it would be like to live in a real home.
“Can I help ye, lass?” an older man with tattered clothes asked from behind his cart of turnips.
“No, thank you, sir.” She turned to head toward the other side of the street, where she’d seen some warm-looking tartan wool, exactly what she had been in search of.
“You’ll be needing something to ward off the evil that is in this land, especially with All Hollow’s Eve so near,” the man called to her.
“Likely, she will be needing protection from the evil that moved into the woods,” another man added gruffly.
She glanced in his direction and noticed a long jagged scar across his face, zigzagging from below his left eye down to the corner of his mouth.
/> He sneered in her direction as he licked his lips.
Shuddering, she hurried to finish her business.
It did not take long to get what she needed and head back out of the village.
An uneasy chill coursed through her, raising goose bumps across her arms.
“You can’t go walking through those woods. Not if you want to come out alive.” A deep voice grated her ears as a rough hand grabbed her arm and yanked her to a stop. He spun her around to face him. The scar caused his mouth to turn up at only one corner, making him appear even more sinister than he sounded. “It is not safe for a pretty young thing like you to be out there alone with the heathens who are trespassing there.”
“Release me.” Her voice remained calm, despite the fact that she wanted to scream.
His grip tightened, his dirty fingernails digging into her skin.
She could feel the blood begin to well up as he dug them in further. “Release me, now,” she commanded, forcing back the tears that threatened to spill.
“I cannot let you go out there alone. It would not be safe.”
“As opposed to the safety I have found in the village?” She tried to yank her arm free, but he pulled her toward him.
“Gordon, release her!” The command seemed to echo through the village streets.
Her eyes were drawn toward the voice. The man was tall with dark hair and stunning blue eyes. His crisp white shirt was tucked neatly into his grey trousers.
“Your Majesty.” The scarred man bowed as he dropped her arm from his grasp. “I was merely trying to warn her of the vagrants who have taken to the woods.”
“Leave now.” Those blue eyes bored into Gordon’s back as he skulked off into the streets. “Are you alright, miss?” His voice was much calmer as he approached her.
She stepped backward and glanced down at her arm where the blood was oozing out.
The Second Life of Magnolia Mae Page 2