* * *
The sensation of spinning and being lifted toyed with me. I didn’t understand it. My mind filled with one face. Gavin’s. He caressed mine. And he wept. We were sitting on the log by the lake on a bright winter morning. He wore a light blue fleece sweatshirt and cradled me in his arms. Recognition stirred me. Somehow, we were back to that morning he told me he would be my Treorai.
“How did we get here?”
Anguish filled his voice. “I’m compelling you,” he heaved.
“I’m dying?”
“Tse-xo-be can’t save you.”
“Please don’t cry.”
Tears poured over his lids. “Please don’t leave me.”
“I’ll never leave you.” I wanted to reach to his face, but it was his memory and my arm no longer worked.
His voice cracked. “They’re all here, all of them,” he said.
“Tell them I’m sorry.”
His face was so beautiful, framed by tousled black hair. “I will.”
“Gavin, it’s not over.”
He sniffed, the veins bulging in his neck. He nodded, a pained sound reverberating deep in his chest.
“Find me, Gavin. Find me.”
EPILOG
MARCH 26. 25 YEARS LATER.
Shifting streams of sunlight filtered through the branches of the cherry trees, illuminating the thousands of white blooms and adding a sense of movement to the quiet afternoon. Sitting adjacent to the placid surface of the lake as it gently lapped the rugged limestone shore, the tiny brunette sobbed softly. “But grandma, it can’t end that way.”
Her regal companion, streaks of silver lacing her long black hair, dabbed at the corners of her eyes and closed the journal. “We don’t always get to choose the ending, Patty, but this story isn’t about endings. The best stories never are. They’re about the journey, and yours is about to start. You are the next Steward of the Weald.”
Patty sat up a little straighter, and wiped the wetness from her olive skin. “What happened to Gavin? Did he find Aunt Maggie?”
Elena’s face broke into a warm smile. “He did. Her body was broken—he…” Elena took a labored breath, struggling to keep her voice even. “We were devastated.” Her lower lip quivered. “But after silence fell over the Weald, she came back, shimmering in silver light. It was breathtaking,” she said, her voice trailing off with emotion.
“What did he do?”
“He became exactly like her, consumed in silver light.” Thin streams of tears rolled over Elena’s cheeks. “My baby got what she wanted—to never be separated from him. For that I’m grateful.”
“Do you ever get to see them anymore?”
Elena smiled and nodded, composing herself. “Yes, from time to time.”
“Grandma, what happened to the bad Fae?”
Her voice was gentle, but fierceness flashed in her eyes. “Ozara sealed their fate by eliminating so many elders. When she died, the fighting stopped almost immediately—and thank goodness, as too many died that day. Sara and Billy forced the Alliance Fae, those who didn’t get away, to watch me in the days after she died, to feel my grief. Billy forced them to feel every emotion I felt. Weeks later, the Fae talked for days and created the Senate—The Senate has kept the peace between the clans. Well, most of the clans.”
“Are there still bad ones?”
Elena smiled, but it was a joyless expression. “There are several clans that take no part in the Senate. The Noe-po’e, the Hulijing, the Duende, and others… But the major clans, what’s left of them, they support the Senate.”
Patty shook her head and looked confused.
“I’m sorry. I know there are a lot of clans to keep track of, but you’ll learn. You have six years. But the point is, sweetheart, even though there are Fae who don’t take part in the Senate, they are small, weak clans. The important clans embrace the system. Today is a different world, a safer world.”
“What about the one who lied to Maggie in the woods? Lucifer?”
Elena chuckled and studied her granddaughter. “I think you mean Lucien.”
“Yeah,” Patty said, her eyebrows bunched together above a sneer and her arms crossed across her chest.
“Well, the third force—the Fae he led—didn’t do anything to Eureka, so he kept that part of his promise to Maggie. But he did turn on her. I’ve long suspected that when he arrived that day and saw Maggie struggling, he made a rash decision—a very stupid decision that cost him everything. He escaped and no one has seen him in twenty-five years, but Billy has been hunting him—his last promise to Maggie. Billy has been hunting Pele, too. She also escaped.”
A light breeze launched thousands of white cherry blossom petals into the air. The light intoxicating scent acted like a tranquilizer, soothing Elena’s emotions. Patty searched her grandmother’s face.
“Did Maggie like this place?”
Elena, nudged from the grip of a distant memory, shook her head. “No, this wasn’t here. This part of the Weald was destroyed during the war—all the trees were splintered and burned. The Ohanzee and Sara planted the cherry trees…one for each ally who was lost.” Elena turned and pointed to toward the lake, where one tree stood proud of several others. “That one is for Maggie, the ones next to it, for your grandfather and Aunt May, Doug, Rachel, Drevek, Tadewi, Sherman, Amadahy, Victoria…” Elena’s voice quit and she put the back of her hand over her mouth.
Patty wiped tears from her eyes. “There are so many.”
Elena nodded. “Too many.” She stood and held her hand out to Patty. “Come on, that’s enough for one day. We’ll talk more tomorrow. They’re expecting us at the cottage. Did you know that today is Maggie’s birthday?”
“Yeah, that’s why daddy is coming from Washington.”
Elena led her granddaughter up the path through the woods.
“Grandma?”
“Yes.”
“You’re the Steward now, right?”
Elena kept her eyes forward and nodded, unable to keep the grin off her face. She knew what was coming. “Yes. My last promise to Maggie.”
“What can you do?”
“Before I took the trials, your dad bet Wakinyan that I’d be Fire-inclined. Wakinyan predicted Earth. Mitch won the bet.” Elena’s grin turned into a smile as the torches up the path lighted simultaneously.
Patty’s eyes were wide. She reminded Elena so much of Maggie when she was twelve that the breath caught in Elena’s throat.
“Are the trials scary?” asked the wide-eyed girl.
“Billy and Sara will help you—you’ve got nothing to worry about, sweetheart.”
Patty nodded. They walked up the path into the old growth trees. “I wish I could have met her.”
“I wish that, too. You’re a lot like her, you know.”
Patty smiled, a big goofy smile that showed too much gum. “Really?”
Elena laughed, her heart filled with joy and sadness, “Oh yes, more than you’ll ever know.”
At the first break in the bluff, the two ascended into an opening in the forest and walked a little more slowly to enjoy the warm sun on their faces.
“Grandma?”
Elena chuckled. “Yes,”
“How did Maggie finish the journal?”
Elena smiled again, her eyes focusing on a distant memory as she slowed to a stop. “It turns out that both Maggie and Gavin were right about that.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Remember, he insisted that she would finish the story, and she told him the same thing? They were both right. She dictated. He wrote.” A pained expression filled Elena’s face.
“Are you okay, Grandma?”
Elena took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I’m fine, Piñata. It’s been twenty-five years since it happened, but the pain never goes away.”
“She was brave.”
The older woman choked on her words and began walking again. “Yes. Yes, she was. We owe her everything.”
“Do the
Fae get along now?”
Elena nodded. “They do. Most humans are still unaware of them, but to a special few—like you, me, and your father—they are important allies. There hasn’t been a war in twenty-five years—human or Fae. The Fae wiped out the virus after Maggie died, and there hasn’t been another like it since. And thanks to your father, we’re taking better care of our world than ever before.”
“Did the Fae help him get elected?”
“Between you and me, yes. But don’t tell him, and definitely don’t tell your Uncle David—he’d never let Mitch live it down.”
“Mum’s the word,” she said, gesturing with her small hand like she’d locked her lips.
“We’d better get going. I need to introduce you to a few people.”
“Fae?” Patty’s face lit up.
“Yes. Bastien, Tse-xo-be, Sinopa, Dana, Wakinyan, Zeus, and Her-Lang. They all want to meet the new Steward. You’re very important.”
Patty was quiet until they passed through the lower garden gate. What had been brown a few hours before was in bloom. Patty gasped.
“Grandma, how?”
“Gavin’s birthday promise to Maggie. He makes the garden bloom on her birthday every year.”
Patty’s lips quivered and her breaths came rapidly.
“Oh, Elena, what did you say to her? She’s upset,” Sophie said as Patty walked up.
“Aye, she is fine. Leave her be,” Vic scolded.
“Mom, Dad, she’s okay. Just a little overwhelmed by the gardens—remember the first time you saw them?”
“It’s okay, Patty. I felt the same way my first time,” Candace said, holding tightly to Sean’s arm.
“Please, girl, you wouldn’t stop asking questions about the Fae,” Ronnie chided.
Patty ran to Ronnie and embraced him. In his arms, she ran her hands through his salt and pepper hair. “Uncle Ronnie, Uncle Greg, I didn’t know you’d be here.”
Candace huffed. “Am I chopped liver?”
“No, just second favorite,” Ronnie said, smiling broadly.
“I love you both equal,” Patty said, squeezing his neck.
Candace pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow. “You going to set her down?”
“Eventually,” he said.
“Is my dad here yet?” she asked.
“Coming down the hill now. David is with him,” Wakinyan said. He turned his intense eyes up the mountain and followed the car, even though it wasn’t yet visible.
“Uncle Waki, will I learn how to do that?” Patty asked.
Billy snorted. “Uncle Waki?”
The massive Fae slowly turned his head toward Billy. “Only she gets to call me that. Aetherfae or not, I will pull your arms off if you ever utter those words again.” His face softened and he lifted the tiny girl in his arms. “I will teach you how to do it, Patricia.”
Billy laughed and joined the four Ohanzee elders at the stone table overlooking the lake at the edge of the cottage garden. Volimar, Poseidon, Aphrodite, and Zeus were there, along with Freya, Dana, Isis, and Her-Lang. The elders from many clans visited the Weald for Maggie’s birthday. Patricia had only known the Ohanzee, Billy, and Sara as family friends, but she didn’t miss a beat. She seemed eager to know them as Fae. Sara smiled, having hoped the revelations of the last two days wouldn’t upset her. Patty wasn’t upset at all; he greeted the rest of the Fae as though she’d known them for years. She was a lot like her father in that regard.
“Aunt Maggie really loved you,” she said to Poseidon, who hadn’t smiled in a quarter century. The emotional permafrost that kept his blue eyes hard melted almost immediately. Justice snorted, lowering his bushy head to the ground at Poseidon’s feet.
“Little one,” he said, his lips bending up slightly at the edges underneath a magnificent white beard. “Your aunt was a gift. Your grandmother is right, you are so much like her.”
Mitch and his younger brother, David, pulled up to the garden wall and entered the gate. At their side was Guanyin, the former Seelie Council member who had helped Maggie with the Ancient Ones. For the past three years, she’d been at Mitch’s side in Washington. Ostensibly, she served as an aide to the young senator from Arkansas, but her actual role could better be described as Compeller-in-Chief. Mitch was the spitting image of his late father, and still the most charismatic person anyone ever met, but what his natural charm couldn’t get him, Guanyin could. Together, they were making a difference.
Both boys embraced their mother first.
“Where is Rebecca?” Elena asked.
Mitch shifted his eyes to his daughter and then back to Elena. “Adjusting.”
A hint of pain crossed Elena’s face. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s okay, Mom. She’ll come around.”
“Mom’s not coming?” Patty asked.
“It’s okay, honey. She’ll meet us at the hotel later,” Mitch said.
Elena turned to her youngest and grabbed a handful thick black hair, gently pulling his head to hers. “How are classes?”
“Rough, like usual,”
“Well, you’re the one who chose medicine,” Mitch joked.
David laughed. “Thanks for the support, bro.”
“Don’t listen to the good Senator, Dave. You just keep fighting the good fight, and you can come work with me when you finish your residency,” Ronnie said.
“Do you never quit,” Candace said, rolling her eyes at Ronnie.
Ronnie laughed. “If you wanted him to follow in your footsteps, you should have picked something other than physics.”
Elena let go of David, and smiled. “I appreciate all of you—it means so much to have each of you come back here today, on her day. She’d be so proud of you. But today we have something else to celebrate. My granddaughter will carry on the O’Shea legacy. She will be the next Steward.”
All eyes turned to Patty. Her face turned pink and she shifted her eyes to the stone pavers under her feet.
“Don’t be embarrassed, sweetheart,” Mitch said.
“I’m not…well, maybe a little.”
“You’re going to be amazing,” Candace said.
“Yes,” Sara said, her black eyes twinkling in the sunlight. “You will be an incredible Steward.”
Patty smiled and looked up. Her pleasant expression turned a little sour.
“What’s wrong?” Elena asked.
“You said I’m a lot like her.”
It clicked immediately with everyone there. In unison they began to comfort the twelve-year-old.
“Do you think I’ll be inclined to all four elements?” she asked.
“No,” came the voices in unison.
Patty smiled. “Good. I don’t want that, but how do you know?”
A voice, familiar to most, rang across the profusion of blooms. “You shouldn’t worry.”
Tears rolled down Elena’s elegant face, and a broad smile formed on her lips as her breath caught. Mitch’s eyes watered, and he turned toward the path that ran adjacent to the Toy Box.
Patty followed her father’s line of sight, and stared into the dark woods. “What is it?”
No one answered. Patty’s hands curled into tiny fists and went to her chest, and then her mouth, which gaped wide open.
In the shadowed path, two ethereal silver forms took shape and glided toward the garden. Drawing closer, the shimmering light, like diamonds reflected in the clearest sunlit pool, took human forms and joined hands.
“Everything is going to be fine,” Maggie said.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It’s bittersweet, bringing this story to a close, but it is a story I’m proud to have written. The inspiration for the Weald Fae Journals came to me as I walked around a piece of property on Beaver Lake in 2008. The seed took root, and I began researching and writing. The writing turned into a labor of love, but it wasn’t labor I performed alone. As I finish Maggie’s story, I want to acknowledge all of the people who read the first three books a
nd encouraged me to continue. Without you, I doubt I would have finished. For each of you, and especially those who left feedback or contacted me directly, I’m grateful. You’re as much a part of this story as Maggie, Billy, Sara, or Gavin. Throughout the project I relied heavily on feedback from my “beta” readers, whose advice and direction I found invaluable. So I extend a heartfelt thank you to Summer Jackson, who has been with me from the first draft of The Steward, and every word I’ve penned since. I also want to thank Brent Klein and Andy Brooks, who took time away from their studies, and their spring breaks, to provide insight and suggestions. All three of you deserve much more than the gratitude I offer. I’m particularly grateful to Amy McGraw, my editor, for her fantastic eye, her honesty, and her support. I owe a debt to Rick Shelton for editing, formatting, and serving as my primary sounding board for The Maebown, and for all the marketing work he has done for the entire WFJ series. Finally, to Derek McCumber, your cover art amazes me. I am very fortunate to have such talented and wonderful people in my life. From my heart:
Thank You All!
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THE CHANGELING
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THE MAEBOWN
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THE MAEBOWN (Weald Fae Journals, Book 4) Page 39