by S. J. West
Maximus ponders what I said while he stares at the cold grate of the fireplace.
“Did Ari happen to give you any other reason for saying that? Or was it clear she was referring to you surviving the bite?” he asks.
“That was her only reason, as far as I know,” I tell him.
“Well, the reason you survived the bite could have been due to anything really,” he says as he leans toward the glass candy dish on the coffee table in front of us to gingerly pick up a piece of peppermint. While he unwraps the cellophane around it, he says, “It could be that the bite wasn’t quite deep enough to be fatal, or it could be that the poison it injected into your body wasn’t as potent as it used to be when the revenant was originally turned. I wouldn’t worry about what Ari said, Cin. I’m simply thankful you survived that dreadful experience.”
As Maximus pops the peppermint into his mouth, I breathe out a sigh of relief, because if anyone would know if there was something unnatural about me, it would be Maximus.
“Now tell me, what exactly did Sela say to you at the funeral?”
I recount to Maximus what Coltan’s mother said in as much detail as I can remember.
“What did she mean about the Princes being chosen to divide the city?” I ask Maximus. “You were still a faerie during that time, right?”
“Yes,” he says without elaborating. A troubled frown mars his features that I don’t quite understand. “I really wish she hadn’t told you that, Cin.”
“Why?” I ask, surprised by his ominous tone. “What did she mean, Maximus?”
Maximus stands from his place beside me on the couch and walks over to the set of glass doors on the left side of the fireplace. Silently, he looks out at the garden with his hands clasped loosely behind his back. I swivel around to look at him and wait for an answer to my question, but when a full minute passes by and he still hasn’t said anything, I remind him that I’m in the room.
“Maximus,” I say in an attempt to regain his attention, “are you going to tell me what she was talking about?”
Maximus takes in a deep breath before he turns around to face me again.
“Very few people know what I’m about to tell you, Cin,” he says. “And I need for you to promise me that you won’t tell the other girls or anyone else, including Coltan, what I say.”
“I can’t tell anyone?” I ask incredulously. “But I’ve already told Gretel, Scarlet, and Isabel everything Coltan’s mother told me.”
“Then you need to make a choice,” he says gravely. “You can either know the truth and keep it to yourself for the rest of your life, or you can decide to not hear it at all. Which would you prefer?”
My stomach sinks at his ultimatum. “I don’t understand. Why can’t I say anything to the others?”
His stern face is cast in half-shadow from the sun streaming through the glass doors behind him. “If the truth were to be discovered, this city would fall into chaos. It’s only the hope of a brighter future that keeps most people going. If you take that away from them, then they have nothing else to live for.”
“Will what you tell me make me lose hope?” I ask as I feel the first tendrils of fear invade my heart.
“Yes,” he says without any hesitation. “That’s why this decision is such an important one, Cin. If I were you, I would take some time to consider your answer and not make it in haste. Once you hear the truth, it’s not something you’ll be able to forget.”
“Do you wish you had never learned the truth?”
“Sometimes,” he admits with a wan smile. “But I needed to know the truth in order to do my job and keep everyone else safe. You don’t have that burden, Cin. You can go on with your life and live a happy existence with the people you choose to share your time with.”
After hearing these words come from my godfather, I wonder about something from his past.
“Is what you learned the reason why you left the woman you loved?” I ask.
“It was part of it,” he admits. “I found it difficult to find my way back to the happiness we once shared, and I believe that was the catalyst that led to her choosing a different sort of life for herself.”
“Why didn’t you tell her what you knew so she could help you get past it?” I ask.
“I didn’t want to burden her with my knowledge at the time,” he says. “It would be years before she needed to learn the truth for herself, and I wanted to give her those years to hope for a brighter future. I don’t want to tell you what I know, Cin,” he says, almost pleading. “But I will if you ask me to.”
I sit there for a moment running through the various scenarios between having Maximus tell me what he knows and remaining ignorant of such knowledge. From what he’s said, the truth made his life miserable because he lost all hope for the future. If I’m being honest with myself, I don’t want to lose my own hope. Some days, it’s all I have.
“You once told me that you thought you and I were destined to break the curse keeping Briar Rose asleep,” I remind him. “You sounded hopeful back then. Do you still believe what you said?”
“I do,” he replies with a grin. “I’m surprised you remember that.”
“I’ve never forgotten it,” I tell him. “And it’s because you said those words to me that I’ve kept my hope that we’ll do just that,” I say while taking in a deep breath. “I don’t want you to tell me the secret that made you lose hope for this city, because if I lose my dreams for the future too, we’ll never find a way to break the curse.”
Maximus breathes out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you for being braver than I was,” Maximus says. “I had the option of not learning the truth, but I thought I could handle it. I was too arrogant to understand that not all knowledge is good knowledge.”
“If you could go back in time, would you make a different choice?” I ask.
Maximus crosses his arms and considers my question before answering.
“No,” he finally says. “I guess I wouldn’t. If I had, everything would be different now, and you have returned some of my hope, Cin. I do believe we’ll find a way to save the city. We simply have to figure out the key.”
A flash of the dream I had the night my squad graduated enters my mind.
“There’s something else I need to tell you about,” I say to Maximus. “The night we became Thorns, I had a dream about Briar Rose.”
Intrigued, Maximus comes back to the couch to sit with me.
“Would you mind telling me what you saw in your dream?” he asks.
I pause for a moment as I gather my thoughts and feelings about what I saw, so I can fully explain the experience.
“Have you ever had a dream that felt like something else?”
“Like what exactly?” he asks, not quite understanding what I’m trying to say.
“The dream I had felt almost . . . real,” I tell him because there isn’t any other word to describe it. “I know it was only a dream, but when I woke up, I felt like I had actually been to the place where it took me.”
“Can you describe it?”
“I was standing on the veranda of a white castle,” I tell him. “I couldn’t really see the building I was in, but it was tall and big, so I assume it was probably a castle. Anyway, I was looking out at a grove of blossoming apple trees. Then I heard Briar Rose call out my name from the room behind me.”
“She spoke to you?” Maximus asks, flabbergasted by my revelation.
I nod my head. “She wasn’t alone, Maximus. There were two other women with her, but I couldn’t see their faces. Every time I tried, it was like staring into the sun; I could only see that bright, blinding light. But they both spoke to me.”
“What was said?” Maximus asks. “Try to remember every word, Cin. Anything could be a clue that we need to follow.”
“Then you think this was more than merely a dream?” I ask.
“Considering what you’ve told me so far and the fact that it happened right after you saw Briar Rose in perso
n, I would bet my life that it was more than a dream. I think she was trying to send you a message.”
“If it was a message they were giving me, then it was a warning,” I say. “They said ‘She’s coming,’ and that I needed to find the other two women with Briar Rose before that happened. Also, there’s something else I never told you. When we captured Darcy, she kept saying the same thing over and over while she was knocked out: She’s coming. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?”
Maximus’s body stiffens like he was jolted by an electric shock. “Why didn’t you tell me all this before, Cin?”
“I haven’t told anyone else about the dream,” I tell him. “I was hoping I could figure out what it all meant before I said anything.”
“Not only the dream,” he says in aggravation as he stands up. “About Darcy!”
Maximus rushes toward the door like he needs to get somewhere fast.
“Maximus!” I call after him as I rush out of the room to follow his lead. “Where are you going?”
“I’ll be back!” he yells to me as he runs the length of the hallway and down the stairs to the first floor before I can even get to the head of the stairs to see where it is he’s going.
“What in the world?” I say to myself as I catch a glimpse of my godfather closing the front door of Kane Hall behind him.
“What’s all the ruckus about out here?” Gus asks me as he walks out of the study.
“Honestly?” I say in bewilderment as I turn to face him. “I don’t have a clue. I told Maximus about something, and he ran out of here like his pants were on fire.”
“What in the world did you tell him?” Gus asks, looking as puzzled as me by Maximus’s reaction.
“Come on,” I say as I place my left hand on his back to lead him to the study. “I might as well tell you all at the same time. That way we’re all on the same page.”
“Should I be worried, Cin?” Gus asks, his eyes filled with concern.
“I don’t know,” I reply since Maximus’s reaction has left me even more bewildered than I was before. “I really don’t know, Gus.”
Chapter 4
After Gus and I reenter the study, I ask everyone to stop searching through the books and take a seat where they can find one. I tell them about my dream, and I tell Gus and Coltan the words Darcy kept repeating after she was rendered unconscious by the sedative Isabel incapacitated her with during her arrest.
“Who is this she they are referring to?” Gus asks, looking as confused as I feel. “And why did all of this make Maximus rush out of the house?”
“I have no clue,” I reply. “But he didn’t get upset until I told him Darcy said the same exact words as Briar Rose.”
“You said your dream didn’t feel like a dream,” Coltan points out. “What do you think it was?”
I shrug my shoulders, unable to describe my surreal experience.
“I’m not sure about that either,” I admit. “I was hoping I would have another dream so I could have a more concrete answer before sharing it with anyone, but that hasn’t happened yet.”
“I wish you had told us when it happened, Cin,” Isabel says, slumping her shoulders in disappointment. “Didn’t you trust us to keep your secret?”
“It was never a matter of trust,” I assure her. “I trust all of you with my life! But I couldn’t come up with an explanation for what happened without coming across like I’d lost my mind.”
“I get it,” Gretel says, nodding her head. “You didn’t want to worry us.”
“Exactly,” I reply, thankful that she understands me so well.
“We may not be able to decipher your dream, or whatever it was,” Scarlet says, “but we can keep searching through these books to find that riddle Coltan read about the apple.”
“Apple?” I ask as I walk over to one of the stacks of books in front of Maximus’s desk. “What kind of apple?”
“It’s supposed to be made of gold,” Coltan replies as he comes to stand beside me. “I think the rest of the riddle provides clues to help you find it. I don’t remember it all, but I do remember one line of it: There is knowledge for a wish. My guess is that if you have possession of the golden apple, you can wish for knowledge about something and be given it. If we can figure out where this apple is and wish to know how to awaken Briar Rose, then we can end the curse.”
“It’s worth a try,” I agree. “Do you remember what the book itself looked like? Was it one with a cracked leather cover or a soft one?”
“Cracked,” he says.
“Then let’s get cracking,” I say, amusing myself, if no one else, as I pick up one of the older looking books.
Coltan grins at my attempt to be humorous and follows my lead. The books are so heavy, we both end up sitting on the floor in front of the stacks with our respective books laid out in front of us.
“What am I looking for?” I ask Coltan as I flip through the pages. “Something that talks about a golden apple?”
“That would be like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack,” he tells me. “I told everyone else to search for a drawing of an apple. It should be right underneath the riddle.”
“That should be easy enough to spot,” I say, scanning the pages of the book in front of me.
As I comb through the pages of my tome, I keep a watchful eye on Coltan. I get the feeling he’s using this hunt for the riddle as a way to distract himself from what happened today. My uncertainty about telling Coltan that I saw his mother’s ghost hasn’t vanished, but I start to feel like I’m lying to him by omission. The feeling prickles my conscience, and I make up my mind to speak with Maximus about it as soon as he returns. Since I can’t seem to determine what would be better for Coltan in this situation, maybe my godfather can help me figure out the best course of action.
“Hey!” Scarlet says, leaping up from her spot across the room. “I think I found it!”
She picks up the tome she was searching through and brings it over to us. Coltan and I both spring to our feet so we’re standing by the time she reaches us.
“Is this it?” she asks Coltan as she holds the book open to the page she found.
When I look at the page, I see the sketch of the apple that Coltan mentioned. Written above it is the riddle:
In a land with no end
In a sky bathed in white
There is an apple made of gold
And knowledge for a wish
With winged beasts to shield the snow
* * *
“That’s it!” Coltan says, pumping his fist in the air. “Now, we need to figure out what it’s talking about.”
“Find out what what’s talking about?” a groggy Anwen asks as she sits up on Coltan’s shoulder.
“Well, hey there, sleepyhead,” I tell her, unable to stop myself from smiling at her as she rubs the sleep from her eyes.
Anwen lets out a big yawn, shakes her head to help clear her mind, and then flies over to land on my shoulder.
“Did you show those girls why you were chosen to be Thorns?” she asks me.
“I did,” I tell her proudly.
“Good. They should know better than to mess with us,” she declares, as if she’s an honorary Thorn. Actually, I suppose she is sort of like my squad’s mascot.
“So what’s the riddle?” Gus asks as he, Isabel, and Gretel join us.
Coltan clears his throat and reads it aloud to us all.
Once he’s through, everyone stares blankly at the floor except for Isabel. Her mouth is wide open in shock.
“Did you say, ‘With winged beasts to shield the snow’?” she asks breathlessly.
“Yes,” Coltan replies. “Do you know what that means?”
“I don’t,” she says as she locks eyes with me. “But my father might, Cin. He always talked about winged beasts being in that strange land he claimed he found. Do you remember me telling you that part?”
I nod my head. “Yes. I remember, but we can’t get to your dad, Isabel. We’
ve been trying to do that since we graduated.”
“We may not be able to visit my dad, but maybe Maximus can,” she suggests. “He is the head of the Circle. Surely my dad’s doctors wouldn’t say no to the Commander Kane.”
“When Maximus gets back, we’ll ask him,” I say as I return my gaze to the page in the book again.
“Why leave such an ambiguous riddle though?” I have to ask. “It seems like the person who left this didn’t want anyone to figure out where this golden apple is located.”
“Maybe they didn’t want the wrong person to find it,” Coltan reasons.
“I suppose,” I say, even though I wish the author had been a little bit more helpful.
Now that we’ve found what we’re looking for, Coltan seems less interested in continuing to search through the books. Ever the inquisitive one, Isabel picks a new tome up to delve even deeper into the information they might be hiding.
“Cin,” Gretel whispers to me as she motions for me to come closer to her. When I reach her, she leans over and whispers in my ear, “You should take Coltan out to help him take his mind off of things for a while.”
“Like a date?” I ask, feeling my heart rate pound at the idea.
“Don’t think of it like that. Think of it as helping a friend through a horrible day,” she says. “Treat him like you would one of us. What would you do?”
“Load you up on junk food,” I say.
“Then take him out to get something,” she suggests. “He doesn’t need to start thinking too hard about burying his mother. When you lost your dad, what do you wish you had done that day?”
“I wish I had run away so Vivian couldn’t find me,” I reply. “And I probably would have went to get ice cream.”
“There you go then. Take him to Shortcake’s and grab something sweet. Don’t let him wallow; he needs to be distracted.”
“Gretel’s right,” Anwen whispers from my shoulder. “He needs you, Cin. You’re the only real friend he has here.”
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll handle it.”