Trefoil

by M.C. Moore

  Chapter 22…

  Meckenzie slept hard. There were no dream messages. There were no dreams. When she awoke, there was a soreness in her muscles, but moreover there was soreness in her heart. Meckenzie wanted to hide in her room all day, hide away from the world. It was already mid-morning, so she pulled herself out of bed and threw on an exercise outfit. Meckenzie didn’t know what today would hold, but she knew there would be running in her future.

  Everyone was up and about already. Kellan was working out with Ardan. Taggart and Bowen were setting what looked like a lab table in one corner of the gym area. There were all kinds of jars full of liquids, leaves, and other oddities. Meckenzie had passed Isabel in the kitchen preparing some kind of creamy looking salve. Her father was the only person missing. Meckenzie assumed he had gone to the office for a bit.

  Meckenzie mounted the treadmill with her headphones on and ignored the activity that was bustling about her. She thought she would try to burn all the pain out of her body through exercise. Ardan didn’t even acknowledge her when she came down the stairs. He continued to focus Kellan back to his instruction without even a glance in Meckenzie’s direction. Taggart said something witty about her being a sleepy head and Bowen wished her a good morning.

  Meckenzie did five miles on the treadmill and headed back upstairs. As she rummaged around in the fridge, Isabel cleared her throat like she wanted to have a conversation. Meckenzie wasn’t in the mood, but she would let Isabel have her say.

  “You are being too hard on yourself.” Sadness touched the edge of Isabel’s voice. “Everyone is safe and home and that is a best case scenario.”

  “It’s just that so much is happening so quickly. I’m sad about everything I’m losing. No more school or friends. I can’t tell Jeff, I mean Ardan how I feel. This is all so complicated and frustrating. I think I’ve done pretty good with it so far, so if I want to pout for a day, I don’t see what the problem is.”

  “You’re right; you have the right to mourn your old life. There just isn’t a lot of time for you to do it right now. So take today, do whatever you need to; get it out of your system. Then, we will start training tomorrow.”

  “We need to talk about my dad. I want him to come with us when we go to Aquanis. We can’t leave him like mom did. At least when she left he had us, we can’t leave him alone.”

  “Taggart already talked to me about it. We sent a runner to your mother this morning with all the information about last night. I told her that you wanted to bring Lawrence. She will have the final say in it. She is the queen.”

  “I just think we would focus so much better not worrying about whether something is happening to him here. He would be safer with us.”

  Isabel knew she wasn’t going to be able to give Meckenzie the answer she wanted. Diedra would have to make the decision.

  “I can’t say yes Meckenzie. I understand your concerns and I agree for the most part, but your mother will make the decision.”

  “Okay. I know.” Meckenzie needed a subject change, this was just depressing her more. “We should fix up the storage room for Ardan and Bowen. Have they gotten their things from their houses yet?”

  “Yes they went early this morning. Is Arden going to be a problem for you?”

  “No, nothing will happen.” Meckenzie had been trying not to think about last night’s garden moment. There was nothing she could do about it now. “Can we just go make a living space for them? I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Isabel agreed and the two of them headed back down to the gym area. The storage room was actually as wide as the room that held the pool and gym. You could fit three bedrooms in it if you wanted to. They went through the furniture that was in the room, furniture that had been in their family since her grandmother built the house.

  They found two bed frames but no mattresses. There would have to be a call made to a mattress store to get some delivered. Meckenzie found a couple of bedside tables and an old chair. They enlisted the help of the others and set about making a living space suitable for their guests. Taggart and Arden went off to find some mattresses with the kids’ emergency credit card.

  Kellan and Bowen did most of the heavy lifting. Isabel had run upstairs to grab some cleaning supplies, since a fine layer of dust had settled over much of the furniture. Stuck back in one corner, there were four sets of bookshelves that were requisitioned to work as room dividers. They placed them two by two back to back so that there was some privacy. They were even able to set up an old dining room table in one corner to act as a place for eating, writing, or playing games.

  When they had finished, the room looked like a studio apartment. In order to stay busy, Meckenzie went on a hunt for pillows and sheets. She gathered up all the materials she thought might make the room comfy. Meckenzie even grabbed a vase out of the kitchen and cut some fresh flowers in the garden.

  Arden returned to find Meckenzie dusting the bookshelves by herself. Isabel had gone to finish getting lunch ready, and Bowen was probably hanging around Isabel. Kellan had disappeared when it became evident that all that was left to do was clean.

  Ardan stopped at the door, trying to decide whether to enter the room, or to leave. Since Ardan had his belongings that he had retrieved earlier with him, it made no sense for him to walk back out. Meckenzie stopped dusting and turned toward Ardan. She felt like they should talk, though she had no idea what she would say to him.

  Ardan began putting away his clothes in the chest of drawers that had been moved into his side of the room. Meckenzie put down her cleaning materials and went to him. She touched his back, wanting him to turn and put his arms around her again. He froze in mid-action at her touch.

  “We should talk.” Meckenzie said. “Last night…”

  “Forget about it.” Ardan’s voice betrayed him, the emotion in it was overpowering to Meckenzie. She wanted to hold Ardan and comfort him, but her sense of duty stopped her.

  “I think you got the wrong idea.” Meckenzie explained. “It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s that there are too many people counting on me. There is too much at stake for me to get distracted. When you were lying in the alley and I had no idea whether you were alive or dead, I knew that I couldn’t risk your life. If I publicly love you, you become a target for my enemies. I would never forgive myself if you were killed because of me.”

  “I’m here to protect you; it is possible that I might die for you anyways.” Ardan pleaded.

  “That is a possibility,” Meckenzie wanted to send him as far away from this as possible to save him, but she couldn’t make that decision. “My mother sent you here to guard all three of us; I can’t send you away, even if I want to.”

  “I know.” His shoulders dropped as the sadness flowed through him. “I need to be able to protect all three of you. I don’t know that I can protect anyone but you with what I’m feeling.” He turned around and took Meckenzie in his arms.

  Meckenzie’s mind spun into pure joy. Warmth rushed through her limbs and she melted into his embrace. Meckenzie felt she could spend the rest of her life here in his arms and that was the problem. She pushed back from Ardan, missing him before he had even let go.

  “We have to be able to work together. Ardan, I can’t stand you ignoring me, but we can’t be together. Not yet. Can we do this? Can we work together and fight together?” Meckenzie begged him to say yes with her eyes.

  Ardan smiled at her, “You will make a wonderful queen. You care so much for others. You put them before yourself. I can do this. I can be your teacher and soldier and someday this will be over.”

  Meckenzie loved him already. There was no mistake, he was meant to be hers. And someday, she hoped, he would.