A Malevolent Magic in Faerywood Falls

by Blythe Baker

  “What sort of song?” he asked, his eyes narrowing. “Those are quite dangerous.”

  “Well,” I said with a sigh, sitting back in the chair. “The first time was when I went to Ruth’s house. I was looking for information about…something.” I immediately regretted mentioning the reason I’d gone – curse my inability to lie, even a little. “And I heard her singing through the front window. When she came to the door, she said that her singing attracted more people than just me to the house, which means she must do it without even really meaning to.”

  “That’s Ruth…” Cain said. “The woman is very sweet…if she likes you, that is. Or she wants something from you. Then it’s as if you are the best of friends. As soon as someone stops being useful to her, though, she drops them.”

  “Oh…” I said.

  Seeing the greedy look in her eyes at the shop that morning seemed to prove what he said was true. She didn’t seem to care that the box was affecting me like it was. All she seemed to care about was the box itself.

  “Her fiancée, who is a personal friend of mine, happens to have a very successful business. He manages estates of the Gifted in town, though he himself is not Gifted,” Cain said.

  “He’s not?” I asked. “But then…how does he know about magic?”

  “There are some non-Gifted in town who are aware of who we are and what we do. Richard Weaver was introduced to us in a…less than desirable way. One of my fledglings managed to get a hold of him late one night, dragged him back to the estate, and tried to offer him to me as a peace offering for something stupid he’d done…” Cain said. He rubbed his eyebrow absently. “I made it very clear to him and some of the other fledglings that they were not allowed to pick up the residents of the town for feeding. That wasn’t how we did things.”

  I swallowed hard. Those words drew out a curiosity in me…

  I knew that vampires drank blood, but…I never really stopped to think about how they managed to get that blood.

  “Well, you can imagine that Richard had a great many questions for me. But he was a surprisingly sensible man, and took everything that I said with immense grace and patience. I imagine his wisdom has a great deal to do with his success. Anyway, after promising him that nothing like that would ever happen again, I sent him on his way with only one request; he would not tell a soul about what happened that night,” Cain said with a nod. “You’re a bright one, Marianne. I’m sure you can guess what happened next.”

  “I….um…well, I guess he probably would have had more questions for you, right?” I asked.

  “Exactly,” Cain said. “Wandered up to the estate late one night, drenched to the bone from the rain, and asked if I could tell him everything. I was rather reluctant to do it, but I – ” he stopped and looked at me with an amused expression. “You didn’t come all this way to hear about my history with Richard. And here I am, taking up all your time.”

  “No, it’s okay,” I said. “I don’t mind hearing about it.”

  Cain smirked. “Yes, well…needless to say, he and I became friends as he kept coming to me with questions. I was happy to answer them, grateful that he didn’t despise me or my clan for what happened. And then, one day, he comes to me with this grand idea to help manage the estates of all the Gifted in town. He’s very good with money, and he’s managed to find properties all over the valley for the Gifted. He helps connect new home owners to people who can prepare wards for the property, and other protection spells so the non-Gifted aren’t harmed or too curious about their secretly magical neighbors. He’s gone to great lengths to ensure that the Gifted and non-Gifted can live together in harmony.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing,” I said.

  “It is indeed,” Cain said with a nod. “Which brings me back to Ruth. She also saw how amazing he was, and decided she wanted some of that for herself. Apparently bored with her already lavish way of living, she wanted more, and so she got her claws into poor Richard. I’m not convinced it wasn’t one of those blasted spell songs that did him in…”

  “Is that possible?” I asked. “I mean, for someone to fall in love because of a spell?”

  “There are certainly magical ways to stir emotion,” Cain said. “Feelings of calm, peace, happiness, joy, excitement…and remember, she’s quite the master.”

  “You think she manipulated him into asking her to marry him?” I asked.

  “No, I genuinely think Richard loves her. He adores the ground she walks on. Trust me, I’ve paid attention to them. But Ruth…I can’t be sure. I’ve never truly been convinced of her feelings…” Cain said. Then he turned his green eyes on me, and his gaze sharpened. “So, to bring it back around…why did you need to speak with Ruth?”

  “I…had some questions for her. Questions that only someone with her experience could answer,” I said.

  Cain was obviously waiting for more information, but as much as I found myself liking him, I still wasn’t sure I could trust him. Not with the whole truth. Not yet.

  Not when I didn’t even know what the truth was.

  “Anyway, there was this box I found this morning while I was waiting for Ruth to arrive. It fell off the shelf and hit the floor. When it opened, it started to play this weird song, and a necklace fell out, too,” I said, looking down at my shaking fingers in my lap. Why was I so nervous all of a sudden? “That necklace had an opal pendant on it, and it had the name Rebecca Blackburn engraved on the back.”

  Cain’s eyes widened at the name, and he leaned forward. “You said Rebecca?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said, seeing the fire burning in his gaze.

  “And this box you mentioned…” he said. “It didn’t happen to have a seven pointed star on the lid, did it?”

  It was my turn for surprise. My heart skipped. “Y – Yes, it did.”

  Cain’s face suddenly darkened, and his hand resting on the desk balled into a fist. “That box…has it been at the antique store all this time?” he asked.

  “I – I don’t know,” I said. “It had been there for a while. There was a lot of dust on it. It didn’t look like anyone had touched it for some time.”

  “I see…” Cain said.

  “So it was yours, then?” I asked.

  “Not mine,” Cain said, his voice low and angry. “My sister’s.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “We aren’t exactly sure,” he said, the corner of his lip curling in disgust, not amusement. “All we know is that it was stolen a long time ago…” His eyes sharpened as he gazed at me, his demeanor totally changed. “And I would very much like to be able to return it to its rightful owner. It is a very important item, one that belongs to my family, and has for many, many years.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. I had no idea that this box was going to upset him as much as it had.

  “You’ve been referring to this box in past tense…why?” he asked.

  “I – ” I said, my tongue feeling like it was swelling. Cold sweat was starting to bead on my forehead. Why was I nervous? I hadn’t done anything wrong.

  His gaze was enough to send fear through me. I suddenly didn’t ever want to know what it would be like to be a stranger to him and run into him on a dark street somewhere late at night.

  “This has something to do with Ruth, doesn’t it?” Cain asked, his voice becoming more and more acidic.

  I nodded. “Yes, she – I think she stole it.”

  “You think?” he asked.

  “I don’t know – ” I said, holding up my hands defensively. “All I know is that when that box opened, this music began to play. It made me groggy, and so, so sad, and – ”

  “So it still works, then…” Cain said in a low voice, looking away, his gaze distant.

  “The box got knocked over, and Ruth found it. I tried to get her to close it so that it wouldn’t knock me out, but I ended up succumbing to the spell. When I woke up, she and the box were both gone, and I – ”

  A vib
ration in my purse nearly made me jump out of the chair. It traveled all through my bag, up my arm, and brought me out of the intense moment in the room.

  My heart hammering against my ribs, I pulled my phone out, and saw that it was Sheriff Garland calling me.

  I looked up at Cain, my face draining of all color. “I…I really need to take this call.”

  Cain’s face was no longer smoldering like it had been earlier. Instead, it was stony and cold.

  “Of course,” he said, straightening his lab coat. “No sense getting upset over this. I’ll walk you out.”

  I lifted the still vibrating phone to my ear as Cain rose to open the door. “Sheriff? Hi, can you hold on just one second?” I asked.

  “Sure,” he said.

  I put the phone on mute and looked over at Cain as I got up from my chair. “I’m sorry that I lost the box,” I said.

  “It’s not your fault,” Cain said, his voice more gentle now. He gave me a small, sad sort of smile. “I’m sorry I got so upset.”

  “I did want you to know, though,” I said. “I still have the necklace.”

  Cain’s face brightened somewhat. “Well…that will be a small comfort. You don’t have it with you, do you?”

  “No,” I said. “It’s still at the antique shop.”

  “Then I’ll come by and pick it up sometime,” he said.

  He walked me to the door, and inclined his head as he pushed it open, allowing me to walk past.

  “Thank you,” I said to him.

  “Drive carefully,” Cain said. “And thank you for telling me about the box.”

  He gave me a small wave as I walked across the parking lot and hopped inside the car.

  I stared at him through my windshield until he turned and walked away from the door.

  My heart ached. I’d never seen him quite so upset, and I felt completely responsible for it. Someone as cool tempered as he was, getting so frustrated…

  My stomach clenched as I remembered that I was still on the phone with the Sheriff. I nearly dropped the cell phone as I fumbled to get it up to my ear before remembering I’d muted it.

  I unmuted it and said, “Hello? Sheriff, are you still there?”

  “Yes, hi, Marianne,” Sheriff Garland said. “Sorry to bother you.”

  “No, no, it’s fine,” I said. “So…I can probably guess why you’re calling.”

  “Yep,” he said. “We got the results of your test back.”

  5

  I’d been in this situation before. This wasn’t the first time that I’d been waiting and waiting for news that was supposed to come. I could remember waiting for my friend to call me back about coming over for a big sleepover when I was seven. I remembered waiting to hear back about a job interview when I graduated college and was trying to be a vet tech.

  Waiting for news about the results of the DNA test was worse. I’d known it was going to take some time to have them done, but the impatient part of me wanted to know the results as soon as I’d asked for the test to be done.

  But here I was, finally on the phone with Sheriff Garland, ready to hear the results.

  “They’re finished testing it already?” I asked him.

  “Seems things are slow right now,” Sheriff Garland said. “That’s good for you and for us, I suppose.”

  “Right…” I said. “So…what did the results say?”

  “Well, you were right,” Sheriff Garland said. “Your blood had a very similar pattern to the blood on the blanket. Not exact, so it’s not yours, but the folks down at the lab said that it’s definitely got to be a parent.”

  A chill ran through me, just like it had when I’d found the blanket in the first place. I’d been almost certain that the blood had belonged to my mother, but to hear it confirmed?

  My hands started to tremble. “So…were they able to match the DNA with anyone on file?” I asked.

  “No,” Sheriff Garland said. “Not everyone in Faerywood Falls has a DNA file, especially someone who could’ve died so many years ago. That was quite a long time before the science was really up to snuff with things like that. Especially in a place as small as this, you know?”

  “Right…” I said, deflating. All the excitement I’d just been feeling seeped out of me like water from an oversaturated sponge. It didn’t mean much to know it was my mother when the tests couldn’t even tell me who my mother actually was.

  “It’s pretty troubling to see so much blood on something like a baby’s blanket,” Sheriff Garland said. “Do you…have any idea what happened?”

  “No,” I said. “I was hoping these tests would’ve been able to tell me what my biological mother’s name was. I literally know nothing about her, other than something terrible happened to her before I was found as an infant…”

  “I’m sorry to hear that…” Sheriff Garland said, and I could hear the sincerity in his voice. “I wish I could’ve had more answers for you.”

  “Yeah…” I said, my eyes stinging and my throat growing tight. “I wish you could, too.”

  I said goodbye to the sheriff and hung up with him.

  I sagged against the car seat, staring blankly at the steering wheel.

  I was back at a dead end.

  Why was it so hard to find the information I was looking for? My parents did exist at one point in time. They lived here, in Faerywood Falls. If I had a name, a face, something more than a confirmed DNA match to go on, then I’d probably be able to find somebody that remembered them.

  Somebody other than a ghost that had told me how much I looked like my mother…

  If only I’d been able to get that ghost to talk to me. If only she’d stuck around long enough for me to get a straight answer out of her…

  That was the closest I’d gotten to finding out who my mother was.

  Anger started to burn inside me as I realized there was one other person who seemed to be standing in the way of me finding out who my mother was.

  Ruth Cunningham.

  After stealing the music box, and after talking to Cain, I was beginning to see that she was not the sort of woman I wanted to cross, and it seemed like I might have already done that. If she was as manipulative as I was starting to believe…

  I wanted to like her, too. She seemed so nice when we first met.

  I needed to talk to her. I needed her to see reason, and to answer my questions.

  Questions and answers. That was what my life was now, wasn’t it?

  I decided that it was time to leave the parking lot of the funeral home and start for home, chewing on the news that Sheriff Garland had told me.

  As I drove, my mind drifted away from Ruth, and started to focus on the blanket.

  So…it was my mother. Something had harmed her when I was in the basket. Somehow, she’d known that something was wrong, that she couldn’t keep me. Why else would she have written the letter that my adoptive mother had found, the one containing the threat that I would be cursed if I was taken away from Faerywood Falls?

  If that was the case…then who had attacked my mother? And why?

  Was it something to do with the fact that she was a faery? Or my father? What happened to him?

  I drove through the trees of the dense forest that filled Faerywood Falls, and my eyes looked up into their overhanging branches. These trees that I’d started feeling such a connection to…

  “I wish you could tell me what happened…” I said to them, my heart yearning. “I wish you could speak to me and share with me your memories. You were there…one of you must have seen what happened on that night. Somehow, I ended up here, and she…”

  I choked up. My mother, my biological mother, the woman who had given birth to me…

  It was hard, suddenly, because I felt torn. Up until a few months before, I thought my adopted mother was my real mother. But to find out that some mystery woman had actually given birth to me, and loved me enough to try and rescue me –

  I gasped, and had to pull my car off to the side of the roa
d.

  That was it, wasn’t it? She’d tucked me into that basket, written that letter, and did her best to get me out to the forest for some reason. She was trying to protect me, but she…

  She was hurt, and likely killed, in the process.

  A darkness suddenly seemed to press in on me from all sides. All the warnings that I’d been receiving from those around me filled my mind. Dr. Valerio. Cain. Even Ruth…

  They’d all warned me that bad things were stirring lately in Faerywood Falls. It seemed like some sort of disturbance that only the Gifted were aware of.

  Aunt Candace and Bliss believed it had something to do with me returning to Faerywood Falls, especially since I was a faery.

  Did this same darkness, this same disturbance, have something to do with my mother’s death?

  A chill ran down my spine at that thought.

  That had to be it.

  Bliss told me that a faery was a powerful force, one that most other groups of Gifted people would never be able to hold a candle to. Was this power that was revealing itself aware of this, and so against it that it was going to do everything it could to bring me to the same fateful end as my mother?

  That was a troubling thought…

  I tried to shake the anxiety that was now trying to suffocate me.

  I had no proof this was what was going on. All I had was the feeling that had come over me. Or rather, I had let my emotions run away with fear. The what if’s. The worst of the worst.

  I didn’t know what to do. But the reality was, there wasn’t really all that much that I could do. At least not at the moment.

  I slapped my hands on either side of my cheeks, so hard that it stung.

  It worked, though. My mind cleared somewhat, and my heart started to slow.

  “Get yourself together, Marianne…” I murmured to myself. “You can’t afford to let your mind wander like this…”

  I slowly pulled my car back onto the road, and drove home.

  Just as I pulled into the gravel parking spot out in front of my cabin, my phone rang again.

  “Hi, Marianne, I’m sorry to bother you after you’ve already left the shop, but I had a favor to ask you,” said Abe when I answered the phone.