Ronnie laughed.
“Oh stop gloating. Like most men, you’ve had exactly one good idea in seventeen years.”
“Ouch, evil ingrate!”
“So tell us, mighty oracle, what next?” she teased.
“It’s simple—we go find Billy right now. Where will he be, Mags?”
“Turpentine Creek,” I said.
He smiled. “After we find Billy and convince him, Maggie calls Doug and tells him to meet her at Turpentine Creek.”
“I think that sounds like a plan,” Rachel said, smiling broadly.
“That would be two great ideas, two, if I’m not mistaken, in the last five minutes, would it not? Maggie, isn’t that two?”
I laughed and nodded, Ronnie smirked, and Candace shook her head trying not to laugh. “Ronnie, do you need a head start? It’s nearly fifteen miles round trip, you know. Do you need to get more coal for your dreadnaught before we leave?”
“Got a fresh load this morning. It’ll make it just fine, but do you need a minute to wind your Miata up?”
“Nope. Good to go,” she said, laughing.
“Rachel, you with me?” he asked.
“Umm…I think I’ll ride with Maggie.”
“Et tu, Rachel?”
***
In the parking lot, Candace and Ronnie were jostling with each other again.
“Thanks for the smoke screen, Ronnie. We slipped past the enemy U-boats completely unseen.”
“Anything to camouflage that annoying yellow roller skate.”
“What enemy U-boats?” Billy said, appearing in the middle of us.
Rachel nearly hyperventilated.
“What are you doing here?” Billy asked. “I heard the commotion from that…hideous thing…a mile away.” He stared disapprovingly at Ronnie’s Buick.
Ronnie blushed. “Sorry.”
Candace smirked. “I told you…”
“Shut it,” Ronnie snapped, cutting Candace off. “It’s all I can afford.”
Billy scanned the parking lot, looked sympathetically at Ronnie, and placed his hand on the back fender. Within a few seconds the old Buick looked brand new—gleaming paint, perfect chrome, shiny interior, and it no longer sagged in the rear end.
“What…? How…?” Ronnie sputtered, wide eyed.
“Call it an act of mercy,” Billy wrinkled his nose. “Now, at least, you won’t wake the dead—or destroy as much of the ozone. Why are you here?”
I quickly explained what we feared about Doug. Billy’s expression didn’t change. Then I gingerly told him our plan. He wasn’t angry. He was worried.
“Are you sure he’s being compelled?” Billy asked, staring at me.
While Rachel told him what she’d noticed, with Ronnie and Candace adding bits and pieces of detail, I simply wrote, Yes, I’m sure—almost positive, in my head.
“Call him, now,” Billy said.
“Make sure you want to do this. If it’s true, I’m not certain telling him will change anything. Putting him beyond her reach might just shift her focus to one of them,” he said silently, his eyes shifting to my co-conspirators. “If, however, we reverse the glamour but keep him in the dark, we could inform the Council.”
I honestly don’t know anything except that Rachel is right. If it were me, I’d want to know, I wrote in my mind.
“Very well. Call him. I’ll do what I can.”
Billy left after telling us that he would make certain Doug would show up. He told us to meet them at Pivot Rock, where we could talk privately. Doug was all too eager to talk to me. We rode with Ronnie, who babbled on about Billy’s overhaul. Candace crafted a story to explain the transformation of the Riviera to everyone else. In thirty minutes, Doug pulled into the parking lot at Pivot Rock, with Billy stowed away in the Jeep. I could tell immediately Doug was different—visibly calm for the first time in months, he shut the door behind himself and smiled at the three of us.
Wearing a ball cap pulled on backwards, black gym shorts, a wrinkled white Razorback t-shirt with the sleeves cut out, he looked as if he’d jumped in the Jeep in the middle of a work out.
“Thanks for coming,” I said.
Tears welled up in his eyes. “I don’t know why I’ve been so…I’m sorry…” he pleaded.
“Don’t apologize, just listen, please. I have something I need to tell you.”
He wasn’t in the mood to argue. He just stood there quietly. “Thank you, Billy. Has he been compelled?” I wrote.
Billy’s voice sounded in my mind. “Yes. From what I can tell, Chalen and Cassandra have been compelling him for more than a year. They implanted the infatuation with you, the anger, the jealously…and Cassandra has done…other things to him. His emotions are a mess. Tread carefully.”
Guilt and anger forced tears over my eyelids and down my face. I couldn’t talk. Doug sauntered over to me, a big frown on his face, and cupped my elbows in his hands. “Shhh, shhh, forgive me, Havana. I’m so sorry for the way…”
I gently put my hand over his mouth. My voice cracked as I said, “No Doug, please don’t talk. None of this has been your fault. None of this.”
Rachel understood my reaction and began crying herself. Doug stared at her. He was confused.
“Doug, there’s something we have to tell you. Something you’re going to find…you’re going to think we’re crazy.”
He gently, slowly embraced me, like he expected me to lash out.
“Billy,” I said, “it’s time.”
Doug didn’t react like I expected as Billy appeared. He silently shifted his stare between all of us as Billy began explaining and showing him that what he said was the truth. Doug closed his eyes and appeared to get angry when we told him that he’d been compelled. Then, an hour into the explanation, Billy asked him the important question: “Do you want me to make you forget, or do you want to know?”
“Do I have to decide right now?” Doug asked.
“No. You can decide any time, but I do need to teach you how to hide the images in your mind until you decide. To prevent any of this from happening again, one of my kind will watch over you. She must not know that you’re aware of us.”
“What’s to prevent her, or any of you, from doing this to me again?” he asked
“She would never. Sara finds it appalling,” Billy said.
“Sara? Maggie’s friend, Sara? The tiny pixie?”
“She’s capable of turning boulders into dust,” I said.
Doug nodded at me, and turned to Rachel. “Thank you for standing up for me, for insisting they tell me. I’m so sorry for how I treated you. I’ll never forgive myself.”
“I knew it wasn’t you. You’re not the type,” she said, blushing.
He grinned at her. “You always believe the best about people.”
He meant it as a compliment to Rachel, and it was certainly true, but I also read it as a swipe at me. Deserved as it was, it stung. Over the last hour, he had stopped making eye contact with me, and turned slightly so I stared at his shoulder.
“Am I still under her influence?” he asked, turning back to Billy.
“No. I’ve corrected that. What you feel now is mostly you. The images she implanted, and the feelings you felt, still affect you, and I can get rid of them, but you’re no longer under her influence. Give it time—you’ll recover on your own. Do you want me to speed up the process?”
Doug shook his head. “No, I want them for right now. It’s the first time I’ve actually felt like me since…I’m not sure. Can I talk to Maggie now…alone?”
“Yes, of course,” Billy said before disappearing.
“Do you want us to come back in a few and give you a lift back to your car?” Ronnie asked me.
“Doug, can you give me a ride?”
He thought about it for a second. “Do I have to go near your house? Her?”
“No, my car’s at Turpentine Creek,” I said.
“I’ve got her,” Doug said to Ronnie.
We sat in his Jee
p in silence until Ronnie’s car glided through the parking lot and out of view. Doug started the Jeep and slowly pulled onto the highway.
“I’m sorry about all of this,” I said, trying to break the ice.
He didn’t look at me, but kept his steely gaze on the road. “I don’t blame you for what they did to me, Maggie.”
Oh great. It’s Maggie now.
“I know you’ve been consumed by what’s happening with Mitch. And now that I know he’s been kidnapped, it makes even more sense. I honestly can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
“But…”
“Yeah, that. You’ve always said we’re friends, but you didn’t trust me with the truth. Do you know how that makes me feel?”
“I couldn’t tell you the truth with the potential of Cassandra finding out.”
He looked out the driver’s side for a second, and then turned his focus back to the road. “You see, I get that, but if it weren’t for Rachel’s insistence, I still wouldn’t know, would I?”
There was only one answer. “No.” His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel.
“Doug, I didn’t know how to tell you and protect you at the same time. I was afraid of what they might do.”
“What changed?”
“Ronnie figured out how to do it, how to tell you and protect you at the same time.”
“I owe him a big thanks too, I guess.”
“I’m sorry…” I said.
“Stop saying that, Maggie. I don’t want to hear it again. You did what you thought was right, and I will respect that.”
“But you’re still angry.”
“Wouldn’t you be?” he asked, finally glancing at me for a second. His eyes, blue as the Caribbean, were bloodshot. Though he sat just inches from me, he seemed miles away then.
I nodded and stared at the passing trees.
“Maggie, I just can’t get over the fact that you seemed willing to let me go it alone. I love you—I would never do that to you.”
“You were compelled…”
He huffed and jammed the brakes hard enough to stop me mid-sentence. “Don’t even go there. Billy told me when they started the mind tricks. They didn’t create my feelings, Maggie. They just played with them. I fell in love with you by the pool the day I met you, when you were such a …”
“Smart ass?” I finished his sentence, laughing.
He chuckled. “Yes. I knew at that very moment I was in love with you. I’ve never met anyone like you. You’re cocky, you’re strong, you’re smart…and you’re absolutely beautiful. I still feel…well, that’s not true. I don’t really know what I feel right now, but that doesn’t matter.”
“What are you saying?”
“You’re in love with Gavin, aren’t you?”
He stared at me, fixed on my face.
“The road!” I pointed at a curve coming up.
He slammed on the brakes and pulled onto the shoulder. “No more excuses. Tell me.”
“I am.”
A slow exhale left his chest, and he crossed his wrists over the steering wheel. He put his head between his elbows. “I’d hoped that was all part of the mind games.”
“I’m sorry, Doug…I mean…I can’t believe I’m still apologizing. Crap.”
He shook his head without looking up. “He’s one of them, isn’t he?”
I didn’t know what to say. Even Candace hadn’t directly asked whether I was in love with a Fae. I’d never admitted it aloud. Even Billy and Sara hadn’t made me do that. Doug raised his head. He wasn’t going to move the Jeep until I told him.
“Yes. He’s Fae.”
He put his head back on his elbows. “I can’t compete with that. But I can’t figure out why I should have to. He’s not human, Maggie. How old is he?”
“He’s really young for a Fae.”
“What does that mean?”
“Compared to some, he’s practically a teenager,” I said.
“Not an answer. As my dad would say, you’re just rationalizing. What? Is he like a hundred or something?”
Suddenly I felt guilty and weird. Our age difference didn’t seem like a big deal when I said it to myself, but right now, the gap of hundreds of millennia… “He’s quite a bit older than that…”
He sat up and put his head against the headrest. “That’s kinda gross. Have you…”
“No, we have not,” I said, cutting him off.
He smiled for a moment and then went white. “Oh god, how old is Cassandra?”
“You don’t want to know.”
He closed his eyes, rolled down his window, and shook his head like he was trying to spit something nasty out of his mouth. “So, what do you…know?”
I couldn’t tell him that I knew, that I witnessed some of it. “Do I know what?”
“Nothing,” he said.
“Doug, all that aside, where does this leave us?”
He put the Jeep in gear and pulled back on the highway. “I need time to figure that out. For right now, though, I think you’re right.”
“Right about what?”
“We need some time apart…at least until I can figure this out. No whining this time. You owe me.”
“I do.”
“Maybe it’s all for the best,” he whispered to himself.
“Doug, what’s for the best? Use your words.”
He laughed, and then let out a long exhale. “I’ve signed a letter of intent to play football for the Razorbacks.”
“Oh, my gosh, that’s great!”
“Yeah, it’s always been my dream. My parents are ecstatic.”
“Mine, too. I’m going to sign with Arkansas, too.”
He smiled. “My parents are so ecstatic they’re buying a house in Fayetteville. We’re moving there. They want me closer to school, closer to training. I won’t be swimming anymore.”
It was crystal clear to me that he was saying everything except goodbye. “Are you happy about the move?”
“More now than before. I think it’s best to put some distance between me and Eureka.”
I exhaled quietly and stared out the passenger side window. “Distance is probably a good thing. Especially now. Do you think we can still be friends?”
“I hope so,” he said, “but for right now, I think…well, you know. I hate to break our date for the prom, but…”
“No, I totally agree,” I said. My inner voice went on the attack. Maggie, you’re such a coward!
We drove back to my car in silence. When I agreed to tell him, I’d hoped we could be friends—that I had somehow found a way to be honest with him, protect him, and have our lives go back to the way they were. Pipe dreams. He felt betrayed and he resented me. Each time he glanced at me, I could see it in his eyes. My emotions ran high, but I managed to bottle them up and keep a pleasant veneer. When he dropped me off, he nodded, smiled and simply said, “Take care. Good luck with Mitch.” Then he was gone.
Billy appeared next to me in the Thunderbird after Doug drove off.
“Can you erase his memories of, well, the intimate stuff with Cassandra?” I asked, my voice quivering.
“I can, and I will. But why don’t you let me drive you home first?”
“I’ll be fine,” I said, forcing a smile and wiping a tear with a shaky hand at the same time.
Billy shook his head and walked around to the driver’s side. “I know exactly how you are. You can hide your emotions, most of the time, but this is not one of them. Go on, move over.”
I slid over, feigned being annoyed, and then lost it.
NINETEEN
AETHER
We spent my seventeenth birthday at the hospital. It was a far cry from the party I had a year ago—no dance floor or DJ, no scheming to get Gavin alone, and I couldn’t just look across the yard to find Aunt May grinning at me with her crooked smile. Candace, Rachel, Ronnie and my grandparents joined my parents and me, and did their best to act like nothing was wrong. Spending it at the hospital was my sug
gestion, and in hindsight, it was a terrible idea. The sound of Drevek’s respirator airing up his lungs every few seconds was barely audible, but everyone listened to it, nonetheless.
Candace held Drevek’s tiny hand and talked to him as though he was wide awake and grinning at her. It was quite an acting job, I thought, since she knew he wasn’t Mitch. Learning about her brush with death last year, and the truth behind it, did nothing to tarnish her personality like I was afraid it might. Instead, Candace emerged stronger and more confident than ever, and that made me love her even more.
Rachel was the big surprise. So much inner strength, so much caring, and it all came from her enormous heart. She tried to focus on everyone else in the room, but I caught her sad eyes fall on the facsimile of my brother’s form every few seconds. She held it together, and even managed to trade barbs with Ronnie, but it was apparent that being in the room with a changeling bothered her. She’d do anything for me. They all would. They each did everything they could to make me feel better in the depressing little room. Ronnie worked overtime, even getting Mom, Dad and my grandparents to laugh. I owed my friends big.
Sara was there in human form, talking to my mom and dad in a strong Irish accent, deftly keeping their attention focused on everything but Drevek. Billy hid out of view, occasionally whispering things that only Sara and I could hear. Only Gavin and Doug were missing. I hadn’t seen or heard from Doug in a week, but I felt better that Sara had been protecting him. Tonight, Sherman himself protected Doug. I didn’t ask how Sara arranged it.
During the brief intervals when my friends weren’t talking to me, I scrawled notes in my mind to Sara and Billy, asking them about Cassandra. They tried to assure me that Cassandra and the Unseelie would leave him alone.
I found it difficult to focus on anyone else in the room as Billy told Sara that Cassandra had compelled Doug into having a physical relationship with her. They agreed that Doug was still in danger. Even though it was a rare occurrence, in the past the Unseelie only took human lovers to cause pain, and it rarely ended well for the mortal. I was so relieved that Rachel had stood strong and forced me to deal with everything head on. Without the intervention, Doug would not have survived.
***
My parents retired an hour before I went to my room and lowered the lights. Sara had settled in the library and began reading when she was sure my parents were asleep. Since January, she’d read nearly every book in the room.
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