“That’s a terrible idea,” Diane says.
“You know, I’m really starting to dislike you,” I say, which earns me a glare from her and a stifled laugh from Caleb.
“Diane means that you’ll always be safer in a town protected by magic,” Simon says. “We’ll still have the upper hand. And frankly, if you’re here on Caouanne Island, we’ll be able to fight Main de Lumière off much more effectively with the addition of your power.”
“Which is exactly why we need her in Carrefour,” Peregrine’s mother says. “Because of her power.”
That’s when it dawns on me that the sosyetes aren’t just trying to protect me. They’re fighting over who gets to keep me to enhance their own magical abilities. The realization hurts. “Look,” I say, “it’s my life you’re arguing about. Shouldn’t I be the one to decide where I go?”
“You’re a child,” Diane says.
“She’s a queen,” Caleb says immediately, “of both towns.”
I’m grateful for Caleb’s intervention, but the weight on my shoulders feels suddenly immense. Whichever town I choose, I’ll be putting the sosyete there in grave danger, because the town will be a bull’s-eye for Main de Lumière. On the other hand, I’ll bring more protection to the town I’m in simply by being there and contributing my power. It’s an impossible choice.
“What do you think?” I ask Caleb.
“I think,” he says, “that it’s up to you. And I’ll be behind you, one hundred percent, whatever you choose.”
As I look around me, I see people who, for all their faults, are my family. I may not always approve of Peregrine and Chloe, but they’re my sisters. On the other side stands a group I hardly know but whose strongest king is my only living parent, a man who loved my mother enough to defy tradition and marry her. I can’t believe he would lead me astray either.
Finally, I turn to Diane. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I have to go back to Carrefour for now.” I look at my dad and add, “You only just came back for me. Mom’s family, well, they’ve always been a part of my life. I have to stay and fight with them.”
“That’s a terribly shortsighted decision,” Diane says.
“That’s enough, Diane,” my father says quickly. “She’s your queen.” He turns to the rest of the group and adds, “She’s a queen to all of you, and she deserves your respect, whether you agree with her or not. We all need to support her now. Our future is in her hands.”
Instead of soothing me, the words make me feel queasy. It’s not a responsibility I’ve asked for, and it scares me to know that so many people depend on me. I wonder if I’ll ever feel like the leader they expect me to be.
“Fine, then, it’s decided,” Diane says, looking back to me. “Eveny will return to Carrefour. In the meantime, we’ll cast as much protection as we can over both towns and Eveny herself.”
“What do you want us to do?” Chloe’s mother asks.
“Meet us in the ceremonial room here in Matthias’s house at midnight,” George says. “We’d like you to sit in on our ceremony. Although you can’t cast with us, we feel your presence might strengthen our influence with the spirits. We work with different spirits than you do, but they all live in the nether, and they may be able to communicate with each other. If that’s the case, having them know we’re allied is important. So it’s best to spend the next few hours getting some rest.”
“Or doing your hair. Or shopping. Or whatever it is you queens do,” Diane says, smirking at the Carrefour contingent. “Because goodness knows, the way you look is far more important than saving lives, right?”
“That’s enough, Diane,” my father says.
A shadow crosses her face, and then she stands up, slams her hands on the table, and strides out of the room.
My father takes us all to our rooms and tells us to make ourselves at home while we wait for the evening ceremony. “We’ll show all of you around tomorrow,” he adds. “It’s important to me that you get to know the island. But for now, you must rest. All of you.”
Peregrine eyes the bathroom at the end of the hall. “Does this house of yours have a Jacuzzi tub? I’m in desperate need of a long soak after that hideous experience flying coach.”
My father gives me a look and forces a pleasant expression. “Yes, Peregrine, I think you’ll find the accommodations here very comfortable.”
Right away, Peregrine, Chloe, and their mothers begin chattering about how they’ll pamper themselves for the next few hours. Caleb and the other protectors stand off to the side, whispering to each other.
“Don’t you think we should be coming up with a plan or something?” I say. “Considering that the whole reason we’re here is that our lives are in danger?”
“Eveny, dear,” Chloe’s mother says, “nothing’s going to happen to us this evening. Your father said it himself; this is a safe place. So we might as well enjoy our vacation, don’t you think?”
“This isn’t a vacation,” I say, but my words are lost in their resumed babble about baths and facials and blow-outs.
“You doing okay?” Caleb asks, coming up beside me and putting a hand on the small of my back. His touch makes me shiver, and noticing my reaction, he quickly pulls away. “I mean, if you want to talk about what happened downstairs . . .”
“No, I’m fine,” I say quickly. “I think I’m going to go explore the garden I saw out back.”
“I can come with you.”
“I’d rather go alone.” I don’t meet his eyes as I say the words, because they’re not true. I want to be with him. But I know he’ll only act cold and distant, and I’m so overwhelmed right now, I don’t think I can handle that. I feel him stiffen, and he takes a step back.
“No problem,” he says. “Just don’t leave your dad’s property, okay? Since we’re not in Carrefour, I won’t be able to sense it if you’re in danger.”
“I’ll be fine,” I tell him, and head downstairs alone before he can say anything else.
5
My father’s garden is much sparser than the one outside our house in Carrefour, which makes sense, I suppose. Andaba isn’t based on herb magic the way zandara is, so there’s no need to have a yard full of plants and flowers. Still, there’s a rose garden on the left side of the house, and that’s where my feet carry me now, led by the familiar, comforting scent that always reminds me of my mother.
“Hello.” I’m startled to hear my father’s deep voice from among the roses as I round the corner.
“I didn’t expect to find you out here,” I say, joining him in a small, circular clearing surrounded by pale pink New Dawn roses.
He glances at me. “This is where I come when I need to be alone with my thoughts.”
I hesitate. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” he says quickly. “I’m glad you’re here. This garden, it always reminds me of your mother. It’s nice to have you share it with me.”
“Mom would have loved it,” I agree, relaxing a little as I look around at the dozens of rose varieties, many of them similar to the ones growing in my garden in Carrefour.
“She planted it herself, actually,” he says softly. “Back when we were still crazy enough to believe in a future where we could spend time here as well as in Carrefour. It seems silly now that we ever thought either of our sosyetes would accept the relationship between us. There was even a time when we dreamed of bringing herb magic to Caouanne Island. We thought there might be a way to blend andaba with zandara to strengthen both.”
“Turns out there was a way,” I say, looking away. “Me.”
“That’s not what I meant. You were always something separate from that.”
“Except I’m not, am I?” I say. “I’m some strange blend of both forms of magic. And I hardly understand any of it.”
He studies me, then sighs. “Can I show you something, Eveny? I think it might help make things a little clearer.”
I follow him down a path, through a small arc
h in a tall hedge wall, and into another area of his garden. I gasp as soon as I realize what I’m seeing.
“Wait, these are Mom’s hybrid roses,” I say. “The Rose of Life.” Indeed, this whole section of the garden is filled with the familiar purple roses with gold-flecked edges, the ones that I thought only grew in my family’s garden in Carrefour. A small jolt of electricity shoots through me as I touch one. “You grow them here too?”
“The last time I saw your mother, when you were just a little girl, she gave me one of the Rose of Life bushes to plant on Caouanne Island. She said that as long as it grew here, we would be connected. Over the years, I’ve planted a whole garden from it.”
I bend and smell the roses, and when I close my eyes, I can almost see my mother reaching out for me.
“Did you know we actually developed the Rose of Life together?” he asks after a pause.
“Wait, what?”
“It’s a hybrid. Magic had nothing to do with it. It was all science, cross-pollination.” A faraway expression sweeps across his features. “I first came to Carrefour as a botany student, you know. I had no idea the town was magical. I’d only ever known andaba. I took an internship working under Boniface, who ran a botany center at the time.”
“Boniface ran a botany center?” I’m struck by how little I actually know about the history of the people I’m closest to.
My father chuckles. “He’s retired now, of course, but there was a time when he and your mother believed that zandara could be enhanced by engineering the very plants themselves. In other words, if plants with different zandara uses were bred together, the resulting plant could be used differently in charms. It was the first time I know of that science had been used to tinker with magic. They were on the cusp of something very important, I think, but much of that died with your mother.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “So they knew you had magical blood too when they hired you as an intern?”
He laughs. “Oh no, absolutely not. They thought I was merely an earnest botany student from Savannah, and I believed Boniface and your mother were just two very intelligent plant enthusiasts. Once I discovered what your mother was, I realized I was unwittingly working on hybrids that would enhance her sosyete’s magic.
“You could say the Rose of Life is what drew us together in the first place, actually,” my father continues, reaching out and touching one of the rosebuds. “At first, I thought your mom’s goal was just to create a hardy rose that could withstand the winter. But when I learned about zandara, I realized it was something else entirely. She was trying to breed plants that, for a variety of scientific reasons I won’t bore you with, shouldn’t have been able to mate. But then she told me one night that she’d already managed to merge a wingtip rose with red clover.”
“Love, luck, and protection,” I say.
“Very good,” he says. “She called it a Happiness Rose. I was very impressed with what she’d done. She told me then that she was trying to breed that rose with acacia.”
“Acacia? For immortality and to communicate with spirits?”
He nods. “Exactly. I didn’t understand it at the time. But what she was trying to do was to create a rose that was capable of bringing people back from the dead.”
My breath catches in my throat. For a moment, all I can think about is what might have been. If my mother had succeeded, perhaps she could have had a chance at returning to us. “But it didn’t work, did it?”
His face falls. “I wish to God it had. But it’s impossible. We managed to crossbreed the plants, but the magic never worked. The dead just aren’t meant to return to life.”
My heart aches, and I can’t find the words to reply right away. “So when did you tell my mom that you knew about zandara?” I finally ask. “And that you were magic too?”
He looks lost in thought. “I’d been in town for a month. We were in the garden at night, cutting roses, and Boniface had gone to bed. There was a full moon, and when she turned to me to say something, the way the moonlight lit her face made her look like she was glowing. Without even thinking about it, I leaned forward and kissed her, and it felt completely different from any kiss I’d ever had before, like there was an electrical current running between us. I’d never felt so alive, and I knew she felt it too. I was the one who pulled away, because I had a secret. I couldn’t kiss her again until I’d come clean.”
“So you told her? About andaba?”
He laughs. “The words just fell out of my mouth in a jumble. I don’t think she believed me at first, but when she finally did, she looked scared. I had to reassure her that I’d had absolutely no idea when I came to Carrefour that there was magic in the town. I only realized when I saw her performing a ceremony with Scarlett St. Pierre and Annabelle Marceau one night.
“She thought we should tell her sister queens that I had magical abilities too, but I told her it was a bad idea,” he continues. “They would have believed I was there for the wrong reasons. I would have been thrown out of Carrefour, and I would never have seen your mother again.”
“But why?”
“Different magical groups don’t usually trust each other, Eveny,” my father says. “Zandara and andaba both originated with practitioners of voodoo, but a century down the line, they’re as different as night and day. I’d been raised to distrust anyone who practiced magic outside of andaba. And your mom had been raised with the same feelings about zandara.”
“It’s why Peregrine, Chloe, and their moms seem to have a grudge against andaba, isn’t it?” I ask. “It’s the same now as it was when you were younger.”
“I’m afraid so. That’s why your mother and I started dating in secret,” my dad replies. “Boniface was the only one who knew about us. I was surprised he didn’t seem to mind, so I asked him why. He told me that rules shouldn’t stand in the way of what two people feel.”
Heat floods my face as I think about Caleb. I wonder if Boniface would have the same kind of advice for us. “So Mom was in love with you from the start too?” I ask.
“I’ve never felt so loved by someone in my life.” He blinks a few times, like he’s trying to get ahold of himself. “I didn’t know love could feel that powerful. Until you came along, that is.”
“But you weren’t there.” I can’t help sounding as hurt as I feel. “With me, I mean.”
“That’s what we wanted everyone to believe,” he says. “It was safer that way. By the time you were born, your aunt and your mother’s sister queens knew my secret. We trusted them, but if anyone outside that circle found out that your mother and I had created a child together, you could have been in terrible danger. So I had to go.”
“I know,” I say softly. “I can’t blame you for that. But it’s hard for me to believe that you loved me as powerfully as you say. How could someone feel that way and leave?”
“That’s exactly why I couldn’t stay away, honey. The first time I came back was the day after your birth. I held you in my arms, and I couldn’t believe how tiny and perfect you were. Your mom and I just kept saying, ‘We made this.’ The love you feel holding your own child in your hands, well, it’s a whole different kind of love, bigger than I could have imagined.”
“You felt like that about me?” I ask, suddenly choked up.
“Of course. The second time I returned was just before your first birthday. I know you don’t remember, but your mom, Boniface, and I had a little birthday party for you in the back garden. You got frosting in your hair.” He smiles. “You can ask Boniface.”
I’m so shaken by what he’s telling me that the only thing I can think to ask is, “Where was Aunt Bea?”
His smile wavers. “Your mother didn’t want her to know I was there. She was very much against my presence in your mother’s life.”
“Did you come back again?”
The smile vanishes from his face. “The third time I came to see you was four days before your mother died. Your aunt has believed since then that I was followed
to Carrefour by someone powerful enough to temporarily disable Carrefour’s protective charm. To this day, I believe that’s impossible.”
“But she’s always blamed you anyhow,” I say, thinking of all the times I asked about my father when I was younger, only to see Aunt Bea’s expression grow stony and closed off.
“Yes.” He’s silent for a moment. “But since the day your mother died, I’ve had only two things driving me. One is the need to protect you, not only because you’re my child, but because your mother and I created a dangerous situation for you simply by conceiving you. It’s my fault that you’re in harm’s way.”
“What’s the second thing?” I ask.
My father takes a deep breath. “My work on this earth won’t be done until I find out who killed your mother,” he says. “And until I put that person in the ground.”
A shiver goes through me as he pulls out a pocketknife and swiftly cuts one of the Rose of Life stems. “Here,” he says, holding out a bloom for me. “Your mom always told me to carry one with me whenever I missed her. She said it would make me feel like she was here with me. Maybe it was just the power of suggestion, but holding on to one of these always did make me feel a little better. This one’s for you.”
He tucks it behind my ear and kisses me on the cheek, and then he’s gone. I stand in the garden for a long time, surrounded by the scent of my mother’s roses and by a swirling cloud of facts about a past I’m realizing I never really knew at all.
6
When I eventually head back to the house to get ready for tonight’s ceremony, I run into Caleb upstairs.
“Hey,” he says, shifting awkwardly.
“Hey.”
We stand there for a moment, just staring at each other, before we both begin speaking at once.
“You first,” he says with an uneasy laugh.
I hesitate. “I just talked to my dad.”
He blinks a few times. “He told you the story?”
“What story?”
Midnight Dolls Page 4
