Fantasy Life

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Twenty

  Cliffside House

  “Sam Walters hampered the cleanup efforts?” Lyssa shook her head. Her memories of Sam Walters, albeit few, were of a man who seemed fanatically devoted to his company, a man who would do anything to make certain no one ever spoke of Walters Petroleum in a harsh way.

  Of course, he had been much older when she had met him—completely bald, whether through nature or vanity, she wasn’t certain. He had a beautiful skull, perfectly shaped, and very smooth, and he kept it tanned like the rest of his skin. He also still had those pale blue eyes with the pale lashes, making him look like an otherworldly creature, someone whose designer couldn’t quite get him to look human.

  “No, he didn’t hamper them.” Athena was sitting at the head of the table, eating daintily. She had made some kind of egg casserole—it wasn’t a soufflé, and it wasn’t an omelette, but the eggs held everything together, rather like huevos rancheros. “He couldn’t hamper the cleanup efforts. This was the first major crisis his own father had put him in charge of, and if it went wrong, then Sam, no matter what his relationship to Old Man Walters was, would no longer work for the company.”

  Cassie sat beside Lyssa, picking through her food. Athena had put everything she could find into the egg dish, from bacon pieces to ham to onions, green pepper, and tomatoes. There was even salsa in there, and some spices that made this an evening meal, not a morning one.

  It was all surprisingly tasty, and supremely fattening, and it was going to make Lyssa even more tired than she was.

  “I don’t remember Old Man Walters,” Lyssa said. “I don’t even remember anyone talking about him. I thought Reginald’s father was the old man, and he had been in charge forever.”

  “Maybe by your husband’s standards, he had been in charge forever.” Athena didn’t look at Lyssa as she said that, and she didn’t have to. Lyssa caught the contempt in Athena’s voice.

  Maybe the reasons Athena had given for not visiting Wisconsin had been false. Maybe she could have left the coast unguarded. Maybe she had refused to come because Lyssa had been married to a Walters.

  Lyssa stole a glance into the family room. Emily still slept comfortably beneath the quilt Cassie had wrapped around her. Even the smell of food hadn’t woken Emily.

  Emily was a Walters too, no matter what her last name now was. She had the Walters genes, just like she had the Buckingham ones. She didn’t look like a Walters—she favored the Buckinghams—but she was a member of that family, a family her own clearly hated.

  Lyssa pushed at the eggs in front of her, uncertain why no one had told her any of this before. Cassie watched her closely as if worried about the revelations.

  “I think his father died soon after,” Cassie said, and it took Lyssa a moment to realize Cassie was talking about Reginald’s grandfather, Sam’s father, whose first name Lyssa had never known.

  “Soon after the accident?” Lyssa asked.

  “Soon after Sam returned to Texas,” Athena said, as if that were significant.

  Lyssa pushed the tar ball away from her plate. The little, round black bit of oil bothered her more now than it had when she’d first coughed it up.

  “None of this is making me feel any better,” she said. “I’m not sure why this happened to me, and I’m still don’t think Emily and I should stay in Cliffside House.”

  Both Athena and Cassie looked at her, identical stunned expressions on their faces.

  “I’m not sure what you wanted me to get out of this story, except that you didn’t tell me any of this. When I met Reginald at the University of Texas, and I told you I had fallen in love with him, neither of you told me that our two families had a history.”

  Lyssa’s voice was rising. She was angrier than she had initially thought.

  “I mean, when Sam Walters objected to me marrying Reginald, he said it was because of my family, and I asked Reginald what that meant, and he had no idea, except that his dad had objected to his girlfriends before, usually because they didn’t come from ‘the right set,’ which, to Reginald, meant they didn’t have money. So that’s what we assumed. Not that Sam had met you, Mom, or that he’d found you attractive.”

  Lyssa shuddered. That detail bothered her more than she could say.

  “I didn’t find him attractive,” Cassie said softly, as if that made everything better.

  “So? You answer the small issue and not the big one. How come no one told me that I was getting in the middle of something that predated me? My daughter has paid for this in ways that I couldn’t imagine. Her Walters grandparents have never met her. They never acknowledged her birth, and they’re even fighting her inheritance from her father in court.”

  “Based on what?” Athena asked.

  “Based on the fact that my husband wasn’t sane when he died, and my daughter was with him at the time. Fortunately, they don’t want the publicity, so every time my lawyer threatens to make this all public, they give in a little. We’re going to win, so I’m told. We’re not far from a settlement. But by then, I’ll be completely in debt. I’ve already paid my lawyer everything I can, and now she’s billing me monthly.”

  Lyssa’s voice shook. She pushed her plate away, her eyes filling with tears. She wiped them away. She was tired and not in complete control of her emotions.

  “And then you tell me this stupid story about some oil spill that may or may not have killed all the fantasylife off the coast, and how the Walters family is responsible, and you’re telling me this so that Emily and I will stay here? How dumb do you think I am?”

  Both Athena and Cassie were staring at Lyssa as if they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

  “You hate the Walters family too, Grandma,” Lyssa said to Athena. “You’ve made that really clear. Do you want me to stay so that the house can get its revenge on Emily? Is she some kind of sacrifice to the creatures you’ve sworn to protect?”

  Athena straightened her back, succeeding in making herself look both powerful and regal. “Maybe if you had let us finish the tale—”

  “I’ve heard enough,” Lyssa said.

  “Then you’ll have to understand that I don’t sacrifice my family. Your girl is my great-granddaughter, and I would never harm her.”

  “Really?” Lyssa snapped. “How do you figure that? You’re as neglectful as the Walters have been. You weren’t even calling her by name when she first arrived. You’ve made sure you haven’t said hello to her yet—not that that’s any different from how you’ve treated her in the past. You’ve never met my Emily, Gram. Don’t you think being treated as a pariah by both sides of the family harms a child? Hmm? Especially for something she can’t change, something that’s a part of her?”

  Athena’s cheeks had turned a livid red. Lyssa wasn’t sure she had ever seen her grandmother blush before.

  “You never brought her here,” Cassie said softly.

  Lyssa set her fork down. She was done eating. She was done, period. It was so typical of her family to blame her for their mistakes.

  “Don’t defend Grandma, Mother,” Lyssa said. “You’re a world-class hypocrite yourself. How many times did you come visit? How many times did you hold Emily and act like there was nothing wrong? How many—”

  “I love Emily,” Cassie said.

  “You could have told us,” Lyssa said. “You knew why her Walters grandparents rejected her, and you never said a word.”

  “Of course I didn’t,” Cassie said. “You never told your husband or your child about magic. How can I explain a problem that originates in magic, if they don’t believe in it?”

  Lyssa closed her eyes. She was so tired and had wanted so badly for someone else to take care of things for a while. But that wasn’t going to happen.

  Now she had to get back into her little car and drive around Anchor Bay, just to see if a small, family-owned hotel still had someone manning the front desk.

  She should have gone to Portland after all.

  She pushed her cha
ir back. The legs scraped on the stone floor. She rubbed her eyes with two fingers, then looked around the room.

  Both Athena and Cassie were watching her as if they were afraid of what she was going to do.

  “I’m taking Emily away from here,” Lyssa said. “I’m beginning to realize that she’s not safe anywhere. I’ll talk to you on the phone about training her and helping her control her magical abilities. I’m sure I can do what I need. If not, Mother, you can fly out to wherever we end up and help her. Of course, you can’t, Grandma, because you can’t leave Anchor Bay without a Buckingham.”

  Lyssa put as much venom into those last two sentences as she could. She stood up, swayed a little, and headed toward the entry. She’d go to the car, get it ready for Emily, and carry her sleeping daughter out into the storm.

  If they couldn’t find a hotel, maybe Gabriel could put them up for the night, although Lyssa wasn’t sure how she would explain her problem to him. Of course, he had lived in Anchor Bay his whole life. He knew about the Buckinghams, and the magic.

  Everyone did.

  “Mommy?”

  Lyssa turned.

  Emily was standing in the doorway, the quilt wrapped around her like a robe. Her short black hair was tousled, and her eyes, round and brown, looked even softer than usual.

  “I want to stay,” she said.

  Beside Lyssa, Cassie caught her breath.

  Lyssa shook her head. “It’s not safe, honey.”

  “It’s very safe, Mommy. This place, it loves you.”

  Lyssa felt her cheeks warm. “Honey, I—”

  “Grandma and Great-grandma aren’t saying everything. They think something bad is coming, and they think we’ll be able to help. If we go away, things’ll just get worse. The house didn’t attack you, Mommy. It asked you for help. You told me you always gotta help when you get asked.”

  “The child’s right,” Athena said. “The voices you heard asked for help. They didn’t threaten you at all.”

  “The child,” Lyssa said with great emphasis, “is named Emily. I’d like you to give her the courtesy of using her name.”

  “Mommy,” Emily said, “Great-grandma likes me. She’s just scared of me.”

  Lyssa whirled and looked at Athena. Athena wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. At least, she never had been, not in Lyssa’s memory.

  Athena’s blue eyes met Lyssa’s, and Athena’s lips turned up in a poor attempt at a smile. “The child—your Emily—is right again,” she said. “I never thought I’d be a coward at this stage of my life.”

  “What are you afraid of?” Lyssa asked.

  “Choices,” Athena said. “Your daughter forces us all to face choices we may not want to face.”

  Lyssa looked from her grandmother to her mother. “What does that mean?”

  Cassie swallowed and looked at her hands.

  “Mother? Did you see something you’re not telling me?”

  Cassie shook her head.

  “Mother?”

  Cassie closed her eyes.

  “Grandma, it’s okay,” Emily said. “She didn’t tell you about Grandpapa Walters because she wanted me to be born. She loves me, Mommy. I’m supposed to be here. Everybody needs me.”

  The words chilled Lyssa. Her daughter stated them so matter-of-factly, as if she had the same gift Cassie had.

  “Is that true?” Lyssa asked Cassie.

  Cassie nodded.

  “You didn’t say anything because my daughter, the Walters-Buckingham hybrid, was going to be useful someday?”

  “It’s not as crass as that,” Cassie said. “She’s a special child.”

  “Yes,” Lyssa snapped. “She is. And I’m not going to let you people rob her of that.”

  “Mommy, please.” Emily came farther into the kitchen, her quilt trailing after her. She looked like a little queen, giving orders to her subject. “Please.”

  Lyssa finally turned to her daughter. “How do you know all this stuff? You’ve never said things like this before.”

  Emily looked at Cassie, who nodded to her.

  “Mother?” Lyssa said. “You know about this?”

  “No,” Cassie said. “I have ideas, but I don’t know. What’s changed, Emily?”

  “The house,” Emily said. “It shows me things.”

  “What things?” Lyssa asked.

  Emily shrugged. “Pictures. Feelings. Stories. I like it, Mommy.”

  Lyssa sank into her chair. She hadn’t wanted this either. “I don’t like the sound of this,” she said, mostly to herself.

  “It’s what Cliffside House does,” Athena said. “It amplifies our powers, protects us, and helps us keep the bridge between the worlds safe. Emily is very important to that bridge.”

  “You’re saying she’s going to be telepathic, like Mom?”

  “I don’t know what her powers are,” Athena said. “None of us do. You never let us develop them.”

  “Stay here,” Cassie said. “We’ll figure this out together. I promise.”

  “What do you know, Mom?” Lyssa asked. “What’s going to happen that is so important that we have to stay here?”

  Cassie looked at Athena again. Lyssa wasn’t sure when the two of them had become so close. It seemed odd.

  “I don’t know anything,” Cassie said. “Mom and I have had feelings, though. Something’s changing, Lys.”

  “Because of me and Emily,” Lyssa said.

  Cassie shook her head. “Something else. And it’s better if we’re all together. Apart, bad things might happen.”

  “Like Daddy,” Emily whispered.

  Lyssa expected her mother to try to dismiss that. Instead, Cassie said very simply, “Or worse.”

  Lyssa wasn’t sure how anything worse could happen to her daughter.

  “I want to stay, Mommy,” Emily said. “I feel like a person here.”

  “Like a person?” Lyssa asked.

  “She belongs,” Cassie said. “Maybe for the first time. Don’t take that away from her.”

  “She’s a special child, Lys, and you’re in no position to take care of her alone.” Athena was blunt, as always. “We can help with the lawsuits, and the care, and allow you some time to recover too. You’ve been worried about Emily, but you should look to yourself. I’ve never seen you so ragged.”

  “You haven’t seen me for more than a decade,” Lyssa said.

  “Stay,” Athena said. “The house will protect you, not harm you.”

  “It hurt me already,” Lyssa said.

  “It’s just trying to show you something,” Cassie said.

  “Something about oil?” Lyssa looked at the tar ball. She’d never forget how that felt. “Something about the Walters?”

  “Or maybe something to do with the old spill,” Athena said.

  “Or maybe it’s a message from someone else.” Cassie’s voice sounded small, far away.

  “Like who? Who would send me a message like that?” Lyssa asked.

  Athena looked at Cassie, as if she was waiting for Cassie to speak. But Cassie looked down, clearly not ready to answer.

  “We don’t know, honey,” Athena said after a moment. “But whoever it is obviously needs us all.”

  EXODUS

  Twenty-One

  Seavy County Sheriff’s Office

  North County

  The day dawned clear and cold. Gabriel Schelling was up early, surprised by the sun. It hadn’t been in any of the forecasts, which predicted lingering storms through the following week.

  Instead, the sun was so bright, the air so clear, that he could see for miles. The faint outline of oil tankers and cargo ships looked like tiny bricks on the horizon line.

  The sky sparkled as if it had been washed clean. The ocean, however, was brown with mud, sand, and debris churned up by the storm. Logs, seaweed, and bits of garbage floated on the surface, as if the ocean were doing a self-cleansing that wasn’t absolutely complete.

  Gabriel had spent the first part of the morning driv
ing around the village. Water still stood on the highway, gathering in the grooves, and along the sides of the road. Pine needles blanketed side streets, blown off in the severest winds. Tree branches were down, blocking roadways and scarring lawns.

  By the time he reached the edge of town, he discovered another surprise. Highway department crews were already working on the road. He suspected that other crews were working on the entrances to the corridor and shoring up road damage in the mountains. He wouldn’t be surprised if the entire coastal highway system was at least patched by nightfall.

  The roadwork put him in a good mood, such a good mood that he didn’t mind seeing the storm-made lake still covering Highway 19 at the north end of town. The lake would recede, given time. And if the weather held, maybe the saturated ground would be able to dry out, so that the next series of storms wouldn’t devastate the area quite so badly.

  He had hope, but he knew that this time of year such hope could be futile.

  Gabriel arrived at the sheriff’s office at ten. The office was up a side street from the Anchor Bay post office. The post office had been built in the 1970s, but the sheriff’s office was older than that. It dated from the 1920s and had once been the only building in that part of town. Now it had grown rooms like fungus, and it no longer had real architectural structure—just additions that looked like accidents.

  Still, he loved the place, and going into his job pleased him more than he liked to admit.

  He parked in the lot next to Athena’s truck, and an unfamiliar car. He paused as he looked at Athena’s vehicle. He wondered how Lyssa’s homecoming had gone, then decided not to ask.

  Two other cars were there, both squads. So neither Zeke nor Suzette was out patrolling. They were probably exhausted. He was surprised that he wasn’t. Sometimes, having a four-person crew could really put a strain on the team, especially during emergencies, like yesterday’s.

  The entrance into the building was a glass door with Sheriff’s Office etched at eye level. The door was, perhaps, the most dangerous entrance Gabriel had ever seen in an official building, and he reminded the county of that at budget time every year. But since the door had never been broken, not in the forty years it had served as the entrance to the North County Sheriff’s Department, Seavy County officials didn’t see the point in spending the funds.