The Witches of Snyder Farms (The Wicked Garden Series)

by Henson, Lenora

  Peter jumped up from his seat, knelt in front of Ame, and took her hand.

  “My granddaughter. My lovely Amazon queen, I am ever so pleased to make your acquaintance.” He kissed her hand and gazed into her eyes, as if finally soaking up the reality of her existence.

  And I know him.... I know I know him, Ame thought.

  Then Peter stood and crossed the room to take both Gretchel’s hands in his.

  Ohmigod, Gretchel thought. Her knees were shaking. “I’m—”

  “You’re Gretchel Bloome. Aphrodite. Cliodhna. Astarte. Gretchel Bloome. The muse who has lost her way in the maze. My son has been quite stingy in his descriptions of you. I, myself, have about a hundred and three descriptions I’d like to use on you right now.”

  “Enough, Dad,” Eli interjected.

  Ame was stifling a laugh. Diana was tapping the pointy toe of her very expensive shoe with barely suppressed exasperation. And Gretchel felt like her head was floating a foot or two above her body.

  Peter deferred to his son by bringing his soliloquy to a premature close, but he continued to hold Gretchel with his gaze. He saw that she was dazzled. He saw that she was confused. And he saw that she was ready for the truth. What he was ready for, on the other hand….

  Perhaps it was best to begin with the prophecy.

  “Peter Stewart, at your service.” He bowed and gave Gretchel a chaste kiss on the hand.

  “It’s a pleasure,” she whispered, her face flushed.

  When Peter released her, Gretchel shook herself—as if awakening from a spell—and said, “Okay, enough with the niceties. Out with the secrets, Diana.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Irvine, 2010s

  Peter cackled.

  Diana ignored her husband, but her son saw her nostrils flair.

  Oh, boy, he thought. This is going to be exactly as much fun as I imagined.

  Diana refused to even look at Gretchel. Eli nodded for her to go ahead.

  “Well, I’m not sure what all you want to know….” she started.

  “I want to know everything. Let’s start with the prophecy. All of it.”

  Diana shook her head. “No.”

  “No?” Gretchel asked.

  “No one has read the prophecy in its entirety except for Peter. Not my assistants, not my colleagues, not my late parents, not even Eli.”

  Gretchel was quite prepared to insist, but Eli laid a hand gently on her knee. For his sake, she was willing to back down—for now. “Summarize, then. I want to know why you’ve spent so many years researching my family. And I really want to know why you’re so certain that Eli is going to leave me.”

  “Perhaps we should start at the beginning.”

  “Perhaps we should.” Gretchel settled herself into the love seat, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

  “Well, almost forty years ago, Peter and I were in Scotland. I’d just completed my Ph.D. It was the Summer Solstice. I was in the woods on my family estate—at least I thought I was in the woods. I was on LSD at the time….”

  Gretchel rolled her eyes.

  Diana pursed her lips. Clearly, the girl was doing her best to get under Diana’s skin, and Diana was irritated with herself for letting her. “Shall I continue?”

  Gretchel shrugged.

  “I had a vision—at least I think it was a vision. It seemed quite real to me. Anyway, I was visited by a crone. She told me the prophecy, and she gave me an amulet to pass on to my son. As I’ve said, I was using LSD at the time, so I’m not in a position to say how much of what I experienced was real, but the amulet is real enough. Eli can confirm that, at least.”

  Diana looked to Eli, who nodded. She resumed her story.

  “You must understand that, at that point in my life, I hadn’t even considered motherhood—not seriously, anyway. I had just finished my degree. I was too focused on my career to think about family. I was too wrapped up in school, in my future career….”

  “So, not much has changed, I guess.” Gretchel said. Eli pinched her thigh. Diana glared.

  “I am trying so hard to like you Gretchen—Gretchel, I meant Gretchel! I’ve wanted to like you from the moment we met, for my son’s sake, but you make it so goddamn difficult.”

  “Mother!” Eli shouted.

  Ame looked at Peter, and he gave her a wink in return.

  Diana tugged hard on her cardigan and ran a hand over her perfectly smooth hair. Then she continued. “I was using birth control. I had no reason to think that I might be pregnant, but the crone was right. Whether she was a supernatural being with precognitive powers or a product of my subconscious mind, she knew. Eli was born eight months later.

  “But, back to the vision…. Another woman—a much younger woman—joined us just before it ended. She told me that her name was Carlin Fitzgerald, and she told me to find her. I did find her, of course, but then I lost her again. Now I know why, and seeing her photo has left me without a trace of doubt. The woman I’ve been searching for is your great grandmother, Gretchel. I saw her face—and her scar—on a Summer Solstice morning forty years ago.”

  Ame was on the edge of her seat listening to the incredible tale. Gretchel was still skeptical.

  “Why, though?” Ame asked. “Why did Carlin want you to find her?”

  Diana offered her granddaughter an approving look. “She told me that when I found her, I would find her descendants—including the one destined to save her family.”

  Ame had another question, but Gretchel cut her off. “I’m not following. What does this have to do with Eli and me?”

  “The old woman who gave me the amulet said I was to give it to my son, and that he would give it to his first great love.”

  “His first?” Gretchel laughed. It was a bitter laugh.

  “Yes. She also told me that my son’s first love would break his heart.”

  Diana tilted her head and smiled grimly, daring Gretchel to respond.

  Gretchel’s eyes narrowed and her entire body tensed.

  Ame was momentarily afraid for her diminutive grandmother, but then she decided that Diana could probably take care of herself.

  Peter could barely contain himself. He had never seen his wife in a catfight before, and he could hardly have chosen a more exciting opponent than this warrior goddess his son had found.

  Eli looked like he was about to pass out from the anxiety.

  Diana and Gretchel both noticed his distress, and, without a word, agreed to a momentary truce.

  “Where was I? Oh, yes. Well, it was clear that you were the first woman in the prophecy, but it never occurred to me that you would be a descendent of the twins.”

  “What twins?” Ame asked.

  “The Solstice Twins. Everything begins with them.”

  “But who are they?”

  “Well, I’ve spent decades trying to piece together their story and the stories of their descendants, but I suspect that Epona and Ella know more than I do. But everything we’ve heard from them already—well, almost everything—fits the patterns I’ve discerned in my own research.”

  “What kind of patterns?” Gretchel asked, the tone of her voice a little less brash.

  “The lives of all the women born in this bloodline have certain similarities. They’re all tall redheads with a wild streak—” Diana gave Gretchel a pointed look, and then continued. “Of course, that’s hardly strange. Nature. Nurture.

  “But there are other patterns as well. For instance, each of these women lost her father when she was thirteen. We know that Bridget did, and Carlin, and Epona. I don’t know about your mother, yet, but what about you?”

  Eli and Peter both winced. Sensitivity was not one of Diana’s virtues.

  Gretchel’s voice was icy, emotionless. “My father died the day before my fourteenth birthday.”

  Diana looked pleased, as if she was making a check mark in her mind. Eli felt sick. Peter looked sad.

  “Ame, of course is a puzzle.”

  “Would y
ou have preferred that I died when she was thirteen, Mother?”

  Diana was struck by the coldness in her son’s voice. It occurred to her that she had, perhaps, not been as tactful as she might have been. “I trust you know the answer to that, Elliott. I’m simply pointing out that, since coming here, I’ve seen some deviations from the patterns I’ve found in my research. For example, all the descendants of the Solstice Twins up to Epona had just one child, a daughter. Ella and Gretchel, however, each have a son, too. And all the descendants I found committed suicide by drowning before the age of forty. Your grandmother, Gretchel, was the first descendent to break the cycle.”

  “They all drowned?” Gretchel asked quietly.

  “All of them.”

  Gretchel’s face went white. “Are you all right?” Eli asked, his voice shaking. He hadn’t said a word to his mother about Gretchel’s suicide attempts or Ame’s near-drowning. Gretchel nodded her head, but he could feel her heart racing and her breath quicken. Her voice was thin and strained when she spoke.

  “The prophecy. I need to know it. All.”

  Diana hesitated for a moment. The prophecy was the only piece of leverage she had if she wanted to solicit more information from Ella and Epona. She glanced around the room. Her son was miserable. Her granddaughter was hopeful. And her husband…. Her husband seemed to be prepared for disappointment. She had never seen that look on his face before.

  Diana reached into her bag and pulled out a clear vinyl envelope containing a single sheet of yellowed paper. She opened the envelope and handed the paper to Gretchel.

  Gretchel took it and began to read. She tried to take it all in, but there were two parts that caught her:

  Then the huntress will have a son,

  and her son will have two loves.

  The first will be a girl with hair as dark as blood

  and scars that go deep beneath the surface.

  He will give her the stone that saves her,

  and she will give him despair.

  When he finds the stone again,

  He will find his heart,

  and all may be redeemed.

  Look to the twenty-first to find the second.

  Find her, and all shall be redeemed.

  Everyone waited while Gretchel read. When she was finished, she leaned back against the love seat and closed her eyes.

  After a moment, Diana decided that it was all right for her to talk.

  “I’ve traced your maternal line forward from the twins. You are obviously a descendant, but you’re not the twenty-first. As far as I can tell, you’re the nineteenth.” Diana paused to clear her throat. “And you were also the first to have the amulet.”

  Gretchel was wiping tears from her eyes. They were tears of laughter. She stood up and handed the piece of paper to her daughter.

  Gretchel dropped onto the love seat next to Eli.

  “So, all this time, you thought that another woman was going to show up, wearing this magic necklace, and that she would be your true love?” She asked him.

  “No!” Eli sputtered. “I never believed that. The prophecy is my mother’s obsession. I know it’s bullshit.”

  “Oh, but it’s not bullshit.” Gretchel was nearly hysterical, and now Ame was laughing and Peter was smiling widely.

  “What?” Diana shouted. “What delightful revelation am I missing? Where is the amethyst?”

  By now, Eli had caught on, too. He was weeping.

  Ame stood up and went to her grandmother.

  “My mom wore that necklace all the time, my whole life. But two days before my dad—I mean, two days before Troy died, she took it off. She told me my father gave her the necklace to protect her from herself when she was pregnant with me. I thought that she was talking about Troy.

  “I had guessed, already, but I knew for sure when Eli gave me that ring. I mean, it’s my birthstone, but it’s also my—”

  “Who has the goddamned amethyst?” Diana jumped up and screamed at Ame.

  “Too far, Di... Sit down!” Peter roared. Neither Diana nor Eli had ever heard him speak to her—to anyone—like that.

  Diana sat.

  Ame took a step back from her cowed grandmother.

  In a clear, calm voice she said, “I have the goddamned amethyst.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Irvine, 2010s

  Ame pulled the necklace out from under her shirt.

  Diana, looking as if she had been punched, fell back against the couch.

  Peter smiled.

  Eli gaped.

  Gretchel laughed until she cried.

  “When Mom gave it to me, I stuck it in a drawer. I didn’t want to wear it because I thought it was from Troy. I put it on for the first time today, after I figured out that it was from Eli. And that’s why my mother is laughing like a psycho in a slasher flick. I’m the other woman you’ve been waiting for, Diana. And the reason you haven’t found me before now is because you split my parents up.”

  When Eli comprehended the full extent of what his mother had done, he dropped his head in his hands and sobbed. Gretchel stopped laughing, and the grin fell from Peter’s face. Diana looked like she might be sick.

  Ame unclasped the chain from around her neck and tried to hand it to her grandmother. Diana shrank from it, so it dangled in the air between them all. Everyone but Eli watched it glitter in the last light of evening.

  This was the stone that had inspired Diana’s quest, and then turned that quest into an obsession. This little purple quartz had caused immeasurable heartache, and it had numbed Gretchel into a mere simulation of life. It was evil.

  But this stone had also led Eli to Gretchel. It had helped Gretchel get sober, and, in doing so, it had saved Ame’s life. It was holy.

  Peter stood up and took the amulet from his granddaughter’s outstretched hand. He cupped it in his.

  “Purple quartz, created by Gaia and time and the tears of Dionysus. It’s just a stone. We make it magic.”

  Then he handed the necklace back to Ame. “And it’s yours now, my girl. Make of it whatever you will.”

  Ame took the necklace and clasped it around her neck again.

  Eli finally lifted his head. Then he stood. He helped Ame to rise, and he reached out a hand for Gretchel. He led them both to the bedroom he shared with Gretchel, and then he shut the door.

  Peter sat down next to his wife and put his arm around her shoulder.

  “Please don’t tell me you’re disappointed,” he said.

  “No! Of course I’m not! I’m relieved, but still…. This is a lot to take in.”

  “You’ve found what you’ve been looking for.”

  “But I’ve tortured my son! For so long, and for no reason!”

  Diana crumpled against her husband, wracked with sobs. Peter let her cry.

  When her tears subsided, he spoke again. “That’s all in the past, Diana. It’s over. Eli has what he wants now. Maybe this was the only way he could get it. You have what you want, too. And we have a granddaughter!”

  “But that woman!” Diana was done being distraught. Now she was irate.

  Her husband laughed and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

  “I don’t see what’s so funny. Gretchel is not well. Her mother and grandmother seem to think that she’s possessed, I think that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and I’m certain that there are things in her past that she and her family are hiding—not just from me, but also from Eli. I hate to think of our son burdening himself with that much damage.”

  Peter bristled. He knew that his wife was overprotective. He didn’t like to think that she was also heartless. “Our son loves Gretchel, and you have promised to respect that love—and the fact that she is Ame’s mother.”

  “That’s another thing! Ame cannot be the twenty-first descendant. There’s so much here that doesn’t make sense!”

  “Diana, for the love of all that is living and breathing, could you please let it go for just one night?”

>   Gretchel, Ame, and Eli emerged a short time later.

  Diana jumped up off the sofa and threw her arms around Eli’s neck. He was shocked, but he managed to catch his mother. He held her for a moment before setting her back on her feet. He kissed her on the cheek.

  “I love you, Mom.”

  “But do you forgive me?”

  “Honestly, I’m not sure what there is to forgive. Maybe this is the path we had to take to get to this moment.” Eli looked at his father, who smiled proudly. “I don’t know. But I do know that hating you for the past isn’t going to make a better future.”

  Diana accepted her son’s words with a humble grace that no one present would have believed that she could manage.

  “And, one more thing, Mother.”

  Diana raised her head to look at her son.

  “If you ever shriek at my daughter again like you did today, you will discover that your overprotective tendencies are nothing compared to mine. I have decades to make up for.”

  Diana simply nodded.

  Eli couldn’t suppress a smile. This, he was fairly certain, was the first time he had ever seen his mother retreat from an argument.

  Gretchel took care of reheating the forgotten Chinese carryout. The first meal she and her daughter shared with Eli’s parents was… quiet.

  Too quiet.

  Ame felt the need to speak up.

  She turned to her grandfather. “So, it turns out that Eli’s been lying about his name forever. Should I call you ‘Grandpa Peter,’ or is that bullshit, too?”

  Most of the assembled adults choked on their General Tso’s chicken, but Eli’s father leaned back in his chair, stroked his ridiculous beard, and looked his granddaughter in the eye.

  “‘Peter’ is the name I’ve used for almost forty years, but, no, it’s not my given name.”

  “Well then, what the hell should I call you?”

  “Some people call me the space cowboy…. ”

  “Howsabout Maurice?”

  Ame’s grandfather laughed, happy to know that his granddaughter was well-versed in the classics. “You can call me Papa, Gramps, Grandpa, Goober , or just plain Goofy if you want.”