Cold dread washed over Owen as he looked from the grave to Maria to Ariana who still gasped like a landed fish. “Who are you?” he demanded, absolutely done with the mystery. Done.
She smiled impishly. “I’m Lucy.”
At that moment his father thundered up the hill, panting. He leaned over to catch his breath, then looked at him and Ariana. “Oh, thank God,” he said. “You’re lucky it’s me who found you first, your mothers are wild with worry.” His gaze finally settled on Maria and he staggered back, almost tripping over Ariana. She reached up to grab his hand, holding on so tightly that Owen could see her knuckles turn white. He reached out to Maria with his free hand. “Lucy? Is that you?”
Maria beamed at him. “Aye, it’s me. It’s been so long, Da.”
His father crumpled to his knees next to Ariana, tears streaming down his face. And yet Owen didn’t think he’d ever seen him look so full of joy. “How is this possible?” he asked, still reaching out to Maria. Or Lucy. And wait, did she just call him…
Owen staggered over to Ariana and shook her shoulder. He needed answers and Ariana was always the one to turn to for answers.
“Is that—”
“It’s your sister,” she said. Her eyes never left Maria, who looked totally different somehow. She was still Maria, but the glow that had been deep in her eyes all this time now surrounded her, casting a warm halo of light around her and obscuring their vision so she looked like someone else. “My cousin. My real cousin,” Ariana continued.
Maria, no, Lucy, stepped forward and took his father’s hand. Their father’s hand. “Owen called me,” she said. She leaned over and wiped away his tears. “I’m okay, Da, really I am. The others have accepted me.”
“Owen called you?” he repeated, pulling her hand to his cheek and pressing it there. “When? How?”
“He didn’t mean to, of course, but I’ve been watching over him since he was small. I wish we could have played together.” She turned to Owen and smiled. He’d seen portraits of the half-sister he’d never met and he could swear that was who he looked at right that moment. He faltered on his feet but didn’t crash to the ground like Ariana and his father. “I’m the one who led you to the spell book,” Lucy continued. Because that was all he could see. It was as if Maria were gone. He was too stunned to be worried for her and shook his head.
“Why?” he asked in anguish. The thing had been nothing but trouble and had nearly cost them everything.
“I didn’t mean anything wrong by it,” she said in a meek voice. “I could tell you were powerful and thought I was helping. And I have been helping, all this time.” She was pleading now, like a wee child who didn’t want to get in trouble.
“You helped him?” their father asked, still clutching her hand to his cheek.
“Yes, to try and keep him out of trouble. He has lots of talent but barely any control.”
“What should I do about it?”
Owen caught his breath at these words out of his father’s mouth. He didn’t like the sound of them at all and he scowled at Lucy, about to stick up for himself, but she spoke up faster than he could.
“Teach him, silly Da. You know you can. They know you can. You’re the only one who doesn’t see it.”
He nodded vigorously. “I’ll try, my sweetest child. I miss you so. I’m so sorry—”
She held up her free hand, cutting off his words. “Stop.” She still sounded young but there was authority in her voice now. “You’re not to blame. It bothers me that you think so.”
“I’ll stop then, darling.”
“Tell Uncle Julian to stop as well. He still thinks it was his fault because he gave me the horse. But I loved that horse and she made me very happy. You and mum and Uncle Julian and Miss Serena all made me very happy.” She pulled out of her father’s grip and frowned. “I have to go soon. Maria’s ready and wants out.”
“But what about your mother? Is she with you?”
It caused Owen’s chest to tighten to see his father’s previous look of unabashed joy turn to profound sadness. Lucy’s mother wasn’t his. The whispers he heard of her around the village were that she’d gone mad after Lucy died. That perhaps she was evil. But still his father had loved her.
Lucy frowned and looked past them all into the distance. She slowly shook her head. “Mum’s gone. I don’t think she suffered but she’s not with us. She’s just… gone.”
Their father looked stricken, but Lucy only shrugged. She moved to Owen and kissed him on the cheek. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. He could scarcely believe his half-sister had been the one he’d been trying to wrangle information from all this time. A hundred questions swirled in his mind but none made it out of his mouth. He only smiled regretfully. He had a feeling she knew everything he was trying to say, anyway.
“We’re supposed to leave our power with someone when we go,” she told him, staring him right in the eyes. “I didn’t, though, because they told me Da didn’t need it and Mum shouldn’t have it. But now I’m going to give it to you.”
He almost pleaded with her not to, but something about her wouldn’t let him argue. She was his big sister, after all.
She turned away and went back to their father, kneeling beside him and wrapping her arms around him.
“I love you, my little Lucy. Forever and ever and a day,” he said, holding her tight. Owen remembered him saying that to him when he was small and felt his eyes welling up.
Lucy wiped his tears and kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you again, Da.”
The light surrounding her faded and Maria collapsed backwards, eyes closed, unmoving.
Chapter 21
Ariana slowly managed to shut her mouth. Her jaw actually ached from hanging open the whole time Maria, no, Lucy, revealed herself. She looked past Owen and Uncle Kostya, too shaken by it all to react to Maria’s collapse. She stared at the neat little grave she had to visit once a year on her cousin’s birthday. Having never known poor Lucy, she only ever felt uncomfortable watching the adults cry and reminisce. Her mother had never known her either, so would stand back with her, holding her hand until it was all over and they’d all traipse back down the hill for a nice meal, after which her father and Uncle Kostya would usually have too much to drink.
Poor Lucy was always made out to be an angel who lived on earth for eight short years bringing light and happiness to everyone around her. Not the secretive, moody brat with violent tendencies who Ariana had been traveling with the last few days. But no one ever remembered the bad about anyone once they were gone, or else they did it fondly. Eight years old was only a little older than her youngest brother and he was often a wee fiend. Lucy must have been mostly good because she had helped save her from Milo’s plot and had saved Maria when Owen called.
Dear Lord, Maria.
Kostya still sat beside her crying, probably completely unaware of the limp young woman before him. Owen stood shaking his head. It would be a while before he fully accepted he’d just met a sister who’d died before he was born. Ariana crawled forward and lightly slapped Maria a few times, trying not to panic and definitely not calling up any healing spells.
“Lucy said she was ready,” she mumbled to herself as she turned Maria’s face from side to side. “Maria, come back now, please.”
Hearing a voice other than his deceased daughter’s seemed to pull Uncle Kostya out of his tearful trance. He scrambled to her side, peeling back one of Maria’s eyelids.
“Maria?” he asked, voice shaking. “Miss Winters?”
Maria’s other eye popped open and she sat up fast enough to make them both recoil to keep from getting hit. She looked around her at the beautiful hillside spot, digging her fingers into the grass when her eyes settled on Lucy’s grave. Slowly opening her mouth, she let out an ear splitting scream.
Owen began to pace, his hands on the sides of his head and Uncle Kostya moved away from Maria. He said something to her, probably a soothing plea to stop screaming but none of them could h
ear the words over her long, heartrending howl. Ariana didn’t know how she had enough breath in her to keep going as long as she did and feared she’d pass out again. Reluctantly, she raised her hand and slapped Maria soundly across the face.
It worked, but Uncle Kostya and Owen looked at her like she was a mess they’d accidentally stepped in.
“I’m sorry, Maria,” she said. Least of all for the slap, but it was a starting point.
Maria took a shuddering breath and looked at each of them with wide, glaring eyes. “No. No, no, no.”
Every word raised in decibel. Ariana prepared for another scream, wondering if she just needed to get it all out. She not only couldn’t, but didn’t want to imagine what her friend had gone through. Owen dropped to his knees and tried to gather Maria into his arms, apologizing over and over. She shoved him away, but now her weak, emaciated arms didn’t have the strength of a powerful witch’s ghost behind them and Owen managed to wrap his arms around her. For a second. Maria scrambled to her feet, backing away. Uncle Kostya stepped behind her to keep her from tumbling down the hill.
“Leave me alone,” Maria pleaded. “You.” She pointed to Owen. “And you.” Her finger swung toward Ariana. “You’re evil.” She looked to Uncle Kostya, the only person she didn’t despise, and begged him to take her away from there.
“Of course,” he said, holding out his arm. After a long moment, she must have realized how weak she was and took it. He turned to help her away and then stopped in his tracks, looking to Ariana. “Oh, bloody hell. Your father. And Tilly. I’ve got to find Tilly.” He looked like he wanted to race back to the house but nodded encouragingly at Maria. “I’m sorry, Miss Winters. Let’s get you some tea and fresh clothes…”
“I want to go home,” she said miserably.
“We’ll arrange whatever you want. You needn’t worry at all anymore.”
Ariana took Owen by the arm. He looked nearly as weak as Maria. “Come on,” she said. “It’s done. It’s all over.”
He shook his head, hanging back. “Let her get some space from us. I can’t stand to see her so distraught after everything else I’ve put her through.”
Ariana studied his face. It was a mixture of despair and hope. A strange combination. He must still love her, then. Which meant he’d fight for her. Which also meant Ariana would have to follow through with her promise to herself to make things right for him. Just like Owen, she’d fight for what the one she loved wanted, even if it meant giving up her own hopes.
***
They walked in silence back to the house, keeping a fair distance from Maria. Ariana could see her shoulders shaking as Uncle Kostya helped her to stay upright. More than anything she wanted to ask Owen what he made of it all, but when she glanced at him he looked far too broken to want to talk. She worried about Uncle Kostya as well. He had Maria’s hysteria to occupy him for the moment, but when it really sunk in that he’d spoken to his long-dead daughter, that she’d been possessing Maria, it was sure to hit him hard.
For the first time in a long time, Ariana noticed her surroundings. The familiar hills and farmland in the distance, the beloved house and barns. The sky was ridiculously blue and free of clouds. It should have been embarrassed to be so cheery when everything was so somber.
“But everything’s okay now,” she said absently, almost as if answering the sky’s reassuring beauty. Owen gave her a look that dared her to explain why she thought so. “Maria’s back. She’s alive. I’m alive, we’re both alive. I feel like that covers everything, don’t you?”
“She despises us. Me, in particular, I’m sure.”
This was something Ariana could dig her teeth into. She did love a cause. “Yes, for the moment. I mean… who wouldn’t be upset after—”
“We’re not talking stepping on her gown at a ball. I lied to her then accidentally killed her trying to erase her memory of it. She was possessed by a ghost at my bidding. She’s not going to forgive or forget.”
Ariana stopped short. “You what now?”
He laughed and kept walking. “Oh, didn’t I mention that part?”
She grabbed his arm and made him stop and look at her. “How do you know?”
“She told me. Or, Lucy told me.”
Ariana squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to start crying again. She was equally to blame as Owen, but of course he didn’t know that. He was beating himself up, she could see it in his tortured face.
Confess, she begged herself. Take some of the burden off his shoulders. But she was too much of a coward just then.
“That’s three people I’ve killed,” he said. His voice was laced with self loathing and it stabbed at her heart. It should have been aimed at her. “Who knows how many in that other future. And I knocked a man out in my cousin’s village. Thankfully, he lived though. But I don’t know why. I didn’t mean to knock him out anymore than I meant to kill those two bastards who took you away. I certainly didn’t mean to hurt Maria.”
“Of course you didn’t. And stop talking about that other future. It doesn’t exist and will never exist. You’re untrained, that’s all.”
“That’s all?” He looked at her incredulously and kept walking toward the house. She had to trot to keep up. “You’ll never understand what this feels like,” he snapped, stopping again.
“I’m really sorry,” she whispered. He moved ahead of her, not wanting to hear it, thinking it was pity instead of an apology.
Her stomach churned as they got closer to the house. Uncle Kostya and Maria were already inside. He was probably yelling for her parents and Aunt Serena. She barely noticed the cheerful kitchen garden, bursting with herbs and cabbages that she loved to help out with when she visited. Aunt Serena had taken to keeping bees in the last few years and the nearby buzzing of one of their hives refused to calm her like it always did. She didn’t spare a thought to the hint of roses that wafted to her nose. What normally felt like the happiest of moments, arriving at the Scottish estate, now felt as if she was about to start a prison sentence that had no end in sight.
Inside, they could hear Uncle Kostya still bellowing about how the children were home and she cringed against the word. She wanted to be an adult, which meant facing responsibility. They’d stop treating her like a child eventually if they saw she had stopped acting like one, and until then, she decided to take it all in stride.
The first person they saw wasn’t a warden of any kind, but the Povest’s wonderful cook. She was the first to hear Kostya’s announcements and raced from the kitchen with her apron flapping. She threw herself at Owen, hugging him until he gently wormed away. She turned to Ariana next, grabbing her up and squeezing so she could hardly breathe.
“Are ye hungry? What shall I make ye? There was to be duck tonight for supper but whatever ye like. Whatever ye want, ye poor lost lambs. Ah, ye’re parents have been fretting so they’ve nary taken two bites of anything since they’ve been here.”
“Duck sounds perfect,” Owen said with a tired smile.
She whispered to Ariana before returning to the kitchen. “I’ll make the fruit tarts ye like.”
Her eyes filled with tears at the warm welcome and she barely saw her mother come out of the breakfast room surrounded by her brothers. The boys swarmed her, all of them shouting questions so that she couldn’t make out any of it except high-pitched hubbub. Before she could hug them all, her mother pushed them aside and stood in front of her, eyes searching. Panting, she reared back and gave Ariana a resounding slap before bursting into wailing sobs.
“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling Ariana into a hug. “I’m so sorry.”
Ariana hardly felt it. “I deserved it,” she said, tears of her own leaking out of her eyes. “I’m the one who’s sorry to make you worry so.”
The boys stood in silent horror. None of them had ever been the recipient of more than a firm pat on the backside when they were little, and that was only from Farrah. Their mother had never raised a hand to them. Ariana tried to smile at them a
nd shoo them away, so they wouldn’t see anything else that might frighten them. She’d always been a bit of a bully to them even though she adored them, and on top of everything else it hurt her pride a little for them to see her brought so low.
Her mum held her tighter and she could feel her shaking her head above her shoulder. “No, not for the slap. You did deserve that, a little. I’m sorry for lying to you.” The boys gasped at that confession and she turned toward them, still keeping her arms around Ariana. “Go upstairs or outside. You can speak with your sister later.”
After only a slight hesitation, they took off for the grounds, not even sparing her a backward glance, the wee heathens. Ariana was as gobsmacked as they were to hear her mother’s apology. And just like that, her years of pent up anger melted away. She returned her mum’s hug.
“I won’t go away like that again,” she promised.
“And I’ll tell you everything you want to know, right from the beginning.”
It was only then that Ariana noticed Owen had slipped away, probably to find out where Maria was and make sure she was all right. A nearby, joyous shriek from Aunt Serena meant she’d found him. They were truly home, in the arms of family. Her heart eased the tiniest bit.
Chapter 22
Tilly couldn’t stop shaking. Or crying. They were tears of joy of course, but she could also see in her daughter’s eyes that she’d been through something harrowing. She led her into the breakfast room where she had watched the boys eat. She hadn’t had an appetite in what felt like ages. She gently pushed Ariana into a chair and began making her a plate, trembling so much that bits of sausage fell onto the floor.
“Really, Mum, I couldn’t eat a thing just yet. Please sit down.”
Tilly dropped the plate with a clatter and hurried to sit beside Ariana, pulling her chair close enough to grab her hand. She didn’t know when she’d be able to let go again.
Belmary House 6 Page 19
