by Blythe Baker
“You’ve got no argument from me,” I said.
I just wished that I could be as naïve as he was sometimes.
12
Monday morning dawned gorgeous and bright. As I opened my eyes, I blinked at the brightness in the room, squinting against its intensity. It was significantly warmer in there, too, like the sun’s rays baking me in the blankets where I’d slept.
Rubbing my tired eyes, I got out of bed and crossed to the window. Laying my hand against the glass, I was surprised at the heat radiating from it.
A quick scan of my phone told me that Faerywood Falls would be experiencing a heat wave that day.
I pulled on a pair of shorts and my favorite t-shirt – a souvenir from a trip I’d taken with my Mom to Florida when I’d graduated college – and, because habits died hard, picked up a sweatshirt…just in case the weather app on my phone decided it was wrong.
Everyone in the Lodge seemed to be in high spirits because of the weather. Mrs. Warren made me a fresh fruit smoothie, insisting that it felt too much like summer to pass up the opportunity. It wasn’t even seventy degrees, but everyone was acting like they were ready to go out swimming or sunbathing.
Aunt Candace was all smiles, too. She greeted me with a big hug, saying that she wished it could stay like this all through the winter. “Though I doubt my guests with their annual ski trips would be happy,” she said. “Oh well. Maybe we should think about taking a trip to somewhere warmer this winter.” She glanced down at my shirt. “Florida sounds nice. I hear people swim there all year round.”
Athena, too, was pleased about the warm day. When I asked her if she wanted to accompany me to work that day, she only responded with a small flick of her tail. No thank you, she said. I think I’m going to be happy finding a patch of sunlight to enjoy today before the winter clouds take it away forever.
I smirked. “But you could enjoy the sun from my backpack on my bike,” I said.
Her ears perked up. You’re taking your bike today?
I nodded.
She hopped down off the bed and wandered toward the backpack I always carried her in. What’re we waiting for, then? She asked, turning to look at me, her tail wagging happily like a dog’s.
With all the heaviness around the Lodge lately, the uplifted spirits of both the guests and the staff were more than enough to put me in a good mood. Not only that, but it helped me to put things in the proper perspective, too.
In the light of a warm, sunny day, it was much easier to look at the mystery surrounding the creature in the lake more logically. I’d decided to take my bike into town, relishing the fresh air that it would provide. It had been weeks since I’d had the chance to, and the slower pace would give me a chance to enjoy riding…something I likely wouldn’t be able to do much of in the coming winter months.
Mer-people weren’t really such a farfetched thing, were they? Not when I was a faery. Not when vampires and werewolves and spell weavers existed in this place. Animals talked and people could see the future. In the grand scheme of things, the idea that mermaids existed seemed to be one of the less difficult ideas to swallow.
The question was…who was it? Was it someone I knew? Was it someone that never surfaced from the lake?
Had Annie stumbled upon this person, harassed it somehow? Had she stumbled into its domain?
Which brought up even more questions…was Annie herself Gifted? Was she one of these mer-people, and had she come seeking solidarity with those of her own kind?
You’re quite lost in your thoughts, aren’t you? Athena’s voice filled my mind.
“Oh…” I said. “I’m sorry, I’m just trying to work this all out.”
It’s alright, she said. I’m just having a hard time keeping up is all.
I had so many questions. I wished I could speak to someone who –
My phone started to vibrate in my back pocket.
Careful to keep one hand steady on the handle bars, I grabbed it and brought it to my ear, answering; “Hello?”
“Hello, Marianne? It’s Abe.”
“Oh, good morning, Mr. Cromwell,” I said with my stomach lurching. “Is everything alright?”
“Oh, yes, everything’s fine, dear,” he said with a small chuckle. “I was just wondering if you’d be able to do a favor for me before coming in to the shop this morning.”
“Sure,” I said, somewhat relieved. With Mr. Cromwell’s age, sometimes I worried when he called me at unordinary times. “What’d you need?”
“If you could stop by Lynn’s florist shop, I’d really appreciate it,” he said. “I gave her an order of some crystal vases, and she’d forgotten her checkbook when she came in to pick them up. She called this morning and said that she had a check ready for me, I just needed to come pick it up as she was filling a wedding order today. Anyway, long story short, I was wondering if you’d be willing to swing by and grab it on your way in here today?”
“Sure, that’s no problem,” I said. “I’ll try to be in as soon as I can be, alright? I rode my bike today so it might take me a little longer than usual.”
“Oh, not to worry,” Abe said. “Enjoy the warmth. I know I certainly am. I opened all the windows in this stuffy place.”
I smiled. “Alright, I’ll see you soon, Mr. Cromwell.”
“Ride safely,” he said, and then hung up.
Lynn’s flower shop was only about a mile or so from Abe’s antique shop. It was a cute little corner shop with a pastel pink awning and large bay windows where she displayed fresh bouquets and dried floral arrangements. Bliss and I had gotten Aunt Candace a bouquet from Lynn for her birthday.
I parked my bike out front, which was the shady side of the building, and made my way inside.
A wave of heavenly, delicate floral scents greeted me as soon as I opened the door. Rose and lavender, gardenia and jasmine…
And the colors scattered across the room were so joyful, so relaxing that I wished I could pull up a chair and sit amongst all the gorgeous flowers and dwindle away the hours.
“Good morning,” said the pretty faced woman behind the counter, smiling.
“Good morning,” I said, stepping up to the counter. “I’m here for a check for Mr. Cromwell, though I wish I had a birthday party or something to go to, because these flowers are just gorgeous.”
Lynn smiled humbly. “Well, thank you,” she said. “You must be Marianne. Abe just called and said you’d be coming. Let me just pop to the back and I’ll get your check.”
She turned and headed toward a doorway in the back. Just as she entered, another person walked out. Her head was bent over, and she was busy tying a bright green apron around her back. The dark red of her hair made me recognize her immediately.
“Alessa?”
The girl looked up, and when her eyes fell on me, her face split into a wide grin. “Marianne! Hi!” she said, hurrying over to me. “What’re you doing here? Oh, well, I guess that’s a dumb question, isn’t it? You’re here to get flowers, aren’t you?”
“Actually, I’m here to get a check from Lynn,” I said. “She ordered some things from Mr. Cromwell. What’re you doing here, though?”
Alessa gestured down at the apron that was embroidered with the words Lynn’s Flower Shoppe across the front. “I got a part time job here a few weeks ago,” she said. “Lucan told me that as long as I behaved, I could do something outside the manor for a while. I’m telling you, I was just getting so bored there. It was driving me crazy.”
“Well, good for you,” I said, my smile still wide, even though my heart ached slightly at hearing Lucan’s name. “This seems like it’d be a good fit for you.”
“Yeah, I think so,” she said, looking around. “I’m learning a lot. Miss Lynn has been teaching me all about pruning roses and how to coordinate colors. I had no idea this much effort went into bouquets, you know?”
Lynn reappeared a moment later and handed me a small, white envelope with Mr. Cromwell’s name written across the front of it i
n elegant handwriting. “Tell Mr. Cromwell thank you again for me. Those crystal vases are exactly what I was looking for.”
“No problem,” I said, smiling at her.
She turned and headed back toward the front counter. The sound of a small bell ringing signaled someone entering the store.
“So how’re things?” Alessa asked, her gaze sharp as she regarded me. “Keeping yourself busy?”
“You could say that,” I said, and I glanced over my shoulder to ensure that the new customer wouldn’t overhear us talking to one another…
And my stomach dropped as I realized who it was, exactly, that had stepped into the shop.
Uh oh, Athena said from the depths of my backpack. What is it? What’s wrong? Why did you just go all rigid?
Cain Blackburn.
He’d noticed me, too. His hand was in the pocket of his long, black coat that looked as though it was snowing outside instead of a beautiful, sunny day, and he’d frozen there, his eyes locked on me.
“You two know each other?” Alessa asked, a hardness in her tone. “It looks like he wants to talk to you.”
I tried to swallow, but my mouth was dry. I tried to respond, tell her that I had no interest in talking to Cain even though my heart pounding in my head told me otherwise, but I couldn’t find the words.
Alessa walked away from me, and I turned to plead with her.
But she’d already excused herself behind the door Lynn had gone through.
Cain slowly set a few wrinkled dollar bills down on the counter, his eyes still locked on me.
Lynn picked them up and thanked him, processing his change, all the while he and I just stared at one another.
What’s going on out there? Athena asked, but her voice sounded distant in my mind. Why aren’t you speaking?
I couldn’t even form the thoughts to answer her.
“I’ll just go get your order,” Lynn said, and she made her way to the door where Alessa had gone through, likely to escape the tension that was quickly filling the room.
It was almost palpable between us when we were the only ones there, alone together.
The last I’d known, he despised me. I wasn’t sure that he wished I was dead, but I definitely thought it wasn’t far behind that.
I hadn’t killed his sister, but she’d died because of my interference in her life. I’d gone out of rage, out of desire for revenge. She’d been the one to kill my mother, long before I ever had the chance to really know her, but my mother was, aside from me, the only faery in Faerywood Falls in a long, long time. She was the only one who could’ve given me the answers I so desperately sought.
Rebecca had even recognized me when she saw me. She thought I was my mother. And then she tried to kill me anyway.
What in the world should I say? I thought. I’d spent weeks agonizing over what I’d want to say to him if I ever had the chance, and all those long imagined speeches disappeared from my mind as if they’d never existed in the first place.
Athena didn’t seem to know what to say, either. She’d gone silent and still in the backpack.
Cain looked equally as troubled. His green eyes were dark, shadowed over, yet there was a hint of a tightness around them that showed me this was as hard for him as it was for me.
We’d grown so close before I’d been so foolish as to go after Rebecca like I had. Cain hadn’t done anything wrong.
But an apology seemed so weak after everything that had happened.
I opened my mouth, but quickly shut it. I had no words, and yet, there were too many things that I wanted to say at the same time.
Maybe starting with the painful things first wasn’t the way to go. Maybe he’d respond better to small talk.
“Um…” I said, barely above a whisper.
“You…” he said, and my heart jumped at the sound of his voice. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed hearing it. “You look well,” he said, the slightest tremor in his words.
Cain Blackburn, the leader of the whole vampire clan of Faerywood Falls, reduced to a nervous wreck…by me.
And yet, hearing that made it so much harder for me to form one coherent thought. I was fighting the urge to just run over to him and throw myself into his arms…but I couldn’t be sure that would end well.
Not yet, at least.
“You do too,” I said lamely in return.
The sunlight was bright outside, yet none of it streamed into this side of the building. I hadn’t really thought about the fact that I’d seen Cain out in the middle of the day, but I suddenly realized that today might’ve been the worst of all days to come out for him, as nice as it was.
“I don’t think I’ve ever run into you during the day before,” I said.
“I don’t often travel during the day,” he said. “But as the sun isn’t as strong this time of year, I am able to go out mostly unscathed.”
Mostly? What did that mean?
Was he talking about running into me? Was it really that horrible?
No, that’s not what he meant, Athena said, but I could sense the uncertainty in her thoughts.
“I heard of your success with Delilah Griffin,” he said, looking down at the gloves he squeezed tightly in his hands. They were probably lined with some kind of magical barrier to protect him from the rays of the sun. “I’m glad that magic book has been sealed away, though I was surprised to hear of its reappearance.”
I didn’t know how to respond. In all the confusion, it hadn’t crossed my mind to reach out to Cain and offer him the book back; it had belonged to his family, after all, albeit long ago. “I’m sorry. By the time it was found, the council of eleven had already gotten a hold of it – ” he didn’t need to know that it was Lucan and his pack that found it – “and now they have it.” Also not entirely untrue…even though Bliss was technically the one who had the book now. She was a spell weaver, though, so I wasn’t lying.
That memory about faeries being tricksters popped into my mind again.
“Yes, I know,” he said. “I’ve spoken with the second seat about it.”
“Oh,” I said.
Another moment of awkward silence fell between us, but I was still desperate to talk to him. This was the most we’d spoken to each other since he found me up in his sister’s room. Again, as much as I wanted to utter one, an apology would just sound hollow.
“And I heard about the young woman found dead outside your aunt’s lodge,” he said, turning his bright green eyes back to me.
They were like fiery daggers, sharp and strong enough to pierce right through to my soul. My legs were weakened, just by his gaze alone.
Why did I have to have such strong feelings for him?
“Yeah,” I said, my voice croaking. “It’s been…a rough week. Her friends were told they had to stay in town by the police while they’re investigating what happened, even though Sheriff Garland thinks it was probably just an accident.”
“Yes, there’ve been a fair few of those near there,” he said. “With those silly humans thinking they could jump from those cliffs and survive.”
Silly humans, huh? Was that how he really felt?
Then my stomach lurched as I realized this was the perfect chance to get some answers I’d been looking for.
“I don’t think she died from jumping off one of those cliffs,” I said. “I think she was drowned.”
“Yes, I’m well aware,” he said. “I’m the one who did the autopsy…remember?”
I swallowed hard. I’m such an idiot…I thought. Of course he’d know that. In addition to his own business, Cain often worked at the county morgue.
“So she did drown?” I asked.
He stiffened, looking away. It was clear he immediately seemed to regret telling me anything.
“I think whatever it was in that lake tried to drown me, too, Cain,” I said, pressing my fingers to my chest, trying to make him see reason. “Do you know anything about strange beings that might live down there, that might not take too kindly
to people encroaching on their territory?”
His face was blank as he stared at me.
I said, “I just thought since you spend so much time in the forest, you might’ve seen something…”
He huffed, shaking his head. “I don’t have time for this.”
“For what?” I asked. “For me? For a few questions?”
“It’s never just a few questions,” he snapped, his eyes darting toward me so fast that it made me flinch backward slightly. “Though maybe for you, that’s all this relationship ever was.”
The heat in his voice made my eyes widen and my heartbeat quicken. He was angry. And it seemed to have seeped into the rest of his feelings about me, too. This was no longer just about his sister. Did he really think I used him only for information?
“Cain, that’s not – ”
“Here we are,” came Lynn’s voice as she reappeared at the door. Her smile faltered as she must have sensed the weight in the air.
My face burned as I fixed my eyes on a display of succulents on the shelf beside me, pretending like I was engrossed in them and not the man standing at the counter.
“Thank you very much, Miss Lynn,” Cain said curtly. And then with the brown paper package she’d brought out to him in hand, he turned and headed out the door.
My heart lurched, but I raced after him.
“Cain, wait – ” I said, letting the door close behind me.
He was bathed in the shadows of the side of the building, but he didn’t stop as he made his way over to his car; a sleek, silver sports car that likely cost more than most of the houses in Faerywood Falls did.
“Cain, please – ” I said. “I just want to – ”
He stopped abruptly, his back still to me. “If you’ve angered one of the lake folk, you’d better keep away from the water if you want to live,” he said in his deep voice.
“Wait, what does that even mean?” I asked, taking another step toward him.
But his coat fluttered behind him as if caught in a strong wind, and he opened his car door and slipped inside. He closed it without another word, and started the engine.
I just stood there, watching him blatantly ignore me as he pulled out of his spot and onto the road, turning toward Blackburn castle.
