Darkest Day (31 page)

“So you tried it again at the hospital. Why?”

“Because I—because I felt like I was running out of time to tell him how much he meant to me, and every time he was around me, so were you.”

“So you risked his life again?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t know it was such a big deal. Mom never said it was dangerous, just a temporary location that was great for mental getaways and how hard it was to come back from. I promise, Mac. I’m not lying. I should have known my stuff wasn’t working the first time Ridge screwed up. He was supposed to send you back there in the hospital, but he got all weird. I never would have tried for that place if I’d really known about what it was. But no one tells me anything! They all think I’m some kid who doesn’t need to know stuff. I studied so hard. I got to the top of my class. I pretended to be nothing but human so I could prove my worth.”

“Preachin’ to the choir,” I said and laughed.

“What?” Maddie asked, confusion in her tone.

“You don’t know anything about my last eighteen years, Maddie. You’ve had it made compared to me.”

Her eyes went wide.

“I’ll explain in a minute. Have you had people following me?”

Her head moved reluctantly up and down.

“Who?”

“Just Ridge. Or Joe and John. They were easy to manipulate up close, and they sometimes did whatever they wanted even with my potions.”

That explained a few of the tails or chasers I had in the last year and why Ridge didn’t follow her directions.

“So you can do magic?”

“Some. I’m only half-goblin, but I had a couple books, and I was teaching myself.”

Which is why Alina said the potions were rudimentary.
“I can’t think of any other answers I’m missing. Oh! Wait. Yes. Who gave you something to counteract the truth spell?”

Maddie pinched her lips hard together as if trying to prevent herself from saying the answer.

“I—” Gwen started but I whipped my head around and said, “I mean no disrespect, but I’d like to hear it from her.”

On a long sigh, she said, “I made it myself.”

Okay, now that’s cool and exactly why you’re the smartest girl at school. God, Maddie, all you had to do was talk to … me … or someone.
I couldn’t say any of that, though. Wouldn’t even. Jealousy and greed pushed people to take actions they wouldn’t have otherwise. I knew.

“What did you want to know again, about me?” I gave Maddie that question instead of my own inner feelings of regret, remorse, guilt even.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “How is my life so much better than yours? Especially now that I know you are
The Chosen One
…
the Changeling
…
the one
—”

“You know what I have to do in eleven days, Maddie?”

“Pick a form? Rule the world? Get everything your heart desires?”

“Give up Winn.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Happy now?”

Winn

I couldn’t believe it. Maddie had admitted to a dozen of the questions that still lingered, and Mac talked to her like she didn’t harbor an ounce of resentment. Unlike Mac, though, I did. Maddie’s actions, direct or not, had nearly killed me, and would have if Mac hadn’t stopped her. She’d played with magic like a toddler plays with toys—banged them together to see what would happen—not paying one bit of attention to possible consequences.

Irresponsible.

Unimaginable.

Childish.

“If you’ve completed your questions, Miss Thorne, we’ll proceed to the next stage,” Gwen said.

Nahir rose. Gwen stood. I followed, figuring I should at least act like them. “Miss Parker—”

“Wait!” Maddie said. “She broke rules, too. Don’t I get …”

Nahir pointed his gavel at her, but Gwen said, “From the moment I first met Miss Maya Mackenzie Thorne, I found one element in her that has never been extinguished. While the child may be crass and unruly, she is inexplicably honest, and as the overseer of this tribunal, I find she holds no untruths in her heart. You, on the other hand, have not earned the right to disagree or question me.” Gwen turned to Nahir again.

“Per the rules of the Council,” he started, “and due to the aforementioned circumstance, your entire testimony against Miss Thorne will be removed from evidence. Punishment will be meted by your accuser.”

“That’s not fair!” Maddie struggled again with her bonds.

I had to agree with her. One error, and her entire future went poof like a snuffed-out candle? Didn’t people get second chances?

What are you thinking, Winn? She nearly killed you with her actions!

“Miss Thorne. As per our rules, you will choose the solution.”

Maddie’s entire future rested in the hands of what I guessed most would call ‘the enemy’. She’d wronged Mac. She’d wronged me.

“I have a question,” I said before Mac could do something. Gwen and Nahir both turned to me. With a nod of their heads, I said, “Maddie?”

She tilted up to me.

“I’m your friend. I’ve always been your friend. Why didn’t you just talk to me? Not about magic … but about you.”

Big blue eyes blinked back at me. “I-I don’t know.”

“The problem of youth,” Gwen said. “Only when you’ve been alive a few thousand years does it sink in that talking is a far greater solution than acting on one’s own presumptions. And even then, the possibility of rejection supersedes logical thought.”

I sat back down, dropped my elbows on the table, head into my hands. People made bad choices all the time. My mom shouldn’t have chosen human. My dad and Josie couldn’t even be together. Clara’s sister drove a car and texted, killing three people. Everywhere, someone screwed up.

“Miss Thorne,” Nahir’s gravelly voice began, “at this time, have you a decision with regard to Miss Parker?”

“Yes,” Mac said.

Mac

In thinking about Maddie, I had a peace come over me. In thinking about Winn, anger and resentment soared. I could change the rules for her, but I couldn’t change the rules for me. At least not until I held the position, the power, and the responsibility.

“What do you choose, Miss Thorne?” Gwen asked.

I turned to Maddie. “You gonna screw with me again?”

As her eyes bugged, she shook her head. “No. Never. I’m so, so sorry, Mac.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me. You need to apologize to Winn.” I angled my head toward the front table.

She spun to him. “I’m really, really sorry, Winn. I never—no, if I could do it all over again, I would have done things differently. Probably still wrong, but differently.”

Winn pursed his lips but didn’t respond.

Maddie turned back to me and said, “Thank you.”

For what, I didn’t know.

As much as I wanted to just let her go, I also knew that the extent of her damage had to be dealt with, somehow. “Can you let us free, please?” I asked.

Gwen nodded to the guards still at our sides. They did something I couldn’t see, and the straps around my wrists and ankles released. Maddie stood free as well.

My legs shook as I stood. “Where is Moira?”

Heads turned my way.

“Why my mom? Are you going to tell her what I did?”

I stayed silent until Gwen did her nod-thing and the guards moved off to the door, opened it and ushered Moira in.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

I pointed to her seat along the Council’s table. “Sit. Please.” I added the nicety as an afterthought.

She moved around, her gaze darting to each of us until she lowered to her chair.

“Your turn, Maddie. Explain what you just told all of us to your mom.” I’d always heard telling parents stuff hurt worse than knives through the eyes. Didn’t want to try the second, but I had admitted to stuff I’d done to Alina and Lucas over the years. I guessed Maddie’d never done anything quite so devilish and deserved a little taste of the pain.

Her cheeks burned bright red as she stared at me.

Yup, you know it’s gonna hurt.
“Go,” I said.

After a ridiculously long sigh, she recapped everything we’d just talked about. Moira’s expression went from confused, to angry, shocked to flat. Her hand moved to her chest, her neck and back together, wringing with what I took to be nerves.

At Maddie’s close, Moira just stood there.

“What are you going to do, Mac?” Maddie asked after a long silence.

“No more magic, Maddie.” It seemed to me she had more book smarts than common sense, so I couldn’t take the risk that she’d even accidentally hurt Winn in the future—when I couldn’t be there to save him.

Her head slumped forward, though she bounced a little as if she understood what I hadn’t said out loud.

“But you can keep your memories and all that. In fact, I want you to remember. And I want you to be here on July fourth.”

“Why then?”

Winn’ll need a friend.
“So you can see how you have it better than me.”

28

Winn

Four days.
We only had four days left.

Lying together on the bank of the small pond near the cemetery, Mac and I held hands like some summer couple. I stared up at the blue sky, wishing we could just stay in that position forever, rather than have to deal with anything at all in our lives.

June had passed. Maddie had gone with Moira, who whisked them all out and, according to Josie, disappeared. ‘Laying low’, she’d said.

Mac had been given a verbal reprimand from Nahir for her insolence during the trial. I thought she deserved credit for not saying more. She’d asked me to put it behind us so we could spend our last eleven days together doing whatever we wanted.

I’d decided to take a vacation from the library. Actually, they’d suggested it, telling me I could come back any time.

From that point on, we’d become inseparable as if waiting for doomsday to hit. I imagined the sky turning black and rockets raining down, us with nowhere to go and dying right on the field. The last day wouldn’t be anything like that, but I figured thinking of it that way would make it easier when it finally arrived.

With a push, I rolled to Mac’s side, stared down at her instead of the sky, and rained kisses along her neck and jaw. She arched back and I moved south.

“Ahem.”

We broke contact and spun around. Mac’s dad stood in front of us.

“May I?” he asked, pointing to the spot next to me.

“Sure,” Mac said. We sat up; Rory plopped down.

“How are you two?”

“Fine,” we both said, though Mac added, “How did you know we were here?”

“Josie told me. She’s worried about you both.”

“Why?” Mac asked. “No one’s chasing me anymore. No one’s after Zoe. I’ve passed all the tests and everything. Now all I have to do is say goodbye to Winn. Easy peasy.”

My eyebrow raised on that one.

Her dad laughed. “Nice try. You can’t fool me with your simple words.”

I had to agree with him, and Mac’s sigh suggested she did, too.

After a moment of silence, Rory said, “Your mother will be joining you on the fourth.”

Mac went rigid. She blinked a few times. “But I thought—”

“She’s told the Council she will return,” her dad said.

“What’s that mean for you?” Mac asked.

Rory toyed with a blade of grass. “Once the fourth has passed, we’ll be able to reconcile.”

“What about Zoe?”

Mac’s dad smiled. “Your mother is a goddess, Mackenzie. In her world, she will have no problems communicating with her. It’s only in the human world that she has had problems. But …” His pause made me think he not only had more to say but more that would affect Mac—and me.

“But what?” she asked.

He turned to her, his gaze passing over me. “I’ve been advised to remind you, you really must take your role on the Council.”

“By who?”

“Whom,” I said and cringed.

Mac rolled her eyes. “By …
whom
.”

“Your mother, of course.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

He sighed. “Because to do so, you have to give up Winn, and I’ve seen how dedicated you are to him. To each other. There is a fear you’ll change your mind at the last moment.”

“I won’t—”

“Mac.” His parental tone held a lot of heavy weight. “You’re young. You’re in love with a human. Remember, I’ve been there—on the other side. It’s very, very, very hard to let go.”

Her jaw clenched and released. “Don’t you think I know that?” She stood, and her dad and I did the same. “I know what I’m supposed to do, what I was born to do, what everyone expects of me. I’ve said I’d do it, and I will. Yet, nobody believes me. Hell, maybe
I
don’t believe me, anymore.” Mac’s arms flailed as she walked away and back, to the water and up the small hill. “Maybe all this talk of this decision will just make me change my mind. Screw the Council. Screw the rules. Maybe I’ll just choose like the last couple of Changelings and go human. Since everyone thinks I will, maybe I will and that’s what will work to change the world. I won’t be a part of it.” She grabbed my hand a pulled me back toward the road.

“Mac.” I tugged on her wrist. “Come on. I’m sure—”

She whirled. “You’re sure what, Winn? That this isn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do? That I don’t think about it every moment of every day, every second of every minute? I do. And nobody believes me. Not the Council. Not my own mom. Not even a dad I barely know. Everyone thinks I’m going to pick you. Well, to hell with them. Maybe I will. If that’s what they all think of me, maybe I’ll just give that up and become human.”

“I didn’t mean—I just. I don’t want you to forget me anymore than I want to forget you. I know what you have to do, and I’ll be there until they kick me out.” I shot a glance over my shoulder and found Rory still there, well within hearing range.

“The Council understands you’ve chosen but refuse to share,” Rory said. “Why?”

Mac growled, a chest-resonating sound. “Who told them that?”

Rory shook his head. I held up my hands and said, “You did tell Suze and Gwen.”

She slapped her palm to her forehead. “Because it’s my business, not theirs, for four more days.”