Roses & Rye (Toil & Trouble Book 3) (15 page)

When
Jack lets go of the wind, we’re in the peony garden. My mom is standing there, talking to a very worn-out-looking Jett. All trace of Mrs. Rudd is gone. It’s just my mother, with her long, curly golden hair and quick, expressive hands. A memory hits me, sudden and vivid.

I watch my mom plucking dead blooms and tucking them into the basket with quick efficiency. The crackle of the dried buds falling into the bottom of the basket soft and rhythmic. “Why don’t we have a daddy?”

The rhythm skips a beat, then continues. “Don’t be a goose. Everyone has a daddy.”

“Then where’s mine?” I rip a bit of wood sorrel from the patch of weeds I’m supposed to be pulling and stick it in my mouth. The sour lemony taste accompanies my mother’s words.

“Sometimes men get scared, Sephie,” she says simply. “And that makes them mean. So mean that you’re better off without them.”

I look at my sweet mother with her hat low over her face, golden curls brushing her bare arms. But even as young as I am, I know you can’t judge a book by its cover. My mother is plenty scary when she wants to be.

“Was he magic, like us?”

“Yes, he was magic, but not like me. Not even like you.” She tweaks my nose, which makes me giggle, until I see her eyes. They’re not their normal happy blue. Instead they’re dark and worried...and sad, so sad.

I blink, looking into those eyes once again. They’re not sad this time. They’re tired, wary and….relieved. My hand tightens on Jack’s. This is why she mentioned the peonies in her note. She was trying to warn me who I was up against.

“You knew I’d kill him, didn’t you?”

Before my mother can answer, there is a shout behind me.

“Seph!”

It’s Syana running through the brown stalks, looking better than I’ve seen her look since before that horrible night on the beach. Ajax is right behind, his face haggard, but pleased. Exactly like a guy who’s seen a glimpse of hell and escaped its fires with only some minor singeing.

Sy falls into my arms, laughing and crying and then she’s got me laughing and crying. Then she swats the back of my head. Hard. Jack lifts his eyebrows, but Ajax just shrugs at him.

“Don’t ever fucking do that to me again, you bitch.”

“I don’t plan on it.” I turn to my mom, not bothering to temper the steel in my tone. “
Do I?
”

“No, no.” She sounds a little subdued, especially when Jack turns his gaze on her. “There’s no need for anything so dramatic anymore.”

“Isn’t that good to know? Too bad someone couldn’t have warned me before it all came to me
dying
.” I’m yelling now. “And killing my goddamn father.”

“I didn’t plan that part, darling. I promise,” Mom whispers. “I thought Jack was meant to finish him, not you.”

“But the rest of it…that was you, wasn’t it?”

She grimaces. “It was a necessary evil. All of it.”

“Having my own sister put a sword in my back, necessary?
Do
tell.”

She looks at Jett, her face downcast. I can’t help it; seeing my mom like this makes me feel guilty. She is a very pretty woman. Delicate and blond, not curvy like me and Ana and Jett, but a bit taller and quite slim. Like Carly, though without the fire in her hair. Mom has a vague, dreamy look about her, one that always makes you forget how sharp she is. Right now, though, she just looks lost.

“Was there ever a real Mrs. Rudd?” I finally ask, needing to start somewhere.

“Well, no, not exactly. See,” she hastens on before I can interrupt, seemingly glad I’m not shouting at her anymore, “that story I told you about Janice was true. She’s actually in Bermuda right now, learning to scuba dive.”

“But how did you steal her power?”

Mom frowns at me.

“To see ghosts?” I snap.

“Oh, that. Vampire fang, of course. It’s not just for FTCs, you know. Steals psychic powers off of humans just as easily.”

“And the prophecy, was that you, too?” I had thought all along that meter of that damn rhyme seemed familiar.

“You could say that,” she hedges. “See, it was actually a rhyme I made up to help me remember how to fix things. You know how I like my rhymes.” Doesn’t the whole world. Mother fucking Goose. “But then it sort of got away from me.”

I throw up my hands.

Mom is talking fast again. “The queen thing is all true. Jett is Summer, at least she’s destined to be. All your sisters will be queens eventually. Carly’s Autumn, Ana’s Winter, of course. But you’re already Spring. Ice, water and rebirth. Jack gave you the first two, but I’d say you earned that last one. Three elements. Isn’t it wonderful?”

Really, Mom?
Really
. But I don’t say the words aloud, I just squeeze Jack’s hand even tighter. From the look on his face and the hard line of his jaw, he’s right there with me. Syana, though, is amazed. She still has her arm around me and looks fascinated.

“
Spring
. This explains so much! Like why all the guys fall for you. You’re the next best thing to a fertility goddess. Oh my god. Persephone. Even your name was a clue.” She shakes her head. “Your mom is fucking crazy, but kind of brilliant, Seph.”

Mom beams at Syana, but I’m not as amused.

“Exactly when did Jack’s spell make me an elemental?”

“It didn’t, actually.”

What?
I frown. “But you just said Jack gave his powers to me.”

“Jack’s love gave the magic to you—not his spell,” she corrects gently. “His allowing himself to trust after all those years. Shared magic. A binding of powers. He gave you ice first, probably because it was his first element and the one strongest inside him. But then you were separated and you never figured out how to use it until—“

“The wolves,” Jack breathes. His fingers tighten on mine.

My mother nods. “And I am thinking he passed on water just recently because he was calling it when he died.”

“How did you get water anyway?” I look at Jack, puzzled. “So fast and all? I mean, I know you’re strong but doesn’t mastering an element take like years and years?”

“Styx helped me.” Jack’s jaw tightens. “I asked him to.”

My eyes widen.
Styx helping Jack
. Jack
asking
Styx for help. What has the world come to while I was dead? “Really? Why—”

“Another time, princess.” He squeezes my hand again and jerks his head at my mother.

Oh yeah
. One thing at a time. 

I shake my head at her. “You mean because Jack was calling water when I
killed
him. Thanks to that damn spellwork of yours. Herne said I was an abomination. That things aren’t meant to come back to life. Maybe he was right.”

Mom sighs. “You’re going to listen to your father now? That’s not true, Seph. The whole world comes back to life every year.
Spring
is rebirth. You were always destined to be a part of that magic. You just needed to learn how to use it properly. Or else the future was not going to be so bright—for anyone.” My mother sighs again. “That’s what I showed Jack and Jett, though I didn’t show him why.”

“Wait…you…
you
showed me?” Jack straightens, staring at my mother.

She smiles crookedly. “Never trust a woman in a veil, darling, unless she’s your wife.”

Holy horned…shit. My mother was that creepy veiled bitch? Seems like she’s had a lot of costume changes in the past few years.

My eyes find my sister, who’s looking worn around the edges herself. “But you knew? For how long?”

“For a few years.” She swallows hard but lifts her chin. “She needed the fail-safe, Seph. Once Mom figured out the only way to get you to harness your powers was to kill you, well—”

“Harness my powers?”

Jett is looking at me, her lapis eyes wary, like a wild thing in a trap. “You’re Spring, Seph. Just like Mom said. Rebirth is your thing. But you needed to learn how to control it. Otherwise…” She shudders. This is what Jett meant, in Herne’s chamber.
Do it right this time
.

Holy shit.

Jack ignores Jett, his eyes frigid as they flicker back to my mom. “Why were you looking at our future in the first place?”

I already know the answer to Jack’s question. I roll my eyes. “She can’t help herself.”

Jett folds her arms and raises one thin, dark eyebrow. “And Mom was trying to figure out when Herne was going to show up again, to make sure he didn’t kill us all.”

Oh
.

Mom smiles tremulously. “I also wanted to see if I ever got grandchildren.”

I shift my feet. “And?”

“I never got that far. You and Jack fell in love—after a few relatively minor setbacks. You married and were on your way to having babies and making me absurdly happy.”

Jack’s happily ever after. “What happened?”

Her face darkens. “Herne happened. He wasn’t Cerunnos in that timeline, he’d taken another form, though he was just as much of a prick as ever. Because of you and Jack, witches got the key to elemental magic, just like he’d always feared. It infuriated him. He went after Jack first, managed to kill him—”

I suck in a breath as Jack’s fingers tighten on mine.

“—and you went crazy, Seph. The grief took hold of you and you lost it. You’d never used the magic before, you see, not properly. You’d never had to in that timeline. It went wild, flipped your power inside out and…”

“I destroyed everything bringing him back.”

“Pretty much.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me the truth a long time ago?” Jack snaps. “Save everyone a lot of grief.”

“You, Jack Frost, are not a man who accepts ultimatums well. Especially before you met my daughter. Can you imagine what you would have done if I'd come to you all those years ago and said, ‘You're going to fall in love with my daughter, but she goes bonkers when you die, so you have to kill her first’?

She gives him a measured look. “I don't have to imagine—I lived it, mister. It didn't go well. So I backed up and went with the ‘prophecy.’ Slipped it deep into the past and tied it to both you and Seph so that you'd remember it and feel the connection when you saw her. Rhymes are powerful things and they're kind of my specialty, you know.” Her smile at me is shy, but dazzling. “You and Jack were always meant to be—written in the stars. I never lied about that.”

I believe her because I know what I feel for the man beside me. But still… “Astrology is bullshit, Mother.”

“That’s what most humans believe about magic.” She reaches for my hand and squeezes. But I know what she’s asking for.

Forgiveness
. I look down at those slender fingers, so like my own, and swallow.

“But Georg…” I say hesitantly. “Couldn’t you have fixed that?”

Ajax flinches. Syana moves from me to him, wrapping her arm around his waist. Like I’m a ghost again, my head fills with memories, overflowing and spilling everywhere.

A skinny, ten-year-old Georg teasing me, climbing up a tree with one of my dolls. Shaking it and laughing down at me. Until I send a simple cutting spell at the branch he’s on and watch his arrogant face go comically blank right before it crashes to the ground.

Him swimming toward me in the night, his golden-brown eyes intent and focused. That was the first time I realized he might be falling in love with me.

Drinking tequila around the fire.

His proposal as fireworks exploded around us. His promise of refuge when I was at the Den.

Jack may be my destiny, but I loved Georg, too. His death for our happiness seems unbearably cruel.

“That wasn't me. I swear I tried to stop it. But that was the magic,” Mom says quietly, her grip tightening. “He broke a vow. Not everyone gets a happily ever after, sweetie. No matter how much you fiddle with time.”

“Then how can you know even now that things will end happily ever after for everyone?”

“Oh, I don’t, darling, I don’t. But with Herne finally out of our lives for good…” She nibbles her lips, looking pensive for a moment before continuing. “I’m sure you and Jack get yours now. At the very least, you won’t be ending the world anytime soon. You’ve got a nice hold on your power now.”

I suppose she’s right. Trial by fire will do that.

Something is nagging at me. Then I realize what it is and I look at the house, wondering why it’s so quiet. Where are Ana and Carly? “You’re done now, right? Messing with things? This crap
better
have taught you a lesson.”

“Of course, darling.”

But she won’t quite meet my eyes.

“
Mom
…where are Ana and Carly?”

Jett coughs and shakes her head once when I look at her.

“It’s nothing to do with you, dear. And nothing nearly as serious as what you and Jack went through.” She laughs lightly and lets go of my hand. “But your sisters are going to be occupied for a while. Don’t fuss. I’ve got it all under control.”