The Steward (44 page)

I jumped on the flaw in his logic. “This isn’t about me, Dad. If it were, you would have asked me first!”

“Maggie, please!” Mom pleaded.

“You watch your tone with me!” he snapped.

In a forceful whisper, Mom said, “No, David! Don’t!”

“I want to stay here—I will stay here. You can’t sell what’s mine.”

“Yes, I can, and I will. As your father and legal guardian, I have every right to sell this place if I think it is in your best interest.
It is
. Those men are offering twice market value for this place. You will want for nothing for the rest of your life. The decision is made.”

“Are they going to move in here together?” I said sarcastically.

He calmed himself down a little and continued. He looked guilty again when he said, “Maggie, they’re developers.”

My anger began to swell again. I realized that he wasn’t just trying to sell the Weald—he was going to allow it to be destroyed.

“We wanted to tell you, but with everything you’ve gone through, we thought it was best to wait a while, until after the deal is done. That’s what Kevin Fontaine suggested. He’s going to handle this for us. You trust him don’t you? Honey, please, just try to calm down. You’ll see it’s for the best.”

“It’s not what’s best for me,” I said weakly. I was fighting sobs.

His temper flared again. “Enough! It’s done. Do you understand?”

I stared at him, my anger boiling. I couldn’t answer without yelling again, and I was done with yelling.

“I said, DO YOU understand?” he yelled, spittle coming out of his mouth.

Mom stepped in between both of us. “I’m sick of both of you yelling. It stops, now! We’ve never done this and we’re not going to start,” she said, forcing herself to be calm.

I looked at Mom and quickly regained my composure. I suppressed it all, forcing it deep down inside like I’d been practicing. I was furious, but in control, forcing all the emotion off of my face. With the most pleasant look I could muster, and in the calmest voice I had, I looked him in the eyes, and said, “Fine, I can’t stop you. I couldn’t stop you from selling the Mustang, either. You’ve spent weeks trying to get Mitch to forgive you. Tell me, Daddy, how is that going? Yeah? Well that was just a car. I won’t be as easy as Mitch.”

“Maggie,” he called to me, visibly wounded.

I turned, grabbed my keys and phone, and walked to the front door.

“Maggie, get back here ... please,” he said as I opened the door.

“Dad, are you going to change your mind?” I said calmly, without turning around.

“No,” he said firmly.

“Then we have
nothing
more to say.” I pulled the door shut gently behind me.

He yelled at me and I heard Mom yell at him.

In a moment of desperation, I thought about speaking to the Fae in the garden, but I decided against it. I only needed to talk to two Fae, and neither of them was here. I got in my car and drove away. Past the gate, when I couldn’t sense any Fae, I pulled out my phone and dialed.

“Hello?” His voice was as calm as ever.

I felt a little frantic when I spoke. “Danny, help!”

TWENTY
-
EIGHT

WATER

After I stormed out of the house and finished my call to Danny, I drove to see Billy. He listened to me, emotionlessly, as I told him what had happened. When I finished, he told me I needed to forget it and concentrate on one thing, the Water trial. It would happen tomorrow. He also suggested that I avoid the Weald until the morning.

“Do you have anyone you can stay with tonight?”

“Yes, Candace.”

“Is there anyone else?”

“Why?”

“Her father, Maggie.” Billy rolled his eyes. “I need you to focus on the Water trial. Staying with the Fontaines will only remind you of your father’s plans because Kevin Fontaine is orchestrating the sale. Could you ignore him? More importantly, what good would a confrontation with him do you tonight?”

Billy was right. If I saw Mr. Fontaine, I knew I’d have to talk to him.
Or set him on fire.

“Rachel Sullivan?” I suggested.

He nodded, “That will work.”

He warned me about losing track of the big picture and said that I would need to be at the Weald at ten o’clock in the morning. He would go with me. We would park on top of the hill, near the
Seoladán. There, he said, I was to wait for further instructions. I felt an icy chill run down my spine. I had been dreading the Water trial for months
,
and
as the moment approached, my anxiety grew
.
On top of that, the possibility of the sale bombarded me to the point that I felt like I was close to losing my mind.

“But what about the sale?” I asked again.

“Maggie, I want you to put it out of your head—until after the Water trial. You cannot change anything tonight.”

I was frustrated. Danny had said virtually the same thing. Neither one of them seemed to be taking this predicament seriously. If I didn’t have enough to worry about with the Fae, now Dad was dead set on derailing everything, but there was no point in arguing with Billy. I had no choice—I needed to do what he said. But another question on my mind concerned me.

“Where is Sara?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I expected her before now.”

The emptiness in the pit of my stomach grew. It only got worse when he told me not to try the new technique I’d learned to block my thoughts and emotions. He didn’t think I was ready. Instead he wanted me to use my old projection because Chalen would expect it.

When I got back to my car, my phone was ringing. Mom had called a dozen times.

“Maggie, where are you? Are you alright?” The words came fast, laced with a stronger Spanish accent than normal.

“Yeah, Mom. I’m so sorry. Is Dad okay?”

“He’s ... consumed. I know he will feel bad about raising his voice to you—he’s just worked up right now. He wanted to tell you and your brother later. He just keeps repeating that.”

“It really wouldn’t matter when he planned to tell me, Mom. Nothing is going to change how I feel.”

“I know, me either.”

“Mom, did you try to stop him?”

The line was quiet for several seconds before she spoke again.

“I did. I love it here and I don’t want to move. But Maggie, I’ll be honest, he said he was moving back to Florida and he won’t listen to anything else. I think he’d move back even if I refused.”

“Oh, Mom, I’m sorry.” I felt a knot in my throat when I realized what that meant.

“Maggie, are you coming home?”

“Yeah, about that—can I stay at Rachel’s tonight? I think it…”

“Yes,” she said, cutting me off.

I was prepared to plead my case, but I didn’t have to. However, I was concerned by the tone in her voice. I knew then why she’d been so irritable the first day I saw the men there. I also knew how much the Weald meant to her—she had been the happiest here. Her art, and her love of it, blossomed after we got to Arkansas, and it would hurt her to give it up.

“Mom, are you alright?”

She paused again. “I’ll be fine. If your father insists on moving back to Florida, we’ll go. He’s more important to me than anything, except you and your brother. We’ll get through this.” She had always been stronger than him, more willing to sacrifice her own desires for the rest of us. She was readying herself to do it again.

“Okay. Are you at the cottage now?”

“No, honey. Mitch and I are spending the night in Sara’s old cottage. We’re here now. He thinks it’s a camping trip.”

Sleeping separately? It’s worse than I thought.

“That’s why I called. I wanted you to know where we are if you come back, but staying with Rachel is a better idea.”

“Mom, I’m so sorry. I should have kept my mouth shut. You’re fighting because of me.”

“No, Maggie, we aren’t really fighting, and even if we are, it isn’t because of you. Your father just needs some time to sort through things—I’m giving him some space tonight. That’s all.”

She was sugarcoating it, but I didn’t press the issue. I did feel incredibly guilty, though. We talked for a few more minutes and I promised I’d see her tomorrow night. After I hung up, I called Rachel. She was elated to have me come over, and much to her credit, she didn’t ask why.

I talked to her and her dads, Lance and Roger, before they retired for the evening. Sleep for me was impossible—I could only think about the looming trial—and Chalen. He would be smug and wouldn’t want me to pass, so he would be frightening, too. I thought about everything else that had happened in the Weald, and the timing of it all. I was angry—Chalen had orchestrated everything, and he had a plan in place. I pulled the blue stone out of my pocket and stared at it. Then I wondered…

* * *

My nerves got the best of me as Billy drove me to the Weald. He took me in his SUV, a beat-up twenty-five-year-old Range Rover, because he thought it best to leave my T-bird in town. When we turned at the top of the drive, my stomach lurched and I felt sickness coming on. I rolled down the window and swallowed several gulps of air as I concentrated again on calming my nerves. He drove around the boulders that blocked the drive to the
Seoladán, the Range Rover rattling and groaning as the tires fought their way over small stones and underbrush, and pulled up far enough that
the SUV
was hidden from the drive. No one
—no
human
—w
ould know we were
t
here.

Despite the bright and sunny day, everything felt ominous. I searched my feelings and realized that it would have felt ominous even if it
were
raining daisies. When I stepped out and shut the creak
y
door
,
I fought a
nother
wave of nausea. I managed to keep the bile down
,
and followed Billy to the rock wall where he stopped. The breeze was strong,
blowing colored leaves
around us and
causing the limbs of the trees to sway
. There was so much sound I was a little unnerved.

Billy turned to me. He look concerned and whispered, “Maggie, control your thoughts and emotions. I can read you.”

Raising the projection in my head, I tried to bottle
the fear and apprehension I felt
. I didn’t think I would be able to keep it under control.

“Maggie, please, concentrate!” he whispered again, but more loudly.

“I’m trying.”

I reined in my emotions and he looked relieved. My mind wandered to Sara, and my nerves roared back to life as I felt myself wanting her here. My mind spread out to search the area. There were a few Fae about—they were further back in the woods, watching.
A mental picture of Gavin crossed my mind
—this was the last place I’d seen him. Desperately, I wished
h
e w
ere
with me. Billy shook his head and seemed to will me to hold it together, but he didn’t speak. Instead he looked over my shoulder past the greenhouse.

I felt him, too. Chalen knew we were here and he was waiting in the ruined garden.

“Aren’t you coming with me?”

“I cannot cross the boundary
. N
o Fae can. But I will be...”

I fought to control
my anxiety
again but couldn’t, so I turned away from him. Billy stopped talking and looked at me, helplessly. My stomach convulsed and I gagged. It convulsed again. I tried to take a deep breath, but
after a third convulsion
an acrid taste filled my throat and nose, spilling out on the ground. It was all I could do to take a deep breath.

“Crap,” I said. My eyes
watered
as I spit the residue out of my mouth.

“I’ll be alright,” I said
.

Chalen’s laugh
t
er echoed past us and sent a shiver down my spine.

“I will be right here. No Fae may enter until the trial is complete.”

I focused on keeping my mind blank and stepped through
the
opening in the stone wall. My heart raced
,
and I moved forward until the southern portion of the garden, weeds growing unchecked, slowly came into view. I remembered where Chalen
stood
that
night, but he wasn’t there
as I searched for him
.
After a
few more steps I could see
the
corner of the
c
ottage
,
all covered in a tangle of overgrown vines.
As I walked a little further
, I saw him standing next to the fountain. The images from that night came flooding back.
I could almost feel the pressure of
the water coming at me from the fountain. I pushed
the memory
back in my mind, but not before Chalen’s lips curled in a cruel smile.