Yield (28 page)

             
“How long are you going to hold whatever you’re hiding from me?” 

“You are way too intelligent.”

“You want me dumbed down a bit, do ya?”  I tried to be funny hoping it would ease his tense shoulders.  In fact...”Would you like a neck rub?”

His eyes popped open from across the room.  Grandma Clark left to sleep in one of the spare rooms. She said it was too late for her old eyes to travel. 

Ames stared openly so I took that as a yes and sat up on the back of the sofa to dig my elbows into the hard muscled knots that were forming in his neck.  He really was tense.

“From the looks of it, you probably shouldn
’t hide it from me.”

He had his neck bent forward and his face in his hands.  “No, I shouldn
’t.  But I’m not sure how to tell you.”

This is progress. 

“Why are you so chipper about knowing I’m hiding secrets from you?” His hand lifted off his mouth to talk.

“Because I don
’t think you would hide it from me unless you feel like you really have to.  I figured out a while back how you do things, Ames.  It’s the protector in you.”

“How very observant.  It only surfaces around you.”

“I know.”  I also knew his scent of earthy pine was all over him and driving me nuts.   

“Of course you do,” he chuckled.

I reached down and kissed the back of his neck making him shiver just the slightest touch.  He drew in an unsteady breath.

I buried my face in his neck and heard him whisper, “If I tell you, will you promise to listen the whole way through and not freak out?”

“I wish I could promise that with that pretense, but you kind of sound like the demon of death.”

“You are closer to the truth than you think. Just don
’t run off anywhere.  Stay here with me no matter what you hear.”

I was scared, but not half as scared as I would be in a few minutes. 

There are no words for how Emma will feel when she hears this.  And I don
’t even know the answers to give her.  My grandmother alluded to knowing something, but the conversation ended when Emma returned from a tea run.

I took a long breath and told her everything, nothing barred.

She let me hold her about halfway in and we sat across the sofa with her in my lap as I finished up what all Mrs. Clark told me.  I showed her the law book and how I read it compared to how Mrs. Clark did differently than me.  We bounced back and forth various facts that both of us had heard about our parents.  More me than her.

In the end, she cried on my shoulder and screamed a few dozen times how unfair it was.  We took away her magic and now it wasn
’t enough.  The lady lied to get me away from her and now she couldn’t leave the goblin realm if we were married. That wasn’t the big problem in her eyes.  She was hung up on me not being able to leave because I said I wouldn’t if she couldn’t. 

“Why did your grandmother take away my magic if she wasn
’t sure?”

Here goes the abominable theory I
’ve concocted.  “I think it was her way of trying to fix it and keep me with magic so I could be the coven leader.  If I take over, she gets to be free.  It’s enough to make me take my own magic to be rid of her. She says the magic is still within you, but she wouldn’t give me a straight answer as to how to return it.  I’m starting to wonder about her motives for everything and what actions are safe near her.”

Like maybe flying monkeys were her sidekicks.

“Do you think she really knows how to fix this?”

“I think she does and is not saying, or think she does and doesn
’t want to try?”

“Why would she not want to try?” Emma asked through dry sobs.

“I don’t know, love.  I don’t know.”  But I think I do.  Emma would stay here and the “new coven leader” would be too busy to return.  It would never happen.

If Ames gives up his magic, that also makes him not the coven leader. I couldn
’t ignore the possibility.

Was it all a lie?  Did he really love me for me or was it all just magic mojo?

“You said something about the kiss affecting enough to not leave the realm, but you hinted that it produced how we feel.  You aren’t sure if you love me...for real?”

He lurched forward, “No
, Emma.  It’s not that at all.  The way I feel has nothing to do with magic.”

“How can you be sure?”

He looked conflicted.  “I shouldn’t have to prove it.  It’s the truth.”

“I want to be sure.” 

This hurt him more than when I walked in my realm without him.  With Caydon.

“Your grandmother needs to tell us the truth.”

“Good luck with that,” he scoffed.

What grandmother schemes against their own grandson? 

I convinced Ames to let me stay and just sleep...as always.  He took the bathroom after I did leaving me to fold down the bed and wait.  I climbed on top of the bed that was lifted a foot in height taller than the one I stayed in.  I liked having to climb the little step stool Ames went and got me a few moments before he hid in the shower from me making wonder when he bought it.  I knew he was avoiding sleep altogether. 

I didn
’t think I could sleep either no matter how exhausted I was.  Ames had mentioned once the people of the realm used wakenite, an herb to help you sleep.  The human world needed to wake up and smell the herb remedies instead of all the prescription and far-from-prescription drugs out there.  I briefly considered asking him for it, but really wanted to talk to him more.  The more time alone to talk, the more I learned and got to be with him at the same time. 

As I tucked back the last of the sheets, a soft knock echoed through the door.  Not sure if I should answer, I padded across the room and listened.  The knock came again. I threw caution to the wind knowing I was fully clothed in my jeans again and pulled the door open.  No one would care.

Except her.

Grandma Clark stood opposite me, staring like a grandma would at seeing a girl in her grandson
’s room.  He was a grown man for goodness sakes.  And
WE
weren’t doing anything we shouldn’t.

“Young lady.  You should head off to your bed, right?”

“Um...no.  Ames and I were talking.”

“
Talking,” she said in disbelief.  I understood now why Tonya always used the term, “parental units incoming” when we were discussing non-teenage topics.  How was a person to learn things of the world when no one would tell them though?  They found out the hard way.  I asked my best friend.  She was way too knowledgeable on the ways of the world and I wasn’t. 

“What are you doing here?” I asked to return her an uncomfortable favor.  She was the one showing up at midnight to my boyfriend
’s bedroom. 

“I need to speak with my grandson,” she peeked around me to see in the room.

“He’s not available right now.  Can I take a message?”

Grandma Clark
’s eyes bugged out and darted straight for the bed.  What did she expect to see?  Ames naked!

“I can wait.  Where is he?”

Now I was in for it.  “Bathroom.”

This lady was cool under pressure, but her face was telling me she doubted me one hundred percent.  And I was kind of tired of her parent crap.  We weren
’t children.

“Look. I think it
’s great you’re looking out for your grandson’s virtue and all, but he’s not in the bathroom waiting on me or anything.  He took a shower...alone.  He will come out soon and we are both going to end up laying there all night talking about the inevitable doom our life is in because neither one of us can sleep knowing what he or I may have to do.  So if you don’t mind taking your dirty mind elsewhere, I’d appreciate you leaving.  And for the record, you could like a little more of your grandson and appreciate how caring he can be and never shows it because he is humble that way.  He is a very honorable, respectful man who has the best intentions for everyone.  I don’t think I’ve ever met a man who is as amazing as him and don’t think there will ever be another.  Please think better of him for him, if not for your daughter perhaps.”

Since her eyes never left my face for my little meltdown, I didn
’t think to look behind me.  Two hands went around my hips from behind.

“Sounds like you have a great girl here, Ames.  I only wish I
’d told you what I’m about to tell you before I judged you two wrong.  Forgive me for thinking badly, I’m only acting like a grandmother in that respect.”

“Done,” Ames said behind my head.  He opened the door wider and let her in not letting me move a step away from his back embrace.  In my ear I felt his breath tickle me before he whispered, “
I don’t deserve you.”

He kissed the bottom of my ear and closed the door.

“Why are you here?” he asked her.  I didn’t believe her either.  She settled on the sofa end while we sat on the chair together.  I didn’t want to sit next to her.

“I found what I needed.”

Okay.

“And this comes from where?” he asked her holding my hand in the air from where we were separated by little space.

Grandma Clark glanced down at the books from earlier.

“It
’s not in those books.  I have the only known text that will tell you what you seek.  I am not proud of what I’m about to tell you, but I will have you know that I have exhausted every possible way for this to end well for all involved.” 

Just then I noticed the humongous book under her arm. 

“I am just going to come clean.”

Grandma Clark was a very selfish woman, but she made an unselfish choice in the end.  She made up the entire story about the kiss being deadly years ago.  The day my mother told Ames mother to keep her son away.  We already knew this.  She rehashed even more old news saying it was important to say it again.

My mother was convinced by her mother, Grandma Ryman, that I was cursed.  And from what I can tell, maybe I was.  The letters say I couldn’t be with Ames Cahn and have the “craft” meaning witch magic.  If that was the curse, then Mrs. Clark took care of it for us.  But it was never a curse.  She might have been deceiving in that part, and with keeping Ames a warlock, but she did sever the supposed curse in our eyes that day.  Whether it was real or not, I would only know if I die young.  (Assuming an afterlife exists and I can look at myself from the outside in to see I am dead)  Too philosophical to analyze!

But the part Mrs. Clark hid the most was that she wanted Ames to part from the goblin realm and lead the coven.  It was never about the curse with her, it was about keeping her grandson on the outside.  She would have let me die or whatever and he would have followed her lead when she showed up on his doorstep in her original plan. 
I worried she’d help my death along to help the cause.  Apparently, the day he was sent to go get me was the day she had intended to go to him and present her case of taking over the coven.  She changed her plans when she saw how much he gave up for me and would never leave where I was not.  Ames gave me hints that he knew some of this before she told us the rest.

Her plan B was to remove my magic and erase the supposed curse in trickery but really just to eli
minate me out of the equation. The part I kept reminding myself of is that I don’t know if it was actually real because it didn’t come true yet and I don’t trust anything they say anymore.  But the letters and the grandmothers claimed it for so long and Mrs. Ryman’s fortunes have come true to date that I couldn’t help but keep it there in the back of my mind.

When she removed my magic and not her grandson
’s, her intention was to steal him when he didn’t want me anymore.  She assumed the fascination was magically inclined and would sever with the magic. 

She was wrong.

Her plan C moved in.  She told us about reinstating my magic.  Before we could make anymore rash decisions about what it would take to be together and not ousted from the outside world, she stopped us.

This is where we are now.

“I won’t lie.  It’s a risk.”

“Understood.  My only concern is what is
truth from you and what is a lie.  You’ve managed to pull the wool over our eyes too many times now.  How do I know this isn’t some cockamamie trick to make me lose Emma again or get me brainwashed into being your coven leader that I know nothing about?”

“No tricks.  I still would like you to consider learning more about becoming the coven leader, but I see now that taking Emma from you would only make you a bitter man.  That won
’t help me in the end.  I’m not pretending like I’m the good guy here and I never will be.  You may consider me evil, but I am who I am.”

“Then what do we have to do get her magic back?”

“You remember the herb I used to help you once before.”

I searched Ames for a clue to where this might go.  He squeezed my hand further.  “Yes, goo-something.”

“Gruroot.  I had the last of it, but it is gone.  I haven’t been able to find another source since your mother introduced it in her lab.  When she died, it apparently died with her.”

“My mother grew things?” 

Ames spoke up, “You knew this.  She was making all manner of healing herbs when she met your father.  She took everything with her when she married him.”

This was the first I
’d heard Ames mention anything I’d learned in the journal about her.  It was comforting to know he cared and had read them to the point of thinking about me in the past, but disconcerting to know he knew things about my mother I didn’t. 

“So what about it?” I focused back on Mrs. Clark.

“If it doesn’t grow, and I don’t have it, there is only one other place I’ve heard it kept.”  I hated her for all the paused dramatic moments she liked to create.  Even sixty-something year old grandma’s like the soap opera effect.

“Where is it?” Ames asked agitated.  Thankfully, he was getting tired of the drama too. 

“My guess is buried under all the rubble and rock of the rooms that were destroyed in the battle.”

And here I thought with her little pause she was going to say it was at the top peak of Mount Whatever and we would have to hike five days in extreme weather and fight off wolves to get to it. 

“Why would it be there if it’s Emma’s mom who kept herbs?”  Ames asked.

“Because you mother wanted rid of her magic for some of the same reasons.  She asked for it from Emma
’s mother for a just in case scenario.”

“How do you know stuff like this?” I asked.

Mrs. Clark touched her forehead.  “Comes with the territory.  You learn a lot of things you shouldn’t when people don’t guard themselves.”  She looked sad briefly, but I offered no care. 

“So we dig,” I clapped my hands together.

I didn’t feel that Ames had gone stiff until now.  “What were her reasons?” he asked.
              “Like I said, Layla was trying to release her own magic.  And yours.”

“WHAT?” he jolted up away from me and started to pace the room.  His bedroom had to have the most worn out floor in the realm.  “Quit avoiding me.  What where the reasons?
  And Ryman claimed you didn’t know I was born initially.  Someone’s a proven liar.”

“Your mother
was trying to rid you of the magic before the treaty could be made so she could tell Alyssa her son was safe from her daughter.  She felt the magic was what the seer, Alyssa’s mother, was referring too and if it was removed, it could save you both.  She had no idea the seer was creating the curse to keep her own children safe.  Desperate women do desperate things.  I couldn’t let you lose your magic too.”

Huff!  She equated that as her excuse.

“What else did you do?”

Mrs. Clark wouldn
’t look at either of us.  “It’s the past now.  What’s done is done.”
              Ames got in her face.  “WHAT DID YOU DO?”

“Oh
, alright.  I told Layla to make sure Joshin was the head lead in.  It would ensure I had you.”

There wasn
’t a word for this woman.  She was utterly despicable and didn’t care at all.  Ames hit the wall beside her making a four inch hole and alerting the guards to enter the room.  When he halted them, Grandma Clark jumped from her sitting position and put the table between her and her grandson.  Serves her right.  When the guards left, she went right back as if nothing had happened in between her tellings.

“Either way, she didn
’t manage to create the needed combination of ingredients because I never told her the correct one.  Joshlin took care of things, Emma is here to rule now, and you can take care of both your duties.”

Ames eyes narrowed and stood over his blood relative. “You killed my parents and hers with all your lies.  If the two of you would have left well enough alone, maybe our world would be in a better place.”

“Maybe grandson, but fate isn’t to be trifled with.  I regret every single action that led us to this point, but it doesn’t change it.  I would have done something similar to make sure of its finality.”