Healing Hands (The Queen of the Night series Book 2) (17 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

A Month of Quiet

When I woke up, I lay warm and cozy in my own bed. The sun streamed through the window and I was alone, or thought I was alone. At first, I mentally tested all of my limbs and digits, to make sure everything still worked properly, and then sat up in bed. Looking around the room, I spied my brother. Corey sat in my reading chair, watching me. He must have sensed I’d awaken.

“Hi,” I said.

“Welcome, back,” he replied. He came over to sit next to me. “Maggie,” he looked into my eyes with a hint of desperation.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t ever leave me like that again, okay?  I‘ve lost everyone I ever loved except for you. Please don’t make me lose you, too.”

I felt like bat droppings. I’d been so focused on helping my family; I forgot how running out into the middle of the night might hurt them, too. I should have told Corey my plans. He wouldn’t have tried to stop me and I could have spared him more fear and pain. The shame showed on my face. “I’m so sorry, Corey. I promise I’ll never run away again, but it was important.”

A stern voice came from the doorway. “There’s no doubt you’ll never do it again. Let’s review. You took off in a snowstorm. You stole my car. You violated the terms of your provisional license. You, young lady, are grounded for a month.”

“But…”

“No, I will not tolerate arguments against my decision…a month, I’m serious.” Rose looked adamant.

I looked from Corey to her. “I’m sorry,” I said again, but the apology sounded lame to me, too.

She wanted to say something else when Corey interrupted. “You still have that cut on your arm. It looks pretty deep, too. You should let Rose heal that.”

“Oh this,” I said, looking at the wound closely for the first time. Steve had cut me deeper than I’d originally thought, but the wound had clotted so long ago, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but Corey had a point. I didn’t want to risk infection. “Pfft, I can handle this, I don’t need help.”  Holding my opposite hand over the cut, and concentrating on a song in my head and the love of my family around me, I let the energy flow. I envisioned cleaning out the wound and building new skin. Soon only a fresh welt remained. “See,” I said, looking up, “…no problem.”

Both of them gaped at me. “I guess she got her mojo on,” nodded Corey.

“Yeah, okay, maybe you did have a good reason,” said Rose. “But you’re still grounded.”

I accepted her decision.

Rose checked to see if my feet were warm enough and had good circulation. Then they let me go back to sleep.

I snuggled back into the covers, felling proud of myself for the first time in a long time. I had my mojo.

***

Being grounded for a month wasn’t so bad. It helped me to focus on my schoolwork. Of course, Rose let me go to school, chorale, the store and the library, so my routine didn’t change much. Since I no longer dated and I’d finished my driving course, I had no plans for the weekends, anyway. I did miss practicing my driving, because Rose absolutely forbade it. Instead I studied, caught up on all my work, and when I wasn’t doing stuff for school, I practiced energy-touch therapy with Fiona and Rose.

Evan came over occasionally to work on Psychology, and I saw him at school and chorale, but things seemed strained between us. I had no idea what went through his head. We had returned to our pattern of eating lunch together at our old table in the corner, but we hardly talked to each other. Rather, he hardly talked to me. I hadn’t seen Steve at all.

By the second Saturday of my confinement, I couldn’t take it anymore. “What is WRONG with you?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, coolly.

“Yes, you do. Ever since the dance, you’ve treated me like a leper. What did I do to piss you off so much?”

“Nothing…” he seemed taken aback by my emotion. He repeated, “You didn’t do anything wrong, honest.”

I glimpsed a ghost of a smile.

“You did surprise me. You really kicked his butt. Where’d you learn to do all that?”

I shrugged. “Parks department…it’s a city girl thing.”

“I like it,” he said, grinning. Finally, he seemed to relax.

“Have you seen him since that night?” 

His grin disappeared. “Unfortunately, I had to attend a council meeting. You can take a little comfort in knowing he looked like shit, at least. Both Fiona and Rose refused to heal his broken nose.”

“Have you heard anything about repercussions from what happened?”  I hadn’t heard anything about Steve since he stabbed Evan and ran out the door of the trailer.

“Yeah, but I’m sure you’re not gonna like it.”

“I figured his dad would intervene and he’d avoid punishment.”  His dad was too important to the clan. He intimidated people. If he wanted the incident brushed under the rug, it would be. “Honestly, Evan, how many other girls do you think he’s kidnapped?  How many girls did he attack who didn’t know self-defense?”

“Well, about the attempted rape, something is being done. The High Council ordered an investigation. Every girl he’s ever dated is being interviewed. If anyone comes forward with a story of actual rape, he’ll be shunned. Even Steve McCoy wouldn’t be able to come back from that.” 

I nodded my acceptance. “Why isn’t my story enough to make someone take action?” 

“Warriors get away with poor behavior a lot because they have a genetic anomaly. They lose control. It’s a chemical imbalance thing. The same impulse which makes them brave in battle also makes them snap sometimes. We accept it as part of their make-up, so we afford them a certain amount of lee-way, but if there’s a documented account of rape, Steve will be prosecuted and punished. He claims you were the first girl with which he ever lost control.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“He says he lost control because you looked so gorgeous and sexy in your dress. He claims he felt nervous about being with you, so he went out for a bit of liquid courage and then his inner animal kicked in. Since no one suffered permanent damage, Connor is trying to get the whole thing dropped.”

“What does he mean no one suffered?  You could’ve died!”

“They say I charged Steve, and he defended himself. Since that’s true, I really can’t make a case.”  After a quiet moment, while I absorbed this news, he wistfully added, “I wish I could’ve seen you in that dress, though.”

“You did,” I countered, “You stood right there.”

“I only saw red at the time….” he shrugged, sheepishly.

“Well, you know what. You’re in luck. Rose used a home remedy to get the stains out of the dress. If you wait here, I’ll put it on.”

He looked hopeful, for a second, and then he changed his mind. The war of emotions played on his face. “No,” he said, “I’d better get back home…”

“Why? No, I’ve got a better idea. You go down to the den and I’ll meet you down there in a second.”  I pushed him out the door. “Go…go on, it’ll be fun. You’ll see.” 

He looked for a moment like he was going to object, but the wistful look appeared again. “Okay,” he said and left.

I carefully pulled my hair back in the sequined clip. I washed my face and applied the lip gloss. I put on the original outfit. I’d been lucky. Someone had found Fiona’s vintage cape in the school’s coat closet and had returned it. Once I’d donned the pumps, which had also been retrieved from the schoolyard, I went downstairs.

***

Nervous little bubbles bounced in my stomach as I walked into the den. I’d never dressed up specifically to impress a guy. Usually, if I dressed up, I did it for my own self-esteem. Something inside of me wanted Evan to think I was pretty.

I didn’t expect his calm reaction. He didn’t drop his pizza, or walk into the refrigerator, as he had last summer when we attended a wedding together. He acted as if I looked just as he’d expected. I noticed he’d put music on the stereo. He played a slow song…one of my favorite ballads. He took my hands and led me into the middle of the room. The floor plan allowed us enough space to play video games safely, not to dance, but he made it big enough for us. Wrapping me in his arms, he drew me close. I leaned against him and swayed to the music. We moved in slow circles. His hand rested on my lower back and the warmth of his skin spread like syrup through my body. The other he placed at the nape of my neck, under my hair.

I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder.

He whispered in my ear, “You are an extremely beautiful woman, Maggie Stewart…inside and out.” 

I was so moved; I almost let a tear fall. “Thank you, Evan.”  My heart was racing and my breathing had become shallow.
Had his breathing become shallow also
?  I placed a hand over his heart to find out. It was beating unusually fast, incongruent with the slow song. Eventually the song stopped, but we did not. I’d wanted this for a very long time. He took a small step back and looked down into my face. I looked up into his. He intended to kiss me and I was ready.

“Oh yuk!  Get a room!  Honestly, this house sucks! It’s like a freaking soap opera around here. This is so gross. I have to hang out in this room, you know. Now I’m gonna have to blind myself.”

“It’s okay, Corey. We’re leaving.”  I took Evan by the hand and led him back to my room, so we could talk, but he broke contact and backed away as soon as we got to the bottom of the staircase.

“I can’t stay, Mags…I have to go.”

“Oh…okay.”  I said, confused. “I guess I’ll see you at school then.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you.”  He bent down, kissed me on the forehead and left.

***

Feeling empty and deflated, I walked upstairs to change out of my clothes. The three ancestors had told me to not be afraid of love, but how was I supposed to be brave if Evan didn’t feel the same way?  Right now things seemed more like pain than freedom.

I put my pretty dress back in the closet. I pulled on my workout clothes and practiced my forms until I was too tired to cry. Then I fell into my bed and cried anyway.

***

Finally, the month ended and my suspension was rescinded. The first thing I did was ask Evan if he could give me a ride. I’d left something in the turtle cave and I needed to go back and get it. The snow and ice had almost completely melted from the meadow. Small spring-blooming wildflowers pushed their way up through the soggy soil and added an array of pastel colors to the yellow-green grass.

We sloshed through the mud to the cave, which looked smaller, darker and dirtier than it had in my vision. I’d described the visit with the three women in as much detail as I remembered during the drive. Except for the part where I’d admitted I loved him. I kept that part to myself.

He flipped on a flashlight. “Where’s the turtle?”  He had a good question. The floor of the cave was dirty and littered with debris.

I rubbed at the dirt with the toe of my boot, found a little indentation in the stone floor, and traced a line carved into the rock. “Evan, can I have your water bottle?”  I poured water on the ground and pushed it around. “Do you have the towel you always hike with?”

“Are you talking about my sweat rag?  Yeah, here…”

I bent down and scrubbed the dirt off the cave floor. When I’d cleared enough of the dust and grime, it revealed most of the carving. The paint was faded and chipped, but undoubtedly depicted the turtle from my vision.

“This is definitely the turtle cave,” I stated. “Thus, something should be waiting for me over here.”  I walked to the back wall. Wrapped in a crumbling piece of burlap, lay the bundle of magic kindling. I retrieved it and we headed back to the car.

“Now what the heck am I supposed to do with this?” I showed him the bundle.

“It’s just a bunch of sticks,” Evan said.

“They’re supposed to be magic sticks,” I informed him.

He thought for a moment. “Well,” he mused, “you know where sticks come from…”

I completed his thought, “They come from trees.”

“And so we need a tree expert,” he concluded.

“Does that mean we need to find an arborist?”

“I was thinking we should call a dryad. You did say they were
magic
sticks, and I know which dryad to call.”

“Oh, then we’d better go get the bell and the rose petals.”

“Yup.”

***

We’d gathered our supplies and hiked over to the altar in the sacred temple of the crossed rings. He pulled a white column candle out of one of Fiona’s quilted tote bags and placed it in the center of the altar, lighting it with a disposable lighter. Taking a handful of rose petals from the jar, he sprinkled them in a circle around the candle. Then, he produced a silver bell, which he placed to the right of the candle. Last, he pulled out a small bottle with a dropper in the cap. It contained pure rose oil. He sprinkled a few drops of the oil all around the candle and into the melted wax so that the scent of roses filled the air. He rang the silver bell crisply three times and called out, “King of the Sidhe come to me. I need your guidance, let it be.”

He paused for a moment. Then he rang the bell again three times and repeated the incantation. The bell rang once more and he stepped back from the altar, sat down in the grass and leaned up against one of the huge rocks that formed a table leg facing the portal. I sat down cross-legged next to him. We waited for Buach to answer our call.