Pandora's Box (26 page)

I think she’s referring to our visit with your father.

Of course she was. That was a whole lot to digest as well. Mina remembered the “everything” that her jerk for a father was
kind enough to share with her. Things her own mother had kept from her, when Mina might have taken the truth a whole lot better
coming from Lizzy. How dare she let Duncan Forbes be the one to break it, so less than gently, to Mina?

“You mean, do I know that I was some science experiment that you performed once upon a time? Yes, I know. Dear old Dunky was
only too happy to tell me once he got an eyeful of Riordan.”

“Honey, it wasn’t like that.”

Mina stared at her.

“Okay, at first it was a lot like that. More an obsession than an experiment, though. I’d heard whispers about the legend
for years. A female Avebury descendant from each generation inherited the sacred duty of guarding the puca. It was like our
very own princess in the tower fairytale. Except it was a prince in distress and, eventually, a female heroine who would unlock
the secret to freeing him. I wanted to be the one to free the puca. I’d heard for years that somebody in the family would
have the ability, but a woman can’t choose her parentage, I suppose.”

“No kidding.”

Lizzy had the grace to blush.

“So, what is the secret?”

Lizzy shook her head. “I don’t know. I just knew I wanted to be the one to figure it out and free the puca at last. Obviously,
it wasn’t for me to do.”

“So instead you planned to do your hocus-pocus crap through me?”

Lizzy pondered a moment, a faraway look in her eye, then smiled just a little. “Do you remember your ninth birthday?”

“Vividly. Nobody came to my party. Their mothers wouldn’t let them. I’m sure you can understand their reasoning.”

“Was your birthday that terrible?”

Mina shrugged, remembering more in spite of herself. “You took me to the park.”

“That’s right. I called you in sick for school so you could stay home and celebrate with us.”

“Which was so admirable of you, by the way.”

Mina, give her a break. Just listen.

“Yes, yes. I failed you as a mother. And see how terribly you turned out?” Lizzy gave her a sharp look before continuing.
“Yes, we went to the park. The three of us. You, me and Joe.”

They’d brought a picnic lunch with them. Granted, it was some organic mishmash of sprouts and other granola-caliber foodstuffs.
Still, her mother had gone to the trouble of putting it all in a basket along with a pretty tablecloth and even—Mina had been
so shocked—three genuine bottles of cola to go with the frothy pink-frosted cake Lizzy had made. A lopsided cake, but homemade
and with none of the usual, healthier ingredient substitutions that never really worked. “I remember.”

“Do you remember that exotic bird some man brought to the park with him? I think it was a parrot. So gorgeous, with that wicked
beak, blue and gold feathers. It squawked and chattered and said horrible things while we watched them together. It wasn’t
in a cage or anything, just perched on the man’s arm. And you wanted to know why the bird didn’t fly away.”

Mina remembered that. The filthy-mouthed parrot making her stepfather chortle and her mother clap hands over Mina’s ears.
“You told me the man probably had the bird’s wings clipped so he couldn’t fly away.”

Lizzy was nodding. “You were horrified. First, at how much it must have physically hurt the bird—I’ve been told since then
that it doesn’t, dear, if this is still concerning you.”

Mina just waited for her to continue.

“But then . . . then you felt bad for the bird. Why can’t the bird fly free? you wondered. If the man loved the bird, why
would he do that to him? Surely he knew the bird would stay with him if he took such good care of him.”

“A child’s naiveté.” Mina shrugged carelessly. “The bird didn’t know it was missing anything. It had probably been born and
raised in captivity, and was just fine with the man. Probably better off. Even if it had free use of its wings, it wouldn’t
have survived ten minutes on its own.”

Lizzy smiled fondly. “Leave it to you to take that viewpoint. But that’s not what you thought back then.”

“I was a child. Children take the comforting safety of their boundaries for granted.” Mina raised her eyebrows. “I never had
that kind of safety net.”

“But I never, ever kept you against your will. I never limited you. In spite of yourself. Even as a child, you would have
strangled yourself with this passion for boundaries and restrictive tradition. I couldn’t let you do that to yourself. So
I tried to create a nonjudgmental environment, one full of options that encouraged you to explore the unusual on your own.”

“What, by letting me run naked under the stars while you giggled and the neighbors had a cow? That was just great.”

“Mina, please don’t be deliberately obtuse. You know what I’m trying to say. You just don’t want to admit it to yourself or
to me. I assumed, given your lineage, that you would have some latent abilities, but you were so shy. I was afraid you’d never
explore enough on your own to discover them. What a waste that would have been. So I supplied the props. And a tolerant atmosphere,
and watched to see what would click for you.”

Mina gazed at her, horrified. “So
I’m
the woo-woo magnet?
I’m
the psychic-witch-doctor-Druid-freak? So what exactly can I do? Make fire? Draw down the moon? Come on, break it to me. I’m
all numb by now. I can take it.”

Lizzy looked rueful. “Actually, unless I’ve missed something over the years—and trust me, I’ve tried it all—I’m afraid the
latent ability was all wishful thinking on my part. You really are about as extrasensory as a brick wall.”

Riordan snorted a laugh in Mina’s mind.

“Oh.” Mina blinked. “Well, I could have told you that.”

“No, you couldn’t. Not until we’d explored all your options. You really are just a normal girl. With unusual heritage. Period.”

“And that’s all I damn well wanted as a child. A normal life, not some weird collage of paranormal hobbies. I could never
bring a friend home for fear you’d be ‘sky-clad’ or boiling my pet frog.”

“Now, that’s outright exaggeration.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yes, I do know. But I’d like to think I in some way prepared you.” Lizzy smiled at her daughter.

“For perpetual dysfunction? Oh, yeah. You got that right. After speaking with dear old Dunky and discovering that not only
was I an offense against nature and a reminder of a heritage he hated to acknowledge, but I was also a walking reminder of
him screwing around on his wife . . . Yeah, there’s dysfunction.”

Lizzy shrugged. “I didn’t rape the man.”

Hearing her own words come out of her mother’s mouth, Mina choked in surprise. “That’s actually the same thing I told Dunky.”
And they both had a point. Duncan was the one who’d cheated, and he’d done it willingly. Not that it excused her mother of
the other stuff, but—“So, did you know?”

“About the wife or the daughter?”

“Both.”

Lizzy sighed. “About the wife? Not at the time. But then, I did trick him about the pill. The daughter? That was a bit of
a shock to me, too. But it did make you all mine then.”

“Isn’t that a little selfish? I had a right to a father.”

“You really wanted Duncan Forbes for a
father
?”

“You really took Duncan Forbes for a
lover
?”

“Touché, daughter. I can honestly say I didn’t know he was that bad when we had our affair.” Lizzy paused thoughtfully. “It’s
just possible that he
wasn’t
that bad when I first met him. Maybe I had a hand in turning him into the ass that he is today. I don’t know. He certainly
blames me for everything wrong in his life. Do you?”

Mina stared at her mother for a few minutes, weighing everything. It was just too freaking complicated. Nice turn of phrase,
that.
Freaking
and
complicated.
She dropped down onto the couch next to her mother. “I
have
blamed you.”

Lizzy shrugged, obviously trying not to appear hurt. “I’m not surprised. I know you had an odd childhood. But I always loved
you. You may have started out differently than other babies. Your conception was more unorthodox than other children’s. But
once you were born . . . you were just mine.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I was going to name you Pandora. Like the curious
creature who opened a dangerous box? But then you were mine. Pandemina.” She smiled. “My world. I was right in the middle
of writing your name for the birth certificate and out it came. Pandemina. Mina. Mine to love.”

“Oh.” Mina’s throat tightened. “Is that true? Really, really true? Not just some story to tell a stupid girl who found out
she started life as a guinea pig?”

“You were never a guinea pig. Hope maybe. Excitement, certainly. But once you were born, always,
always
you were my perfect baby girl.”

Mina leaned against her mother, felt arms go around and pull her close. “That’s . . . God, that’s just lovely, Mom. Thank
you.” She chuckled a little hoarsely. “Not that I can agree with the perfect part. I’ve made my share of screw-ups.”

Lizzy wrinkled her nose. “Jackson? Big screw-up, sweetie. The man couldn’t even give you an orgasm.”

Mina groaned, remembering the way her mother had tricked that little tidbit out of her. The woman was just sneaky. And impossibly
intuitive, though Mina would never imply as much, even in jest. “Just when I think we can have a normal relationship—”

“Your mom goes and brings up sex. You endure so much, darling.” Lizzy smiled at her daughter, then regarded her more soberly.
“So, what are you going to do with this information your father gave you?”

“Blackmail him with it?”

“Mina!”

Mina sighed. “I’m not sure.”

“You have a sister.”

“A half-sister.”

“She’s still your sister.” Lizzy regarded her daughter with understanding. “Sure, Duncan acknowledged her and not you, but
somehow, I don’t think life as Duncan Forbes’s acknowledged daughter would be a piece of cake either. The man has a judgmental
streak, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I would think you’d be curious about this girl.”

“Her name is Daphne.” Mina murmured it. “He told me.”

“You were curious.”

“Of course I’m curious. But it just so happens I have bigger things on my mind right now.”

“Like November Day?”

Mina stared. “So you know about that, too?”

“I know about the prophecy. I know that you are the one who holds the key to the condemned puca’s freedom. But that’s all
I know. The legends and the rumors have been passed down, but they’re all ambiguous and contradictory. You are the key. There
is no doubt of that. But the rest . . . is all up to you to figure out. I’m sorry.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that.”

Lizzy nodded. “Your puca will face the Druid Council very soon. Is he ready?”

Mina blinked back sudden tears. “No.”

“Tell me.”

“He’s disembodied again. He and I . . . we were together . . . and it was against the rules. So now he’s disembodied again.
He’s back inside that damn cornerstone.”

As disjointed as her speech was, Mina knew her mother’s widened eyes and speculative expression meant she’d understood most
of what Mina hadn’t said aloud. “I see. And you’re scared.”

“Desperate. Mom, I love him.”

“Oh.” Lizzy stared at her, eyes rounding. “Oh, just . . . Damn it to hell and back.” Lizzy launched to her feet and strode
angrily around the room.

Mina gaped. “What? What’d I do?”

“Where’s your head, Mina? First you fall for that idiot Jackson and now you can’t even mate within your own species? For heaven’s
sake.”

“What? You’re the one who wanted me to jump him.”

Lizzy threw her hands up. “Well, there’s jump him and then there’s go be an idiot and fall in love with him so you can get
your heart broken when you can’t keep him. Mina. I wanted you to cut loose. Live and learn to laugh and play again. I wanted
most of all for you to forget that idiot Jackson. Not get yourself in deeper trouble by losing your heart to yet another lost
cause.”

“You think I haven’t told myself the same thing, over and over again? I fought this. It’s not what I wanted and I know how
hopeless it is.” She shrugged. “So I did fight it.”

Lizzy regarded her with frowning pity. “And lost.”

Mina shrugged and whispered: “And won. That’s the worst part. I wish I could regret the love. I don’t. I just regret the consequences
of making love to him. I didn’t know this would happen.”

“I didn’t either.” Lizzy looked thoughtful. “But apparently he did. Or at least he suspected. And he loves you, too.”

Mina nodded.

Lizzy frowned a moment, her eyes bright and obviously concealing a brain operating at warp speed. “All right. Then you fight
dirty.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, good god, girl. Use what you have. Your father’s a Druid. He must have some idea how to undo this curse. And, if I recall
correctly, the idiot not only cheats on his wife, but he talks in his sleep.”

“What are you saying? You think I should approach his wife?”

Lizzy frowned a moment. “That’s an option, but I doubt she would talk. You know what I think?”

“I’m afraid to know.”

“I think you should find your sister. You have common ground there. Both innocents and on a level playing field. She’ll be
able to tell you more than you think.”

“You know this?”

“Just a hunch. And if she doesn’t willingly cough up the info, offer to ask her unsuspecting mom instead. Play any card you
have. You’re fighting for your love and your puca’s life.” She gave Mina a bracing look. “Now is
not
the time to be squeamish.”

“You know, ” Mina murmured. “I think for once you give some utterly ruthless, truly excellent advice. I’ll go find Daphne.”

“Good girl.” Lizzy nodded encouragement, then eyed her daughter with more sympathy. “I am sorry about your puca. I hope things
work out for you.”