Rising Moon (The Rune Stone Trilogy) (40 page)

             
El hadn’t moved from in front of the group facing Finn.
"
Why don’t you fight him then?
"

             
He smiled sadly at her.
"
Because I cannot destroy my own brother.
"

             
"
Shit,
"
El slipped. Her eyes widened when Finn chuckled.
"
Sorry.
"
Her cheeks flushed and she stepped back to join the others.

             
"
Do not be sorry. Your attitude is one of your remarkable assets.
"
He cleared his throat.
"
There is something that I need your consensus on to go forward. Would you accompany me?
"
He gestured toward the forest.

             
"
I don’t feel good about this,
"
Owen whispered to Terra.

             
Finn looked directly at him.
"
Acceptance Owen.
"

             
They followed him into the forest, deep into the brush, and well off the beaten path. They were hidden from the rest of the world. He stopped in front of a large tree and turned to face them. Once they were all in front of him he brought them around to the other side of the tree. Mary sat against the trunk. Twinkling crystal lights surrounded her, floating around forming a ball around her.

             
"
Mom!
"
Terra cried.

             
Mary looked up at them with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"
Oh!
"
Mary wailed and began sobbing.

             
"
What did you do to her?
"
Blake turned on Finn.

             
"
I took her from the cave and lifted the spells the witches had on her to keep her unconscious. She has quite a story to tell.
"
Finn kneeled down next to Mary and took her withered hand.
"
You must tell them Mary.
"

             
"
No. I can’t!
"
Mary shook her head violently.

             
Terra kneeled down in front of her.
"
What is it?
" s
he whispered.

             
Mary took a long time to meet Terra’s eyes.
"
Now, Mary,
"
Finn urged.

             
"
I have a weak soul Terra. I’m not strong like you are.
"

             
"
No, Mom, it’s okay.
"
Terra reached out but Mary jerked her knees away.

             
"
When I was young he found me. Cole,
"
she said to Finn.
"
He was so kind to me. Then he made me do things. Horrible things!
"
Her face disappeared behind her hands.

             
"
What kind of things?
"
Terra asked, urging. A lump had formed in her throat.

             
"
Unspeakable things.
"
Mary sobbed.

             
"
Not unspeakable Mary,
"
Finn said. His eyes were locked on her, and his kind face had turned
stern
.

             
She pulled her hand down and she looked at her fingers carefully.
"
He made me lock the bathroom door, and set the kitchen on fire. In the restaurant.
"

             
Terra’s body tensed.
"
What?
"
she breathed.

             
"
What is it Terra?
"
Aylin knelt next to her.
"
What is she talking about?
"

             
"
Our birth mother was killed in a fire. She had been there with a friend and went into the bathroom. Next thing the restaurant is on fire. They found her body in the bathroom, and we never understood why she didn’t get out,
"
Blake said.

             
"
Mary isn’t your mother?
"
El asked.

             
"
Our step mother,
"
Terra said. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"
My dad met her less than a year after the fire.
"

             
Aylin had to swallow her words. Now wouldn’t be the time to scold them for keeping details from her and El. If they had known that Mary wasn’t their biological mother they would have been much more careful around her. She shouldn’t have been trusted so easily, and Aylin wouldn’t let that happen again.

             
But, that was a conversation for another time. Now she needed to be strong for Blake and Terra, even though she had been the one that Mary had attacked. This was going to only hurt them.

             
"
We never figured out why he moved on so quickly. But Mary was very kind and understanding,
"
Blake said with distaste.

             
"
Tell them what you did to their father,
"
Finn said.

             
"
Cole gave me a bottle that had an extract of apricot and elm. I put it in his coffee each morning.
"

             
"
He met you at the coffee shop!
"
Terra blurted.
"
You gave him his coffee every morning!
"

             
"
Yes. I needed him to fall in love with me. I needed to marry him
so I could keep a close eye on Terra
. I reported
back to Cole about her
.
"
Mary refused to look up at the five.

             
"
I’m missing something here,
"
Owen mumbled.

             
El stepped closer to him and leaned toward his ear.
"
There are certain plants and herbs that are inducers. She was feeding him extracts of the two most potent love inducers. One kind would have been enough actually. If she used it right it would have been very easy to make him fall in love with her,
"
she whispered.

             
"
Are you saying she was… drugging him?
"
Owen frowned.

             
El nodded in response with a grim look on her face.

             
Finn’s face softened slightly.
"
But something happened.
"

             
Mary nodded.
"
Yes. I started to love him, to love the family. You were such good children, and your father’s love for you made me envious. I wanted to be a part of that. I told Cole, and tried to turn my back on him. But he said if I did that he would come and kill every single one of us. He would torture the children, giving them pain. I had to keep him away from you!
"
She shook her head.
"
He’s an evil man.
"

             
"
Why did you poison me?
"
Aylin asked quietly.
"
Did he tell you to?
"

             
Mary nodded.
"
He said we had to take you first. When I told him that you two had come into town he celebrated by killing three bears, playing with them until they bled to death. I was there!
"
She was crying harder now.
"
But I knew you could protect my children. I knew I couldn’t do it anymore.
"
She looked up to Aylin with watery eyes.
"
You can keep them awa
y from him. He can’t have Terra
or Blake.
"

             
Mary buried her face in her hands and Finn stood. He waited while Mary’s confession sank in.
"
Did she kill dad, too?
"
Terra whispered, tears freely ran down her cheeks.

             
Finn shook his head.
"
No. That was not her doing. You needed to hear the truth from her. I did not think you had enough trust in me yet to believe this.
"
He looked down at Mary.

             
"
What are we supposed to do?
"
Blake asked roughly. Aylin reached her hand to his and laced her fingers through his own.

             
"
That is your decision. I do not think it wise to take her home. Cole is too close and would find her. Shall she be punished? Shall she go into hiding?
"
Finn crossed his arms and waited.

             
Blake looked from Terra to Finn, then back to Terra. Her face was crumpled with betrayal.
"
Can we take a moment to discuss this? In private?
"
he asked Finn.

             
"
Of course. This is no light matter. Please,
"
he gestured his arm and a path appeared through the trees.

             
Owen hissed behind Blake, and he had to force himself not to make a face at him. Blake put his hands under Terra’s elbows and lifted her to stand.
"
I think everyone should be a part of this. She hurt us the most, but I want everyone,
"
Terra said, her voice barely above a whimper.

             
The five of them walked down the narrow path, and it twisted around and ended behind a wall of birch trees.
"
I don’t want to see her ever again,
"
Terra spoke first.

             
Aylin watched her in silence.
"
Agreed,
"
El nodded.
"
She can’t be trusted, even if we do know that he was influencing her.
"

             
"
Wait,
"
Blake frowned.
"
She never said anything about Cole influencing her. She did it in her right mind. It might have been out of fear, but she made her own decisions. She knew exactly what she was doing.
"
Blake began to pace.

             
"
You’re right,
"
Terra nodded.
"
I can’t believe I didn’t catch onto that. She made it clear that she persuaded Dad. What are we going to do?
"
She fell back against one of the birch trees.

             
"
Okay, lets slow down here.
"
Owen, who had only been observing the whole time, finally spoke.
"
I need to catch up, if you don’t mind.
"
He looked to Aylin.
"
So Mary poisoned you, for Cole. She brought you to a cave, where he was with some witches?
"
Aylin nodded.
"
Okay. Who is Cole?
"

             
"
Cole is a legend. He was the first faerie to fall in love and marry a human. This was back when our kind stayed away from the humans. We thought he fell in love with a girl and made her fall in love with him, after he ignored all the warnings from the rest of the fae. He showed her what he was, and she didn’t believe him. She thought he was a freak. She tried to spread the word through town, and he stopped her by erasing him from her memory. That act took everything he had in him, and he only had enough left to crawl into the woods and lay to rest. We thought he was dead. You heard the contradiction from Finn.
"

             
Owen mulled this over in his head, and then looked at Terra.
"
That’s what you were afraid of when you told me? That I would tell others what you were, and you’d have to erase yourself from me?
"
Terra stared at the ground in front of where he stood and nodded.
"
I would never do that to you,
"
he whispered. She looked up at him with tears glistening in her eyes.
"
Never.
"