Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

Josie

"Josephine."

Someone shook me, but I couldn't pry my eyelids open. There wasn't enough strength in my body to do it. The portal had taken so much energy from me.

At least, I thought it was the portal. It was the last thing I remembered. Gathering the courage to jump through without Kellan.

Kellan. His name ran circles in my mind. I'd left him against my better judgment. I assumed I was lying near my house with Fern attempting to wake me.

She shook me again. Slowly, I blinked away the heaviness to see her leaning over me. "Oh, thank God," she whispered. "You're alive."

The canopy of trees above her were orange and yellow. It was a beautiful blanket overhead. If I hadn"t felt a sudden urge to get home, I would have sat there forever, just staring at the beauty of our world.

I sat up on my elbows, pine straw and sticks piercing my skin. Fern watched me as I looked around. I"d never forget the woods that surrounded my home. I spent so much time there as a child. "We're behind my house."

Fern glanced over her shoulder. "That big house is yours?" she asked.

"My parents' house, yes."

Fern reached to grab me when I began to stand up. My legs were wobbly from the portal, but after a few moments, I regained my footing. "Thank you. It looks like it's the afternoon. I'm sure they're home."

I stopped when I noticed Fern wasn't following me. "Are you sure they'll be okay with me being here? Do they like visitors?"

I chuckled and pulled a stick from my hair. "I'm sure. They'll be so excited that I'm safe that it won't matter. We have plenty of rooms for you to stay in. Everything will be fine. Come on."

Fern reluctantly followed me toward the backyard. My mother's garden looked neglected, but everything else looked the same. There was still a sparkle to the swimming pool, and the grass was mowed.

The back sliding doors creaked when I opened them and the smell of Melissa's cooking hit me square in the chest. Tears pooled in my eyes as I walked through the back door and toward the living room. I tried to blink them away, but more followed.

The distant sound of the TV drew me forward. I imagined my father sitting on the couch, half asleep, while my mother watched a TV show practically alone.

"Hello?" I shouted, hearing my echo against the walls of the staircase. "Mom? Dad?"

The silence didn't settle well with me. I craned my neck into the dining room and then the den. Where is everyone?

When I started the stairs with a hesitant Fern behind me, I heard chatter. "Mom! Dad!" I shouted.

A few seconds of silence followed, and then thundering footsteps hammered down the hallway, and I met my mother at the top of the staircase.

She looked terrible. There were dark circles beneath each eye, her hair hadn't been brushed and she was still in her pajamas in the late afternoon.

She wrapped her palm around her mouth, and tears raced down her cheeks. "Honey! She's here. He did it. He brought her home."

She pulled me into her arms, and her smell made me cry harder. My father stopped several feet behind us. The shocked look on his face meant he didn't think Kellan would succeed.

"Honey Dew," he whispered, pulling me out of my mother's arms and into his own. "I can't believe he found you. He found you."

Thoughts of Kellan thundered through my body. I pulled away to look at my dad's grateful face and wiped my own tears. "Kellan found me. He saved me, but he's battling something over there that took me. A witch took me. Who took her spindle? Someone in the house has her spindle. I have to find it and bring it back to Kellan. We need it to kill her."

Both of my parents stared at me with wide eyes. "What are you talking about?" Mother asked, her gaze moving toward Fern behind me. "Who is this?"

"That's Fern," I said, gesturing toward her small frame. "She's a faerie."

Mother's face turned ashen. "A faerie, Josephine?" she asked.

"A faerie," I said. "What did you think were in other realms? Humans?"

Mother wrapped her arms around her stomach. "Well, I didn't know," she whispered. "We"re glad to have you here. Are you girls hungry? Melissa has some leftover food in the fridge—"

"No," I said pulling away to look at them. "A witch took me to another realm because someone in this house took something of hers. We have to find it. I have to go back and save Kellan."

My father swiped his palm down his face, a telltale sign that he didn't like what I was saying. "Josephine," he said softly, touching my chin. "Sweetie, you can't go back there. We just got you back."

My spine stiffened. They weren't going to let me go. Here I was thinking Jacob would be the one stopping me, but my parents don't understand.

Fern touched my forearm, and I looked over at her. "Maybe we should eat first," she whispered, giving me a look to stay quiet.

I sighed heavily, wanting to shake my parents to make them understand, but nodded in agreeance. "Okay," I said. "I am hungry. We've been eating bread for days."

Mother ushered us toward the dining room to the table. Fern took a seat, giving me a look that I took as to stay calm.

I didn't feel calm. I was frustrated. My Dad wanted to toss Kellan to the side because I was safe. He sat across from me with a wide smile.

I couldn't even give one back to him. It felt forced and wrong. What was wrong with him? Mother brought us two plates of roasts and veggies.

Fern took hers greedily, while I felt vomit climbing my throat. Each bite felt like swallowing cotton. It wasn't happening. I needed to make them understand. Why couldn"t they understand?

"Where are Melissa and Jenny?" I asked.

"We had to let Jenny go," Mother said nonchalantly. "She wasn't doing her job."

My eyes popped open in shock. "She's been with us for so long—"

Mother's gaze lifted to mine. "I'm sorry, Josephine. She just wasn't working out anymore. Melissa will be back soon to cook dinner. She's going to be so excited to see you. We've been worried sick."

"I'm sure," I whispered.

Dad reached across the table and grabbed my free hand. "I'm so glad you're back. I was terrified that you weren't going to come home. My only baby girl."

I smiled weakly at him. "How do you know about portals and different realms?" I asked.

He sat back, rubbing his head full of salt-and-pepper hair. "Since I was a child. I saw Kellan once when I was young in the woods. Grandpa had taken me hunting, and I saw him come through a portal. I've known about him since. My grandfather said he was very old even though he doesn"t look it."

I stood up swiftly, unable to keep myself together in front of them. All the memories from the past week rattled my insides. I hurried toward the staircase and into my room. My mother called after me, but I didn't stop until I stood in the bathroom where I'd first saw Deidamia.

I braced my palms against the counter of the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror.

I looked different. There was something growing in my eyes. Something hard. Something wicked that wanted Deidamia dead. Mother knocked on the door and stepped into the room.

She rushed over and braced her palms on each side of my face. "Baby," she whispered. "What's wrong? You're home."

I shook my head. "I have to go back and save him, Mother. You have no idea what he went through for me. He sent me here to find who stole Deidamia's spindle, Mother. I have to give it back to her, or she's going to come after me."

Mother frowned. The obvious ‘my daughter's gone crazy' look hung on her face. "Josie, you think a witch took you?"

"She's the one that left that note. We have to find out who has her spindle—"

Mother dropped her hands in irritation. "I can't send you back through that portal. What if you never come back?"

"What if Kellan never comes back?" I whispered. He was my soulmate. Not that they would believe me. They didn't even believe that I'd been taken by a witch.

Mother searched my eyes, and she wrapped her palm around her mouth. "What did he do to you?"

I lifted my gaze toward hers. "He saved me."

"You're in love with him," she hissed, stepping back to put distance between us. "That man touched you, didn't he?"

I gaped at her. She was seriously blaming the man that saved me because I had feelings for him?

"You're serious?" I asked. "First, I'm an adult. If I want to date a man, I can. Kellan didn't force anything on me, Mother."

"He's not human, Josie. You have to see that."

I pointed toward my chest. "I see way more than that. I see the family he lost, the pain he's overcome, and the bravery he's showed by saving me. Do you think Jacob would have done half of what Kellan has to save me? I don't. That feeling I told you about in the garden. I feel it now. I refuse to let him die in that wasteland because you're afraid to let me go."

Mother sighed heavily and closed her eyes. I could see her calculating a plan to keep me here. "You need to eat and rest, Josie. We can talk about this when you"ve had a good night's sleep. You friend can sleep in a guest bedroom—"

"She'll sleep with me," I blurted out.

I didn't trust them. How could I trust people that would throw away the man they hired to save me? How could I trust my own parents? One of them knew something about the spindle, and I wasn"t stopping until I figured out which one.