Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Six

Josie

"Josephine, we taught you better than that," my father said.

I'd been unable to focus on his lecture for the most part. Jenny's frightened eyes had lingered in my head.

Fern was on the edge of her seat beside me, while I attempted not to stare at my mother. Her heated glare was on the side of my face. "What did she say to you?" Mother asked.

I cleared my throat. "Nothing really. I was shocked to see her and let her go. I don't think Jenny is a threat, do you?"

Mother kept her mouth closed, but Father groaned as if he was irritated. He stood and began to pace the floor in his plaid pajamas.

"Josephine, why would you run outside to confront an intruder?"

"She wasn"t intruding really. Trespassing, yes. Intruding, no. I don't know why I did it. Maybe traveling to another realm grew me some balls. I don't know."

Father gawked at me, while Mother's face stayed the same. "Josephine, seriously? Listen," he said awkwardly. "We need to speak about the other realm. You can't go around talking about it willy-nilly. Not everyone knows about it."

"But you two do," I countered. "Dad, you told me how you know. Mother," I said. "How do you know?"

"I learned from your father," she said, looking at her cuticles. "I am his wife. We share things."

Not everything, apparently.

I didn't believe her for a second. I would have never believed Jenny over my mother growing up. Mother was kind and always there for me. How in the hell did she get the spindle?

I sighed deeply. "This is ridiculous. Why is Jenny sneaking around anyway?" I asked.

Father lifted his hands. "Your guess is as good as mine. The woman has gone crazy. She was rambling on about crazy things. I don't need that energy in my house. In fact, I want to go to bed. We'll speak about this and your bad decisions tomorrow morning. You girls get to bed."

He kissed my forehead and stalked toward the bedroom. I watched as he shut the door, and silence settled over us. Mother stood seconds later, and I did, too.

Walking over because I didn't want her to know I knew anything, I kissed her cheek. "Love you."

"Love you," she said before leaving us alone.

She followed Dad into the room and shut the door. I sighed in relief.

Fern turned to look at me, but I put my finger up to my lips and pointed toward my room.

I walked upstairs with the feeling of someone watching me. Once the door was closed, I kicked off my slippers and slipped under the covers. Fern looked at me crazily but did the same.

I grabbed my notepad from my nightstand and began to draw the name MOM with my finger. I didn"t want to leave any evidence.

Fern watched me with large eyes. "She told you?" she mouthed.

I nodded.

Fern curled the blanket to her chin and watched with fearful eyes. "Are you afraid of her?" she mouthed.

I'd never been afraid of Mother. She was my mother. I loved and respected her. Part of me wanted to ask her straightforward, but if Jenny was telling the truth, I knew that Mother wouldn't admit to anything.

If she had stolen Deidamia's spindle, that meant she knew what it was used for. It meant she knew more about other realms, and it made me wonder if she was even my mother.

***

"Get up."

My eyes opened heavily to Mother standing over my side of the bed. She was dressed as if it was the middle of the day with her hair twisted on top of her head and her purse over her shoulder.

"What time is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

She walked toward my window and pulled the curtains open. "It's almost noon, Josephine. If you didn't run after trespassers in the middle of the night you may not sleep so long."

She was pissed. I glanced over to Fern's empty side of the bed and stilled. Where was she? She would have woken me, wouldn't she?

"She's down having breakfast. You should go too. Your Father and I are going to our weekly lunch. We won't be gone long."

I swung my feet to the ground, suddenly feeling energized to go find this spindle, but Mother hadn't moved from her spot.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, standing to face her.

The dark circles under her eyes looked heavy. Hadn't she slept the night before? Had she made sure we slept through the night? Was she afraid we would find something? Was she watching us?

Mother slid her tongue over her teeth. "Jenny said something to you, and I want to know what it is."

Her eyes felt like snakes on my skin. "I told you she didn't. She kept saying to let her go. You're calling me a liar?"

Mother shifted her weight. Her dressy slacks and penny loafers were ironed and shined. She looked ready for a day out as the mayor's wife. She didn't answer me as she walked toward the door and over her shoulder said, "We won't be long."

I waited as she descended the stairs before slipping into clothing. We didn't have long to figure out where she'd hidden the spindle.

Fern sat at the kitchen island, eating a plate of pancakes with the happiest smile on her face. "This is amazing," she said. "Have you ever had them?"

"Pancakes?" I asked while looking over my shoulder. "Of course. Hurry up. We don't have long."

Fern began to shovel in her food as the car doors shut outside. Slipping toward the front window, I watched as my parents sped out of the driveway.

I hurried over toward Fern at the island, eating and grabbed a piece of my pancake from my plate. My parents' door was shut, which wasn't unusual, but it was locked.

Mother locked it.

I bit my lower lip. "She locked it," I said to Fern.

"How are we gonna get in?" she asked with a mouthful of food.

Our junk drawer was full of miscellaneous things like screwdrivers and old credit cards. I grabbed one wedged against the side of the drawer and bent down in front of my parents' door.

Fern moved around behind me and handed me a pancake over my shoulder. I shoved it into my mouth as she bent down beside me. "You don't think the lady—Jenny—is crazy?"

I shook my head. "No. Mother is acting weird. I think she's right."

I shoved the credit card between the doorjamb and the handle, wiggling it until it slipped beneath the lock and opened.

The smell of Mother's perfume filtered out and warmed me. I'd always loved her smell. To think I was going against all of my raising. All of my feelings for my mother hurt me deeply.

Why would she do this? Why would she lie?

I turned on the light. The master bedroom was large, but my mother was a minimalist. There were decorations but no junk lying around. No lotions on her bedside table. Only a lamp.

Fern looked around the room. "I can't imagine her hiding a spindle in here."

I kicked open the closet door and looked into the darkness. Their bathroom was empty as well. Sliding my fingers into my hair, I sighed heavily and met Fern in their room.

She held two small packets in her hand. "What are these?"

I glanced at them. "Seeds for her garden ..."

My entire body stilled. Her garden. She'd never been a green thumb growing up and suddenly she took up a garden?

I'd thought it was because I left, and she was lonely. Maybe it wasn't any of those things. Maybe she buried it.

I ran toward the back door and flung the door open. Birds and wildlife greeted me as I ran barefoot over the dew-soaked grass.

Fern shouted after me, but I couldn't stop myself. I raced toward her garden and lowered myself to my knees. I'd sat here with her and spilled my deepest wishes of wanting a strong man.

While she potentially hid the object that had me kidnapped into another realm. I pulled up her flowers and began to dig with my bare hands.

"Josephine," Fern said. "You're scaring me. What are you doing?" she asked.

Her tangled blonde hair had fallen into her face, and she looked more like a faerie than ever. She looked youthful. Innocent. I was sad she'd been tossed into the life she had.

"Help me," I said.

She bent down beside me and began to dig. "You think your mother hid the spindle in here?"

I nodded, digging faster, hitting rocks and dirt caking beneath my nails. I only dug harder. I wasn't sure how long they would be gone for. An hour? Two?

What if it wasn't—

I stopped when my fingers brushed something hard. Fern stopped beside me and glanced at me with big blue eyes. "You find something?"

I swallowed as I moved more dirt around and saw the tip of something golden. There it was. The spindle. Like a madwoman, I began to dig harder until my arms grew numb.

The fear of Mother showing up lingered over me like a ghostly shadow. Fern and I dug until the entire top was visible.

She ran her fingers along the smooth gold and gasped. "I can't believe you found it," she whispered. "We're gonna save Kellan. I can"t believe it!"

I wrapped my fingers around the top and began to pull, while Fern dug deeper around it, loosening the dirt.

I pulled until it was laying on top of me, and the I stared at the cloudy blue sky. A laugh slipped from me. We'd found it. We found the spindle.

Fern helped me stand it up. Then reality smacked me in the face.

"She will know we dug up her garden. Even if we try to fix it, she'll know. She's already suspicious. We have to leave. Help me move this."

Fern grabbed one end, and I grabbed the other. We walked it over to the back door, and I raced toward the garden. Fern helped me put the soil back in and somewhat arrange the flowers.

It would buy us time.

"Are we going to the portal?" Fern asked, wiping her brow.

I nodded, my mouth suddenly dry and my heart pounding in my chest. It'd been over an hour since my parents left. They could be back any moment.

"Yes. We have to make it. Come on. Let's go now."

Fern and I grabbed the spindle as it sparkled in the sun and began to carry it toward the portal behind our house.

I prayed it was there like Kellan said it would be. Replaying his voice in my head made me smile. His kiss. His touch. Everything about him replayed in my head like a slideshow.

It felt great knowing I was going to save us all. I had the spindle to hand over as we planned to kill her.

We'd kill her, and ... I didn't know what.

What would happen? I couldn't come back home to Mother. She'd know I took the spindle. Would she hurt me? I wasn't sure. I didn't know the person I called Mother anymore.

Fern searched my face as we began to maneuver through the trees. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know what's gonna happen after this. My Mother isn't someone I can trust. I can't come back home."

She frowned as the twirling of the vortex hit my eardrums. "We're almost there," I said, stepping over overturned roots.

The closer we got, the more my heart thumped. Fern giggled excitedly as we put the spindle next to the vortex. "It's fun being a hero," she said.

I laughed at the same time that Mother's scream ripped through the woods.

"She's coming."