Chapter 10

Chapter

Ten

A fter more conversation about her abduction than Robbie could keep her eyes open during, Wanda had insisted she go to bed, but not without someone watching her twenty-four-seven.

Because apparently, she could be snatched out of thin air and taken to the Lost Lands by some unknown entity, where she'd be chased by fire-breathing monsters on an endless loop.

So Tottington and Arch had corralled her cats, depositing them in her room along with a warm glass of milk, while the girls worked out a schedule to watch over her.

After Nina stood guard like a supermodel centurion during Robbie's shower, she handed over the babysitting reins to Greer, who'd pulled down the bedcovers of the huge California king in the guest bedroom where she'd spent the last few nights.

Robbie had teased the vampire that she must have gotten the mattress from the Cloud Store, it was so comfortable. Also, it beat the hell out of the shabby blow-up one she had in her apartment.

As she climbed in and snuggled under the gorgeous linen duvet in moss green, Robbie suddenly didn't feel nearly as tired as she had downstairs. Greer dragged the chair from a white oak desk in the corner of the room and pulled it to sit beside her.

"You know what I wanna know?" he asked.

Self-conscious of the parts of her hair still patchy from the fire, she smoothed it back against her skull, propping herself up on the fluffy pillows, also a lot like what she'd imagine clouds felt like. "What's that?

"How did you get this bedroom that looks like a spa retreat and I got the one with a carousel and a pink canopy?"

Giggling, she tucked the duvet under her chin. "Pink is probably a nice color on you. Maybe Nina was doing that color wheel thing she was telling us about when she first met Marty, and they sold makeup for Bobbie-Sue. If I recall, when I was looking at the charts Marty had, pink is definitely in your color wheel."

Now he laughed, too, deep and gravelly. "Maybe you're right. Or maybe Nina just wanted to show me who's boss and put me in my place."

She grinned. "Both things can be true."

He smiled at her, folding his hands in his lap and crossing his leg over his muscled thigh. "Fair. Now, you need to get some sleep. You've had an eventful day."

But she had questions. "I'm not really all that tired, now that I've showered. I think it woke me up—all that gloom and doom Lost Lands, blah blah, blah overstimulated me. Sometimes, when I'm overwhelmed, I dip. Sleep is my best defense."

Whenever she felt overwhelmed, she took a nap. She was aces at napping, and she spoke the truth—it was her best defense.

It was how she blocked out her mother's constant criticism. It was how she hid from turmoil. It was how she'd coped her whole life.

Greer gripped her hand with an urgency. "Listen, it's not a place to take lightly, Robbie. There's a reason someone dropped you there, in a place where you don't even remember being taken to."

Her expression went sheepish. That was true. There'd been no moment in time when she could remember actually leaving the grounds of Nina's castle. Everything had just changed from cold to hot, snow to sand.

"Sorry. It's not that I'm not taking this seriously. It's just a lot to absorb. Do you think whoever that witch was who told me to run might have had something to do with it? I mean, she knew my name, Greer."

His brow furrowed. "Yeah, that is weird. I don't know how anyone in the Lost Lands would even know about you. I have to be honest, none of this is making sense."

Robbie fought a shiver. "Maybe she was telling me to run in general, rather than run from whatever that thing was, breathing down my neck like some creepy stalker. I mean, maybe it was a warning?"

He rolled his tongue in his cheek. "Maybe that's true, but about what? Either way, I'm not taking any chances. I'm not leaving your side until we find someone from my damn coven to explain what's going on."

That made her heart pitter-pat, but then she reminded herself, now wasn't the time to have a crush on a cute guy. Now was the time to focus on how she'd handle her life going forward. When she'd left her mother's nest, if you will, she'd decided there would be no distractions until she knew where she was going, and that included men.

Greer was gorgeous and smart and even funny sometimes, but her life being what it was, with her future so uncertain, didn't leave room for her to explore a crush.

She didn't know what lie ahead, after these people felt safe enough to let her be on her own. For sure, there'd be a couple of messy court appearances due to her mother's criminal charges, and that was all she could handle right now.

Fighting her growing attraction to him, she diverted her thoughts by quietly asking, "Tell me again why people end up in the Lost Lands?"

He lifted his hard jaw. "You have to do something really bad to be banished there, Robbie. A very powerful witch has to take you after you've been found guilty of a crime."

"Something like what your grandmother did?"

He looked down at his hands, his eyes almost sad. "Even the Lost Lands wasn't punishment enough for Gwinnifer. But the Lost Lands is one step away from expungement."

That word… Expungement . So disturbing, rather a prettied-up version of execution. "How awful," was all she could manage. She hadn't asked for specific details about his grandmother's crimes. It was enough to hear she'd sucked the essence from people. She'd been afraid to dig deeper.

"Before we get into the Lost Lands, there's something I need to explain about me and Gwinnifer and my coven, and why I haven't personally gone to them to ask questions about how we move forward."

That she'd opened her big mouth and asked left her feeling like dog poo. How insensitive of her to pry into his personal business. "You don't have to say a word, Greer," Robbie reassured him. "I don't want to meddle."

"You're not meddling. You deserve to know where I come from, where I am, and how I got here."

Biting her bottom lip, she wanted to crawl under the covers for the pain smeared across Greer's face. Robbie hated that she'd dredged it up. "Are you sure?"

"I am," he said with obvious resolution.

As he began to explain what Gwinnifer had done to him, to his mother, everything he'd told Wanda when they'd talked earlier that night, her heart grew heavy in her chest.

Her own mother was a dreadful human being, but she hadn't literally killed anyone. Not by her own hand, anyway. Though, she certainly could be considered a killer by proxy.

Yet, it left her wondering as she reached over and gripped Greer's calloused hand. Mothers killing their children? Stealing their grandsons' powers? Leaving them in a coma that took months of recuperation? How was this community any better than the one she'd left behind? No, her mother hadn't killed anyone, but she'd sure left a lot of sick children in the lurch for her own selfish reasons.

Just as Robbie was beginning to feel like she might belong somewhere again, that maybe these new people were the answer to her wish to make connections that had nothing to do with her mother and her money, she felt like the wind had been knocked out of her.

This new world was a scary place, where scarier things than she could have ever imagined took place.

But then she remembered just how awful Greer must feel, and she experienced instant shame. She must remember, no one in her family had tried to kill her.

Though, they might if they knew…

Robbie shrugged that thought off and focused on how she'd never even considered Greer might not be a witch, too.

She felt ridiculously stupid. Never once had it occurred to her that Greer didn't have any magic. She'd been so caught up in learning how to use this crazy accident, she didn't think about much else.

"Anyway, that's my story. Any questions?" he asked, cocking his head, his eyes capturing hers.

Robbie bit the inside of her cheek, fighting the impulse to ask a million questions.

Instead, she shook her head, gripping his hand harder. "No, Greer. I imagine this is a pretty painful subject, and we've only known each other a few days. You don't owe me any explanations—except for maybe why the heck I can't improve my levitation skills. If I drop Nina on her perfect ass one more time, she's going to choke me out."

Jeez o' Pete, had that ever been a ruckus. If it hadn't been for Greer teaching her how to freeze the moment and hide from Nina while she cooled down, she'd probably be minus some vital organs.

He barked a laugh, and then he shook his head. "I do owe you explanations. Especially about why no one has returned my calls from my coven."

Yeah. She'd wondered about that, but because the idea that she should put up and shut up had always been so ingrained in her, she'd focused all of her energy on making this magic thing work and not making waves.

Her entire life was about not making waves, until it wasn't. Until the one thing she'd cared about almost more than anything else had been smashed to smithereens by her mother.

She shrugged, reaching for Aramis, who'd decided he preferred the warm bed to the enormous kitty condo Nina had put in her room just for her felines.

Yes, Nina had literally gone on Amazon and bought a cat condo the size of her apartment for her cats. The gratitude she felt for these people was immeasurable.

And her cats? They all quite enjoyed the constant attention they got from all these new people, and once Waffles had shown them whose castle was whose, they'd all gotten along rather well.

Finally, she asked, "So why isn't the coven calling you back? Is it that they don't want anything to do with me? I mean, I'd get that, in light of the stories the girls told me about all the accidents they've helped with and the reaction of their own packs and clans to their turning. I'm not a born witch. I'm an accident. Maybe I'm an embarrassment to them?"

Listening to the ladies reminisce about what the paranormal world had been like before they came along and insisted on inclusion for all was a trippy-trip. If anyone knew what it was like to be excluded through no fault of their own, it was the ladies of OOPS.

But they'd fought hard to be recognized and, in the process, had become revered, valued members of their communities. She'd hoped the same would happen for her. She'd hoped they'd embrace her.

His thumb stroked over the back of her hand, making her stomach do funny things. "It isn't you, Robbie. I don't think it has anything to do with you. I think it's because of me. I think it's because…after I found out that my grandmother was responsible for the loss of my powers, and that she'd killed my mother, I realized the coven leaders kept it from me. And like I told Wanda, I know they were just trying to protect me so I could fully recuperate, but I was still angry. I pushed them away. I isolated myself. Maybe this is a result of that."

God. Hearing those words out loud was brutal. She almost didn't know what to say.

As she looked around at the guest bedroom, the calming colors, the soft beige walls, Robbie used caution when she spoke. "But why did they keep it from you? They must have known you'd find out about it once you'd recuperated, right?"

Greer looked down at his work boots before crossing his ankles together, but he didn't let go of her hand. "I have to believe they did it to protect me. Who wants to tell someone their grandmother killed their mother and attempted to bleed them dry for their powers, before someone else stepped in and stopped it?"

Her stomach lurched. What an awful thing to discover.

Leaning forward, she sought his eyes with hers. "But do you really believe that just because you needed some distance and space from the situation, they'd simply ignore you now? That feels wrong after everything you've told me about them. Were they wrong to protect you? I have no right to judge, but they don't seem like the kind of people who'd totally, blatantly ignore you. Especially now, when you most need their guidance. It feels wrong, Greer."

He sighed, his look faraway, his tone bereft. "Then what else could it be?"

"I don't know, but we could go and ask?—"

His laugh was bitter. "We could, but as I've already told Wanda. I don't know where they are."

As he explained how his coven was cloaked from the outside world, and how you needed magic to find them, she had to stay silent in order to wrap her head around what he was telling her.

A village you needed magic to get into? Stahp. Just stahp.

But is it really crazier than anything else you've experienced, Robbie?

Point for the tiny voice inside her head.

When she finally spoke, Robbie patted his hand. "Then I'll just have to get stronger, won't I? And if we can't find it with this locator spell, or even if I do and they still turn us away because I hijacked some magic by mistake, we'll thumb our noses at them and make our own coven. How about that?"

His smile was warm and genuine. "I like you, Robbie Tisdale. Your optimism in the face of adversity is kinda crazy cool."

Robbie decided to change the subject for the obvious pain it brought Greer and the warm, fuzzy feelings his words gave her. But also because she didn't want to sound desperate. Even if she desperately wanted to belong somewhere—to something.

Patting his hand again, she said, "Tell me about Gwinnifer and why she tried to steal your powers. I don't understand."

"She tried to take them because I was becoming more powerful than her, and I didn't have to steal the essence of others to do so. It was my birthright."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I had magic that was unstoppable, magic that could realign the universe, and she wanted it—was willing to kill me so she could absorb it."

Robbie was too afraid to ask what "realign the universe" with his magic meant.

Exhaling softly, she squeezed Greer's hand tighter. "Ah. So now, you have no powers at all? Nothing?"

"No. Not anymore."

What would it be like to wake up from an insidious act to find out your whole life had changed, that a piece of you was gone forever?

She held up her left hand with a small smile. "Want mine? I mean, if you think about it, these powers kind of belong to you, right? You should have inherited this, not me."

He tipped his head back and laughed, revealing his strong bronzed throat. "While that's a view of this mess I hadn't given thought to, it doesn't work like that. If only it did. But why would you want to give up all the fun you've been having levitating Nina?"

Robbie snickered before she became serious again. "Is there no chance you can get them back? Like ever?"

"No. Gwinnifer took them with her when she left this earth, and we all know how she ended up. We saw it with our own eyes."

Losing his magic was one thing, but she couldn't even imagine waking up from a coma to find not only was your mother gone, but your grandmother had killed her and tried to kill you. "Was that part of the reason you wanted to dig her up? Because if I have her magic and you didn't think that was possible, why couldn't yours be floating around somewhere, too?"

His eyes glittered under the nightstand lamp when he shook his head, his broad chest lifting as he inhaled. "I don't know if my magic is floating around and no. Never even occurred to me, and I hope you believe that. I wanted to be sure she was dead so she wouldn't come looking for you."

Her throat tightened. "That's pretty selfless, Greer."

"If I'm honest, not entirely. Some of it was self-preservation. If she wasn't in that grave, for sure she'd come looking for me , too, to finish the job. I can only imagine how outraged she was when she was caught in the act, and because Gwinnifer's a grade-A narcissist, she'd blame me for it. I'm pretty sure she thought I was responsible for her expungement, too."

"And that all went down while you were in a coma? Her trial and conviction?"

"While I recuperated. It was all such a blur, I don't remember a lot of the time I spent in the hospital, but I wish they'd given me two minutes with her before they escorted her out of this world," he growled, his jaw tight.

Trying to lighten the mood, she asked, "So, I'm guessing there weren't a whole lot of cookies and milk to be had at Gwinnifer's, huh?"

He grinned. "There were never any cookies and milk at Gwinnifer's. My mother, her name was Aradia, didn't take me to see her often throughout my childhood, for obvious reasons. As I got older, heard all the rumors about her misdeeds, I stayed away of my own volition, even though her legendary hijinks followed me wherever I went. Until the day she got her hands on me, and then…"

Seeing how the retelling of his grandmother's crimes played out in his painful expressions, Robbie decided to divert the conversation entirely. If he wanted to talk about it further, Greer could make that decision.

"Tell me about your mother, Aradia, is it? She sounds like a fierce warrior." She'd fought to the bitter end for her son. She must have been amazing.

His face instantly softened and brightened. "She was. She was beautiful and smart and really funny. She made a mother of a meatloaf, and she made everything she touched magical. I often wonder how she came from such a horrible woman."

"What about your dad?" she asked softly.

"He died when I was an infant, but my mother always told me stories about him and how great he was. They were together a long time before they had me. I was what humans call a late-in-life baby."

" Humans call late in life? I'm almost afraid to ask what that means."

Greer looked at her carefully before he said, "She was one hundred when she had me."

Um… "Wait, how old are you?"

"Are you ready to hear that?"

"I have a possessed hand, Greer. I was whisked away to a place called The Lost Lands. I have a broom that talks with a French accent. Hit me," she said confidently.

"Seventy."

Her eyes went wide. "Seventy months? Weeks?"

Greer laughed. "Years. I told you, I'm immortal, right? Or I was immortal, anyway. Obviously not impervious to death, but without incident, I would have lived forever."

Her mouth fell open as she shifted positions on the bed, almost afraid to ask. But ask she did. "Am I immortal now, too?"

He winced. "You are."

"Do you think you might have wanted to share that with me? Or were you just going to show up at my hundredth birthday party and be like surprise, guess who's immortal?"

Greer winced again, but he let loose a small laugh. "I did kinda tell you, but I didn't want to bring it up again. I just felt like it was a lot to absorb after everything you've already been through. I was biding my time. Truthfully, it was the last thing on my mind."

Holding up a hand, she stopped his explanation. "I think I'm going to need time to process. In the meantime, tell me more about your mom. She never remarried?"

"No. She devoted her life to the coven and to me." He paused then, finally looking at her. "What about your family?"

Flapping a hand, Robbie dismissed them. "You know all you need to know about my shitty family. My mother may not have tried to kill me, but she didn't mind diverting funds meant for a charity for children with life threatening diseases. A charity near and dear to my heart, mind you. One I can never be a part of again because of her. If I never see any of them again, it'll be too soon."

"A charity?"

Tears sprang to her eyes. Rather than answer, she nodded.

He pushed her drying hair from her face, his touch tender. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

Closing her eyes, Robbie shook her head. "No. It's okay. I was involved in charity work all my life. My mother didn't love how involved I was, but she left me to my own devices for the most part. Likely because I never fit in. I was always saying the wrong thing, eating with the wrong fork, wearing white after Labor Day. You know…rich folk stuff."

"You don't know the difference between a salad fork and an entrée fork? What kind of heathen are you?" he asked, teasingly.

"I've shown you how bad my memory can be. Imagine growing up with Atilla The Momster who insisted I remember."

Laughing, Greer said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. Go on, please."

Looking down at their entwined hands, Robbie shrugged. "There was this one charity for children with life-threatening illnesses that really had my heart. I went to see the kids at the hospital, got to know their families, read to them, arranged for the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus to visit—even the Tooth Fairy. I… I fell in love with these sweet babies and their families. But when the press got a hold of what my mother had done, the board at the hospital banned all of us and… Well, I can't blame them. I'd do the same in their position. But it meant I couldn't see them anymore."

Visiting the hospital, meeting those children, holding their grief-stricken parents, had been the privilege of her life. To have that taken away had almost broken her in two. She missed them so much, it physically hurt.

"Jesus, Robbie. What a shitshow. I don't even know what to say. I'm sorry."

She swiped at a tear threatening to escape down her cheek, her eyes burning from holding them back. "It's okay. I can't be with them anymore, or at least not until my mother's in jail where she belongs and they prove I had nothing to do with this—which can take years, I hear. But I check their Facebook pages…the ones who haven't blocked me, that is. They're justifiably angry. I wouldn't believe me either. I mean, I was in the thick of my mother's corporation and didn't know a thing."

"What about your father?"

She scoffed. Men were as disposable as hand wipes for her mother. "Which one? If you know anything about Agatha Tisdale, she's had five ex-husbands."

"Five?" he said in disbelief, his eyes going wide.

She held up five fingers. "Five. All mostly decent guys who got tired of her pushing them around and dangling her money and power in their faces. Our biological father, mine and Steadman's, that is, died when I was ten in a boating accident, but I never saw him much anyway. He left my mother when I was three and Steadman was five. He wasn't all that interested in us."

There'd been a time when Robbie had prayed he'd come back, even if he hardly ever called or took them anywhere. As a little girl, she wanted to experience what all the other girls her age were experiencing. Daddy/daughter dances, a lap to sit on when she skinned her knee. Father's Day…

"What about your brother, Steadman?"

Now she rolled her eyes. "He's as bad as my mother. He flies from country to country, beach to beach, goes wherever the party is and he's a misogynist of the worst kind. We've never been close. He was always my mother's pet and she trained him well. I'd bet a kidney he's as caught up in this mess Agatha made as she is. They're being investigated right now. It's why I left." She paused and inhaled. "Okay, wait. I didn't leave, she booted me out. But the intent was to leave after a big speech in front of her elitist friends about what a horrible human being she is. She just beat me to the punch."

He tipped an imaginary hat to her. "That must have been something to see."

She shrugged. "I just couldn't take it anymore. After almost thirty-six years, I lost all the cookies in my cookie jar. As to what it was like, it's kinda fuzzy. If you ask Tottington, I made a scene and stomped off like a petulant child. But as you know, he's big on decorum. I guess I didn't really care how it looked, I just wanted out."

"And what about you? Did they investigate you?"

A couple of months after she'd moved out, the shit had proverbially hit the fan. "Did they ever, with a fine-tooth comb. They had a warrant to search my old apartment, my old office, all of it. They dragged me into interrogation after interrogation. The only smart thing I'd ever done where my mother and her business dealings were concerned was put my nose to the grindstone and do my job while keeping my mouth shut."

"Damn, Robbie," he said softly. "I thought my family was screwed up."

"I think it's fair to say we're neck and neck. No clear winner so far," she joked. She had to or she'd cry.

"And now you're living in a dingy apartment with your manservant and working at the Dollar General. That had to be a hard choice to make, Robbie. To leave all your creature comforts, all that money."

"But I'm free, Greer," she whispered. "I'm free from her horrible deeds. I'm free of her constant criticism and judgement. Free from working my fingers to the bone toward perfection that just doesn't exist. I'm free ."

His gentle smile soothed her as he took his hand from hers and tucked the duvet under her chin. "You're a brave, brave woman, Ms. Tisdale. A brave woman who needs some sleep. Your eyes are red. You look exhausted." Leaning over, he turned off the lamp. "I'll be right here until Wanda comes to relieve me, okay?"

"Okay," she whispered, the outline of his strong body highlighted by the moonbeam shining in through the window, now becoming smaller as she began to close her eyes.

"Hey, one more thing, Robbie?"

Warm and comfortable, she asked, "Uh-huh?"

"I'm curious, if you don't mind me asking. How did they catch your mother?"

Inhaling a shuddering breath, for the first time since all of that had gone down, she admitted, "Me. They caught her because I anonymously called the FBI and turned her in."