37. Chapter 37 #2
He stiffened a little bit, and she waited for him to speak.
“I’m worried that even though the curse is gone, I might never age. And then I’ll have to watch all the people I care about leave me alone again.”
She looked up into his pain-filled eyes and tried to keep the tears from coming. “We’re going to take things a day at a time. I guess my question to you is, would you rather spend your life alone now for fear of future heartbreak, or spend it with the people you love while you can?”
He nodded and kissed the top of her head, then settled her back against his chest once again. “You astonish me.”
“I love you too,” Sienna answered, snuggling against him. “We have a lot to look forward to.”
Sienna opened her eyes as the morning sun hit her face. John slept soundly beside her. She studied him for a few minutes, memorizing the small lines next to his eyes and listening to his soft breaths that were just shy of a snore.
Sitting up slowly so as not to wake him, she reached for his shirt hanging off the footboard and pulled it on.
Sienna padded quietly out of the room into the main part of the cabin.
She could feel her mother in this cabin more than anywhere else, and she hugged herself.
“I miss you, Mom. I wish you were here. We finally stopped the curse and we’re happy.
You would love Megan, Tessa, and the girls.
You would have been an amazing grandmother.
” She swallowed. “And I wish you could meet John. You would like him too.”
She walked over to the sewing machine and ran her hand along the top before cringing at the horrible sewing attempt her mother had insisted on framing.
She took it off the wall to get a better look at it.
Papers from behind the frame fluttered to the ground, and she bent to pick them up, her heart stuttering when she recognized the pages with ripped edges. They were from her storybook.
John walked into the room wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. “I woke up and you were missing.”
She looked up at him and he frowned. “What’s wrong?”
She held up her hand. “I found these behind the frame.”
His eyes widened. “The missing pages.”
“Yes. And a letter from my mom.”
He walked over to her. “Have you read them?”
She shook her head.
John wrapped his arms around her. “There’s no rush.”
“I know. But I want to.” She walked over and sat down.
For some reason she turned to the pages first. Maybe she wanted to hold on to her mother’s words awhile longer before she read them.
She looked at John, who sat next to her, and he nodded before she began reading the story pages out loud.
It talked about Evie and her brothers facing off with the trolls.
With the help of the scholar and mage, along with the trickster and ogre, they saved their village.
And with the magic wand the trickster gave Evie, the ogre, who had been shunned in the past, became a member of the village and Evie’s closest friend.
She set the papers down. “It would have been helpful to have these pages yesterday. Maybe you wouldn’t have been so quick to have me stab you.”
He chuckled. “That’s your takeaway from these pages?”
“It’s one of the important ones, so I felt the need to point it out.” She reached for the envelope and ran her finger over her name written on the front in her mother’s handwriting.
“Do you want me to give you a moment?” John asked.
“No. Stay here.” She opened the envelope and took a deep breath as she unfolded the papers. Her heart pulsed when she saw the date written at the top of the letter. It was three days prior to her accident.
My dearest girl,
If you’re reading this, that means that I am no longer with you.
Of course that was not my plan, but we often don’t have control over things.
I wanted to explain why I’ve left you a special vault with the three items enclosed.
You and your brothers have been chosen to help bring an end to the spell that has taken away our dragons.
Even before I realized you had an important destiny, I was proud of you all.
I called you ‘my three hearts’ because when each of you were born, a piece of my heart went with you.
In this vault, you will find a storybook.
You may remember some of the story since I used to tell each of you bits and pieces of the tale.
This is the third book. One for each of you.
I plan on giving Eric the second storybook very soon.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trusting the wrong person, and I no longer have the first storybook that would have been Adam’s legacy.
But I will be sharing the story with him as well since I have each memorized.
Thankfully I was able to give Adam the pendant he wears before that could be taken away from me as well.
I am going to ask your brothers not to share the story with you until you’re older, and then I will tell you all about it.
You need to have a childhood free of evil spells and mistrust. And I will spend my days ensuring that happens.
But to be safe, in the vault I have placed your storybook and a ring for your brother Eric that you need to give him, along with a bowl that will play a part in what is to come.
I have always known that each of you would have a role in freeing our dragons, but my darling Sienna, you will be at the center of it all.
At first when I realized the part you would play, I was scared and tore the last pages out of your story so that you wouldn’t know that you had to stand up to the evil that was trying to destroy us.
But then I realized that I needed to include the pages and this letter in the vault in case I didn’t get the chance to explain things to you.
I couldn’t stop your destiny even if I wanted to.
I look forward to seeing you grow into the amazing woman I know you will be. But if that doesn’t happen, I wanted to explain why I have left you this legacy.
I love you, my special girl. Know that I’m always with you.
Mom
Sienna folded the pages together, tucked them inside the envelope, and set it carefully on the table in front of her.
John thankfully didn’t ask what the letter was about as he gently wiped away her tears.
She fell into his arms and squeezed him tight as her mother’s words swirled in her overwhelmed brain before settling in her heart.
She would tell John and her family everything once she could do so with a steady voice. But there was no rush. Tomorrow she could go back to being clan leader. Today she would just be Sienna.