26. Twenty-Six
TWENTY-SIX
L ying made me itchy, but only when I didn’t want to lie. At this point, it felt as if I should be able to tell Steve the whole truth and let the chips fall. That wasn’t yet an option.
So, when we got back to the inn, I made an excuse about having to run back to the guesthouse and went outside. I was looking for someone specific, and I found him loitering behind the greenhouse.
“We know who the warlock is,” I said, causing Evan to look up from the pot he was working on. “What are you doing?”
“Tillie says I can grow my own crop in her field this year,” he replied.
If he was embarrassed to be caught digging around in the dirt, he didn’t show it.
“I want to plant a small herb garden. She let me borrow a few books and I’m getting the pots ready for the sprouts. They’ll start in the greenhouse.”
“Um … okay. Are you sure you’re not just hanging around because you think I might need you?”
He sent me a small smile. “I can do two things at once.” He got to his feet and dusted off his hands. “You’re not the only who might need me today.”
“Aunt Tillie. You’re worried about her.”
“She seems okay. You gave her an out she wasn’t expecting. That makes it easier for her.”
I considered it, then nodded. “Well, I’m glad I had an idea that might work for everybody. I originally thought we wouldn’t lose another life. I was wrong.”
I caught him up, telling him everything that had happened since I saw him the previous day. When I explained what happened to Tyler Travis and about looking inside Wendy’s head and finding a message from the naiad, he frowned.
“I don’t want to tell you your business,” he started.
“But you will.” I didn’t bother to hide my smile.
“That has ‘trap’ written all over it, Bay.” There was no amusement wafting across his features.
He almost always found something funny. When Scout had first healed him enough for a soul, he was tortured.
Since then—with the help of Aunt Tillie—he’d found his sense of humor. It wasn’t on display today.
“What if it isn’t?” I asked. “What if she’s trying to tell me that she’s almost finished?”
“Why would she care about communicating that to you?”
“I may have mentioned I knew someone who could open a plane door.” I squirmed under his steady gaze.
“I didn’t give her a name, but she only has one chance to ever live a decent life again.
Her people went through a plane door. They were in the area because they were trying to figure out how to open the plane door in the lake. Scout can open that door for her.”
“Scout would be more than happy to open the door,” Evan readily agreed. “She’s not done hunting yet. You just told me there are two people left on her list.”
“Greg Prentiss and Dustin Carrington.”
“One of whom is a warlock.”
“Greg,” I confirmed.
“What do we know about him?” The way Evan folded his arms over his chest reminded me of Chief Terry.
“Not much,” I replied. “We don’t have time to do a deep dive. She’s going after him.”
“Have you considered it might be better to let her kill him?”
I swallowed hard, then nodded. “I’m worried that she doesn’t have the power to kill him.”
“Because he killed the other naiad.” Evan cocked his head, working things out. “Maybe they were caught unaware and that’s how the warlock got the jump on them. He may not be all that powerful.”
“Or he’s really powerful and has been flying under the radar for a long time. I’m going to try to save Dustin. He might not have done what he did and killed the naiad—going so far as to torture her—without the warlock’s influence.”
“You’re suggesting a trade,” Evan realized. “You’re going to give her the warlock and save the human. Is that the message you want to send to the Feds?”
“Not particularly.” I grew uncomfortable under his unblinking gaze and tugged at the collar of my shirt. “That’s pretty much the opposite of the message I want to send.”
“But?”
“But…” I drew out the word. “The warlock created the situation. The warlock told them to kill the naiad. Even if the warlock didn’t know what he was facing, he knew they were paranormals. He didn’t have to kill the other naiad … and definitely not in such brutal fashion.”
“You think he could turn into a problem down the line,” Evan surmised.
I shrugged. “I’m surprised he hasn’t turned into a problem already. Maybe he knows who we are. Maybe he’s been watching us. Maybe he will be a problem for us in the future.”
“That’s a lot of maybes, Bay.”
“There are some things I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. I can’t kill that naiad. Not after what happened.”
“Because you would do the same in her shoes.”
I nodded. “If a group of individuals did that to Landon—or Clove and Thistle, for that matter—I wouldn’t stop.”
Evan briefly closed his eyes, then nodded. “You said you know several things.”
“I guess it’s two things. The second is that I can’t shove Millie back in a box. I don’t entirely know what Aunt Tillie did, but I can tell she regrets it. She had no idea Millie managed to mark the passage of time while being locked away. She thought she had no choice. She was wrong.”
Evan’s forehead screwed up in concentration. “This world isn’t big enough for two Tillies.”
“The other world might.”
“It’s an interesting idea,” he said.
“Nobody dies,” I agreed.
“Except for the warlock.”
I shrugged. “We don’t know he’s going to die. If I can save him, I will. If he’s sacrificed, it is what it is.”
“It feels like justice to you.”
“Yeah.”
He nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“I have to deal with Steve. I need Scout to open that plane door so I can walk the naiad and Millie through it. If you can get Scout here, I’ll figure out a way to separate from Steve. Then we’ll just do it.”
“You make it sound easy.”
“I don’t think it will be easy, but it has to be done.”
“Okay. I’ll get Scout. I’ll leave the rest to you. Contact me when you know where we should be and when.”
I gave him an impulsive hug. He was stiff, to the point I was confused. When I looked over my shoulder, I found the source of his unease.
Spencer stood near the corner of the greenhouse, staring at us. He appeared as uncomfortable as I felt. “I was just looking for you. Steve wondered where you went.”
He either thought I was cheating on Landon with Evan—which was ridiculous—or he recognized that Evan and I were plotting.
“You guys are up to something,” Spencer said when Evan and I continued to stare like idiots.
“Yes.” I nodded. Lying was out of the question. Spencer wasn’t a moron. “I have a plan, and I can’t tell Steve what it is.”
“I thought you were all about the brutal honesty,” Spencer challenged.
I shrugged. “There’s honesty and there’s honesty. This situation is … layered.”
“You’re not going to kill the naiad,” he guessed.
“I am not.”
“And you’re afraid that Steve will try to order you to kill it.”
I nodded again.
“He wouldn’t do that. I understand why you plan to do this on your own. It’s too much for Steve to absorb all at once.”
“We have three things to deal with.” I ticked them off on my fingers. “The naiad wants to go to another plane. She has murder on her mind first.”
Spencer nodded for me to continue.
“We have Millie, who is a problem all to herself. I think she might do well if she goes with the naiad, but that’s going to require a conversation.”
“I can’t pretend to understand the Millie situation,” Spencer said.
“It’s a mess. There’s another factor. There’s a warlock who used his powers to convince the construction workers to kill the naiad, but torture her first. The construction workers might’ve panicked and accidentally killed her. The wizard knew better.”
“You believe he’s our main enemy.”
“He’s our biggest problem,” I clarified. “I’m going to send my friend here to get another friend who can open a plane door. While he’s doing that, I’m going to talk to Millie.”
“What about the warlock?”
“He’s last on the list.” I turned grim. “He’s the piece of the puzzle we’re going to make fit whatever picture we come up with.
“I have to deal with Millie first,” I continued. “The naiad will fall into place. All she truly wants is to be left alone. Once I have Millie, I’ll deal with the warlock. We have to make sure Dustin Carrington is off the playing board too.”
“Because he’ll become collateral damage,” Spencer surmised.
“He’ll be an issue,” I said. “Can I trust you to keep Steve out of this?”
Spencer looked uncomfortable with the question. “He’s my boss. I have a great deal of respect for him.”
My heart sank.
“I have a great deal of respect for you, too,” he added, blowing out a sigh. “I think you can trust Steve, but I understand why you don’t believe you have the time to get him where you need him to be.”
“You haven’t answered the question,” I pointed out.
He held up his hands. “I won’t tell him. I prefer not knowing the specifics of your plan.”
“That’s fine with me.” I meant it. “Go inside for lunch, Spencer. When Landon asks where I am, tell him I’m going after Millie. You don’t have to lie to Steve about it. Landon will understand.”
I FOUND MILLIE ON THE BLUFF. She kept getting drawn back to the inn.
“Hello.” I greeted her with what I hoped was a friendly smile.
She scowled at me. “Can’t a witch get a little privacy? I didn’t ask you to join me. How did you know to find me here?”
“Because you’re Aunt Tillie.”
“I am not that woman.” Millie was appalled. “You’re on my freaking list. I hope you know that.”
My lips quirked. “I have no idea why I would say anything of the sort.”
She rolled her eyes.
I sat down next to her without invitation. “You know you can’t stay here?” I wasn’t trying to hurt her. Now was the time for honesty. “There can’t be two Aunt Tillies.”
“I know.” Her upper lip twisted into a sneer. “My original plan was to replace her. When I realized you didn’t know there were two of us, that seemed like the simplest plan.”
“That’s why you were in the lobby that night. You were testing the waters.”
She nodded. “You didn’t doubt for a second that I was Tillie.”
“I would’ve figured it out eventually. I was flustered that night.”
She stared at the hills. “I don’t want to be Tillie. I want to be myself. That’s all I want. Tillie wants to take that away from me.”
“Actually, she doesn’t.” Ruefully, I shook my head. “That’s the last thing she wants. She feels guilty. She created you and thought when she made you go away that it was okay. That you wouldn’t be aware of what was happening. Obviously, she was wrong.”
“Very wrong,” Millie agreed. Her smile was mischievous. “Do you want to know how I was created?”
I didn’t have much time, but I was willing to stretch things out to get the story. “I really do.”
Her grin widened. “She used a poppet and infused it with her essence. She thought she would be working with a golem—one that she could control and would have her spunk and wit—but she went too big.”
“Ah, the story of Aunt Tillie’s life.” I bobbed my head.
“She used too much of her essence and made me. I even have a small part of her soul.”
“Which is why you’re not hellbent on destroying us,” I guessed.
She shrugged. “I don’t want to punish anyone. I don’t want to be put away again like a forgotten toy. When she was finished with me, she tried to reabsorb her essence. Instead, she made a small compartment inside of her, and that’s where she trapped me for more than two decades.”
“I’m sorry. No, truly.” I shook my head. “I don’t want you to be hurt, but two Aunt Tillies is one too many.”
“You want me to sacrifice myself,” she said.
“In a way of speaking.” I took a deep breath. “There’s a plane door at Torch Lake. The naiad wants to go through it. Many of her people have migrated to that world. I don’t know much about it, but if the naiads are interested I can guess there’s a lot of nature and water.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“They don’t have an Aunt Tillie. They definitely don’t have a Millie.” Tentatively, I reached out and touched her wrist. “You could go there and live your life. You won’t be in anyone’s shadow, and no one will be able to put you back in the box.”
“You’re going to let me go, just like that?” She was incredulous.
“It’s the right thing to do.”
“And in return?”
I held my hands palms out. “I don’t want anything. Well, other than you staying out of Aunt Tillie’s way so we don’t have another fight before your big goodbye.”
“I can just start over in another world?”
“It’s no different than what you’re facing here. It will actually be easier. Aunt Tillie will always be an obstacle here.”
Millie swished her lips back and forth. “How can I trust you?”
“Deep down, you know you can. Otherwise, you would’ve run the second I sat down.”
Millie let loose a tortured sigh. “I wish I’d known this sooner.”
“Would it have changed anything?”
“Just one thing.” Millie looked genuinely apologetic. “It’s too late. I’m … I’m really sorry.”
Confusion knit my eyebrows. “For what?”
“For bringing me in,” a male voice replied behind me.
Confused, I swiveled, but not fast enough.
A hand grabbed my hair, and another shoved a cloth in my face.
The scent of chloroform overwhelmed me. I only had time to register two things: Millie had paired with the warlock, likely believing he would be her best chance at freedom, and I wasn’t coherent enough to call ghosts to help me.