Chapter 43 A Will & A Way #2
“My garden,” I whispered. The dusky glow of late evening illuminated each neat row, throwing misshapen shadows across the fallow space between.
All the summer vegetables had already been harvested, but there were some rather impressive pumpkins growing along the base of the wall, and the winter squash looked perfectly ripe.
I ran my fingers over the soft carrot tufts growing at my feet, then pulled one out just enough to see the bright orange flesh.
In my absence, the Sisters had kept everything thriving.
Devil put a gentle hand on my shoulder, and I reached up to take it.
“I suppose…I wasn’t really needed here after all.”
“The Arden needs you now,” he said, placing a tender kiss on the side of my head. “I need you.”
I looked back at him and tried to smile, but there was still a small, hollow space in my chest.
“Marina?!” The cry was shrill, but soft, and I heard the click of the garden gate before I even saw Sissi rushing toward me with her arms out. I threw myself into them without thinking twice, letting out a quiet sob as we sunk into the dirt together.
“I’m so sorry,” I cried into her wimple. “I’m so sorry for leaving.”
“Oh, my darling girl,” Sissi breathed. “Oh, oh, oh, please don’t cry.
You have nothing to be sorry for. Look at me.
” She took my face between her hands and gently lifted it to wipe my tears.
But as soon as her eyes met mine, I knew she could see all the ways I’d changed.
Oberon’s powerful glamour was now gone, and she was seeing me for the first time.
As her careful gaze swept over my features, I began to shake, imagining a cold, fearful rejection.
But she just pushed my hair back over the delicate points of my ears and frowned.
“You have been to the Arden…” she whispered, “and they have taken you.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, Sissi. The Arden made me. This is what I have always been.” She frowned and opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a second cry.
“May, is that you?” Another click of the garden gate, more hurried footsteps, but this time Devil moved in front of me.
“Not another step!” he barked. I peered around his leg to see Tuck approaching, his face harried and worn, a longsword hanging from his belt.
He stopped on the garden path, but Devil didn’t move.
They just stared each other down for a moment before I scoffed and stood up, skirting around Devil to meet Tuck with a long embrace.
“Oh, little May.” He crushed me against him, fighting back the same tears I was. When I pulled away, he looked me over quickly and grinned, the corners of his steel-blue eyes crinkling. “Will told us you were safe, but…I can see now that you’re happy too.”
I let out a half-laugh, half-sob and said, “I am. I am happy. Thank you.”
“Then what are you doing here?” Tuck murmured, his eyes flickering over to Devil and narrowing.
“I think explanations are best given inside,” Sissi said as she stood and brushed her skirt off.
Still eyeing Tuck warily, Devil bent to pick up the chest of gold and we filed through the garden behind Sissi, who kept one eye on the Abbey.
The Sisters were all at evening prayers, I realized, and a strange nostalgia overtook me—a longing to sit in one of the chapel’s hard pews and sing the familiar hymns, then drink a cup of black currant wine while gossipping with Jazmina.
As we entered Locksley and hurried down a corridor, I tried to shake the feeling away, but it only became more intense, causing me to lose focus on the reason we were actually there.
Sissi led us to her private office and, once we were all inside, she bolted the door and shuttered the windows.
Devil heaved the chest of gold onto her desk and stood silently with his arms crossed.
“Is it true about Helena?” asked Tuck immediately. “Did the Fair Folk take her?”
“No!” I insisted, but Devil snorted and I was forced to amend myself. “Not on purpose. Will told us that you needed money, and that Johar was sending a tax caravan through the Arden. We only wanted to take the gold, but…they were also carrying prisoners, including Helena.”
“He planted her,” said Devil, “so he could excuse an invasion of the Arden.”
Tuck’s eyes widened in horror. “Are you certain that’s what he wants?”
“Have you not seen the soldiers at the edge of the trees?” Devil snapped.
“But an invasion would gain him nothing,” Tuck retorted. “Can you not simply return Helena? Publicly?”
“No.” My voice was a bit too sharp and Sissi raised an eyebrow. “Her father no longer sees value in her life. She came to us beaten bloody, and I believe he would kill her if she were returned to him. Besides, if he is looking for an excuse to invade the Arden, he will find it.”
“We need help,” Tuck muttered, running a hand over the stubble on his chin, then through his gray hair. “Especially since Johar is now doing everything in his power to drive Piers to an early grave.”
Sissi nodded sadly. “I fear who they might find to replace him, if anyone at all. It is just as likely Johar names himself head of the Church.”
“Will mentioned that you were trying to get messages to Rykard,” I said hopefully.
“He is a Prince in exile,” said Tuck, “and I am but a lowly friar. I have tried contacting his advisors in Messina, but getting a messenger through the Channel, then through the port at Achaia, has been…very difficult. I still have not heard back from the last man I sent, and I am beginning to fear the worst.”
“Will this help?” Devil asked, opening the chest. Sissi let out a sharp gasp and even Tuck looked dumbfounded at the sight of the coins.
“Yes,” Sissi whispered. “Yes, this will help keep Locksley safe from the Iron Fist, and it will help vulnerable families flee to safety. That is all we can ask right now.”
“It’s been checked for marks,” I assured them, “but please be careful about how you use it.”
Tuck nodded slowly, but his eyes were unfocused, staring at the gold. “It may not be enough, but I will do what I can to forestall any kind of invasion.”
“Sabotage is usually quite effective,” Devil told him with a half-smirk. “I would be more than happy to assist.”
“He’s quite skilled at it,” I laughed softly. Both Tuck and Sissi shifted their eyes to me, brows raised. It was the same look they’d given me the day they found Will and I napping in each other’s arms beneath an apple tree on the Abbey grounds.
“And…who is he…exactly?” Sissi asked.
“I am the Devil, of course.” He winked and she looked as though she might faint.
After making the sign of the Holy Family on her chest, she turned back to me. “May…please come home…”
“The Arden is her home,” Devil growled, and I put a hand on his elbow.
“Locksley is my home too,” I said, “but I’m sorry, Sissi, I cannot come back. The Arden needs me, and I would only be putting you in danger. I can do more good outside these walls now.”
“I will not pretend to understand what has happened to you,” said Sissi with a deep, shaky breath as she walked across the room to fold my hands between hers.
“I am not certain I want to know. I would only ask that, no matter where you go, you remember how loved you were—how loved you still are—by us, and by the Holy Family.” She grabbed me into a desperate embrace, as if trying to keep me there, and I allowed her to hold me for a full minute before gently pulling away.
“When it is safe again, I’ll come back to visit,” I said, brushing a single tear from her pale cheek. “And I’ll help in the garden, and I’ll eat every ounce of saffron you have.”
Sissi gave a weak laugh and tucked my hair back again. “If ever I had to make a faerie bargain, that would be it…something to bring you home again.” She placed a kiss on my forehead, then stood back and looked at Tuck.
“I’ll escort you out,” he said, hand going automatically to the pommel of his sword.
I gave Sissi one more brief kiss on the cheek, then followed Tuck into the corridor with Devil behind me.
All through the Abbey, we were silent, on alert for the sound of approaching footsteps.
Once we made it onto the grounds without meeting anyone, Devil and I pulled our hoods up and made our way through the almost-moonlit garden.
Tuck put his head out the back gate first, scanning for the Iron Fist, then ushered us through and closed it.
“Give us a moment,” I said to Devil, who just grunted, pulled the longbow off his back, and moved away to stand watch. When I turned back to Tuck, he was smiling, but he also looked more afraid than I’d ever seen him.
“Do you know why I chose the name Marina?” he asked, voice tight with repressed emotion. “The day I found you?”
“Because my eyes reminded you of—”
“No.” He shook his head. “It was because when I picked you up the first time, out there on the steps, you looked at me like I’d done you some offense.
Then you wailed, woke up every Sister in the Abbey, and I thought ‘here is a girl who will take up space, who will never let people forget what she is, and what she can do…just like the sea’. ”
“Tempestuous,” I said with a grin. “Merciless from the very start.”
“And yet still, people seek her out. They are drawn to her. They rely on and respect her.” He put a finger over my heart. “Do not forget who you are, Marina of Locksley—who you have always been. No matter what the Arden has given you, no matter what you find there, remember yourself. Promise me.”
My words fought their way out past the lump in my throat. “I promise.”
Tuck’s eyes flickered over to Devil, and his easy smile returned. “That creature, whatever he is, loves you very much.”
“Does he?” I laughed softly. “I hardly noticed.”
“And you…”
I dropped my eyes and murmured, “I am more myself now, with him, than I have ever been. I would not trade that feeling for anything.”
“Go, May,” Tuck said, holding my face between his hands for a moment. “Be happy. I will see you again when it is safe.”
With only a murmured word of thanks, I walked away. Away from Tuck, from Sissi, and from Locksley, praying desperately that it would not be the last time.