Chapter Twenty
CHAPTER TWENTY
Liam and his mother walked for so long his toes had gone numb. Maggie had talked without giving him time to say a word. The truth of what she told him was so heavy that he felt dizzy. His thoughts whirled fast enough to make his head spin.
“All this time you said nothing?” he asked she finally paused. If a bit of irritation bled into his words, Liam was unable to hide it. “I’ve lived my entire life with no idea at all, that I’m—” he stopped short. What did this make him? Not wholly human, then, and not Acernae either. An anomaly.
“Oh, honey. I would have told you sooner, but it just never seemed like the time. You were so small when you showed the affinity for the natural world, but I thought it could have been simply our love for the forest passed on to you. You had always been a little quiet, a little set off from the others, I thought this would make you feel like even more of an outsider. I suppose I always felt that way, and didn’t want you to experience the things that I did.”
“And Rebecca? Does she know?”
“Of course not! After my mother left… well, I tried to forget the whole thing, for a while. Your father never met Tove, and it was easier to pretend it had never happened. We had been trying to have a child for so long, but when Rebecca came to us, we th ought that would be the end of it. Then you happened, and it was a bit of a surprise. With her being adopted, and you two already so different, I thought it would drive a wedge between you, and I never wanted that. Honestly I didn’t even know it’d been passed on to you, until just now when you touched that old guitar.”
Liam kept pace beside her, the streetlights turning on as the sun began to set. It was only about four o’clock in the afternoon, but the darkness came early this time of year. Liam pinched at the bridge of his nose, trying again to grapple with what his mother was saying.
“So dad doesn’t know then either?”
“Well, no.” Her face went crimson under the pale yellow of the streetlights. “The Acernae secretive people, you understand. It was not my secret to tell.”
Liam knew that as well. After all, he’d kept the truth from friends initially, and even his own parents. He supposed he had little right to be mad at his mother for doing the same.
He recalled again the words Tove had said to him, back in the crumbling building tucked in the woods. He’d reminded her of someone. Of course, now he knew she’d meant his grandfather. Tove could have told him herself, or sought him out while he’d been there in her forests, but she did not.
It no longer mattered, since the property wouldn’t be in the family much longer. The thought made his stomach twist. He’d felt responsible for those trees long before he’d known that his roots stretched deep below them.
“So, you decided now was a good time to tell me this, right before we sell the property? You’re just going to walk away from those forests forever now?” Pain crossed his mother’s face, and he instantly regretted his choice of words.
“John and I made our lives out there in that house. It was enough for us. You and your sister never loved that place as much as we did. Maybe, when you were younger I thought… But you’ve grown up, and you’re doing quite well for yourself out here. And one day, I want you to have the house and the family that you want. Not whatever we stuck you with. Telling you about all this… I worried it would sway you to stay. I worried that one day you’d resent me as much as I sometimes resented my own mother. I won’t lie and say I didn ’t hope you would want to stay, but you are so smart and so successful. You deserve the world.” A tear spilled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away but more followed, trailing down her face as she spoke.
“I love your father. But if he felt for a second that I was sacrificing anything for him, you know his pride would not allow it. That house is too hard for him now. I made peace with my decision. I am only sorry now to be burdening you with this, and I hope it does not change your plans. It’s such a small part of you, and once you’re gone long enough, the magic begins to fade. I can already feel it going away, it’s probably why my hair has gone gray.” She tried a smile, but it was unconvincing. “You didn’t feel it until you went back there, the other week, right? And another year or two in the city and you can live your life like normal, no strangeness at all.”
The words ought to have been encouraging, but they felt oddly flat. Wasn’t that what Liam wanted? To go back to his normal life and live like nothing had happened? Except it was already too late for him. Whatever had awoken in him in those last few weeks was difficult to ignore, especially now he had a name for it. He took a deep breath, bracing himself to share with her the tangled mess of feelings he’d been carrying around.
“I met them, mom,” he said simply. “The maple, in the clearing near the house, and she…” she what? Liam hadn’t let himself consider Iona fully since he’d returned. There was something there, a feeling which he tried to ignore but felt suspiciously wary of. He shook his head, letting the sting of cold on his cheeks snap him out of the dangerous waters he swam in. Thankfully Maggie cut him off before he said something reckless.
“You met them?” A flurry of emotions played across her face. “Did you meet… her?”
Liam nodded, knowing at once who Maggie had meant. “I met Tove. She… she seemed to recognize me.”
“Ah,” his mother responded, her gaze set resolutely on the quiet street in front of them. They’d been walking for nearly an hour, judging by the dimming light of the evening. “So she lives.”
She said nothing else, but Liam couldn’t imagine how it must feel to have been abandoned like that. Alone at such a young age and just after the loss of her father. Maggie would be furious with Tove. Not that he could blame her. Maggie lived within reach for decades and Tove paid no mind. Even when Liam stood before her, she said nothing.
“I’m sorry,” Liam said lamely.
“You aren’t responsible for the actions of others. Besides, it was many, many years ago, I’ve come to peace with her, in my own way. But enough about me. Tell me about the one you met.”
So they walked onward, and Liam told his mother of the struggles they faced against the loggers. He chose to leave out the strange relationship that sparked between himself and Iona, but his mother was just as perceptive as the Acernae she was born of. She saw through the gaps in Liam’s story to the heart of what was bothering him, the reason he’d brought Iona up in the first place.
“You like her, don’t you?” she asked, and threaded her arm back through his.
Liam opened his mouth to object, but the flush that crept across his cheeks silenced him. “I want to help,” he insisted.
His mother eyed him with mischievous suspicion. “A pretty girl asked for your help to save the trees outside your childhood home, and yet you’re here.”
Liam was speechless. Put so plainly it sounded impossibly easy.
“My job is here. My life is here,” he told her, but the lie sounded flat even to his own ears.
“Hmm,” she hummed. “There is certainly a life for you here. If it’s the only life for you… that’s up to you, Liam. Your life is where you build it. Your father, he’s home to me, and while I would have loved to stay in that house, I care most about being with him. So we brought the things that mattered to us and found a place with a beautiful patio to garden on. We built a new life together. It’s never too late.” She winked, then wrapped her arms tight around herself. “Enough of this serious talk, Liam. I am cold to the bone. Let’s head back and make sure everyone survived our absence.”
***
After spending a few numb hours at his sister’s house with a vacant smile plastered on his face, Liam made the journey back home in a daze. He put his headphones on, but forgot to play anything as he rode the bus back to his apartment. He stared down at a photo Maggie had given him, depicting her as a child with Tove standing next to her. The story was almost to surreal to believe. He turned the facts over in his mind, but kept returning to Iona.
What would she think of it all? How would it impact the strange relationship between them, to know they weren’t that different after all?
He hadn’t had time to say his goodbyes properly, or to see about how their sabotage of the logging machinery had gone. Since returning from the valley, he’d been so wrapped up in his life the past week he’d done little to get rid of the loggers for good. Walt hadn’t called with a change of heart, and Liam worried he’d have to volunteer his story to the press after all.
The apartment was quiet when Liam returned.
Maple bounded up to greet him as he walked in the door, tail wagging. Liam crouched to scratch behind her ears. She rumbled happily before leading him down the hallways toward the empty and waiting food dish. “All right, all right, I’m coming,” he told her, acutely aware he was late to feed her dinner. As if she’d let him forget.
Annie greeted him in the kitchen, where she was hovering over a pot on the stove, wooden spoon in hand. It smelled fantastic, and Liam realized that he’d forgotten to eat. It turned out that the upheaval of one’s entire existence wasn’t great on the appetite.
“Hey,” she said as he entered. “I’m making some soup, if you want some.”
“More soup?” Liam asked, but he was already grabbing a bowl from the cupboard.
“It’s fall. We eat soup—I don’t make the rules,” Zev chimed in from the couch, their face buried in a book. “How are the folks?”
“All good,” Liam said, shoveling soup into his mouth. It was a minestrone of some kind, simple and made of vegetables and beans—but most importantly it was warm. As he ate, he studied the houseplants scattered across the room.
He stopped in front of a large fern that hung from the ceiling near the window. Several of its newest fronds were vivid green, curled tightly into themselves. It was a Boston Fern, far more temperate than its cousins that lived in the valley, but near enough that it reminded him of home.
Home .
His mind caught on the word. Since when had he thought of the valley as home?
“Rebecca brought home a baby and ‘all good’ is all you have to say?” Annie teased, her eyes narrowed. “What’s up with you? You seem extra spacey tonight.”
He set his bowl down on the counter, then lifted his gaze back up to the fern. “You know my mom always had a connection with the forest out by the house?” He reached up, cupping a hand gently around a curled frond. “Well, turns out there’s a real good reason why.”
He’d never done anything like it before, but it turned out not to matter—the fern answered as he called upon it. Slow and deliberate, Liam pulled his hand back, feeling the hum of energy in the air as he went. The front unfurled itself, stretching towards his hand as he pulled it away. Then he let his hand drift down and the frond grew several inches in a matter of seconds.
Every motion seemed to drain him, but it didn’t matter. The fatigue was offset by a near equal amount of adrenaline that coursed through him as he looked at what he’d done.
“Shit,” Zev said behind him. Liam couldn’t see their face, but imaged the look of awe on it.
Annie gasped. “Oh! Liam, but how?”
“My grandfather met one of the Acernae. The woman he met was stubborn, and fiercely protective of her people and her forest—but eventually she learned to trust him. Not only trust him, but the two fell in love. They were never married, obviously, but they did have a daughter. Maggie.”
“The Acernae your grandfather met…” Annie thought aloud, and Liam could see the moment it all clicked into place in her mind.
“Was Tove,” Liam confirmed.
“And that makes you…”
“One-quarter Acernae.”
Silence lingered between them.
“Shit, Liam. That’s so cool,” Zev said, and jumped up to their feet, coming over to inspect the fern frond. They buzzed with manic excitement, their eyes darting between Liam and the fern .
Annie, though, was more reserved. “What do you think about this development?” She asked carefully. She kept her face still—she’d always had the better poker face.
Liam grimaced at her. “That’s the thing, I have no idea what to feel. On the one hand, it makes a lot of things make a lot more sense. I always felt a little different, a little more at home out there than everyone else. But then, does that mean that I’m not human? I’m not like them either. I’m just some freak caught in the middle.”
Liam’s head fell into his hands, and he felt hysterical laughter bubbling up in his chest. “My god, everything’s a mess, isn’t it?”
“Liam this is so cool, this is a good thing!” Zev tried to cheer him up.
Annie said nothing, but gave him a wry smile before handing him the half-eaten bowl of soup and ushering him towards the small dining table.
“It’s alright, Liam. Take a deep breath.” She kept her voice low and soft, as if attempting to calm him with her words. “You’ve been this way all your life. The only difference is that now you know of this part of you. Surely, it’s not so bad to be like them.”
“No, I mean, it’s not a bad thing. I’ve just had a hell of a day, you know? It just feels like too much all at once.”
“Yeah, I get it. But hey, I also think it’s really cool,” she said, and smiled so warmly that Liam did actually calm a bit. “Someone very wise once told me that your history is still a part of who you are, even if you don’t know it.”
“Thanks, great advice,” he said. He rolled his eyes to cut through the sincerity and lighten the mood, but had to admit what Annie said was true.
***
After he finished eating, Liam retreated to his room. At least, he tried to, but was caught by Zev in the hallway.
“Hey, I know you’ve had a long day and all, but I just wanted to…” they trailed off, wringing their hands. “It’s just that we never really talked. About the thing with Annie, I mean. I hope you’re not upset.”
It took Liam a second to catch up. “Annie?”
“Yeah, us, like, being together. I know she’s like your childhood friend, and you kinda had a thing for her, I thought. It just kinda happened, you know? I didn’t mean to encroach or whatever.” Zev seemed to grow more uncomfortable as they kept talking.
Liam stopped their apology with a chuckle. “I’m not mad, Zev, there’s nothing to be mad about. I’m happy for you both, I really am.” Liam looked Zev in the eyes, trying to make his sincerity clear. “Besides, I kinda think I met someone?” He ran a hand through his hair, still damp from his commute. It was strange to voice aloud the thoughts that had been swirling around in his mind since returning to the city, but as he spoke them aloud, he realized how true they were.
Zev’s eyes went wide. “You mean the dryad?”
“Iona, you mean.” Liam smirked, but the warmth that grew in his chest only made his smile deepen. “Not a dryad.”
“I knew it. You sly dog!” They punched Liam’s arm playfully. Then their grin began to fade. “You’re gonna back out there, then, and make sure she’s alright?”
Liam leaned back against the door frame of his bedroom, frowning. “I don’t know what I’m doing, honestly.”
“It’s your decision to make, man. But if it was me? It’s no real decision at all. What is there for you here anyway, a shitty job? Not like you have the time to enjoy the city anyway. We used to go out all the time. When’s the last time you even made it down the hill for a beer?” Zev’s eyebrows rose, and Liam resented how compelling the argument was. “But you’re part dryad now too! You go back out there, live in that cozy little cabin, get the girl… no brainer, really.”
“You know it’s not that easy.”
“Says who? You want something, Liam, you make it happen.”
Liam thought about this for a moment. For so much of his life, he’d seen his future laid out so clearly before him—a future that had nothing to do with the old house and the life he’d left behind.
Now he didn’t know what he wanted.
He let himself indulge, for a moment, to imagine a different future. One with the maple trees and moss, and Iona’s luminous smile. He could fix up the cabin, find different work. Maybe with the forest service, or the fish hatcheries like his father had done—jobs he’d never considered before when he’d been solely focused on the money. The possibilities made him lightheaded. Could he be happy with a simpler life ?
If that life had Iona in it, he could be happy with nothing else.
“I’m so screwed.” He raked his hands through his hair again. “I don’t even know if she likes me.”
Zev rolled their eyes. “Of course she does. I’ve seen the way she looks at you, man. Besides, you promised to help with the trees, right? I know you hate confrontation, but now you have a plan to stick it to those dirty timber pirates. I can’t think of a better way to win the girl.”
Liam couldn’t help but laugh at the phrase, but he supposed it was accurate enough. The sound came out a little crazed.
“I’m so screwed,” he repeated.