I shrugged. “It’s obvious his brother — who he really didn’t want to talk about — is some sort of paranormal deadbeat. I think Jareth tried to help Declan but it didn’t go well.”
“Sounds like Declan wanted something he couldn’t have,” Galen mused. “I’m still curious how he managed to find a plane door to go through.”
“Maybe he did it himself. He had witch in him. He could have researched how to open plane doors because he wanted that option if he needed a quick escape. And maybe he realized that the island had accessible plane doors and figured out a way to get through them before he ran from Jareth that day.”
“Okay.” Galen didn’t look in an argumentative mood. He also didn’t appear willing to accept my hunch without any pushback. “Why not kill Jareth? He had full control in the moment. He could have drained Jareth and gotten everything he wanted.”
“Maybe he panicked,” I replied after several seconds. “Maybe he feared that everyone on the island would band together and try to kill him once they found out what he’d been doing. Maybe?—”
“That’s a lot of maybes, Hadley,” Galen noted.
“It is. We don’t have the full picture yet, but we have more.” I was earnest as I regarded him. “Some of the whys, at least.”
His hand landed on mine just as the server arrived to take our order.
I went big — I always went big with seafood — but Galen didn’t even blink when I opted for the seafood platter with an extra pound of crab legs. I also ordered a margarita the size of my head.
Mirth had Galen’s lips tipping up at the corners. “Somebody is hoping to drown her sorrows.”
“Not sorrows,” I countered. “It’s just … Jareth brought up one more interesting thing, and I feel like a bit of an idiot for not recognizing the possibility myself.”
He didn’t press me. He’d ordered a huge serving of prime rib with potatoes and corn as sides. The beer he ordered was much more reasonable than my margarita.
“Tell me,” he prodded in a soft voice. “I want to hear it.”
“Jareth pointed out that perhaps the woman in the mural wasn’t my mother, but May.”
Surprise registered on Galen’s face and he opened his mouth — to counter that argument? — but he snapped it shut quickly.
“Yeah, I’m right there with you,” I said at his puzzlement. “Declan was on the island for a long time. For most of that time, May would have been the dominant witch on Moonstone Bay.”
“And your mother was a child who ultimately fled,” Galen said. “You saw your mother, though. She was the one you interacted with on the other side.”
“Jareth had an explanation for that too. Declan knew my mother and likely understood that adopting her persona would have drawn me in. What if he wants me because he wants to adopt my persona? If he managed to get me to cooperate — which might be why he interacted with me while pretending to be my mother — he could have stolen my place here, but only after I helped him open a plane door.”
Galen looked appropriately horrified. “I don’t like that even a little bit.”
“That makes two of us.” I cracked a smile I didn’t feel. “And we have no idea if that idea is correct. It’s just something else to consider.”
He fell silent, but turbulence stormed through his eyes. “You need that to be your mother,” he realized.
“Notneed.” I vehemently shook my head. “I don’tneedthat. Icame to grips with the fact that I would never know her a long time ago.”
“But your heart still longs for her,” Galen argued. “In your head, you finally got the interaction you’d been dreaming of and now Declan has taken that from you.”
“We don’t know for a fact we’re dealing with Declan,” I said. “That’s just an idea.”
“It’s a pretty good one, and that mural you found is enough to prove it for me.”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my forehead. “I think it’s him. I just can’t figure out his end goal. If he wants my magic, why not kill me when I was on the other plane? He had the benefit of surprise on his side.”
“Maybe he didn’t expect you to come through so soon. You may have surprised him.”
“But, if our new hunch is correct, that wasn’t my mother. It was him.”
“Or May.”
I laughed, then realized he was serious. “May would not act like my mother.”
