“Always,” Felipe replied softly as he took Oliver’s hand.
His mother, or what was left of her, stood at the roots of the fallen tree, still as a statue. Gone was the avenging angel, and in her place stood a young woman in a plain blue dress with wide, owl-like eyes. Compared to the Lady, she looked small and insignificant, yet he could feel the magic rolling off her. Where the Lady’s had smelled of pine tar, hers was softer and more floral. Following her gaze, Oliver found a pile of bones tangled in the tree’s upended roots.
“Mom?”
When she turned to face him, the breath rushed from his lungs. She looked like the woman in the photographs, but it was strange to see her standing before him frozen at twenty-five. She was youngerthan he was, yet her eyes seemed impossibly old as they roamed over his face and down his body until she reached where his hand joined Felipe’s.
“You returned to your love? I wasn’t sure it would work,” she said softly.
Her voice was huskier than he expected it to be, and he wondered if one day she would become inhuman like the Lady. The only constant in life was change. Her eyes ran over his face and clothes. With a hesitant hand, she reached up and rubbed a lock of his hair between her fingers. A small, fragile smile crossed her lips as she stepped back.
“I recognized you, though I don’t know how. The magic, maybe. I can feel it flowing through me and you even now. Yours feels familiar. What did my mother name you?”
“Oliver.”
She turned the name over in her mouth. “And you’re happy?”
“I am.” Tears burned the back of his eyes as he struggled to ask a question he already knew the answer to. “Are you gone? Really gone?”
“If you mean, can I leave the Dysterwood? No, I can’t. I’m dead out there and alive in the woods, in a way.”
When she nodded toward the bones, Oliver asked, “Would you like us to bury you? Then, you could be at peace.”
“No, I think I would like to be alive again for a while.”
“Are you the new Lady of the Dysterwood?” Will asked cautiously as he stepped closer.
Joanna’s face brightened with a silent laugh. “No, I don’t aspire to godhood. I killed her to free everyone. I do not wish to take her place.”
“Then, what will you do?”
“There’s often a woman in fairytales who lives in a house at the center of the woods who feeds lost children, walks them home, and is never seen again.” She eyed the fallen tree hopefully. “I think that is who I might be.”
Felipe’s hand tightened in Oliver’s. If she was willing to take that role, then they wouldn’t have to destroy the Dysterwood somehow. He wasn’t sure they could or if it would cause a vacuum or somethingequally bad. This was a far better alternative as long as she could relinquish the Dysterwood’s hold on the town.
“Can you pull the woods back?” Oliver asked. “The Lady cut the town off from the rest of the world.”
His mother thought for a long moment and nodded. Her face went unnaturally still as her eyes widened enough that Oliver could see stars reflecting in their depths. The trees swayed in a gentle breeze, and with it, he swore he could smell the flowers from the meadow.
“It will take time to pull it back fully, but the road will be open soon. You are free to leave.” The guilt must have shown on Oliver’s face because she stepped forward and lightly held his arms. “You can always come back and visit if you want. I’m not going anywhere, and the way will always be open to you.”
Tears burned Oliver’s eyes as Felipe wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Thank you, Mrs. Jarngren. It was a pleasure to meet you. We should get back. Our friend is waiting for us.”
Oliver nodded, but he couldn’t bear to walk away and leave her standing in the glade alone. He promised himself he would come back again before they left and introduce her to Gwen.
“Is the Dysterwood open to me? I would like to stay,” Will said softly to Joanna, “if you’ll have me.”
“You too?” Lucien cried from behind them. “You’re leaving me too?”
Will deflated with a sigh and said to Lucien, as much as to them, “I helped make this mess, and I want to stay and fix it. I know where the bodies are buried. I read all the family history, so I know what the Dysterwood was like before things went wrong. Between Aunt Daphne and the Lady, the Dysterwood is a shadow of what it once was, and someone needs to put things to rights.”
“So that has to be you?”
When Lucien looked like he might sink to the mud again, Will slowly put his hands on his cousin’s shoulders and stared into his eyes. “It doesn’t have to be, but I want it to be me. I don’t plan to stay forever, but I need to be away. I can’t answer more questions. I can’thave them ask where Aunt Daphne is, Lucien. You know what will happen. You know who will be blamed for her disappearance.”
“What will I do without you and Mother?” he asked miserably.
Lucien gave him a piteous look. “You will fix things in Aldorhaven with the Paranormal Society’s help while I fix the Dysterwood. We both need to put things to rights. That is, if I’m permitted to stay.”
