“Whether I speak it or think it, the pain is still there. I was just surprised at how strong it came back with the memories.”
“It is no longer necessary that I know the details. I know how Cassian came to be here.”
“I should finish.” Nina realized that she needed to speak of what had occurred. She never had before. She had listened to stories but never spoke of it herself.
“Father’s friend came and got us while it was still dark and slipped us onto a ship where we hid behind crates. I knew we were traveling to friends of our parents in England but did not know their names. I have asked Cassian, but he couldn’t remember either. Then the storm came, and the ship started to sink. Mother tried to put us in a boat, but that is all I remember until I woke up in the grove.”
“You do not recall how you got here?” he asked.
“No.”
“I remember when they found Cassian on the shore at the mouth of the cove. We had all been inside, but something had caught mother’s eye and she went outside even though it was raining. My father, aunts and uncles followed but made us stay behind. Then they went to the grove. I thought it was all very odd, but I was also young. The next day, we were introduced to Cassian as the only survivor of a ship sinking.”
“He was not the only one,” she whispered.
“What happened?”
“I had been injured and should have died. According to your mother and Cassian, I had hit my head on the ship and my body had been slammed against the rocks. Cassian kept trying to save me, but he almost died because he would not let go of my hand. How he was not injured on the rocks is a question we will always wonder about, but he was not. The nereids saved us both and got us to the shore.”
“I did not think nereids were allowed to interfere,” Orion said.
“They are not supposed to save a life, but their reasoning was that Cassian would have survived on his own if not for me. Therefore, as he was not meant to die, they had to take me ashore along with my brother.” She shrugged. “Nereids are descendants of an Oceanid, and they are protectors of children, so perhaps that is why as well.”
Orion nodded. “That still does not explain why you have lived in the grove these, what, twenty years but Cassian has lived with my cousins.”
Nina stood. “Come with me.”
Orion did so, but with a frown as she led him through the field of bluebells and to a lone tree that stood in the center. “Even though nereids can heal, they could not save me. Cassian begged for me to be saved, near hysterics I am told, so I was brought to the dryads.” She pointed to the cypress. “This cypress sprouted when they saved me. This is now my tree. When it dies, so will I.”
“You are a dryad,” he said as if he didn’t quite believe what he was hearing.
“Not fully. The dryads were able to heal me, but I did not become one of them. Cassian could not let me go and I never fully embraced being such. I do not live among the trees as my friends, but in a cottage where Cassian will also now live. It is only my life attached to the tree and while I straddle their world and yours I am unable to ever leave the grove.”
“You can never leave?”
The shock in his tone stunned her. Certainly, he knew that a dryad could not be far from her tree.
“I have freedom to roam the grove, but the farthest I can go beyond is to the trees along the cove. The fear is that if I step any farther beyond—put too much distance between me and the tree—I will die.”
“What of the orchard behind the house?” he asked.
“I have visited, on occasion, to pick a piece of fruit, but each time I began to feel weak when gone too long. One time, I stepped farther than before and had a horrible burning pain in my chest. It scared me enough that I ran back. I am safest in the grove.”
Seven
Orion had never heard such an unbelievable tale in his life, and he came from a family of witches. Yet, he trusted every word Nina had said. He had heard whispers over the years, and now they made much more sense. “That is why Cassian went to live with my aunt and uncle instead of anyone else. They live close by.”
Nina nodded. “It was so he could visit since no family fully resides at Nightshade Manor unless a daughter is gaining her powers.”
“You know about my family.”
Nina smiled. “I have lived here for twenty years and have been told. The women in your family are witches. The men are not. Your family also owns a sacred grove that possesses five and a half dryads.”
Now he understood why the five women looked as if they had stepped out of Ancient Greece.
She turned and walked back toward the temple.
“Is it lonely?” It must be, but she did have friends.
