Page 68 of Duncan

“Maybe that’s why your two bad people are still alive in the future,” Julianne said, and then regarded the woodland goddess. “I know you want to murder Mitchell because he killed my parents, Auntie, but that doesn’t make it right. You can’t do that to him.”

“She’s right,” Valerie said, her eyes brimming with tears. “None of us want this kind of revenge.”

“You’re wrong,” Caroline said, looking pale now. “This was exactly what I prayed would happen to Rich.” She stalked over to Klee. “Is what I wished going to sentence that son of a bitch to a horrible death?”

The woodland goddess took hold of her fists. “It had nothing to do with any wish of yours, my child. Eternity may take its time, but it always seeks balance, especially when a timeline is disrupted by greed and hatred.”

“This isn’t balance. It’s how I almost died.” The diver’s gray eyes filled with tears. “No one should have to go through that.”

Nicole wanted to believe what Klee had told them, ghastly as it was, but her experience with Merrivane told her that the woodland goddess wasn’t being entirely honest. “You said we were looking into the future. None of what you’ve shown us has happened yet, has it?”

Klee gave her an exasperated look. “Not yet, my dear, but this is how they all should be rewarded for what they did. They simply need a little push in the direction of the appropriate, which I will be quite happy to give them.”

“Then you haven’t done anything yet.” She turned to Caroline. “This isn’t fate. It’s an offer. She’ll make this happen to them, if we want her kind of balance.”

“Absolutely not,” the diver told the woodland goddess. “Whatever happens to Rich naturally in our time is fine with me. Do not interfere with his fate.”

Valerie nodded. “Let Candace face the consequences of what she did in the same manner. Please do not make her kill herself.”

“And no pushing Mitchell down the well,” Julianne chimed in. “That’s totes gross, Auntie. He needs to go to jail, and once Eva finds out I’m gone, I think he will.”

“The IRS will catch Lawrence and Katie eventually, because they always do,” Lark said. “So that’s a no for me as well.”

“What about you, Princess?” Klee walked up to Nicole. “Your brother will inherit everything after your father dies, in agony, believing he drove you to kill yourself.”

“Maybe he will. Or maybe my cousin Brittany will tell my dad that’s a load of crap. She knows I’d never do that, and I think Dad will believe her,” she said. “She’ll take my place and make sure he gets treatment for his cancer, too, and she won’t let my brother abuse him. I bet she’ll even have my disappearance investigated to see if there’s proof I was murdered.”

“Your brother would likely try to kill her next,” the old woman said, looking upset now.

“You’re forgetting about my Aunt Merrivane,” Nicole said. “She protected me all these years. She’ll make sure nothing happens to Ritzie.”

The woodland goddess looked faintly disgruntled, but then a beautiful smile lit up her face. “So be it. All that the five of you have wished shall be done.”

Klee went over to Julianne and tugged her down for a kiss, and then the room spun around them and suddenly they were back standing in the newly-bloomed, no longer stone forest.

No one said much as they walked back to the castle, but just before they reached the gates Nicole stopped and turned around to stare back from where they had come.

“What’s the matter, Nick?” Julianne asked. “If you’re weirded out by Aunt Klee, she’s always like that. You know, weird. She’ll keep her word, though, and make sure stuff happens in the future naturally, like we want. Like when I told her I wanted a family, and she let me leave the forest world.”

“Does that mean it was always up to us?” Caroline asked.

“I think it was more like a test than a choice.” A terrible shakiness came over Nicole. “All Derdrui ever wanted was revenge. Maybe she even deserved it for what the prince did to her in Elphyne. But in the end, what she did trying to get it came back on her, and ate her up alive.”

Lark grimaced and coughed into her hand. “Please don’t mention that part.”

“So you think Klee offered us revenge to see what we’d do?” Caroline looked skeptical. “Not a great test. What if we had let her do all that gruesome stuff to the people who hurt us?”

“I don’t know.” Nicole looked up at the stronghold, and saw Duncan watching her from atop the second curtain wall. “Maybe nothing. Or maybe we wouldn’t be allowed to stay here with our guys. She’s not human or Fae, so we’ll never know what really happens.”

“Speak for yourself,” Caroline said. “I plan to live until the twenty-first century just so I can call myself and tell me not to get on that damned boat with Rich.” As Valerie laughed, she glared at her. “What’s so funny about that? It’s perfect.”

The laird’s wife put her arm around the diver. “If you really would do that when you reach the twenty-first century, my dear, you would never have come back in the first place.”

Julianne let out a frustrated sound. “I just didn’t want Mitchell to die like that. I mean, he should die for killing my parents, but only when he’s an old, old, old dude after fifty or sixty years of not having anything he likes in prison. Okay, so we’re done? I want some of that really good bread with the apple jam. And the spicy tea. Not the flower tea that tastes like perfume.” She sauntered off into the stronghold.

AFTER THE MORNING MEAL, Nyall came to fetch Nicole, and accompanied her to the laird’s chamber, where Connal, Shaw, Fletcher and Duncan were waiting.

“Please don’t throw me off the island,” she said, curtseying politely to the laird. “I just gave up a chance to avenge myself. It was very difficult, and I’m still not sure if it was the right choice, but I’m not changing my mind. A woodland goddess is going to look after my dad, so I can stay, if you’ll let me.”