Page 35 of Wraithwound

“Where are you going?” Riley asked.

Lena didn’t answer and instead gave Camille a pointed glance. Riley seemed to understand the reason for her silence. Lena wouldn’t put herself in danger by sharing that information, and while she didn’t particularly take to the woman, she had helped Lena, just as much as Laney and Riley had back in that cell.

“If you want to see James and Oscar again, go back into the city. I don’t know how you’ll gain entry; you’ll have to figure that out. Get to the market and ask around for the Conover brothers. Corvin has met them and knows who they are,” she said.

Camille stared at Lena, a flush creeping into her cheeks.

“They can get all of you out safely.”

“Why—?” Camille asked softly, the rest of the sentence hanging between them.

“I’m not helping you. I’m helping them. They were kind to me,” Lena said.

Camille’s flush deepened.

As she stood there, her skin began to prickle, and she wondered if Camille would betray her, just as Jessa had. She knew better than to trust a stranger, but she’d meant it when she said she was taking the risk for Oscar and James.

She took in the faces of the three women who had saved her life. She couldn’t blame Camille for her blatant distrust; Lena was turning into a wraith after all. But she was grateful to her all the same. Laney and Riley had been kind to her despite her current predicament.

She considered perhaps Laney had only been kind because she too had been infected, and her heart sank, although she didn’t exactly know why. But looking at Laney’s face, she decided that wasn’t true. And then there was Riley, who hadn’t seemed afraid of Lena at all. She didn’t know what to make of that.

“I’ll go to The Whispers with you, Laney,” Riley said.

Laney’s face lit up, and Lena couldn’t help but share the sentiment. She had a sense Riley could take care of herself, and it’d be safer for Laney to travel with a friend. At that thought, Lena’s mind flashed to her last conversation with Jessa, and she had to put it out of her mind.

“Good luck,” she offered with a small wave before turning and heading off into the woods.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Achill wind blasted through the trees, unseating the last of the amber leaves that still clung to skinny branches. This woodland was a stark contrast to the Overgrown Forest. An unusual fall storm gathered on the horizon, threatening to extend Lena’s time in the woods. She had spent days trying to locate the path that would lead her to Ada and Eduard’s cabin. Just as she thought she might never find the trail, she spotted the crimson daisies that grew along the worn path and practically sobbed in relief.

Having walked without rest or sleep, her body ached in protest as she made her way down the trail. After several hours, the chill wind brought with it a soft floral scent, and Lena’s heart leapt in her chest. She recognized the smell of fall-blooming flowers that would no doubt have taken over the couple’s garden. Pale yellow asters and reddish bronze chrysanthemums swayed gently in the distance.

The emotion swelling inside her was deep and piercing. She’d made it. Just ahead, the wood opened to a meadow of tall grass, and nestled inside a circular garden was their cabin. Finally giving herself permission to stop, she put her hand on a splintered tree trunk to steady herself.

A short distance was all that stood between Lena and the knowledge she so desperately sought. And yet, Nora’s words rang clear in her mind. It’d been selfish to enter Enora, and she was lucky she hadn’t lost control. But she had entered and that had led her here.

Lena stood at the half-rotted tree, hesitation muting the relief she’d previously felt. Ada was a long-time family friend, having grown up with her mother. Ada and Marisee eventually lost touch after Ada moved away from Dovia, only reconnecting several years after Lena was born.

In their youth, they’d had access to the Undan Temple where the Goddess’s healing spring originated, the water working its way into enchanted crystals. Most children survived serious illnesses that way, but after the city fell and the Goddess disappeared, life expectancy decreased significantly, and healing knowledge became increasingly valuable. Marisee had helped Ada and Eduard fill the gaps in their healing knowledge while they helped Marisee learn more about rare plants and herbs.

After Lena took her oath, Marisee transitioned them into Lena’s care so she could practice her skills. Lena tended to their aches and pains and assisted them in obtaining supplies and food as they aged. She wasn’t the only healer to visit, but she had long suspected she might be their favorite. Their joy at seeing her always made her heart swell, and they took great interest in her life and in that of her family. She’d heard they had a daughter, but they never spoke of her, nor had Lena ever seen any evidence that she’d come by to see her parents. When Lena could no longer get out of bed, Henry began to treat them instead.

Guilt wormed its way into her already knotted stomach. Ada and Eduard were on the list of people she’d failed, cut out of her life as if they’d never existed.

She had spent hours with them in their garden, picking and mulling herbs for Ada’s swollen knees and Eduard’s arthritic hands. The plants and flowers grew larger than any she had ever seen, their colors both beautiful and strange. It was evident they were grown with years of love and attention.

The couple tended to each other the same way they tended to their garden, special attention to detail lay at the root of their affection for one another. They directed the love, care, and devotion they showed their garden, and each other, to Lena after her grandfather was murdered. It was with their help that Lena found her way back to herself. They provided the space for her to grieve. And to heal. A place without demands or constraints or judgment. A place where she could show up as she was and complete small tasks to help them, to give her purpose.

Every month, she would spend a week with them. For the first few visits, they worked in silence, but if she wanted to talk or eat or sit, they were there. Then things began to change. It started with momentary pauses, gaps in time when she was so focused on her current task of picking weeds or mulling herbs that she was no longer drowning in grief. Slowly, those gaps grew longer, and she learned she could find joy in the small moments and then longer ones.

It saved her life. They saved her life. Along with Marisee and Henry who loved and held her through her grief, too.

Lena inhaled a shaky breath. To think, after Marisee disappeared, she’d forgotten the lessons she learned with them in their garden. Instead, she’d let the grief sweep the knowledge away and bury it down deep. The pain of losing her mother had been all consuming. Stripping her entirely of the person she was, leaving behind only a fading echo of the woman she’d once been. Grief had taken everything from her. Or rather, she’d let it.

Doubt crept into her mind as she stood there, memories of time spent with them a reminder of the woman she’d been who now stood opposite to the woman— creature—she was becoming.