The Second Life of Magnolia Mae (3 page)

“Tell me what? That I would have awful dreams about a wolf? Jace, that doesn’t…” Her voice trailed off as she walked to the mural and crouched down before it. The wolf in the painting had the same silver mark. “Tell me what, Jace?” Her voice raised.

He sat next to her. “Maybe we need to start going through their things in the attic. Maybe he had a journal or something.”

She knew from the tone of her brother’s voice that there was something else. Something he was not telling her. “Jace, what do you know?”

The muscle in his jaw clenched then relaxed. “When we were younger, Dad used to tell us legends of his people. He loved to tell you about a young girl who was thought to save them from a life of being outcasts, running from place to place. A girl who had a wolf for a guardian. She was supposed to save them all. She was their princess. Though they had no kingdom, they were forced to travel from place to place, searching for a land to call their own. Something happened to her, but I don’t remember what. It was something terrible, and the wolf has been searching for her ever since.”

“The wolf never died?” An eyebrow shot up into the air skeptically.

“It’s a legend, M&M. What do you expect?” He shrugged his shoulders and leaned against the wall. “What if that wolf has really been searching for her all this time?”

“That is crazy.” She shook her head while sliding down onto the beaten-up beanbag chair.

“Crazier than you seeing things in your dreams that come true?” It was his turn to quirk up an eyebrow. His head leaned against the mural. “I don’t know. I’m not Dad. I don’t know much about the legend. I think he would have known about this wolf, though — why you see it all the time in your dreams, why he painted it here on your wall, and why you have seen it twice in one day. He would have known. Maybe there is something in his things that will help us to find out what is going on.” He shifted his gaze over to her to see her nodding silently. “Get some sleep.”

“Will you stay here?” Her dark brown eyes locked on his, pleading until he nodded. She wrapped the blanket tightly around her as she headed over to her bed. “Just until I fall asleep.”

Magnolia folded her body close to itself just like she used to when she was a child. The lights flipped off, and she heard Jace flop down onto the beanbag chair. Her eyes closed as she thought about the wolf and the girl her brother had told her about until she drifted off to a restless sleep.

CHAPTER FOUR

T
HE REST OF THE
week passed by with more dreams. The diner was not as packed as it normally was on a Friday evening, due to the football game. Magnolia and Jace were able to enjoy their meal without Sarah trying to ruin Magnolia’s life. The waitress had just brought over the milkshake that Magnolia always ordered when the diner door swung open, and Bash walked in. His blue eyes flashed at her as he walked toward them. She popped the cherry into her mouth before looking away.

“How have you been, Jace?” he asked as he sat at a table next to them.

“Good. You?”

“Been looking everywhere for your sister. Then I remembered that you always come in on Fridays after you get paid.” Bash kept his eyes on Jace while he spoke.

“Why?” Protectiveness edged into his voice, making it harsher than it usually was.

“I found this in the greenhouse the other day and thought it might be yours.” Bash shifted his gaze to Magnolia as he pulled his hand out of his pocket to reveal a ring. It appeared to be a Claddagh ring, but in the heart was an etched wolf.

“That’s not mine,” she whispered, staring at it.

“It looks familiar. When we were going through the attic, I found a book and started flipping through it. I think I saw this in there.” Jace took the ring into his hand to examine it more closely. “I am sure that I did. Come on. I’ll show you.” His coat was soon on, and he was paying their bill.

Magnolia left the rest of her milkshake behind to follow her brother out to his beat-up truck. She did not realize until they were home and she was getting out of the truck that Bash had followed them. They said nothing as they walked into the house and followed Jace into the living room. Bash sat on the floor close to the fireplace so he could get warm, folding his legs under him, while Magnolia sat on the arm of the recliner.

With an old tattered book in hand, Jace sat in the recliner. He set the ring down on his lap and flipped through the worn pages. “Here.” His finger pointed at an old sketch of the ring: a heart with a wolf etched into it, a crown atop of the heart, and a hand on each side of it making the band. “It says here it was the ring of Princess Daciana. It was given to her by a prince of Marcello as a symbol of their love. Daciana was the princess I was telling you about, the one from the legend that Dad used to tell us.” Excitement crept into his voice.

“Why did Bash find one like it in the greenhouse?” She peered over her brother’s shoulder at the book.

Bash pulled out his phone and was soon on the Internet, searching for information on the ring. “I can’t find any store that sells rings like these.”

For the next hour they searched different websites and forums for any information they could find about Daciana’s ring. Bash’s voice broke the silence about an hour later. “How did it get here?” He sounded intrigued.

Jace leaned forward in the chair. “This says that Daciana never took off the ring while she lived. When she was found dead, the ring was gone. Some believe that the wolf took it until he could find her again, to reunite her with her love and finally give her people a true home.”

“If she was a princess, why did they not have a home?” Bash leaned back onto his hands to look up at Jace and Magnolia.

“Her people, including the king himself, had been forced from their country by the king’s twin about two-hundred years before she was born. While the king was away making treaties with other nations, his brother rallied people to support his claim to the throne. He used bribery in whatever form he could; he even hired soldiers to stand as his guard while he took the throne. The king loved his brother so much that he did not want to be the cause of his death, so he and those loyal to him never returned to fight for the kingdom. Instead they wandered, living like gypsies searching for a home. Wherever they went, they were chased away because they were thought to be thieves. Some accused them of being witches and warlocks. Others believed they were half-human, half-elfin. That’s why they had no home —they didn’t fit into either race. With Princess Daciana marrying the prince, they would call Marcello home and could finally stop wandering.”

Magnolia found herself drawn into the story. “What happened? What was the prince’s name?”

“Alistair, and it doesn’t say what happened to her. Only that she was found dead with the ring missing. He spent his life wandering the country as if he was searching for something, giving up his claim to the throne.”

“That is sad,” she whispered from behind her brother. ‘Why is it here?” Her hands twisted at the bottom of her shirt.

“Maybe once we figure out the dreams and the wolf, we will figure out how this got here.” Jace closed the book gently then set it on the table next to the chair.

“What dreams?” Bash suddenly leaned forward.

She looked over at him and wondered how much she could share. Would he think of her as a freak the way everyone else seemed to? With a deep sigh, Magnolia told him without detail about the dreams and the wolf. He nodded and took it all in. Never had Magnolia been so grateful to hear her brother tell her that she should start getting ready for bed. She left the two of them in the living room. The legend of Daciana echoed over in her mind as if it were on repeat while she showered and dressed for bed. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she combed out her hair

“Remember…”
whispered from the darkness.

She shook the word away, fighting off chills and the urge to call for her brother. Deciding that it had to have been her imagination, she pulled out her journal to write about the events of the day. She had started keeping a journal when she was younger as a way for her to put her dreams down and then not have to worry about them. But recently that was not the case. They were becoming a part of her reality.

The days were growing
shorter, the nights longer.
The leaves had all turned bright shades of crimson, orange,
and yellow. She pulled the cloak closer around her to ward off the chill in the air.
Her long hair was pulled back from her face to reveal emerald-green eyes. Walking toward the village was not where she wanted to go,
but her people were in need of a few items that she planned to trade for. The noise of the village
reached her before she saw it. A glance over her shoulder allowed her to catch a glimpse of the wolf,
still
there. A hint of a smile crossed her face
as
she squared back her shoulders and walked with head held high into the bustling village. It was like many she had seen before, filled with people and real houses. Not like what she’d
lived in.
As always,
she looked in wonder at the
cottages,
wanting to know what it would be like to live in a real home.

“Can I help ye,
lass?”
an older man with tattered clothes asked from behind
his
cart
of
turnips.

“No,
thank you, sir.” She turned to head
toward
the other side of the street,
where she’d seen some warm-looking
tartan wool,
exactly what she had been in search of.

“You’ll be needing something to ward off the evil that is in this land, especially with All
Hollow’s
Eve so near,”
the man called to her.

“Likely, she will be needing protection from the evil that moved into the woods,”
another man
added gruffly.

She glanced in his direction
and noticed
a long jagged scar across his face,
zigzagging
from below his left eye down to the corner of his mouth.

He sneered in her direction as he licked his lips.

Shuddering,
she hurried to finish her business.

It did not take long to get what she needed and head back out of the village.

An uneasy chill
coursed
through her,
raising goose
bumps across her arms.

“You can’t go walking through those woods. Not if you want to come out alive.”
A deep voice grated her ears as a
rough hand grabbed her arm and yanked her to a stop. He spun her around to face him.
The scar caused his mouth to turn up at only one corner,
making him appear even more sinister than he sounded. “It is not safe for a pretty young thing like you to be out there alone with the heathens who are trespassing there.”

“Release me.” Her voice remained calm,
despite the fact that she wanted to scream.

His grip tightened, his dirty fingernails digging into her skin.

She could feel the blood begin to well up as he dug them in further. “Release me, now,”
she commanded,
forcing
back
the tears that threatened to spill.

“I
cannot
let you go out there alone. It would not be safe.”

“As opposed to the safety I have found in the village?” She tried to yank her arm free,
but he pulled her
toward
him.

“Gordon, release her!”
The
command seemed to echo through the village streets.

Her eyes were drawn toward
the voice.
The man
was tall with dark hair and stunning blue eyes. His crisp white shirt was tucked neatly into his
grey
trousers.

“Your
Majesty.” The
scarred
man bowed as he dropped her arm from his grasp. “I was merely trying to warn her of the vagrants who have taken to the woods.”

“Leave now.” Those blue eyes bored
into Gordon’s
back
as he skulked off into the streets. “Are you alright, miss?” His voice was much calmer as he approached her.

She stepped backward and glanced down at her arm where the blood was oozing out.

“It is a mere scratch,”
the girl
replied with a shaky voice.
She watched silently while he took a white cloth from his pocket and wrapped it around her arm. “Thank you,”
she whispered before hurrying into the woods.