The Witches of Snyder Farms (The Wicked Garden Series) (17 page)

“And now I’d like introduce you to my father, Peter. Dad, this is Gretchel and our daughter, Ame.”

Gretchel took her first good look at the infamous deviant sitting on her sofa.

Oh, gods
, Gretchel thought,
he looks exactly like Eli, just older, and with an insane beard. Those eyes, that hair! There’s something else about him…  something familiar. I know him. I’ve seen him.

Ame was the first to speak.
“I’m Ame, obviously. And I’m not sure why this is such a formal event. I hope everybody will forgive me if I don’t curtsey.”

Peter jumped up from his seat, knelt in front of Ame, and took her hand.

“My granddaughter. My lovely Amazon queen, I am ever so pleased to make your acquaintance.” He kissed her hand and gazed into her eyes, as if finally soaking up the reality of her existence.

And I know him...
. I know I know him,
Ame thought.

Then Peter stood and crossed the room to take both Gretchel’s hands in his.

Ohmigod
, Gretchel thought. Her knees were shaking.  “I’m—”

“You’re Gretchel Bloome. Aphrodite. Cliodhna. Astarte. Gretchel Bloome. The muse who has
lost her way in the maze. My son has been quite stingy in his descriptions of you. I, myself, have about a hundred and three descriptions I’d like to use on you right now.”

“Enough, Dad,” Eli interjected.

Ame was stifling a laugh. Diana was tapping the pointy toe of her very expensive shoe with barely suppressed exasperation. And Gretchel felt like her head was floating a foot or two above her body.

Peter deferred to his son by bringing his soliloquy to a premature close, but he continued to hold Gretchel with his gaze. He saw that she was dazzled. He saw that she was confused. And he saw that she was ready for the truth. What he was ready for, on the other hand….

Perhaps it was best to begin with the prophecy.

“Peter Stewart, at your service.” He bowed and gave Gretchel a chaste kiss on the hand.

“It’s a pleasure,” she whispered, her face flushed.

When Peter released her, Gretchel shook herself—as if awakening from a spell—and said, “Okay, enough with the niceties. Out with the secrets, Diana.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-
TWO

Irvine, 2010s

             
Peter cackled.

             
Diana ignored her husband, but her son saw her nostrils flair.

             
Oh, boy,
he thought.
This is going to be
exactly
as much fun as I imagined.

             
Diana refused to even look at Gretchel. Eli nodded for her to go ahead.

             
“Well, I’m not sure what all you want to know….” she started.

             
“I want to know everything. Let’s start with the prophecy. All of it.”

             
Diana shook her head. “No.”

             
“No?” Gretchel asked.

             
“No one has read the prophecy in its entirety except for Peter. Not my assistants, not my colleagues, not my late parents, not even Eli.”

             
Gretchel was quite prepared to insist, but Eli laid a hand gently on her knee. For his sake, she was willing to back down—for now. “Summarize, then. I want to know why you’ve spent so many years researching my family. And I
really
want to know why you’re so certain that Eli is going to leave me.”              

“
Perhaps we should start at the beginning.”

“Perhaps we should.” Gretchel settled herself into the love seat, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. 

“Well, almost forty years ago, Peter and I were in Scotland. I’d just completed my Ph.D. It was the Summer Solstice. I was in the woods on my family estate—at least I
thought
I was in the woods. I was on LSD at the time….”

Gretchel rolled her eyes
.

Diana pursed her lips. Clearly, the girl was doing her best to get under Diana’s skin, and Diana was irritated with herself for letting her. “Shall I continue?”

Gretchel shrugged.

“I had a vision
—at least I think it was a vision. It seemed quite real to me. Anyway, I was visited by a crone. She told me the prophecy, and she gave me an amulet to pass on to my son. As I’ve said, I was using LSD at the time, so I’m not in a position to say how much of what I experienced was real, but the amulet is real enough. Eli can confirm that, at least.”

Diana looked to Eli, who nodded. She resumed her story.

“You must understand that, at that point in my life, I hadn’t even considered motherhood—not seriously, anyway. I had just finished my degree. I was too focused on my career to think about family. I was too wrapped up in school, in my future career….”

“So, not much has changed, I guess.”
Gretchel said. Eli pinched her thigh. Diana glared.

“I am trying
so
hard to like you Gretchen—
Gretchel
, I meant Gretchel! I’ve wanted to like you from the moment we met, for my son’s sake, but you make it so goddamn difficult.”

“Mother!” Eli shouted.

Ame looked at Peter, and he gave her a wink in return.

Diana
tugged hard on her cardigan and ran a hand over her perfectly smooth hair. Then she continued. “I was using birth control. I had no reason to think that I might be pregnant, but the crone was right. Whether she was a supernatural being with precognitive powers or a product of my subconscious mind, she knew. Eli was born eight months later.

“But, back to the vision…. Another woman—a much younger woman—joined us just before it ended. She told me that her name was Carlin Fitzgerald, and she told me to find her. I did find her, of course, but then I lost her again. Now I know why, and seeing her photo has left me without a trace of doubt. The woman I’ve been searching for is your great grandmother, Gretchel. I saw her face—and her scar—on a Summer Solstice morning forty years ago.”

Ame was on the edge of her seat listening to the incredible tale. Gretchel was still skeptical.

“Why, though?” Ame asked. “Why did Carlin want you to find her?”

Diana offered her granddaughter an approving look. “She told me that when I found her, I would find her descendants—including the one destined to save her family.”

Ame had another question, but Gretchel cut her off.
“I’m not following. What does this have to do with Eli and me?”

“
The old woman who gave me the amulet said I was to give it to my son, and that he would give it to his first great love.”

“
His
first
?” Gretchel laughed. It was a bitter laugh.

“Yes. She also told me that my son’s
first
love would break his heart.”

Diana tilted her head and smiled grimly, daring Gretchel to respond.

Gretchel’s eyes narrowed and her entire body tensed.

Ame was momentarily afraid for her diminutive grandmother, but then she decided that Diana could probably take care of herself.

Peter could barely contain himself. He had never seen his wife in a catfight before, and he could hardly have chosen a more exciting opponent than this warrior goddess his son had found.

Eli looked like he was about to pass out from the anxiety.

Diana and Gretchel both noticed his distress, and, without a word, agreed to a momentary truce.

“Where was I? Oh, yes. Well, it was clear that you were the first woman in the prophecy, but it never occurred to me that you would be a descendent of the twins.”

“What twins?” Ame asked.

“The Solstice Twins. Everything begins with them.”

“But who are they?”

“Well, I’ve spent decades trying to piece together their story a
nd the stories of their descendants, but I suspect that Epona and Ella know more than I do. But everything we’ve heard from them already—well, almost everything—fits the patterns I’ve discerned in my own research.”              

“What kind of patterns?” Gretchel asked, the tone of her voice a little less brash.

“The lives of all the women born in this bloodline have certain similarities. They’re all tall redheads with a wild streak—” Diana gave Gretchel a pointed look, and then continued. “Of course, that’s hardly strange. Nature. Nurture.

“But there are other patterns as well. For instance, each of these women lost her father when she was thirteen. We know that Bridget did, and Carlin, and Epona. I don’t know about your mother, yet, but what about you?” 

Eli and Peter both winced. Sensitivity was not one of Diana’s virtues.

Gretchel’s voice was icy, emotionless.
“My father died the day before my fourteenth birthday.”

Diana looked pleased, as if she was making a check mark in her mind. Eli felt sick. Peter looked sad.

“Ame, of course is a puzzle.”

“Would you have preferred that I died when she was thirteen, Mother?”

Diana was struck by the coldness in her son’s voice. It occurred to her that she had, perhaps, not been as tactful as she might have been. “I trust you know the answer to that, Elliott. I’m simply pointing out that, since coming here, I’ve seen some deviations from the patterns I’ve found in my research. For example, all the descendants of the Solstice Twins up to Epona had just one child, a daughter. Ella and Gretchel, however, each have a son, too. And all the descendants I found committed suicide by drowning before the age of forty. Your grandmother, Gretchel, was the first descendent to break the cycle.”

“They
all
drowned?” Gretchel asked quietly.

“All of them.”

Gretchel’s face went white. “Are you all right?” Eli asked, his voice shaking. He hadn’t said a word to his mother about Gretchel’s suicide attempts or Ame’s near-drowning. Gretchel nodded her head, but he could feel her heart racing and her breath quicken. Her voice was thin and strained when she spoke.

“The prophecy. I need to know it.
All
.”

Diana hesitated for a moment. The prophecy was the only piece of leverage she had if she wanted to solicit more information from Ella and Epona. She glanced around the room. Her son was miserable. Her granddaughter was hopeful. And her husband…. Her husband seemed to be prepared for disappointment. She had never seen that look on his face before.

Diana reached into her bag and pulled out a clear vinyl envelope containing a single sheet of yellowed paper. She opened the envelope and handed the paper to Gretchel.

Gretchel took it and began to read. She tried to take it all in, but there were two parts that caught her:

Then the huntress will have a son,
 

and her son will have two loves.
 

The first will be a girl with hair as dark as blood

and scars that go deep beneath the surface. 

He will give her the stone that saves her,

and she will give him despair. 

When he finds the stone again,
 

He will find his heart,
 

and all may be redeemed.
 

Look to the twenty-first to find the second.

Find her, and all shall be redeemed.
 

Everyone waited while Gretchel read. When she was finished, she leaned back against the love seat and closed her eyes.

After a moment, Diana decided that it was all right for her to talk.

“I
’ve traced your maternal line forward from the twins. You are obviously a descendant, but you’re not the twenty-first. As far as I can tell, you’re the nineteenth.” Diana paused to clear her throat. “And you were also the first to have the amulet.”

Gretchel was wiping tears from her eyes
. They were tears of laughter. She stood up and handed the piece of paper to her daughter.

Gretchel dropped onto the love seat next to Eli.

“So, all this time, you thought that another woman was going to show up, wearing this magic necklace, and that she would be your true love?” She asked him.

“No!” Eli sputtered. “I never believed that. The prophecy is my mother’s obsession. I know it’s bullshit.”

“Oh, but it’s not bullshit.” Gretchel was nearly hysterical, and now Ame was laughing and Peter was smiling widely.

“What?” Diana shouted. “What delightful revelation am I missing? Where is the amethyst?”

By now, Eli had caught on, too. He was weeping.

Ame stood up and went to her grandmother.

“My mom wore that necklace all the time, my whole life. But two days before my dad—I mean, two days before
Troy
died, she took it off. She told me my father gave her the necklace to protect her from herself when she was pregnant with me. I thought that she was talking about Troy.

“I had guessed, already, but I knew for sure when Eli gave me that ring. I mean, it’s my birthstone, but it’s also my—”

“Who has the goddamned amethyst?” Diana jumped up and screamed at Ame.

“Too far
, Di...
Sit down
!” Peter roared. Neither Diana nor Eli had ever heard him speak to her—to anyone—like that.

Diana sat.

Ame took a step back from her cowed grandmother.

In a clear, calm voice she said, “
I
have the goddamned amethyst.”