Authors: Cyndi Goodgame
Inside the front cover was her full name.
Alyssa Mia Ryman Loggin
I ran my finger across the letters like it made me closer to her in some way. Lifting myself from my reverie, I flipped a page or two to see how much reading would be involved.
A lot.
Page one was labeled:
August 2
nd
The day I met him.
The whole page was covered. I read it, then reread it. The similarities were scary. On the day my mother met my father, the goblin king, she felt his emotions. She was connected to him in magical sense like me to Ames. It was uncanny and beyond belief. At least I know it’s a goblin thing now. I’m guessing it was kind of personal to share that with others since no one in either realm knew anything about it enough to tell Ames. I knew I didn’t want to go blabbing to others something so intimate. It was enough that Brooks called Ames on it in front of others the day he kissed me for the first time.
She described running into him during an ordinary workday at her lunch break. When she saw him, she just knew. According to her words, he
’d said pretty much the same kind of things that Ames had.
The next day
’s entry came from weeks later. They were inseparable. He met her parents, whom were alive. They couldn’t be now or they’d have been in touch with me, right? I pushed that thought away for now.
She met everyone in the realm, whom refused her entrance and he begrudged them all. After time, they relented and welcomed her with great reluctance. I couldn
’t find a clue as to why or if she knew other than they hated her for not being goblin born.
Days of entries told about them falling in love. Picnics, midnight swims, presents, you name it. She was my opposite from me in the material girl department. She didn
’t mind being showered with goods. My heart picked up with learning any small detail that made up my mother’s personality. It made her real in some small way, not just a painting.
And then...I came to March 3
rd
of the next year.
They married on the first of the month. As yuck as it was to read about your mother
’s sex life, she said something that made me read it twice. She’d waited till marriage, giving me an ounce of respect for her and another trace of her personality shining through. And something we had in common. Second, she’d found new powers. I’d seen a couple of times in the first pages about her having magic differing from my father’s but she never elaborated.
But here, she said that after the “magical” wedding night she began to grow stronger in her telepathy. I didn
’t
have
telepathy. I fast read and skimmed the following pages. She was now able to read every mind of the goblin realm as well as the humans she could already. She’d researched her own family and learned that they had once been involved with the goblin realm before. She told of how she found out from one of the women who’d lived long enough to know the king and queen (because goblin’s have a lifespan of about one hundred and fifty, give or take) from over a century of current and before reigns. That queen’s ancestor to the goblin king, the woman told her, had been a witch.
I paused for a moment. If all this wasn
’t in some kind of goblin history book, it needed to be. I vowed right then to get it all recorded.
Back in the book, I let my eyes see the difference between the page on the left and the new entry on the right.
Almost immediately, the handwriting on the pages changed. My mother’s words looked thinner, angrier. The entries passed quickly with time. Almost a year had passed and I was born.
I couldn
’t figure out her pain. So a previous queen had been a witch. I have to believe in them if I am to trust what Ames and all these people say they are. Why not witches too?
“What have you found so far?”
I fell forward out of the chair. Catching my left hand on the floor, I latched the book against my chest and just stayed frozen in midair. My hair swung across the front of my face presently blinding me and my feet were still locked under the fold of the cushion connected to the chair. I’m sure I looked ridiculous.
“
A little help here.”
“Already there. Just setting your tea on the table.” A cold hand lifted my arm from the ground as I shifted to make up for the gravity holding me down.
I should be huffing at him or griping about looking like a dunce. Instead I commented on his gift to save face.
“You say tea like a girl.”
His brow turned in. “Do not.”
I laughed at his feeling hurt. “Do to.”
“I can take it back,” he pointed to the steaming mug.
No way. “Thank you for getting it. I really need it about now.”
Caydon smiled, feeling pleased.
“So...”
I settled back in the chair leaning towards the table where I could drink my tea. It was the perfect temperature. I sipped watching him settle in the chair. He didn’t have a drink.
“You don
’t drink
tea
?”
An impish grin surfaced. “No.”
“My mother married my father and I was born a year or so later. The realm didn’t like her.”
His leg went over his knee again, but his foot faced away from me. “No, the realm was supposedly distrusting of her.”
“Because she was human?”
His eyes narrowed. I saw his mouth twitch like he was gritting his teeth. “What entry are you on?”
A revelation hit me causing me to cling the journal harder to my chest. “
You read it
.”
One killer smile coming up. “Jem, they made me charge of the realm. I covered every part of this room.”
“My.name.is.Emma.”
His smile dropped. “Forgive me. Emma. You need to finish the book.”
I followed his eyes to my chest. He was looking at the book.
I wanted to say I was tired, but my inner clock said it wasn
’t even lunch time. Opening the journal, I thumbed through to where I left off. Before I left this world again for hers, I looked back up at his poker faced enigmatic self.
“
You just gonna stare at me.”
“Maybe.”
Maybe
. Oh, gawd. He really is nothing like anyone I know.
A sip of tea later, I delved back in ignoring my psycho admirer.
December 15
th
The day I knew my daughter’s destiny.
I dashed a look at Caydon. He knew all this. He knew what I didn’t. Ignoring my gut instinct to run the heck out of here, I turned back to the page.
“I found Jem in the courtyard with Cay and her son. He was a few years older than Jem, but they seemed to get along well enough. Standing behind them, anyone would think they were picking the grass or flowers out of the ground. I saw my Jem moving the flowers in the air. At first I was so proud that my baby had powers like her father, but then I remembered what Warren told me when we met. A goblin’s powers only come when they come of age. But my Jem was already there. He knew her powers didn’t come from him.
I watched for a time. Cay was already talking and egged her on to keep doing it over and over. Jem twisted the flowers into a pile and threw them at Cay. Flowers shouldn’t have force behind them, but this pile of little wildflowers did. Cay fell back against the ground crying.
I grabbed her up and took her away before anyone saw. My mother told me it would all come to pass and couldn’t do anything to change it. We will see about that.”
I lifted my eyes to see if Caydon was still watching. His head was back and his eyes were closed.
December 16
th
An old friend.
“I went to visit my old friend, Dana. She helped me through so much of my crazy life growing up when I didn’t know where else to go. Alone in a world where everyone thought you were evil or making potions with frog’s legs was bad enough, but I needed a friend then. And I needed one now.
Dana was so thorough. She promised to get back to me with answers from my mother. For now, I wait.”
January 10
th
Answers.
“It’s terrible. Not just the news. I’m writing by candlelight because I’m not ready to tell Warren yet. Dana contacted me, but I was caught. Mary Tanner was coming in through the now blooming again apple orchard at the same time. I knew for a fact that she’d been sneaking over to see the guard at the Cahn realm, so I knew if I kept her secret, she’d keep mine. We nodded in silent agreement and parted ways.
Dana told me my daughter was just like me. My daughter is a witch just like I thought. My mother was right and everything will unfold just like predicted by a witch seer unless I could find a way for her to never meet the Cahn boy. I have to try.”
I gasped aloud.
Caydon swooped down into the floor and put both hands on my knees.
“What is it?”
“You knew what I was. How long have you known?”
He remained locked on my face. “The same as Ames Cahn.”
Gasp. I started to hyperventilate. Grabbing my tea, I gulped the rest down in one swallow.
Caydon said something, but I didn
’t hear it. Then he questioned, “What else do you know?”
My eyes widened. “What the heck
else could there be?”
“Could you refrain from using such language for you are a lady?” He clucked his tongue.
“A freaking-witchy-goblin-freakoid kind of lady. You better move away before I blast you into the next room.”
“You wouldn
’t,” astonishment lit his face up.
“Consider yourself warned
, Hercules.”
“Glad to know you think I
’m strong, but before you blow your top, let me talk you down from your rage.”
I wanted to hit him for making fun of me. “Only Ames can do that. Quit thinking you can tell me what to do.”
His hand grabbed mine. It didn’t tingle the way Ames made me and it wasn’t calming me down. “I didn’t mean to make you mad. Please, just let me tell you some of what I know.”
I yanked my hand back and signaled with my head to go on afraid my words would only be snippy and rude like I felt. And my hands were burning like hot coals from the need to blast him away.
“Witches through the ages have evolved into more of a supernatural kind of being. They stay hidden from society because of the links that go all the way back to Salem. They can and will be outcasted as your mother was in her younger years. No, people today may see them as cool per say, but growing up in human school with uncontrollable hands that make others crispy and a little static clingy wasn’t exactly her way of being normal, not to mention the telepathy. She knew how much they hated her and was reminded every single day. Others treated her like she was the devil. Your father met her when her world was collapsing in on her and she wanted to just escape. Escape...she did.”
Caydon paused and checked that I wasn
’t going to interrupt.
“Magic spells and bat wings and pig eyes were a thing of the magical past from what I understand. Now, magic can be within you. And every witch has their own specific kind of magic destined just for them. According to your mother
’s journals, that will show events about her mother and grandmother, it’s more like a defense mechanism against those who tried to extinguish your line and powers. They were only powers, nothing more. It was handed down in secrecy only to those who exhibited “abilities” they were protecting.”
“How do you know all this?”
He was still sitting in front of me. I didn’t realize his hand was on my knee again. His thumb was stroking it.
“Did you read closely about the part when you were a baby? With the flowers.”
I gave a small nod.
“
I am Cay’s son. My mother told me.”
A new fear hit me. “Who all knows this?” I scooted forward.
“Myself, my mother, the lady your mother confided in for years named Dana, your grandmother, your parents, and most recently, Ames.”
“And a Miss Tanner.”