“Peter’s coming,” my ghost said franticly in my ear. “Can you stall?”
I shook my head slightly so I wouldn’t catch my would-be kidnapper’s attention.
“Damn it,” he muttered.
He sounded afraid, which wasn’t good. My ice ghost never sounded scared. Ever.
I was towed out the open front door and down the brick steps, the ghost walking quickly after us. My uncle’s grip on my wrist was strong and tight, he wasn’t planning on letting go anytime soon. The ghost had a nice grip, of course, on my other wrist.
“Tell your ghost if he tries anything or tells anyone where you’re going, I’ll kill you.”
The temperature dropped but he didn’t stop walking. He led me over to a truck that was parked closer than I imagine it would be.
“Get in the truck.”
He opened the door and stood there while I got in. He shut the door and walked around the front while he stared at me the whole time. I knew it was stupid to even try but I grabbed for the door handle.
There wasn’t one.
“Try to stay calm,” my ghost said.
“He’s going to kill me. I can feel it.”
“No. Don’t even say that.”
The driver’s door opened and he got in, slamming the door closed. He didn’t put his seat belt on, just started up the truck and put it into reverse.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“Do you really think I’m that stupid?” He backed up enough to clear the car in front of him. “I know your ghost is still here.”
“How?”
“The air around him is displaced. You’re strong if you can help him gain an outline, just like she said you’d be.”
“Are you going to kill me?” I looked at him instead of out the windshield.
He looked like my father. Now that I knew what my father looked like, I could see the distinct resemblance. It wasn’t strong but it was enough to make me tear up.
“Yes. I am.”
“Why?”
He didn’t say anything else just put the truck in drive and took off down the street.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Yes. You know you don’t have to do it. I’ll just give you the money. There’s no need for…”
“I can’t take your money without exchanging it for something.”
“I’m here to make sure you and Cassie have everything you need. I’m supposed to keep you safe.”
She frowned at him, her hazel eyes boring into his.
“Fitz never should’ve asked you to do this. I can take care of myself and my child. I think I’ve proven that.”
“He didn’t have to ask. I wanted to.” He smiled. “Besides, I got to see my niece grow up. What more could an uncle ask for?”
That got a brief smile out of her. Over the years he hardly ever saw her smile. The only time it really happened was when Cassie was around but the second that beautiful little girl was out of sight, the worry lines and sadness reflooded Maggie’s face.
He hated seeing her that way.
It wasn’t fair.
“Alright. Come in.”
“Cassie at school?”
She nodded. “She should be home soon if you want to see her.”
“That would be nice.”
“I should just tell her who you are. It would make this all…easier.” She handed him a tea cup. “Swirl gently for a few minutes.”
They sat at the kitchen table, all of her things and Cassie’s filled up the little house around him. There was so much love here that it made him sad Fitz was missing out on it.
“Have you thought about telling her about her father?”
“She knows full well who her father is. She doesn’t want to see or talk to him and I don’t blame her.”
“Maggie. A girl shouldn’t grow up without knowing her father.”
“She’ll be just fine. The money you’re giving us will get us by and then some.”
“You know if you’d just ask him, he’d give it to you. He’d give you anything you want if you’d just lift the banishment.”
“You know full well I won’t do that. He’s poison. She’ll be rotted from the inside out if I let him into her life. He’ll just end up disappointing her anyways.”
“Maggie…”
“Go pour it out and then bring it back to me.”
He did as she asked, pouring the dark, bitter liquid down the drain. The leaves that escaped stuck to the cereal bowl left in the sink from earlier that morning.
“How’s she doing in school?”
“Straight A’s, just like always. The music teacher keeps asking if he can send a tape to Julliard but…”
He took the cup back over and handed it to her. “Her music is wonderful. She’d get in, you know that.”
She took the cup and stared down at it with a blank expression. “I could never afford Julliard. Besides, she hasn’t even decided what she wants to do with her future.” She looked up from the cup and smiled.
“You’ve seen something.”
She nodded. “I saw a boy. She’s going to fall in love with a boy with brown eyes and blonde hair. He’s going to make her happy.”
He chuckled. “I thought all you see are death truths.”
“He affects her future therefore he affects how she dies.”
“Is it still the same?”
She nodded hesitantly. “She’ll be old and gray, surrounded by everyone that loves her. That boy will be holding her hand but…”
She frowned just a little.
“What? But what?”
“There’s a shadow now. That only happens when the future’s in jeopardy.” Her frown got deeper and her eyes grew worried. “Huh…that wasn’t there this morning.”
“Maggie…”
He watched her get up from her chair and look out the window.
“Something bad is going to happen, Gary. I can feel it, just now…” She looked back at him. “What were you thinking when you swirled?”
That was an odd question. “Maggie,” he chuckled nervously, “I was thinking the same thing I always do.”
She slowly put the cup down on the counter and approached him.
“Then why are you so nervous?”
The truth was he came there to tell her something, something he’d wanted to tell her for a while now. He didn’t come just to give her the money, he was planning on giving her something else if she’d accept it.
“Maggie…” He stood up and brushed his hands off nervously. “There’s something I wanted to tell you.”
Her face paled instantly and she took his hand. “What is it? Did something happen to…?”
“No. No, no.” He was starting to get worried now. “If something did…we’re getting off track. Maggie…” He took the one hand she was gripping his with and then kneeled down on the floor. “Maggie…over the years I’ve come to respect you. I’ve always cared about you, you know that. I love Cassie, like a father loves his daughter and I think it’s time we become a family.”
She was staring at him, a mixture of surprise and something else he couldn’t quite place.
“Gary, I…”
“Maggie, I’ve loved you for quite some time now. I’ve watched you raise my brother’s daughter all on your own, without any outside help. You’ve shown courage in your choice and that just shows how…brave you are.”
“Gary…what is this?”
“I want us to be a family. You, me, and Cassie. She can finally have the father she’s always wanted and deserved. I know you may not…feel for me as I do for you but I believe love can grow out of the most unlikely of sources.
“Marry me, Maggie and you’ll never have to worry about anything ever again. I’ll take care of you, Cassie too. I love her like she’s my own.”
“Gary, stop this.” She squeezed his hand, her voice shaking just a little. “I thought…”
Then her eyes got that far off look they sometimes got when she was getting a death truth. He stood up slowly, watching her, waiting for it to be over. This was what he was “pretending” to pay for. He didn’t think she’d actually do it.
When it was over, she wouldn’t look at him. That troubled him. She slowly took her hand out of his.
“Gary,” she said very carefully. “I’m afraid I have some bad news I need to deliver. Can we do this some other time?”
“Maggie,” his voice shaking with nerves and worry, “I just asked you to…”
“I know what you asked me,” she said reassuringly. “But I’m afraid you already know the answer. I can’t marry you, just like I couldn’t marry…your brother.”
“But…Maggie, I’m not my brother. You know that. I would never leave, ever. You and Cassie, you’re my family.”
She wouldn’t look at him. He didn’t like that, not at all.
“I’m sorry, Gary, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Leave? You’ve never asked me to before…”
“I know.” She finally looked up at him. “I know but like I said…”
He saw it, a flash of fear. She was afraid of him. Something drastic had just happened, something that would change everything between them. All those years of friendship, he could feel them slipping through his fingers and he didn’t know why.
“Maggie, what’s going on? What did you see exactly?”
“Nothing.” Her smile was nervous, scared even. “Nothing, but I do need you to go. We can finish this later. Everything can—can wait.”
“Ok.” He shrugged, trying to play it off. But the truth was her rejection stung him. It hurt, it really did. “Ok, Maggie. I’ll go. Tell Cassie I said hello.”
“I will.”
He left the house, thoughts running through his mind. Different scenarios played over in his head about what it could mean. Whose death truth did she see and why did she react the way she did? Maybe he should go back, make her tell him what she saw. He tried not to use his powers too often. The locals would notice if there was a foreigner in their midst.
He headed back to her house and he was just about to knock when he heard her talking through the door.
“I know, Fitz. I’m sorry. That’s why I’m calling. I’ve messed up and I’m planning on lifting the banishment.”
What?! His anger boiled deep in his chest, a pain rising in the center where his heart was.
How could she forgive Fitz after all this time? And after he proposed?!
“I need to get out of Ireland for a while, Cassie too. She needs to meet you and…” her voice cracked as whatever his brother had to say started to make her cry. “No. You can’t come here. You know what will happen if you get too close while the banishment is still in place.” There was a short pause. “I want Cassie to have a father. Even after all this time…I just think this is the right moment…Fitz, just…don’t come here. I’ll call you after it’s over.”
She hung up before his brother could say anything else. His whole body was lit up with betrayal and he wanted nothing more than to go in there and shake her until she told him what was going on.
What changed.
But instead he stumbled off the porch and headed home. He knew it wouldn’t be long until his treacherous brother would call to find out what happened.
She avoided him for a month. Maggie wouldn’t take his calls and was conveniently not home when he came to see her. Something serious was going on and he was afraid of what it could be. His brother had arrived in Ireland a few days after she called him. He was staying at the summer home nearby, waiting for her to call and tell him the banishment was lifted.
Maggie didn’t know of course.
The second he saw his brother though, he knew Fitz still loved her.
And he loved Cassie too.
He was there to collect the family he’d forfeited years before.
And Maggie was planning on handing it to Fitz instead of him. After all the years he’d been good to her, after everything he’d done for her. After all the times he’d listened to her rant and rave about how much of a bastard his brother was.
She was just going to forgive him.
Just like that.
Fitz didn’t deserve her or Cassie.
Maggie was right when she said he would rot Cassie from the inside out. She was so loving and trusting. She’d fall for his act and accept him just like she shouldn’t. Just like Maggie did all those years ago and just like she was doing now.
He had to do something to stop her from reversing the spell.
He’d follow her, yeah, that’s what he could do. He knew where she went to collect her herbs. He’d follow her there and talk to her, he’d persuade her if he had to. She couldn’t take Fitz back. He could convince her of that and then he’d convince her to marry him.
Let him be a father to Cassie and a loving husband to her.
This could work.
He rowed out after them, a storm coming on, painting the horizon a dark gray, almost black.
He docked his boat up the beach a ways from them, so’s not to spook them. He tracked Maggie to a clearing where she could pick some herb…he couldn’t remember what.
“Maggie,” he said, coming out of the tree line.
She stood up quickly and looked at him, her face a perfect picture of a startled bunny. He thought she might be just a little happy to see him but instead it was fear, not happiness he saw on her face.
“What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here.”
“Tell me what’s going on. You won’t call me back and you’re never home…”
“Gary…” She gripped her cutting knife in her hand but dropped everything else she’d collected. “You need to leave.”
“Not until you tell me what I need to know. Whose death truth did you see? Was it mine?” Her face paled. “I knew it. What was it? What happens? It has to be serious in order for you to call Fitz and lift the banishment. What is it?”
“Gary…”
“Tell me!” he yelled. All the anger and worry he’d felt over the past month came up.
“Gary…please…”
“Tell me, damn it!”
“Your death…it’s not a happy ending but it’s not the one I saw…”
He frowned. “Then what was it? Why don’t you just tell me that? What happens? Tell me so I can keep it from happening.”
She shook her head and tried to back away. That angered him even more and he used his magic, had a strong wind push her back in his direction.
“I have to keep you safe and I can’t do that if I’m dead. Who kills me, Maggie? Tell me so I can get rid of them. I don’t want to die. I want us to be a family. Just tell me what I need to know.”
She was frightened now, more than he’d ever seen her. Even more than the one time Cassie walked off the pier and didn’t come up instantly.
“Gary…”
“Tell me!”
“Cassie. You kill her.”
The wind stopped and he stood there, staring at her, completely dumbfounded.
“Cassie? My Cassie? I could never…but why?”
He’d never hurt Cassie. He loved her. But then it occurred to him that maybe Cassie would do something in order to…
No. Cassie wouldn’t hurt a fly let alone do anything drastic to keep them from being a family.
Maggie was wrong. She had to be. Her vision was wrong, it had to be.
“No, I would never…”
Maggie was backing up again and he frowned at her. “Why are you doing that? Stop it.”
She froze, her knife still in her hand but she was hiding it from view. She was trying to…
“You kill her. And I can’t have that.”
She lunged at him but he was quick. He disarmed her and cut her across the arm, causing her to scream in pain. It was so easy overpowering her. It would be easy to convince her but…
“You…you meant to kill me.” He stared at her in horror. “I love you and you try to kill me.”
“You may love me but I don’t love you.”
“Why? Why don’t you love me?”
“Because.” She gripped her arm and started backing up. “I still love your brother.”
He didn’t know what he was doing. He felt anger, hatred, fury, and before he knew it, he was gripping her tightly. She was trying to fight him off but that just made him angrier. The storm had finally hit, lightning and thunder giving an eerie soundtrack to their fight.
Before he could stop it, he stabbed her, cut her open. She stared at him, wide eyed.
A scream pierced the night, breaking him out of his trance.
Cassie stood on the other side of the clearing, complete shock and fear all over her face. Maggie turned in his hold and yelled for Cassie to run but she wouldn’t.
He didn’t know what happened next but he found himself pulled back by vines…
The vision ended and I was left staring out the windshield where lightning cracked across the sky in front of us. It was odd how the past came back like that. The visions were usually easy to break out of but it was almost as if he was playing them for her to see.
For her to see and finally understand why he was doing all of this.
“You get the same look on your face she used to get.” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “You look…so much like her.”
I whimpered and moved as far away from him as possible.
“I never wanted this to happen, Cassie. I just wanted us….for us to be a family. But all that was taken from us. All we have left now…is this.”
“You’re obsessed.”
He shook his head. “No. I’m just finishing what I started. Once you’re gone…once you’re with your mother…I can join her, both of you. And we can be a family. Finally. Just the three of us.”
“Oh god,” my ghost said. “He’s crazy.”
“Ya think?” I whispered. “Mom’s not on the Ghost Plain,” I said louder. “She’s not even a ghost…”
“Of course she is.” He glanced at me and then back at the road. “She has unfinished business. I checked and I made sure. Your mother is a ghost, Cassie. I’ve talked to her. She’s waiting for you, for me. So we can be together.”
I shook my head. “No. Mom would never want us to be a family with you. Dad is my father, Fitzgerald Kennedy is my father. Not you.”
His hands tightened around the wheel. “Now, I know this is hard for you to understand…”
“No it’s not. You’re a psycho who became obsessed with your brother’s family…”
“My brother’s discarded family. He didn’t want you or your mother. He was more than happy to be rid of you. But who wouldn’t? A crying, screaming, uncooperative baby like you?” My eyes filled up with tears and his face fell. “I’m sorry, Cassie. I didn’t mean that. It was mean.” He reached out and touched my cheek. “I still love you, no matter how hard you try to rebel against this. But that’s normal. Teenagers are supposed to rebel against their parents…”
“You’re not my parent. You’re not even my father.”
He struck like a rattler. He slapped me across my face, my cheek screaming in pain and my lip split just a little.
“Oh. Oh god. I’m sorry, Cassie. I didn’t…”
He reached out to touch me again but I just pressed as close to the door as I could. He pulled his hand back, staring at me the whole time. He wasn’t even looking at the road but I caught a glimpse of the deer a second before the truck slammed into it.
“Look out!”