Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)(49)

I glanced around. Scout had disappeared.

“He’s gone. You can relax,” Caden said, smiling wryly.

Off to guard the forest for me. Too bad I couldn’t bring him back with me. Then the dogs would have a cat to chase.

“Please don’t disappear like that again,” I begged Caden.

“I’m sorry.” His gaze showed sincerity. “He wasn’t supposed to get that close—but then that snake made a move on you … I was just getting these.” He held out a bunch of daisies. “They grow up high, in the meadows.”

My jaw dropped. No one had ever given me flowers before, let alone scaled a mountain to pick them freestyle. “These … they’re beautiful.” I stammered, taking the daisies. How long has it been since I held a daisy? Forever, it seemed. I brought them to my nose to inhale the natural bouquet.

That scent … so familiar. It reminded me of something, but what … My childhood? Summer?

The park. Red and white striped monkey bars.

I gasped.

14. Daisies and Deceit

Before I knew what was happening, Caden was easing me to the ground, my legs having given out on me. “What’s wrong?”

My mouth opened but it took a few tries to form any words and when I did, they came out in rapid spurts and stammers. “I couldn’t … I couldn’t have been more than four. The playground near our old apartment. Red and white–striped monkey bars. The old kind.”

“What playground?”

“The one in Sofie’s painting!”

Caden crouched down in front of me, cupping my chin gently with his hands. “Evangeline, slow down. You’re rambling. Start from the beginning.”

I took a deep breath, suddenly overwhelmed with nausea. I swallowed a few times before I could speak. “Sofie painted a picture and hung it in my room at Viggo and Mortimer’s. It’s a picture of a little girl picking daisies in a playground.” I paused. “I knew there was something familiar about it …” I locked eyes with him. “It was me! Sofie’s been watching me since I was four years old!”

Caden sighed heavily, pivoting to sit on the ground beside me. “I wonder why?”

I shrugged. My whole body felt numb from the shock. “It means she’s lying. She told me she didn’t mean for this to happen to me, but she did. She’s been planning it for fourteen years!”

He thought for a moment. “Or she’s leaving important details out.”

“Not telling me more than I need to know,” I murmured. It was exactly what she’d told me to do. “I wonder if Viggo knows. If he does, he hasn’t let on. Maybe he didn’t want to freak me out.”

“Maybe,” Caden said softly, though his tone suggested doubt. “Why would she paint that picture, though? It’s as if she wanted to you find out.”

“Some sort of sick joke?”

He shrugged. “Or some other reason. I don’t know what’s going on, but I guarantee you there’s a lot more to it than any of them are letting on. It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

I nodded, committing that to memory. I’d have to question everything from now on.

Caden leaned in, his shoulder nudging mine affectionately. “You going to be okay? You look a little pale.”

Nausea surged through my body again. “I feel … like I just found out I’ve been standing naked in a room full of people with magnifying glasses for years.” I shuddered. “I can’t trust anyone.”

“No. No one,” he said with cold certainty.

“Even the dog is against me,” I mumbled, picking tiny leaves off a fern branch and tossing them aside.

“Assume you’re only ever getting half the truth—if any.”

I hesitated, terrified of the answer. “Even from Amelie and Fiona and Bishop … and you?”

“Yes,” he said quickly. “I mean,” he looked off in the distance, frowning, “we want you to trust us, but we don’t expect you to do so blindly. We hope we’ll earn it one day.”

I already trust you, I whispered to him in my thoughts.

He turned and locked eyes with me for a moment, his expression unreadable. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then quickly clamped it shut. Grabbing my hand, he pull me up. “Come on. Let’s keep walking, if you’re up to it.”

“As long as there are no more lurking animals. I’m feeling pretty fragile right now.” Fragile, but unbroken, somehow—though by all counts I should have fallen apart. Any normal person would have by now, wouldn’t they?

Caden reached down to pick up the daisies I’d scattered when I realized the extent of Sofie’s treachery. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have.”

“No!” I exclaimed, grabbing the flowers out of his hand and inhaling their scent again, welcoming the fond memories that flooded back with it. My mother’s laughter as she chased me through the park … “Thanks for these.” I smiled timidly. “I love daisies.”

Caden picked up a pebble and casually threw it into the trees, no doubt hitting some impossible target I couldn’t see. “I know.” He laughed at my bewilderment.

“We’d better get to the others before they empty the stream.” He began walking briskly down the path, calling over his shoulder, “Hurry up, pokey!”