The Girl in the Garden

Chapter 19

While Ben told the story of what happened, how he got into the garden, and everything the girl had told him, he could see that Wish was seething with anger. When the story was done, Wish said, "After all, I've done for you, you've betrayed me just like your mother. I told you not to go in there, I told you! You break my rules, and look what happens?"

Rani put a hand on Ben's shoulder and pulled him closer to her. "Wish, can we scold him later?" She asked, and Ben felt her grip on him tighten protectively.

"And you!" Wish yelled, and his voice echoed in the high ceiling of the front hall. "You helped him get into the garden?" He said, "You broke my rules? You, of all people? After all this time, after all we've been through? Why do you think you were the only one I was willing to let back into my home?"

There was a flash of green light in Rani's eyes as she challenged Wish, and a dark cloud of shadows erupted from his. "You don't really want to know what I think about that," she said.

"Yes, I do." Wish was stepping closer, and with each step, the shadows behind him darkened the room a little more. "Why does the great Urania Valentine believe I invited her to come back when all of her peers were left out in the world to fend for themselves?"

Rani pushed back against Wish's attempt to intimidate her by straightening her shoulders and pushing back the blackness with her radiant green glow. "Because the great Aloysius Frederick," she said it, but Ben heard in her tone that she didn't mean it, "Has lost his touch, and he didn't want anyone else seeing the mess he's become."

"How dare y—"

Rani slashed an irradiated green hand through the air between them, causing an explosion of light that filled the front hall for a second, completely drowning out the darkness. "And because you knew that I'd push you to get better. On some level, you knew it. I've always challenged you, and you need that."

"I set the rules here, Urania! You know that, and you've always respected it."

"I followed your rules, I didn't teach him any magic, I didn't tell him about the fire or his mother's magic. He was confused, he had questions, and I thought the garden might help. How was I supposed to know you had a blood fairy trapped in there?"

"I didn't!" Wish snapped. "I mean... I didn't know."

"Perhaps she just didn't leave before you locked the ring of iron, sir." Lolly put a hand on Wish's back and rubbed it vigorously. "You couldn't have known. Blood fairies are such tricksters, you know."

At that moment, Ms. Herrier returned. One second, a silver bird of prey soaring gracefully in through the door, the next an old woman staring down her hooked nose at them all with eyes that were filled with fear. She gasped for breath, placing a delicate hand on her chest, her face glistening in the moonlight with a sheen of sweat. "There's a portal open in the garden. It's small, though. There's a bloodmother trying to squeeze her way through, and she's nearly free. I counted at least six more of her spawn on the loose, Elmer is trying to hold them back, but he's only one man."

"Yes, thank you, Kestra," Wish said, "Ben was just informing us of the bad news himself. Lolly, you'll need to assist Elmer. Rani and I will get Ben back into the garden."

"Whoa!" Ben shouted, "No way, I'm not going back in there."

Wish's rage was filling the room with his darkness again, and this time it was all Ben could see. "You have no choice! You must face the consequences of your actions."

Rani grabbed Ben's arm and turned him away from his uncle. "You'll have to come with us," she said, "You're the only one here who can wield the dagger and banish her."