Daughter of the Mara (The Mara Chronicles Book I)

Chapter 23

As they made their way slowly down the dark and windy highway towards the falls, Jay began to feel nauseous as her anxieties about the evening ahead began to take hold. How could she possibly think she had been ready for this? She wasn't ready to meet all of these people. She couldn't hold herself together enough to convince them that she should somehow be in charge of them all. She couldn't do it. How had she ever thought that she could?

Jay turned to tell Harvey that she wasn't ready, that they needed to go home right now. As she did, Harvey reached out and grasped her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"It's going to be alright, Jay," he said, his voice calm and even. "We are going to go in there and everything will be fine. I'll make sure of it."

Jay was desperate to believe him, but her anxieties had swept away any semblance of rational thought. "How is it possibly going to be okay? I'm not ready. I haven't trained enough. What if I lose control in front of everyone?"

Harvey squeezed her hand again, harder this time. "Jay, you are ready. I need you to believe that I wouldn't have brought you here if I wasn't one hundred percent sure of that."

The rushing of water filled Jay's ears as they approached the falls. Harvey helped her over the railing that separated the viewing platform from the rocky edge of the pool at the bottom of the falls. Once she was safely over, Jay looked up and took in the immensity of Multnomah Falls. Despite having grown up just down the road from here the sight of the crashing water down the side of the cliff never failed to take her breath away.

While she knew what was going to happen next, Jay jumped back when a silvery glow started to emanate from the bottom of the falls. The glow became a bridge which extended towards them out of the falls. The silver bridge gleamed in the moonlight and the art deco design of the railings seemed so very delicate next to the power of the falling water. As the bridge reached the edge of the pool, Jay gasped as the tumbling water parted like a curtain at the opposite end of the bridge, beckoning her forward.

Harvey led her across the silver bridge, through the falls, and towards the door on the other side. The decision was made, they were here. There was no going back now. Jay took a deep breath and tried to steady her nerves, her amazement over the falls nearly forgotten. If Harvey thought she was ready, she would just have to trust him. After everything he had done, after everything that happened between them, she owed him that.

Large mahogany double doors loomed before them. They fit snugly into the rock of the cave behind the falls, had brass handles, and a door knocker that resembled an enormous golden spider. Jay glanced about and wondered, much as her father had, how a house such as this could have existed in this spot without anyone ever having an inkling that it was there.

Harvey stepped forward and used the door knocker which resounded with a loud clang against the wood despite the rushing of the falls behind them. She glanced over at him as they waited, thankful for his calm demeanor.

A short time later the door swung open slowly. At first Jay thought it had opened on its own but then a small woman in a maid's uniform appeared in the doorway. Her black hair was pulled into a tight bun and was streaked gray near her temples. Callous brown eyes stared up at them as the woman frowned at Harvey.

"The other Master Mardrom," the woman said, her voice cold. "It's been many a year since I've seen you." She moved further into the doorway as if she was trying to block their entrance. "You do realize you were banished from this court."

Jay glanced sharply at Harvey. She knew she should have been prepared for this kind of hostility toward Harvey but it still caught her off guard. What was Harvey leading her into?