Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,35
right? She snaps at you, she doesn’t want to talk about it?” I said.
Rain nodded. “Exactly. I feel like I don’t know my own wife anymore. I love Marigold more than I’ve ever loved anybody, but she’s changed and I’m a little afraid of her now.”
“That’s exactly what Evie said—that her mother scares her now.”
“I know Evie can’t wait to move out and go to college. And that’s sad. I want our home to be the same loving, caring place it used to be. Dray is having problems, too. I want to intervene, but the fact is, I’m not their biological parent, they’re my stepkids. They have a father and I don’t want to overstep. I did try, but Marigold made it clear that while I’m their stepmom, she’s the disciplinarian. I tried once more, a few weeks ago. She came down awfully hard on Dray.”
“Did she hit him?” I had to ask. Even though Dray and Evie were teenagers, if Marigold had changed so far as to hurt them, I couldn’t stand by. I’d have to call the cops.
“I think a couple of times. I told her to knock it off and that if she did it again, I’d put a stop to it, even though it probably would have endangered our marriage. But she was screeching so loud that I could hear it all the way upstairs. I found him in his room later. He was crying. Poor kid. Marigold used to dote on those kids, and now they can’t seem to do anything to please her.”
I tried to think of a way to approach what might be a delicate subject.
“I can tell you want to say something. Just spit it out,” Rain said.
“Do you think that whatever is hanging out on this land is influencing Marigold?”
Rain’s eyes grew wide. “Do you mean possession?”
I shrugged. “I don’t honestly know. I just know there’s something menacing here and whatever it is, it isn’t playing games. It could be influencing her behavior.”
Llew cleared his throat. “Rain, we can poke around and see what we can find, if you give us permission.”
Rain glanced over her shoulder at the tent where Marigold was still running the pie-eating contest. She worried her lip for a moment, then let out a sigh, rubbed her hands on her jeans, and leaned forward.
“Please. If you could, I’d appreciate it.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll do some snooping. Meanwhile, be very careful. I think that whatever’s out there is out to hurt someone. If it is targeting Marigold, then we’ll need to intervene. Don’t mention that you talked to us—that might set her off and if there’s an entity attached to her, you’d give us away.”
Rain stood, wiping her mouth on a napkin. “Thank you. Normally, I don’t like people poking into my business, but whatever this is, it’s bigger than I can handle.” She started to step out from behind the booth table, turning back to add, “Let me know what you find.”
“One more thing—the corn maze, is there any way you can close it off without triggering Marigold’s suspicion?” I didn’t mention that I had already discussed the idea with Evie.
Rain paused, then said, “I think I know a way. It might irritate her, but even she would have to agree with the thought behind it. I noticed a coyote near here yesterday, and we don’t mess around with them. They can attack young children and there are quite a few kids here with their parents. I’ll just close it and say that someone spotted a coyote in the maze and we don’t want to take any chances.”
“Since Kipa’s already exploring the maze, I can ask him to help you close it off. He can escort anybody who’s still in there out—he can tell them about the coyote,” I said, pulling out my phone and texting him to meet me at the booth.
“That works,” Llew said. “Meanwhile, we’ll do what we can to find out what’s going on. Can you convince Marigold to go in for a physical? We want to make certain that whatever’s happening to her isn’t caused by an illness.”
Rain shrugged. “I can try. Our insurance requires an annual physical, and we haven’t had them this year yet. I’ll call on Monday and schedule family exams for everybody.” She paused on her way out of the booth. “I want to thank you. Things have definitely felt off, and I haven’t known who to talk to about it.”