Chapter 4...
After dinner everyone moved into Lawrence Desmond’s study. He paused before the wall safe hand poised in the air like he was about to defuse a bomb.
"I just want to say that I feel very wrong about this. I have struggled for the last eight years trying to decide what the best course of action was in regards to raising you three. I love you more than anything, and I never want to see you hurt. When your mother left it was the worst hurt we could experience. I know it was even worse for you three growing up without a mother. I was angry for a long time. She asked me to keep her leaving a secret from you guys. I knew she had gone of her own accord. She said that it was very important that we not come looking for her. It hurt me not to run out and try and find her. I loved her."
Meckenzie rose from her chair and went to hug her father. She knew this had to be hurting him. She loved him so much for being the strong person that he was. Her father had always held this family together with his love, understanding and strength.
"We know dad. Let's just get this over with so we can get back to our normal lives." Kellan’s anger had not subsided one bit over dinner. It stung through the words she spoke.
Their father punched in the code to the safe and withdrew three letter size envelopes and one even smaller envelope.
"They are addressed to you individually. There is a key in this smaller envelope along with the bank address and box number. Do you want me to stay with you guys or do you want to be alone?"
The trips looked at each other; Meckenzie knew that asking him to leave at this point would crush him. Taggart smiled at Meckenzie knowing she would make the right decision. Kellan just shrugged, as she stared at her envelope.
"You can stay. I think we should each read our letters to ourselves and then decide what we want to do from there."
Everyone agreed. Lawrence Desmond sat down behind his desk to wait and began shuffling papers. He knew this was going to be a long evening. He had intended to go back to the office, why had he chosen tonight to address this issue, he thought to himself.
Meckenzie stared in disbelief at her envelope. Could this really be a letter from her mother? She never expected to hear from her again. She and Kellan had made up stories about where her mother had run off to when they were younger. It always involved some secret mission for the government or being a secret spy who was going to get caught if she stayed in the United States.
Kellan had already torn into her letter and was reading intently. Taggart like Meckenzie had a bit of trepidation regarding the letter. Finally they both looked at each other and tore the envelopes together.
As Meckenzie began to read, she thought she must have fallen and hit her head and this was all a dream. Maybe her mother was insane, because what was written here was unbelievable.
Dear Meckenzie,
I know this letter must come as quite a shock to you. I have over the last few weeks thought long and hard about what I would tell all of you, my darling children, in these letters. Each of you so unique. Each strong of spirit. Each of you so pure. I love you more than anything in the world and that is why I must leave. I must protect you from the evil of my world spilling into the innocence of yours.
I have left you a present that will give you more information about my family's history. You will be able to retrieve it with your brother and sister on your eighteenth birthday. Each of you is special. Not special in the way that every mother thinks of her children as special. Each of you has a gift. The gift will begin to develop around your eighteenth birthday. I have some ideas as to what each of you will be blessed with, but not a concrete idea.
Kellan will be of sound body. It might be that she is able to run fast, or that she is strong, or she may be extremely agile. She may be able to jump higher than others of her own build. She might even be able to grow larger when she feels threatened.
Taggart will be pure of soul. This could mean he will be able to make people feel what he feels. Or he might be able to convince people to do what he wishes. He might be a healer, which is to mean he can direct the evil spirits from a person’s body.
You, Meckenzie, will be pure of mind. You could be extremely smart. You might be able to move things with your mind. You might be able to read minds, or control minds. It might be that you have influence over people.
These are all parts of the Trefoil. That is your destiny. The reader, the healer, and the warrior. You are fairies.
There will be lots of questions. I have left someone to help you. Someone who will report to me on occasion. Someone to watch over you. Isabel will be able to help you. She is my cousin and was placed here for your protection.
Know that I love your father. I adore him like no one I have met before. I knew he had part Fae blood in him when I came to find him. I had never expected to love him, but I did. I hope that over the years he will understand why I have to leave. In the safety deposit box is a letter you should give him. I know that he will understand why I left when he reads his letter.
I hope to see you again one day. I know that you won’t trust me when I say I never wanted anything but the best for you. Unfortunately that means me leaving you in order to protect you. I love you.
Forever your adoring mother,
Deidra
Meckenzie couldn't understand what could possibly have driven her mother away from them. The letter had only created more questions. And Isabel, her cousin? She looked up to find Taggart staring at her. Kellan was seething.
Taggart was the first to break the silence. "Well, I'm not sure if that helped."
Their father sat silently, waiting for someone to include him in the knowledge that was obtained from the letters. His eyes darted to each of his children, a protective wave of emotion emanating from him.
"Did you know that Isabel was mom's cousin?" Kellan said without really addressing anyone.
Taggart laughed, "That's what you bring out of your letter. Isabel?"
Kellan wadded up her letter into a tight paper ball, "That and the possibility that our mother was looney."
From their father's dumbfounded expression, it would seem he was not aware of the familial connection. He whispered almost inaudibly, "No."
Meckenzie stood up from her chair and handed the letter to her father. He began to read, slowly absorbing the information from the letter.
Meckenzie stood staring at nothing, wondering if she understood any of the things in the letter. Was it possible that her mother had gone crazy before she left? Fairies? And with special gifts?
Meckenzie felt a headache sneaking into the back of her head. She had never been sick a day in her life and for the last two weeks she had been plagued by headaches.
Taggart came to stand beside her, lightly placing his hand on her back. Almost instantly the pain in her head subsided. Meckenzie flipped around, unbelieving, could it be that Taggart was a healer.
"What?" Taggart said.
"You're a healer."
"Do you really believe this? I mean do you believe that you can read minds."
Meckenzie flipped her head back and forth from Kellan to Taggart. "Think about it, you have wanted to be a doctor as long as we can remember. I was getting a headache, you touched my back and it went away. Kellan is faster than she was six months ago. I mean she can almost beat me by a mile when we run five. Kellan, I bet you have noticed a difference in your strength and speed."
Kellan didn't respond, but her eyes told the truth. There was a difference.
Their father sat in silence. He's mind working overtime. As he struggled with the new found knowledge, he began to rummage through his desk. Like a man possessed, he threw papers everywhere. He then went to the bookshelves on the fire side of the room. They held all of the antique books our great grandmother had collected over the years. Lawrence Desmond searched frantically through every title on the shelves. He stopped at one very old leather bound boo
k with gold leaf lettering.
As he pulled the book from the shelves he turned to his children.
"When I was younger, your great grandmother used to read me stories from this book. I remember sitting in the garden and looking at the beautiful pictures with her. She would tell me all the tales of the Fae, the fairies. I remember one about the clan of the water fairies. These fairies had every few generations the blessed gift of a triple birth. Three children blessed with extraordinary gifts."
He stopped and flipped through the book. Finding what he was looking for, he went over the leather sofa and sat beside Kellan; encouraging Meckenzie and Taggart to join him.
"I had always assumed they were fairy tales." At this he laughed. "But I believe she may have been speaking about her family." Meckenzie sat down beside her father.
"Your great grandmother was larger than life. She had this whimsical nature that was contagious. She could tell stories that would enthrall you. We would sit in the garden and she would bring out this book." He patted the cover of the leather bound volume.
"She would tell the story of a set of triplets that were destined to save the land of Aquinas. The land of the water fairies. They were each gifted with talents that were part of the legend of Trefoil." He flipped the book open and found a brightly colored page. The art work was intricate, drawings of waterfalls and forests, all surrounding a castle that perched on top of a cliff overlooking the sea.
Their father wistfully sighed, lost in his own thoughts. "I have heard the story from her lips a hundred times. The Legend of the Trefoil. It was a story about a set of Triplets that ruled the land of Aquinas. The castle was attacked by the Clan of Tine. The fire fairies of the South. They wished to control all the Fae kingdoms. They had intended to kill the younger two of the triplets and take the older prisoner. The battle that ensued would kill over half of both clans. His plans never came to fruition though and as a final act of vengeance, the clan leader of Tine climbed the walls of the castle and snuck into the bedroom of the oldest of the triplets. He planned to assassinate her in her sleep. She had dreamed of him coming and been given the gift of future sight. She was told to transfer her and her siblings’ gifts into a necklace of three hearts that when combined made a three leaf clover. The necklace in its clover form would be given to the heir to the throne, her daughter. Each heart was forged of platinum and a heart shaped sliver of the stone of souls. The stone of souls was a crystalline formation found deep in the caves of earth fairy territory. There were legends that the stone held the magic of all of the Fae. So the stone was set into the lockets, and when their gifts were transferred to it, each stone would take on the color of one of the triplet’s power. Green for the pure of body, red for the pure of soul, and blue for the pure of mind. The process of transferring the gifts had left her weak. She knew that her death was coming, so in an act to save all of Fae kind, she produced a great spell that would render her assassin and his clan powerless for seven generations upon her death. So with a swing of his sword, his power left him, but the strength of her spell and her life given was enough to bind all of the Fae’s powers. He was killed immediately by the guards waiting outside the door. And with her sacrifice, the queen of the North ensured her progeny powers with the possession of the necklace. Every generation chooses an heir to the necklace from the children and children's children of the Trefoil, as the triplets would be known for all eternity."
He paused and flipped the page. "The legend is that in seven generations the Trefoil will be reborn. To protect the people of Aquinas from the revival of the Tine. I believe your mother believes that is you three."
Kellan threw her wadded up letter across the room. She retched as if her insides were being torn apart. "I'm going to my room." And with that Kellan stood up and stormed out of the room.
Taggart and Meckenzie sat in silence, their father flipping the pages of the big book slowly. He stopped at one page with a detailed drawing of three hearts of the necklace. In the center of each was a beautiful intricately carved gem. The lower part of the drawing showed how the three could be placed together forming a what seemed to be a three leafed clover. Meckenzie felt as if she had seen the locket before.
Her father spoke, "Your mother wore this."
Then in an instant Meckenzie had flashed back to a memory. Her mother sitting in the garden, humming softly to herself. The necklace catching the sun light and creating rainbows. "I remember." Meckenzie said softly.
Taggart stood up and walked to the windows of the study that overlooked Central Park. "Do we have to wait till our birthday to go to the safety deposit box?"
"I believe we should talk to Isabel first," their father said.
With that the three of them left the study. As Meckenzie and Taggart made their way up the stairs, Taggart took Meckenzie's hand. "I think we should go talk to Kellan. She seems to be taking this awfully hard."
"Let's go get her and take her to the garden. I feel like being in the garden."
Meckenzie knocked on Kellan's door. Kellan didn't respond so Meckenzie opened the door and called her name, "Kellan?"
Kellan sat at her desk staring at her laptop. She looked as if she had been crying.
"Kellan, let's go down to the garden. We can talk about it or not. Let's just get some fresh air."
"Why did she have to go? What could possibly have been so bad that she would leave us? I just want to scream at her."
Taggart strolled across the room and began rubbing Kellan's back. He looked like he was going to cry too. "I don't know what is real, or what to believe, but I do believe she thought she was protecting us. Let's get some fresh air."
The trips headed downstairs to the garden. It seemed like days since they had been down there with the party planners, though it had only been earlier that afternoon. The party seemed like such a foreign idea. They had all been so ready to celebrate their eighteenth birthday. Ready to come of age and to get started with the adult lives they were planning. Now there seemed like more questions than before and more uncertainties.
They sat quietly for a while just taking in the night air that was scented with night blooming jasmine, roses, and other flowers.
Meckenzie finally broke the silence. "I've been having these weird dreams. I've been getting headaches. I hear a buzzing in my head whenever that new guy Ty is around. Do you think these are all part of the gifts?" She said to no one in particular.
Kellan shifted uneasily in her seat, "I ran 100 meter in 10.52 today. The world record is 10.49. My coach about wet herself. I benched 275 the other day. It's weird but I jump higher too. I don't know if this is real, but something is really weird about my speed and strength. I think the coach secretly wants to test me for steroids."
Taggart laughed. "Maybe we should just get some sleep. Are we still running in the morning?"
Meckenzie nodded. They all headed up to their rooms. Meckenzie hoped she would be able to get some sleep, two or three hours a night was not cutting it.