Divine Misdemeanors

Chapter Sixteen

It was Hafwyn who moved forward, arms outstretched. “Let me help you, Caswyn.”

He was shaking his head over and over, his hair in a wild profusion across his face so that his wide, staring eyes were framed by strands of his hair. It made him look wild, feral, and a little mad.

She started to bend and touch him, but he screamed again, and Galen was suddenly at her side, taking her wrist and saying “Make sure he sees you and not her before you touch him.”

“He would never hurt me,” she said.

“He may not know it’s you,” Galen said.

I started to get up off my knees and Rhys’s hand was there to help me stand. Doyle and Frost were standing there staring at Caswyn. Their faces showed such grief.

I started toward them with Rhys’s hand in mine. He drew back, and I looked at him. “My powers bring death, Merry. That won’t help here.”

I looked at Doyle and Frost, and even Barinthus still standing against the sliding-glass doors. I could see Amatheon and Adair out on the deck. They looked away when I made eye contact, as if they were happy to be outside cooking steaks, and not inside trying to make this better. That did seem easier, but the point to being a royal, a real one, was that you couldn’t just do the easy things. Sometimes you had to do what was hardest if that was what your people needed. Caswyn needed something right now, and I was all we had.

I prayed, “Goddess, help me help him. Give me the power I need to heal him.” I smelled roses, which was the scent that I smelled when the Goddess was answering prayers, or trying to get my attention.

Galen said, “Does anyone else smell flowers?”

“No,” said Hafwyn.

“Does anyone else smell flowers or plants?” Rhys asked.

There was a chorus of deep bass “nos” throughout the room. I moved toward Galen and Hafwyn where they stood in front of Caswyn. The scent of roses was stronger as I moved toward them. That was one way I knew that the Goddess was saying yes. Inside faerie or a dream I got to see her, but in everyday life it was often perfume, or other less-dramatic signs.

Hafwyn moved away from Galen and Caswyn. Her blue eyes were wide as she said to me, “I can only heal the body, not the mind.”

I nodded, and went to stand beside Galen. He looked down at me. “I’m not a healer.”

“Me either,” I said. I reached for his hand, nervous. The moment his hand wrapped around mine the scent of roses was even stronger, as if I stood beside a bank of wild roses thick with summer’s heat.

“Flowers again,” he said, “stronger than before.”

“Yes,” I said.

“How do we help him?” he asked.

And that was the question. How did we help him even with the scent of flowers around us, and the presence of the Goddess on the very air? How did we heal Caswyn outside of faerie?

The scent of roses was so thick it was as if I’d drunken rose water, so that it sat sweet and clean on my tongue. “May wine,” Galen said, “I can taste May wine.”

“Rose water,” I said softly.

I started to kneel, and Galen knelt with me. “Goddess, let Caswyn see us. Let him know that we are his friends.”

Galen’s hand grew warm in mine, not heat warm, but as if he had been out in the sunshine and his skin held that warmth. He was smiling that welcoming, good-natured smile of his, and Caswyn was looking at him. His wide eyes began to lose their complete panic.

He said, “Galen.”

“Yes, Wyn, it’s me.”

He looked frantically around the room, but he ended up staring at me. “Princess, where did she go?”

“Where did who go?” I asked, but I was pretty certain who “she” was.

Caswyn shook his head, making his hair slide over his face again. “I dare not speak her name after dark. She’ll find me again.”

“She’s not in Los Angeles.”

“Los Angeles?” he made it a question.

Galen asked, “Wyn, do you know where you are?”

Caswyn licked his lips, his eyes looking afraid again, but it was a different kind of fear now. It wasn’t fear of some post-traumatic-stress vision, it was fear that he didn’t know where he was, and he didn’t know why he didn’t know.

His eyes were wide and frightened as he whispered, “No, I don’t know.” He reached out to us and we both reached for him together with our unclasped hands. Was it accident or design that we touched him simultaneously, and both touched the bare skin of lower arms where the sleeves had been rolled back? Whatever the cause, the moment we all made skin contact magic breathed through us. It wasn’t the overwhelming magic that it might have been inside faerie, but maybe that wasn’t what Caswyn needed. Maybe what he needed to heal was something gentle, something like the touch of spring, or the first heat of summer when the roses fill the meadows.

Tears filled his eyes as he gazed at us, and we drew him into our arms and held him while he wept. We held him and the scent of flowers was everywhere.