Of Water and Madness (18 page)

Liam gaped at her, startled into sudden clarity by the look in her eyes and the sight of her tears. Abruptly, an image of her flashed in his mind, taking him back to the bridal store, where she had stood with both Capri and Rhiannon, all of them smiling happily at him. He saw their faces, clear as day, and the feeling it gave him filled his heart with a warm, liquid love that he had forgotten how to feel…

His eyes widened as he came back to reality and reached out to Blythe, cupping her face in his hands, suddenly mortally afraid.

“Help me,” he whispered so softly she barely heard it. Blythe gripped his wrists and shuddered, the look in his eyes terrifying her.

“From what? What’s happening to you?” She felt the hope rise within her, mixing with the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

But the look of terror in Liam’s eyes began to fade and she saw a quiet calm replace it as his face went slack, devoid of any emotion. She shook him, begging him to come back to her, but the blank look in his eyes indicated he was already gone.

Stella was almost instantly at his side, and her hand slid possessively over his shoulder, resting there confidently as she stared Blythe down with a knowing smile.

“I’ll have him back now, if you don’t mind.” Stella pulled Liam away, leaving Blythe standing in the middle of the dance floor, stunned into silent surrender. Around her, people began to murmur, unsure what was going on. She could care less about any of them.

Jax was watching her apprehensively from the edge of the dance floor, and she suddenly whirled around and went to him, grabbing his arm and dragging him away from the crowd, needing to share what had happened. Lucian immediately followed her, having witnessed the exchange.

When they were out of earshot of the party, which resumed as if nothing had happened, Blythe stared at both men, real fear in her eyes.

“He’s being controlled by Stella. I don’t know how, but he is,” she began, her hands shaking from both panic and adrenaline.

“What happened out there?” Lucian asked, glancing briefly at where Liam was sitting at one of the tables, Stella beside him. He looked cheerful and carefree as always, as if the exchange with Blythe hadn’t even occurred.

“I don’t know what really happened, but it was like he suddenly came out of whatever stupor he’s been in, and he begged me to help him.” Blythe’s voice hitched in her throat at the memory, the helplessness she felt destroying her inside. “And then it was like he vanished again…poof, gone.”

She waved her hands in the air to demonstrate, her eyes wet with furious tears. She hadn’t known what to do, hadn’t been able to keep him there…

“Christ,” Jax cursed, running a hand through his hair as a cold shudder ran through his body. It was worse than he thought.

“Then the bitch came and took him away,” Blythe snarled, her hands clenching into fists. “I don’t know how she’s doing it, but it’s her. Even during the ceremony, it was like he snapped out of it for a brief moment, and he said Rhiannon’s nickname…he hasn’t said it since he came back, but he said it while we were standing there.”

“We need to tell Thea,” Lucian decided, looking over Blythe’s shoulder in search of Mother Earth. “She might know what it all means.”

“We have to do something.” Blythe crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling cold. “Damnit, he needs me and I have no idea what to do.”

Lucian hugged her, needing comfort himself. He only wanted his son back…

Jax watched Blythe silently cry, tears streaming down her cheeks as she grieved with Lucian, and he felt disgust and fury rise in him. Glaring over at Stella, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“I’ll go talk to Thea,” he said suddenly, meeting Blythe’s eyes determinedly. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

Thea listened to Jax’s explanation in the garden room with silent patience, her hands folded primly in her lap. They were seated side-by-side on one of her long sofas and they were alone. Outside in the courtyard, the wedding reception continued on without them.

She appreciated Jax’s expertise, trusted his sharp mind and ability to figure all the angles of a problem. But she just wasn’t sure if she could trust Blythe’s interpretation of the events. The girl had been in an angry and emotional state of mind, and she had been looking for any sign to point to Liam not being himself. And while they had all noticed Liam behaving strangely, it did not necessarily mean anything other than a simple change of heart on his behalf. She had to look at everything under a broad scope, and take everything into consideration.

Though she had to admit, the idea of Liam being under Stella’s control had merit, but unfortunately there was very little hard evidence to back up the claim. What Blythe had witnessed both during the ceremony and during their dance was alarming to say the least, but there was no way of knowing what it truly meant.

Blythe could have heard him wrong, could have read more into his words than what was intended. Or she could be right.

When Jax finished, Thea nodded and thought over the situation, weighing the options. They could interrogate Stella, force the truth out of the girl. But then it would be prudent to interrogate Liam as well, and that made them no better than Burke had been several weeks earlier. Thea had no intention of going down that path again. Trust was important to her and she wanted to trust those she cared about. Hadn’t her lack of trust led her years before to banish Bristol and to banish Brock for a crime he hadn’t even committed?

No…she was supposed to be opening herself to trusting more, and while her trust in Burke had proved faulty, she had to have faith that Liam wouldn’t purposely put the family in danger. So really, there was only one answer…

“I want you to keep an eye on Stella, but I don’t want you to do anything drastic just yet,” Thea instructed softly. “We can’t be sure what is happening. This could all be innocent, and if it is, we will only be unnecessarily hurting one of our own.”

Jax stared at her in disbelief. “That’s it? You don’t want to do anything?”

“Except watch,” Thea corrected, her dark eyes sharpening with conviction.

Jax rubbed his face in frustration. He had hoped Thea would take his side on this, but he had to follow her orders regardless of what he felt was the right action to take.

“Look, Rian and I have been researching and all that we’ve turned up is that there have been instances of demons inhabiting a human since birth and becoming so connected to that person’s soul that they can no longer be distinguished from the human they inhabit. But that seems faulty because we know for certain that Liam is not possessed himself.”

“But you feel something’s off with Stella,” Thea stated, nodding in agreement. “I’ve felt it too. There’s something familiar about her…but Jax, this could also be us overreacting to the circumstances. We’re all upset for Rhiannon, but it is not up to us to dictate what Liam does with his life.”

Jax let out a huff of breath and rose to his feet, reaching for her hand to help her up as well. Face-to-face, he met her eyes with a firm and steady resolve.

“He’s not acting on his own accord, Thea. I guarantee it.”

He turned and left the room, leaving her hanging on his words. And as she stood there, lost in her own thoughts, something occurred to her that at first seemed so outlandish and ridiculous that she nearly laughed at herself.

But when she gave it a bit more credence, she realized that it was quite possibly the only answer that made sense.

If and only if Stella truly was controlling Liam and he was not acting of his own free will, then there was really only one likely explanation. And the fact that the girl seemed familiar only gave more credit to the assumption, coupled with her clearly not being under the influence of demons.

If Stella wasn’t an innocent human, then she must be a Muse.

Blythe found her
in the Greenhouse, fussing with one of the large, freestanding corkboards that held numerous charts and drawings. It was obvious she wanted to keep her mind off what had happened by diving into work that could have easily waited until morning, but Blythe didn’t care for Rhiannon’s bizarre defenses at the moment. She wanted to get a rise out of her. She wanted her to fight back, to at least show some concern for what was happening to Liam.

She kept her head high as she walked into the Greenhouse; backing down was not an option.

“We have to talk about this, Rhiannon,” Blythe began, noting Rhiannon flinch at her words, though she didn’t turn around.

“I’d rather not,” she answered simply, continuing her organization of the charts and drawings, wishing Blythe would just leave her alone. She was not in the mood for one of her tirades.

“Don’t you remember when Capri told us she was getting married, the four of us made a deal to not let anything come between us ever again?” Blythe charged, edging closer, determined not to let Rhiannon slink out of this.

Rhiannon closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath, the memory of that day painful for her. It was one of those moments that she was fighting to convince herself had never happened…

“Nothing has come between the four of us, Blythe,” Rhiannon said, her eyes opening as she turned and stared at the Fire Dryad. “What has happened between Liam and me does not concern you and Capri. I hope I can speak for him as well as for myself when I say that I don’t want this to undermine the unity we have now as Dryads.”

Blythe scowled, crossing her arms and letting out an impatient huff of breath. “You’re such a damn adult sometimes. Can’t you just admit that you’re pissed off about this, that it is a big deal, and that you want him back?”

“No.” Rhiannon stood tall and unyielding, just as stubborn as Blythe was. “He can do whatever he wants with his life. I’m not going to stand in his way.”

“So you’re going to stand here and lie to my face about what happened to you earlier? I saw you damn near collapse when he said that stupid name he always called you. And you and I both saw the look on his face.” She stepped forward, fighting back the urge to shake Rhiannon out of her defiant indifference. “He was himself again…don’t you understand?”

Rhiannon’s throat clenched painfully at the grief in Blythe’s voice. Of course she had seen it…he’d looked at her like he always used to, in a way that he hadn’t since he’d come back from New Orleans.

But she couldn’t let it change things…she couldn’t give in to some wild hope that this wasn’t reality.

“Even if he tried to reconcile with me now, I don’t think I could forgive him,” Rhiannon murmured, her heart shivering with ice. “I won’t let this happen to me again.”