Solstice - The Goddess Awakens

Lola managed to get a few weeks of leave from university to try to get to grips with things. Her parents had been great; they seemed to take it all in their stride. They were relieved that she was safe. Joseph and Eileen didn’t ask too many questions, but Lola felt that she owed them some sort of explanation to all this craziness. She skirted around the more intricate details, but explained that Arthur and Celeste belonged to the same fraternity. She told them how the same people that had murdered Arthur had tried to hurt Celeste too. That was as much as she could divulge, mostly because she felt that the less they knew, the safer they would be.

Aibgrene and Daithi had taken over the kitchen, making various concoctions to help nurse Celeste back to health and although it was almost winter the weather had been very mild so Lola spent a lot of time outdoors. The tranquillity of the gardens around Brook Mill Manor helped to quiet her chaotic mind. Weeks had passed and no one had made an attempt to retrieve Alex’s car. It sat for days outside the front door, where she’d abandoned it the night they rescued Celeste. Lola was grateful when her dad moved it to the side of the house, she couldn’t bear to look at it, to the extent that she even avoided leaving the house through the front entrance.

Lola was watching the last of the oak leaves as they sky-waltzed to the ground below when she decided that it was time the car was returned to its owner. Weeks before, Daithi had checked the Audi and disabled the tracking device. It took him longer to find the tracer on Ruby’s car but once he did, he disabled it with ease. Lola declined to mention any of this to her best friend when she returned the car. Besides it was high time that she’d her own means of transport, especially now that she had the means to buy it.

Lola had always loved Volkswagen Beetles and after days of scouring the web, she couldn’t believe her luck when she found one being sold locally. It had only one female owner and the lady selling it had just given birth to twins so she now needed something a bit bigger. The car was metallic black with a white hood and matching white leather seats. Lola fell in love immediately. Daithi checked the mechanics, but it wouldn’t have mattered what he’d said, this was the car for her. She bought it there and then.

After a few more days of putting off the inevitable, Lola finally built up the courage and sent a text message to Alex, informing him when and where to pick up the car. Her palms were clammy with sweat and her heart pumped ferociously in her mouth as she hit the send button. She didn’t know if he would respond but something familiar and unwarranted stirred in her when her text alert sounded seconds later. It was Alex. Lola’s stomach jolted as she opened the message and read the curt reply. Okay, was all it said and although it was only four letters on the screen, she must have stared at it for hours. It was best that she did this on her own, so she didn’t mention her plans to anyone, especially not to Aibgrene. Lola knew how her friend would react and that was a confrontation she could do without, so she organised the pickup for a time that Aibgrene and Daithi would be away from the house.

Each Tuesday, the two of them went to the city for more supplies. Lola watched from the book room as they disappeared down the driveway in Daithi’s beat-up van. She’d stashed the car keys in a small green wooden box that sat on the windowsill overlooking the herb garden.

The car sat covered in a silver tarpaulin in an outhouse that lay to the back of the manor. Lola pulled off the cover and gently eased herself into the driver’s seat. As she secured her seatbelt her nostrils caught the unmistakable scent of Alex’s aftershave. Unbidden, a tsunami of memories hit Lola, ripping open that hole in her heart that she had tried so hard to close in the days and weeks that had passed. Smell could be such a cruel and emotive sensory device. Thought after punishing thought swam through her mind like a spectre. Had she not been already sitting down, Lola was sure that each one would have brought her to her knees and even though Lola had forbidden herself to shed another tear for Alex Stein, still they came. At first the tears leaked out of her eyes in a trickle and then in torrents as she let them fall freely onto the cracked leather seat. Pulling her knitted jumper over her hand, Lola forced the tears away. Alex was always on time and she needed to be ready when he arrived – she could not appear weak and broken. Turing the ignition, the car’s V10 engine roared to life shattering the stillness, bringing Lola back to the present. She awkwardly put the car into reverse and eased out of the garage. She had told him that the car would be left outside the gateposts of Brook Mill Manor and that’s exactly where she left it.

Lola was walking back behind the gateposts when a familiar Black Mercedes pulled off the road, stopping at the top of the avenue. Lola checked her watch, it was two o’clock in the afternoon and, as always, Alex Stein was right on time. She waited nervously as he strode down the avenue with the winter sun bouncing off his blonde hair. He looked amazing, dressed in loose indigo jeans, light tan desert boots and a cream padded jacket. Stay strong, stay strong, show no weakness, show no weakness, commanded Lola to herself. Alex showed no signs of discomfort and she would have to act accordingly. Alex locked his cold blue eyes on her. His face was emotionless as he came to a standstill just inches from Lola. All that separated them was a thin sphere but this gave Lola the protection and courage that she needed as she mirrored Alex’s granite stare.

Lola wondered how she could have been so blind. She wasn’t even convinced that she had been blind. She had known what Alex was like from the very first time they had met yet she had allowed herself to fall in love with him. Love, with all its passion and brutal intensity, had given her an excuse to deny what she’d always known. Yet, standing there looking at him now, Lola’s brain still found it hard to accept that it had all been a lie. She recalled seeing that beautiful phosphorous pink glow around him after they had made love. But as hard as it was to stomach, Alex Stein was a fraud, it was all a fallacy. There was no need for words, there weren’t enough words in her vocabulary to describe all that had passed between them.

‘You’re more like your mother than you know, Alex,’ a voice said. For a moment Lola thought that the words had come out of her own mouth, but the voice was soft, like music. Lola turned as Celeste, aided by Arthur’s walking stick, walked through the gateposts towards her nephew. ‘You have her light,’ said Celeste, as Alex glared at her.

‘And what do you know about my mother, witch,’ he spat back at her. Lola could see that Celeste had touched a nerve but she didn’t know whether it was hate or fear that she saw in Alex’s contorted face.

‘As a matter of fact, I knew her very well, Alex. After all, she was my twin sister. I assume from your reaction that your father didn’t tell you this. Did he even tell you her name?’ she asked gently, without waiting for a reply. ‘It was Aurora,’ continued Celeste. ‘She was named after the Goddess of the Dawn. She was so gentle and so loving but love can sometimes make us blind. She thought that she could change your father and for a time she did. For years your father fought against the darkness that raged inside him and gradually your mother became a constant reminder of what he was. Her light cast him in constant shadow. I have no doubt that he would have killed her sooner, but then she became pregnant with you, Alex, and Carl knew he would soon have his heir. I suspect that he killed my sister moments after she gave birth to his son.’

Lola could not believe what she was hearing. Alex was Celeste’s nephew. His mother was Aurora and Carl Stein had murdered her. Lola was floored. She looked at Alex, but that momentary burst of emotion had vanished from his face and was replaced once again with the customary void.

‘Don’t be like him, Alex,’ urged Celeste. ‘Be like your mother.’ Without a word Alex got into his car and disappeared up the avenue.