Admitting the primary reason wouldn’t do any good. Rather than keep him away from my mom, he’d insist on going to prove that he would be fine. So, I settled for a secondary reason.
“I just won my freedom from Adira, and I don’t want her knowing that I’m hiding out in your cabin. And she’ll figure it out if we both don’t show up to class.”
He heaved a sigh.
“Fine. I’ll go to class and keep up pretenses on one condition.”
“What condition?”
“Tonight, we share the bed.”
My mouth dropped open. He grinned.
“I’ll take that as a yes. See you tonight, cuddle bunny.”
He was out the door before I could answer. I hurried after him, but he was already gone. Only a last-second thought that someone else might hear stopped me from yelling his name.
Instead, I marched inside and grabbed my phone.
Me: I did not agree to the terms of that deal.
Fenris: Does that mean I should stop in and say hi to Mom and Dad today? They live north of town, right? Or should I just meet you and Mom at the club?
Me: No to all of that. Be nice. You’re the only one in my life who is right now.
Fenris: I think you just drew blood. No visits. No cuddles. Got it.
I stared at the phone for a minute, feeling guilty for being so firm. It was for his protection. Especially the cuddles. Instead of dwelling on it, I grabbed a change of clothes, put out the fire, then left the cabin.
It was a long, cold walk back to the car. Although I felt the tingle of awareness shiver over my skin, I ignored it and kept going.
Only when I was in the warming car did I look at the surrounding trees. Nothing moved. Whatever was out there still remained hidden. And that was fine with me. I didn’t have time to deal with any new problems. My existing list was long enough.
While it felt like an eternity had passed since I’d found the druids, I knew it’d only been a few days. A few days since the banshees sang. Almost two weeks since Ashlyn disappeared. The weight of regret settled on my shoulders.
I sent a quick message to the druids, asking for an update, and another to Mom, warning her that she and Dad were about to have an early morning visit. Without waiting for any replies, I started out for my parents’ house.
By the time I arrived, Dad was dressed and at the door.
“I was so worried about you after your mother told me you had to dine with Adira. Are you okay?” He hugged me warmly then ushered me inside.
“I’m fine.”
“Have a seat. I’ll make you something to eat. Your mother had to deal with some issues at Club Blayz last night and won’t be up for a while yet.”
“Would you mind if I took a shower first?”
Worry crept into his gaze.
“Use the guest bathroom,” Dad said. “I keep that one clean.”
I didn’t even want to know why their bathroom wouldn’t be clean.
My phone buzzed as I undressed.
Lauv: Since we don’t know what went wrong, exactly, we’re quietly inquiring about the words we spoke out of turn during the spell. To avoid drawing unwanted attention, we’re being careful and not pushing too hard for help or information. We’re doing locator spells twice a day and summoning her ghost in the evenings. So far nothing. We don’t know what else to do.
I still held onto the hope that the lack of success with the locator spell and the summoning spell meant that Ashlyn had found a way out and a druid’s spell to hide her. I needed that confirmed, though, before I gave up looking for her.
