The dust had slammed into an invisible shield. I lowered my hands, and the thick powder fell to the ground.
A short Black man was revealed, grinning in the sky-blue cottage’s doorway. ‘Definitely a witch then.’
‘I’ve never been able to shield before.’ I blinked, thoughts bustling for attention in my head. ‘Hey, you know about witches?’
Kit patted my shoulder. ‘I’ll leave you two to play, now we know you’re not going to faint or anything.’
I pointed at the pile of dust. ‘That stuff would have made me faint?’
Frank grinned unrepentantly. ‘Only for a little while. Come on in, and we can chat about why being on the island has unlocked your powers.’
‘Um, sure. Yeah. That’s totally fine. Going into the home of someone who just threw potentially lethal dust into my face seems like a perfectly sensible idea.’
Frank’s laugh was low and warm. ‘I like you.’
‘Thank you?’ I said, following him into his house.
Like I would miss the chance to talk to someone who knew anything about being a witch, or might know why my puny powers had gotten an upgrade on Doughnut.
‘No more dust throwing, yeah?’
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CALLUM
Wrong.
That was all I felt as I drove the quad bike up the mountains.
I’d checked on Aster before heading home. He was arguing with the council members Bonnie had gathered, his voice bubbling with barely contained excitement as he explained the benefits of caring for wild ecosystems. I’d smiled as his speech disappeared under the roar of the quad bike. I’d heard his lecture about how wild flowers were essential many times. I could probably give it myself at this point.
As I’d rumbled up the mountain, a cloying sense of wrongness fell over me.
I shook my head and revved hard up a steep section of road. I couldn’t be like this. Aster was often apart from me for whole days at a time. Him being down in the village was no different.
But the village was closer to the mainland. While we were holed up in the mountains, I could pretend he would be there forever.
Returning to my empty cabin felt hollow in a way it never had before.
‘Get a grip,’ I ordered myself as I carried sacks of rice and potatoes to the outside cold store.
Leaving Aster in the village might be unsettling, but I couldn’t let it overcome me. He would leave the island in a month’s time, and that would feel even more wrong. I couldn’t stop it happening though. Aster had been upfront that what was happening between us was time limited, and I’d heard him speak about his life in London. He wanted to go home. No matter how much he might enjoy being with me, I couldn’t compare to the whole life full of people who loved him there.
I cringed away from the idea that there was someone who loved him right here. It was ridiculous to suggest I might love Aster after two short months in his company.
Saying goodbye to Aster would be hard. This sense of wrongness would magnify. But I would get through it. I would learn to be alone again. The memories of our time together would have to be enough.
The supplies I’d picked up in the village packed away, I set out on a tour of the nearest goat huts. Something had been off kilter before I’d left Aster in the village. He’d lied when I’d asked if he needed anything. I couldn’t push for the truth, so had to accept Aster was allowed to have secrets, but the skip in his heartbeat and the flush to his skin niggled at me. I didn’t know what he would feel the need to hide.
I shook out my arms and broke into a run, reminding myself yet again that Aster wasn’t my long-term partner. In a month’s time, I would never see him again. We’d said we wouldn’t have sex with anyone else while he was on theisland, but we hadn’t made any other promises to one another. He was free to have all the secrets he wanted.
The goats I passed as I ran from shelter to shelter bleated crossly, their newly birthed kids jumping and kicking in my wake. Almost all of the babies had been born now, and the few mothers still birthing did so quietly in the warming days. Apart from Tim’s mum and sibling, this had been an incident-free year.
I returned to the cabin as the sun set. Cocking my head to one side, I focused on Kit’s car whining. Errol and Bonnie had warned Kit that a Mini wasn’t the most practical vehicle when almost all of your journeys could be done on foot or were across rocky terrain, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded.
He and Aster were about an hour away. That gave me time to clean the cabin and shower before putting dinner in the oven. I tried not to listen in as Kit and Aster neared, but the growing sense of wrongness demanded I cling to any part of Aster I could reach.
‘Frank is so epic,’ Aster enthused, undeterred by how little response he got from Kit. ‘If I had ten years on this island, I don’t think I could learn half of what I want to from him.’
