“I don’t always remember with Charlotte, but Scarlett… He came more than once. I was afraid for her. So I lied to him. She was still here when he came the first time. I called Everett after the man left and told him of the situation.”
“He came more than once.”
“Oh yes.” She nodded, almost frantically. “But a few months after, October, I believe, that’s when you started coming around again. I didn’t worry for her anymore.”
“You didn’t worry about her being with me.”
“Of course not!” She laughed. “I’ve known you just about all of your life. I saw your behind before it looks like it does now.”
I grinned. “Did I really tug her hair?”
“Yes,” she said, seriously. “You were a little heathen like the rest of them! But I knew you liked her. She’d tease you. You’d tug at the end of her hair, not hard, mind, and then smile when she went after you. You wanted her to. Let someone else try and there’d be hell to pay. Even Elliott.”
Even Elliott.The uncertainty of his approval of the two of us sometimes crossed my mind. Most of the time I let the thought sleep, but Eunice’s comment made it open its eyes. I knew the answer to my side of it, and that was even harder than considering the question.
I wouldn’t have given her up for anyone.Even Elliott.
Following the sound of a tinkling piano, I finally found the object of my affection. My wife was full of sweat, but alive with energy. Her hair was matted to her head, her cheeks rosy, and the glow of her skin made me take comfort. She stood in the center of the dance studio, the brightest thing in the room.
Michael Roberts was at the piano, testing the keys. Gabriel stood with his back against it, listening, nodding when Michael hit the right chord. Eva and Layla sat in the corner, waiting. Eva noticed me and I put a finger to my mouth. She nodded, smiled, and then whispered something to Layla.
She must’ve been dancing before, which is why Rocco’s men hadn’t brought her to me. They didn’t want to stop her. They found her enchanting—the perfect figurine in a music box.
An entire wall of the studio was made of planes of glass and overlooked the courtyard below. A fountain tinkled, but the sound of it was lethargic; the water fought the weather, which had turned colder. Rain started to beat against the roof, and then, like it had done years ago, it started to snow.
Scarlett went to the window, putting her hand against the glass. A layer of mist formed and outlined her print. When she stepped away, it faded, like she had never even been there.
I put a hand to my chest, applying pressure.Have mercy on my heart.Something about the print seemed too fucking fleeting.
After Eva came to me with the dream, I collapsed into myself, losing all control from the shock of it, but then I came to our room, saw her sleeping in the bed, and made my mind up.I would be stronger than the vision. I’d break it into a million pieces. I’d reach in and shatter the heart, rip out its lungs and spleen, break the very legs it walked on in two.
Above all, I wouldn’t share what I knew. Not yet. I refused her the worry. I’d protect her from it all.
Time was uncertain; I’d have to be vigilant.
Michael began to play. My wife sparked, as if some light had been switched on, the crank turned, and this song the only one she had ever danced to. Gabriel began to sing, and between him and Michael, her steps fell perfectly to the tone, to the lyrics.
She danced through the gray shadows, giving them life, while her power seemed to twirl the snowflakes outside of the window—just as she had done all those years ago, the night I had watched her dance in the window of her parents’ studio. I had once told her that I loved her my entire life, but I fell in love with her the night she slept in my arms at the house on Snow.
Somehow the omission felt like a lie in that moment. I had fallen in love with her the first time I looked at her, or maybe when I was feeding her round cereal pieces. The line suddenly seemed blurred. It didn’t even matter. I loved her my entire life. I’d love her even after death came to claim me.
She danced for me as she had done so many nights ago. I knew she could feel me. I caught the slowing of her step when she did. At the end of the song, the entire room clapped and praised her. When she found me, she became still.
Bowing, I placed a hand to my heart, and then offered it to her. She took it and bowed back. We rose together.
She dabbed at my eyes with her sweater. “You’re becoming a softy,” she teased.
I tugged at the end of her hair. She wrapped her leg around mine and squeezed. We kissed.
* * *
Scarlett hid behind my back outside the light of the bright kitchen.
“So this is how it feels to creep in the shadows,” she said, her body shaking with laughter. Her hands were under my shirt, wrapped around my stomach, and her head rested against my back. After I explained the situation to her, she wanted to be close but not have them see.
Dario sat next to Carmen at the kitchen table, their heads together, talking quietly.
“What’s the purpose?” I said. “Can’t you just walk past and call on your wicked hoodoo for the answer?”
