I took a step toward the trees and nodded.
Whispered, “Thank you.”
The Shadow Painter blinked. Then it turned, disappearing deeper into the canopy. Silent as fog. Gone before the others even noticed.
I climbed into the driver’s seat and closed the door.
Noelle looked over. “Everything okay?”
I didn’t smile. Just reached for her hand. “Yeah. It is now.”
She squeezed my fingers, and we pulled away from the trailhead.
The forest didn’t follow. But I knew it hadn’t let go of us either.
It had just…decided to share.
CHAPTER 27
Noelle
“Get…in there!”
I stood outside the shop with Milo, the two of us watching as Shane stuffed a cooler into the back of his beat-up Honda like it had personally wronged him. He was almost completely packed—flush with all the Gloamstrider merch he’d been able to scrounge up since we got back from our camping trip, plus a few protective wards from Delilah he only half-believed in—and the cooler was the last thing.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think it was coming with him, unless he offloaded some stuff.
“You’re not gonna fit that in there,” I said, ever helpful.
“I will if I bend the laws of physics,” he muttered. He slammed the hatch, only for it to bounce back open again. “Son of a?—”
I bit back a smile.
Milo huffed beside me, like even he was tired of watching this happen. Beau was inside finishing dishes, and the house was too quiet without Shane’s nonsense bouncing off the walls. I hadn’t realized how much space he took up until he started loading it all into a car.
“You sure you have to leave today?” I asked.
Shane straightened, dragging a hand through his hair. He looked sunburned and sleepy and a little less like a cryptid hunter and more like my best friend again.
“I’ve already extended my trip three times,” he said. “If I stay any longer, I’m legally a resident.”
“We’ll see if you even make it past the county line,” I say. “People keep saying that if Willow Grove chooses you, it’ll turn you right back around…and I could’ve sworn I saw you making eyes at Ash the other night at Mabel’s.”
Shane rolled his eyes. “Ash is straight, Noelle.”
I shrugged. “As if that’s ever stopped you before.”
He barked out a laugh, then wiped a hand down his face like he could scrub the blush off his cheeks. “You’re not going to trick me into joining your cult by getting me dick-drunk on some good southern boy.”
“We’ll see.”
He shook his head and leaned against the bumper, arms crossed like he was trying not to look sentimental. But I could tell it was creeping in anyway—that slouch of goodbye in his shoulders, the quiet click of everything settling. I hated it.
“I should be happy for you,” he said finally. “You’ve got this whole…life now. House, man, baby on the way?—”
I froze. “Wait, what?”
Shane blinked. “What?”
