And then the friction was too much, and the pressure erupted into a rolling climax. I tossed my head back, twisting my hands in the sheets.
Severn sped up his pumps until he, too, gave one final groan and released inside me.
Both our bodies shuddered with pleasure.
His hand trailed down my jaw, resting on my bottom lip, and then he replaced it with his own lips. “Willow,” he murmured. “Now that I have you back, I’m never letting you go again.”
I smiled up at him. “Where else would I go? This is home.”
And yet, as we cuddled dreamily with each other, a strange dark cloud descended over me in the otherwise peaceful, tender moment, like the weather suddenly changing. I shivered and tried to banish the sensation.
I was home, I tried to tell myself. There was nothing to worry about ever again.
ChapterThirty-Eight
In the morning, I woke to sunlight streaming through my bedroom windows and a naked Severn draped across me, snoring, with Puck asleep by my bedroom door.
I took a moment to revel in the feeling of being back in my own bed. I was home, exactly where I should be. In my apartment in Wilde Tower with my boyfriend, and soon I’d see Henry and May. We’d restart the checklist. Finish all the items we could over the summer and get the kids enrolled in school for the fall. Once they were in school, Severn and I would have more time together as a real couple. Maybe we could even take a few weekends away, really get to know one another. There was so much I still didn’t know about his past, and the same went for me. I hadn’t yet told him what Jack Meruvis had discovered about my mother and how it had only opened up more mysteries.
Puck stirred, lifting his head and cocking his ears. In the next second, I heard the apartment door slam and two voices cry out, “Willow!”
Henry and May!
I jolted upright, shaking Severn awake. “Severn! The kids are home. Get dressed, quick!”
As he grumbled awake, I climbed out of bed and tore open my dresser drawers, pulling out a pair of jeans and an old oversized band T-shirt. I grabbed a hair tie but couldn’t find a brush, so I put it around my wrist to pull my hair back later.
Severn tugged on his pants and shirt from the day before and was finishing the buttons when my bedroom door was flung open.
“Willow!” Two tiny humans hurled into the room like whirling dust motes. Henry and May slammed into me with enough force to knock me back down on the bed.
Laughing, I managed to catch my breath and sit up. “Hey, easy!”
Beaming at me, they each grabbed my hand and started pulling me into the living room. “We’re so happy you’re home! We got you a surprise breakfast!”
I was delighted to find Zara in the living room with Locke, unpacking takeout boxes of donuts and coffee. As soon as Zara saw me, she threw her arms around me and squeezed me so hard I could barely breathe.
“God, I was afraid you’d be locked in the Bristol for the rest of your life! That the only way I’d be able to see you was to sneak into that stupidly posh underwater club!”
So she’d been to the Deep. The memory of those sharks in tanks and the demon who’d grabbed me made me shudder with a feverish sensation. I could almost hear the sound of the ocean outside my room at the Bristol like it was somehow calling to me.
No wonder sailors talk about sirens in the ocean, I thought. It felt as though the ocean really did have some crazy power.
“I owe you for keeping the kids safe,” I told her. “You were amazing.”
She shrugged it off, but Locke came over and slid a hand around her waist. “She’s a powerful witch. And even saucier in bed.”
Zara slapped his hand away, which made him lick his lips at her like she was tastier than the donuts. Severn joined us, and we ate around the table like old times. I could almost tell myself that it had all been a dream—if it wasn’t for therealdreams. Heat spread up my cheeks as I recalled the dream I’d had last night after making love to Severn. But, once more, it hadn’t been Severn’s face I’d seen.
Gray eyes. Midnight hair.
“Willow, are you all right?” Zara asked.
I realized I must have been staring off into the distance, captivated again by Black Ember’s face in my dreams and the siren call of the Pacific Ocean.
I dropped my hand from where I’d unknowingly pressed it against my throat and smiled. “Of course.” But I still felt unsettled. “I’m just going to get some fresh air.”
I escaped to the balcony, which looked down over the city and the Hudson River. The water was so different here than in California. Everything was grayer, calmer. The sun didn’t glint off the waves in the same way. The smell wasn’t right—less beachy salt air and more like exhaust. It was the first time I’d looked out over New York City and not seen it as anything but beautiful.
