Beck stood on the other side, his expression indecipherable.
“Talk to me, is Benny all right?”
Beck shook his head, took a step back, and I followed him out onto the porch, closing the door softly behind me but leaving it ajar. The early morning temperatures swept across my bare chest, my back. My patience was growing thin as I watched him in distraught thought.
“Is Fallon—”
“She’s sleeping,” I interrupted and nudged my chin for him to continue.
“Benny’s dead,” he whispered in a rush, taking a step forward. “He must have tried to climb the steps to get to Fallon, but when he fell…” he shook his head, “I touched him, Jules. I saw those last moments and heard Fallon’s screams. H-he,” Beck choked, almost breaking down, nothing like the monster everyone claimed him to be, “He tried, man. He really tried, but he was so terrified, and his heart couldn’t hang on.” Beck ran his palms over his shaved head, gripped his temples.
“This cannot be happening.” I turned, rubbed my temples, “This cannot be fucking happening,” I growled, dropping both hands onto the front of the house, hitting my palm against the siding.“Fuck!”
“Fallon is with you,” he whisper-shouted, matter-of-factly and appearing at my side. “She’s with you, and Benny is back there at the Morgan property, lying dead at the bottom of the stairs from aheart attack. Kane and them, they’ll spin this whole thing on you. You have to take her back.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. There was no way I’d force Fallon to see Benny like that for my sake.
“Yes, Jules,” he seethed.
“NO!” I snapped, and my eyes grew when I heard her soft cries behind me.
Chapter 37
Julian
I peekedthrough the door to see Fallon with her head in her hands as she wept for Benny. She heard, and I stood torn between two worlds. Between Beck and Fallon.
I closed my eyes. “Go to Jonah. He’ll take care of Benny,” I advised Beck. “As for the rest of them, let them come.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Beck said, his eyes judging me, punishing me. When I didn’t answer, he shook his head and took off down the steps.
I slipped through the door, closed and locked it behind me. “Fallon, I’m so sorry,” was all I could say as I walked toward her, knowing what she needed but still unsure if I could deliver it in a way that would bring her solace. My words seemed pointless, deep, scratched things.
With a flick of my wrist, the blinds drew close, hugging darkness all around us. The couch dipped as I sat beside Fallon and pulled her close to my chest. For a long time, we stayed that way. And as time passed, we found ourselves lying over the couch, limbs tangled and mended together. Fallon sucked in a shaky breath and shoved her face into my neck. Her body trembled in my arms, and tears felt like icicles against my skin. My heart was speechless.
Could I say that? Was it possible my heart was speechless? It damn sure felt like it. I didn’t know what to do except hold her tighter, dragging my palm up and down her back.
The only tears Agatha had cried were that of confusion and rage. I’d witnessed Jolie’s cries on numerous occasions, and Jolie cried as if she put her entire body into it, sloppy and wet and a reddened face, hands wailing and shoulders shaking, making sure the whole town knew Jolie Blackwell was upset. I’d learned how to help them, I’d evolved with Jolie and Agatha, but this … this was different. I heard Fallon’s heartache escape in every broken breath.
Fallon’s cries were quiet and soft and gentle like unsound raindrops sliding down a fogged window. Each tear slipped over my skin, each one a tiny drop of water, so small compared to the ocean. Almost insignificant. But not. Certainly not. She cried for no audience but used me as a shield. She wanted to be alone in her tears and needed me here also. I kept quiet and gave her time until her soft cries rocked her to sleep. Then, at last, sleep took me too.
Sometime between noon & night …
Evenfall was upon us. When you were a son of the woods, you happened to know things like that, which only meant we’d been sleeping for at least ten hours. The longest I was sure either one of us had ever slept.
Fallon stirred, and a feather-light breath left her lips, touched my neck. We were on our sides, and my hand had slipped under her shirt, holding her to my chest. She had curled into my body, belonging there and filling all my hollow places. I buried my face between her and the pillow, wanting to live right next to her forever.
Despite my completeness, the threat of what was to come was always one, vindictive step behind us. Going after Fallon and disrupting Sacred Sea initiation had shown a sign of defiance against the Order, on two separate counts. I not only interrupted a ritual, but I’d taken a girl I was told was never mine to take.
But she was, and as I thought back, I would have done it again and again and again.
By now, Jonah would have gone to the Morgan property, transported Benny’s body back to the morgue, probably cleaned up too because he grew a liking toward Fallon and wouldn’t want her to be faced with the aftermath. Yet, the town hadn’t come to raise hell. The Order hadn’t sent someone for me. Something had to have happened during these past ten hours to buy me more time. Perhaps my coven intervened.
Lying here with her, I thought about running and confronting my coven to ask for help to get Fallon and myself far away from here. Not once had I ever thought about leaving Weeping Hollow until this moment. We could be together. But the coven would never agree to part with me, and as long as I was cursed, every day in the outside world would be a risk to Fallon. Plus, the Norse Woods Coven was my family, corrupted and led down the wrong path, but still my family.
These were my decisions, my doings, and for that, I would have to face them. Running away was the reaction of someone afraid. I’d rather die an honest man then live this life a coward.
There was a rap at the door. I slipped out from under Fallon and stood tall, adjusted my waistline. The knock came again, and I moved across the cabin in the complete darkness, habitually making sure my mask was secured. My breath stuck at a standstill in my chest. My thoughts ran rabid.
