I’m a few feet behind him, looking down every aisle we pass. I can’t help it—it’s kind of spooky in here.
A few months ago, I would’ve laughed at myself for thinking such a thing. Before, I wasn’t in the constant presence of a ghost and a nightmare with my face. Things change; like my bravery.
When we’re close to the end, something catches my eye. All I can see from where I’m standing is a dark shadow that slips around the bookcase into another aisle. Blinking rapidly, I turn, trying to be as subtle as possible.
The entrance door is closed, and it creaks loud enough to echo through the large room. I’m trying to shake off the eerie darkness creeping into the edges of my vision when another shadow, this time on my left, breezes past me before running down the aisle across from where the other one turned.
“Archer,” I quietly whisper and curse my voice for coming out so weak. “Did you lock the entrance?”
The door in front of us clicks open, but he pauses. “Yeah, it’s charmed to automatically lock outside of business hours. I can go check?”
I grab his forearm, squeezing tighter than necessary to try to get some of his warmth back in my body. “No, that’s okay. I was just wondering,” I say.
He watches me for a long moment, glancing over my shoulder at the doors a few times. There are a million questions racing through his eyes.
I’m so out of sorts that I might tell him everything if he asked right now.
Closing my eyes, I prepare for the interrogation, but it never comes.
In a gentle tone, he says, “Let’s go downstairs. I can lock this one from the inside.”
Can you lock me out of my mind instead?
Distantly, I’m aware of my head nodding, but I’m disconnected from my body. I’m in control enough to not waste any time rushing through the door, even if it is fruitless. Without turning around, I listen for the soft click of the lock, and breathe a sigh of relief when I hear it.
His hand finds my lower back, and he steps close behind me.
“There’s no one here,” he promises.
“I know… I just…” I trail off, not able to say the obvious.
Sybil’s proven to be quite nosey, and I assume she tells Archer anything I tell her. However, we haven’t talked about the symptoms of the curse. I can see her curiosity sometimes, like the questions are on the tip of her tongue. She always holds herself back.
According to Sybil, the only infliction upon their family line is the extinction of Divination Witches; at least until the two of them were born. Apparently, the Vexleys were one of the few pedigrees who all had air magic. After Barrett’s disappearance and his sister Everly fled, like the rest of the coven, there weren’t anymore.
It just stopped.
The Vexleys became Hearth Witches in a single generation and relocated to Junimere.
Sometimes I find myself jealous of their family’s fate—then guilt washes over me. Divination and Gray Witches have the lowest population, so it’s a tragedy for such a great line to end so abruptly.
Different from my family, but a tragedy nonetheless.
He stays close the entire way down the stairs. I’ve grown familiar with the symptoms before the hallucinations. With every step, the darkness begins to creep in further, and the room morphs into something else. It’s the same basement with cement floors, stone walls, and bookcases as tall as the ceiling. Yet it’s somehow different from the room I walked into with Archer.
Shaking my head, I take a deep breath and try to focus on something, anything, I know to be real.
Of course, my gaze finds Archer, illuminated under the soft candlelight like my own personal beacon to sanity.
“Renata,” he murmurs and places a hand on each of my cheeks. “It’s me, Little Wisp. Just you and me.”
Honing in on his dark blue eyes and the newly familiar scent of him, I’m doing my best to hold onto consciousness. He’s saying something, but I don’t bother trying to comprehend it. Instead, I focus on the steadiness of his gaze; it’s calm despite the underlying worry swimming in the depths.
Like this isn’t the first time he’s seen someone grapple with the reins of reality.
I blink, and suddenly it’s not Archer standing in front of me.
This man has the same shade of bright blue eyes as Archer. Their strong noses are identical, as are the trimmed beards and downturned lips.
