I need some distance to sort through what I learned, without either of us feeling pushed toward decisions we wouldn’t choose under normal circumstances.
None of this erases what we shared. You matter to me more than I know how to say.
You’ve carried weight that never should have been yours. Your future is yours now. I hope whatever you choose to do next feels like it’s one hundred percent your choice.
Take care of yourself.
Emery
I readit straight through once. Sounds like Emery. A little wordy but thoughtful. Kind.
She went through a lot here. Arrived in Crowsbridge Hollow as a skeptic. Then received an up close and personal education on the supernatural.
She needs some distance or time. That’s okay. It doesn’t have to be the end ofus, does it?
I fold the letter and stuff it back into my pocket.
By the time I get downstairs to open the shop, irritation has crawled under my skin and burrowed deep.
Work usually settles me. Today, nothing cures my restlessness. For the first time in years, nothingextrahums under my skin. No awareness of anything watching my every move. Like the Rider and the curse my family lived under for generations never existed.
In the mirror, I catch sight of my ink-free neck and pull my collar aside. The Rider’s marks really are all gone. As if they’dnever lived in my skin. I’m free to replace them with anything I want. Or nothing at all. It should be a relief, so why do I feel like something was torn out of my soul, leaving a void?
I sit at my desk with my sketchbook for some pen-to-paper therapy.
All I end up drawing is a crow perched on a branch.
Still restless and annoyed, I pull Emery’s letter out and read it slower this time.
It still doesn’t answer my biggest question. Why’d she feel the need to say goodbye at all?
The bell over the door jingles and I hurry to see who it is.
Lucy.
I wipe the disappointment from my expression. Who the fuck’d I think it was? Emery? Returning to tell me she made a mistake and she wants…what?
“Jesus, you look like shit, Big D,” Lucy says.
“Thanks,” I grumble. “So glad you’re here.”
She doesn’t laugh or zing me with a snarky comment. I really must look like shit.
Lucy steps farther into the shop, her gaze scanning the space like she’s searching for burglars. She slowly walks around the front desk and drops her bag on the chair.
“Thought you’d be snuggled up with your girl all day, helping her edit her video since you cracked the curse last night.”
That was my preference. Emery apparently felt otherwise.
I grunt at Lucy in response.
Her brows knit together. “Is she okay?”
“Don’t know.” I wave the letter in my hand. “She went home. Left this for me at the inn.”
She hurries around the side of the desk, hand outstretched. “Ooo, what’s it say?”
“Never mind.” I stuff the letter in my pocket, the last place Lucy would venture. “Basically, thanks for a good time, you’re free now, have a nice life,” I summarize.
