‘She knewwhathe was, even if she didn’t knowwhohe was.’
My words settled on him and he stared blankly up at the pressed tin ceiling, his features pinched, beautiful chameleon eyes glassy with tears.
‘You didn’t know,’ he said. ‘If Cole only saw you after he phased, he would have killed you if you hadn’t …’ He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.
‘If there was a way for me to change things, I would,’ I told him, guilt still eating me up.
‘Is there?’ The hope in his voice didn’t help.
I shook my head. ‘No. I can’t bring people back when they’re gone.’
Wyn moved under the covers, small, exploratory movements, testing each limb to make sure it was still attached and back where it belonged on a human man. He was all in one piece, I’d made sure of it when Ashley and I put him to bed, bandaging the worst injuries, tending to the cuts and scratches with herbal compresses, staying by his side all night to make sure his chest continued to rise and fall.
The logs crackled in the fireplace and he pushed back some of his blankets, the colour returning to his cheeks. Without even turning around to look at it, I extinguished the fire. Wyn’s eyebrows lifted and I bit my lip.
‘The power your family saw in Savannah,’ I said in the softest voice possible, ‘it’s in me. I didn’t think I’d be able to control it but now I know I can. It’s nothing to be afraid of, I swear.’
He looked around the room, his eyes moving over everything like he was trying to memorize it for a test and I was terrified he was getting ready to say goodbye.
‘You’re a witch,’ he replied, struggling over the word. ‘And I’m a wolf.’
‘I’m not just a witch,’ I said, determined not to cry. ‘Any more than you’re just a wolf. Remember what we said? We don’t belong to our families, only to ourselves.’
‘And to each other.’
His gaze finally settled on me and my heart soared. Even now, with all of the truth laid bare between us, it was still there. The same wonder I saw in his eyes the first time we met. I loved him and he loved me. Nothing had ever been so certain. But I had no idea if it was enough.
‘Your hair,’ Wyn said, reaching for one scarlet lock. ‘It suits you.’
He wound it around his finger the same way he’d touched the moss on the day we met and flames rose inside me again, white, not black, and when he let it fall back against my shoulder, they simmered in my belly.
‘You have to go home,’ I said, nodding for him when he opened his mouth to protest. ‘You need to tell your family what happened. All of it.’
‘They won’t understand.’ His lips pulled tight with frustration. ‘My mom, she knew Cole better than most, she might listen, but it’s not just her.’
‘The rest of the pack will want justice,’ I stated, trying not to sound too frightened. ‘I guess that’s something I’m going to have to figure out.’
‘We have to figure it out,’ Wyn corrected. ‘You’re not alone.’
It felt good to hear him say it even if I didn’t know what one Were could possibly do to change the minds of an angry pack.
‘I’ll try to talk to them,’ he relented. ‘They never were coming here, did you know that? Your grandmother cloaked me, cast some kind of spell that made them think I’d gone to my cousin in Canada.’
Even after all she’d done, just his reference to Catherine made me catch my breath. Despite it all, I missed her. The energy of Bell House was different without her. Once upon a time, maybe before I was born, she had good intentions. They all did, Catherine, my dad, Wyn’s parents. But good intentions weren’t enough.
‘They’ll be relieved to have you back,’ I said, stroking his hair, trying to memorize the silky softness.
‘What happens next?’ he asked. ‘What do you do?’
‘I don’t know,’ I replied honestly. ‘Now there’s no one around to make my decisions for me, maybe I’ll finally work out what I really want. Work out who I am.’
‘I know who you are,’ Wyn said, his voice barely rising above a whisper when he took my hand in his, stroking the back of it with his thumb.
The pale pink buds on my wallpaper trembled when I did and their petals began to open and bloom. I paused, pulling back for just a second and they faded back into buds. Then Wyn leaned forward, wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and pressed his mouth to mine, warm and firm and full. The blooms in the wallpaper exploded into full, lush flowers.
‘There has to be a way to make this work,’ he whispered against my lips as he pulled me even closer. ‘The werewolf and the witch.’
‘There has to be,’ I agreed and a shower of petals fell around us.
