Maybe it was OK to lie sometimes, I told myself, sinking back into him and shutting out the world, as long as we only lied to ourselves.
‘I’ll call you as soon as I’m home,’ Wyn said, standing on the porch of Bell House hours later. ‘Before I even walk through the door, I’ll be on the phone.’
‘And I’ll be waiting,’ I replied, unable to let go of his hand as we walked down the steps, holding on to him all the way out onto the sidewalk. ‘I love you.’
There had never been three words so insufficient to express the way two people felt but when he leaned his forehead against mine, I knew he understood.
‘And I love you, Emily James.’
Placing one last careful kiss on my lips, Wyn untangled his fingers from mine and climbed into the passenger seat of Jackson’s Audi.
‘Hey!’
I looked up to the second floor to see Lydia dangling precariously out of Ashley’s bedroom window.
‘Jackson, can you bring my phone over on your way back?’ she yelled. ‘It should be charging on my nightstand.’
Lydia was feeling better.
‘Lyds, it’s a ten-hour round trip to from here to Asheville and you want me to add on a stop to pick up your phone?’ her brother shouted back. She frowned as though it was the dumbest question she’d ever heard.
‘Yes?’
‘You just worry about getting wolfie home,’ Ashley said, bounding out onto the sidewalk. ‘I’ll get her phone. You know, I can leave the house any time I like.’
‘Good for you,’ Jackson replied, accepting, if not quite understanding everything that was going on.
‘Thanks for this,’ I told him, holding myself back from the car. If Wyn touched me again, I’d be in there with them and that wouldn’t help anyone. The last thing his pack needed was an unexpected visit from the witch who murdered his brother. ‘There’s no one else I’d trust to get him home in one piece.’
‘Get him home? I’m trying to get rid of him so we can go on that date you promised me,’ Jackson joked before elbowing a still-weakened Wyn in the arm. ‘You ready to go, man?’
‘Not really,’ Wyn replied, eyes still locked on mine as Jackson pulled away from the kerb.
He smiled sadly out the window and I watched the car go until I couldn’t see it anymore. I sensed them weaving through the streets and out onto the highway and even when the Audi crossed the river, I could feel myself in his thoughts. Every time I flashed through Wyn’s mind, there was a pull on the invisible string. One magnet to another. Whatever else happened, we were connected forever. He was my before and my after.
‘You doing OK?’ Ashley asked, draping her arm over my shoulder when we climbed back up the steps to the front porch.
‘Not yet,’ I said with a smile as feeble as it might be. ‘But I will be.’
‘Do you really think he’ll come back?’
My feeble smile wavered.
‘He did last time.’
She nudged me in the ribs and I winced, sucking the air in through my teeth. I was healing but not all the way healed; my magic was a gift, not a miracle.
‘You need to eat. What do you want for breakfast?’
‘You don’t have to wait on me anymore,’ I reminded her.‘You can do whatever you want, go wherever you want.Meetwhoever you want.’
‘Well, what I want right now is breakfast.’ She turned around and marched back inside. ‘Someone drank a lot of whiskey last night and since she lived to tell the tale, she has a hangover that needs tending to.’
‘You’re being so cryptic, I can’t even begin to think who you’re talking about,’ I called as I followed her back inside.
We stood side by side, looking around the foyer, both of us searching for what was different. The house felt lighter, brighter, and when I looked up to the forbidden third floor, the constellations twinkled back down. It was mine now, Bell House, and everything that came with it. I breathed in and the sage-green wallpaper shimmered on my exhale, settling down to a soft, warm pink.
‘Beats hiring decorators,’ Ashley commented as the rest of the house settled itself into new shades, a fresh start. At the end of the hallway, the door to Catherine’s craft door clicked open.
