‘I know it’s a lot to ask,’ he said, looking at me with so much pain and fear, I felt tears well up instantly, ‘but will you be with me tomorrow night? They said it would happen when the moon was at its peak, around eight thirty, I think.’
Of course. The same time as my ceremony.
‘I’ll find a way to keep you safe, I swear,’ Wyn added. ‘But I don’t want to be alone when it happens.’
‘You won’t be on your own,’ I answered fiercely and without hesitation. ‘You’ll never be on your own again. I love you, Wyn.’
‘I love you too,’ he whispered, the sound of the words clearing away all that was dark and dreadful. ‘They chained me up andlocked me away but I still found my way back to you, and I swear I always will.’
He pulled me into his arms, tucking my head under his chin, and I heard what I knew he must be able to feel. His heart was beating faster than a normal man’s, filling his muscles with blood, strengthening his organs and softening his bones as they prepared themselves for what was only hours away.
‘It might not even happen,’ he said. A hope, a dream. ‘The initiation was such a blur, I don’t recollect all that occurred but no one seemed sure that it worked. My mom could be wrong about all of it, even Cole. He’s taken off so many times in the past, there’s every chance he’s hiding out someplace, still alive and if he’s alive, I won’t turn.’
‘Every chance,’ I made myself say, even though I knew it wasn’t the truth.
Wyn might not know for sure but I did.
Cole was dead.
He’d been dead since he attacked me and Catherine in Bonaventure on the last full moon, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it meant Cole wasn’t the wolf I’d seen, snarling over Catherine’s bloody body.
The wolf in my vision was Wyn.
Chapter Thirty-Five
He stayed in my room until the milky moonlight traded places with the hazy dawn, his body wrapped around mine. While he slept, I stared at the windows, wide awake the whole night. I couldn’t tell him the truth. Whatever I said, however I pitched it, the fact was I’d killed his brother. How would he ever be able to look at me again once he knew? There were other reasons, I told myself. He needed to concentrate on the change. I needed to keep my focus on the Becoming. If we got distracted, either of us, there was no telling how badly things might end. But they were excuses and I knew it.
Wyn stirred in my arms and outside the window, the birds began to sing.
‘We’ll figure this out,’ he promised as he crept out of my room, lingering on the balcony for too long, exposed by the early sun. ‘We’ll find someplace safe where my family won’t find me.’
‘What about Lydia’s house?’ I suggested, pulling my phone out of the backpack under my bed. ‘Her place has a bunch of outhouses they don’t use, old stables, I think.’
‘You wouldn’t have to explain why you need it?’ he asked and I shook my head.
‘She’s not the kind of friend who needs an explanation,’ I replied. ‘Let me talk to her. If you can stay hidden for a while, I’ll text you the address and meet you there later.’
He caught my wrists in his hands and leaned forward, his lips touching sweetly, softly to mine.
‘I love you,’ he said, his ever-changing eyes tearing me apart.
‘I love you too,’ I said, because it was true and I wanted him to hear me say it.
Because after he found out what I’d done, he wouldn’t want to hear me say anything ever again.
‘Happy birthday, Emily!’
When I finally found my way downstairs, Catherine was waiting for me. She looked beautiful, her hair was glossy and her skin shone, making her vivid green eyes leap out even more than usual. The coffee table in the parlour was covered in extravagantly wrapped gifts but I barely even noticed them.
‘Everything is ready for tonight,’ she said, clapping her hands together as I took in the scene. ‘It’s all prepared. Your dress is being delivered this afternoon, I’ve had the most beautiful archway crafted by a local artisan, that should be here very soon, and whatever could be so wrong to mess up that perfect face with such a sad expression? Honey, what’s wrong?’
‘Where’s Ashley?’ I asked. I couldn’t sit down, I couldn’t stay still.
‘Ashley is outside. Emily, really, whatever is the matter?’
There was no time left to lie. I didn’t know what to believe anymore, my dad’s version of the truth or Catherine’s, but it didn’t matter much now. Dad wasn’t here and my grandmother was.
‘I need your help,’ I said, my bottom lip quaking. ‘Do you remember my first day here, when I left the Powell house? I met someone. You met him too, the boy in the square.’
