With the sigh of the overwhelmingly put upon, Ori turned to Camille. “Call him and have him come here. I’ll explain once and once only. Don’t tell him Donovan was injured yet, though. No need to cause a panic.” To me, he said, “I need to get in touch with Jean and the others to make sure Landon got home safely. Then I have some calls to make about that creature. Donovan is in good hands with Lelo. Come find me if anything changes or when your friend arrives.”
They patted my shoulder, did one more quick check on Donovan’s IV, then left, leaving us alone with the woman, apparently named Lelo.
“I… I’m going to step outside and call Will. I need some air,” Camille whispered. Raina glanced at me and I nodded, knowing she wanted to support her girlfriend. She probably needed some space to breathe, as well.
Then it was just the three of us in the kitchen. Lelo busied herself with covering the half-empty bowl and washing up, leaving Donovan and me in a little bubble of silence. He hadn’t moved, his breathing still too shallow and rapid, but he didn’t seem to be getting worse. That had to be a good sign.
“You can fight this, Donovan,” I whispered, resting my head on the edge of the table beside his. “I need you to come back to me. I can’t do this without you.” I kissed the back of his hand, his skin clammy beneath my lips. “Don’t leave me alone, Donovan. I love you.”
***
An eternity passed before anything changed. Really, it was less than an hour, because the IV bag hadn’t emptied, but it felt like forever. Donovan’s breathing had settled into a more regular rhythm at last. It was still shallow, but the steady in and out lulled me into a daze once Lelo left us alone, and the sudden sound of voices was too loud after the quiet.
I recognized Camille’s voice, then a deeper voice. Will had arrived. I couldn’t make out the words, but she must have been warning him, because the sound of their footsteps halted, then one person broke away, running the short distance into the kitchen and freezing in the doorway.
Blinking tired eyes, I looked over my shoulder to see Will standing there, grasping the door frame to steady himself as he took in the sight of his partner on the table, half-naked with an IV in his neck.
“What…”
“Raina, could you grab him a chair?” I asked, and she hurried to grab one identical to mine, putting it beside me. Will crossed the two steps to the table and collapsed into it, almost as pale as Donovan.
“You guys were just supposed to help find Landon. How did this happen?” he asked faintly. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Ori promised to explain once we were all here,” Camille said. She stood behind her brother, a hand on his shoulder. She still didn’t look great herself, but she was trying to be strong for her brother. Both twins’ eyes were a little glassy with shock and in Camille’s eyes, I saw the same fear and confusion I felt in myself.
“Ori?” he repeated blankly. I’d assumed Donovan had been filling him in on everything, but I guess not. It looked like Will was the only one of our group who wasn’t up to date and if I had space for anything besides worry for Donovan, I would have probably felt guilty about that.
Thankfully, Raina and Camille gave him a quick rundown for me, basically explaining how Ori had been helping me learn to use my ability. He didn’t seem any less confused afterward and, on top of it, he was clearly overwhelmed.
“So, where are they? I’d like to know what happened to my best friend.”
“I’m right here,” Ori said as they came through the door, eyes glued to the phone in their hand as they texted someone. “And for the record? I don’t owe any of you any kind of explanation.” They sent off their message, then took a moment to look each of us in the eye. “I’ll explain, but in return, I need your word that you won’t keep digging.”
“What does that mean?” Will’s eyes narrowed, lines of tension bracketing his mouth when he frowned.
“There are people in this town with unique abilities, like Alex. Most of them prefer to have as little to do with law enforcement as possible, for reasons I hope are obvious. It means I need your word that you won’t go searching for them and digging into their private business. After all of you leave here, you will go about your regular lives and keep what you’ve learned to yourself.”
Their tone, hard and unyielding, was guaranteed to start a fight and, sure enough, Will sat up straighter, squaring himself up to argue.
“Will, please.” That got his attention on me and off Ori for a moment, at least. Maybe it was the sight of Donovan laying unconscious beside me or maybe it was Camille silently squeezing his shoulder in support, but after a tense moment, he backed down.
“Fine. You have my word,” he grumbled. Ori just waited, not saying anything, until Raina, Camille, and I also agreed. Even then, they took a moment to check Donovan’s IV bag before pulling up another chair and sitting down across from us.
“I am only telling you this because you’ve personally seen things that you shouldn’t have,” they began. “We’ve survived this long by staying hidden and telling anyone who isn’t one of us is dangerous, let alone four of you.”
I assumed they included Donovan in that number, but not me.
“I’m still not entirely surewhatI saw,” Raina murmured. She held Camille’s hand so tightly her knuckles had gone white. Like Camille and Will, her face was ashen and I saw the same shocky look I’d seen in myself after a ghost encounter. They’d accepted ghosts because of me, because they loved and trusted me. Even I was struggling with this new information, though, so I shouldn’t be surprised they were, too.
As I said, there are people in this town with unique abilities,” Ori went on. “Something about this area draws us here and has for centuries. No one has been able to fully explain why, only that there’s a higher concentration of us here than anywhere else in the country. It’s always been known simply as ‘The Crossing’, until James Lowery tacked his name onto it. When the area became more settled, some of the original inhabitants withdrew deeper into the woods and the mountains, but some chose to integrate into the new community that formed.”
Despite the unholy combination of worry, fear, and exhaustion weighing me down, I found myself drawn into the story. I knew part of it already from talking to Ori before, but not the details. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Raina and Camille grab the last remaining chair and settle in to listen, with Raina in Camille’s lap.
Will, though, wasn’t inclined toward patience. “What are we talking about here? A coven of psychics living in a commune in the mountains or something?”
I couldn’t blame him for his frustration, but I still winced at how he showed it. Unlike the rest of us, he was being bombarded by all of this at once, with no time to acclimate. Camille’s steadfast belief in spiritualism and magic seemed to be helping her take this in. Over the years, her beliefs had rubbed off on Raina. They’d also seen the shifters change before their eyes and we’d all seen that monster. I had no choice but to accept it, since I was an involuntary member of this ‘other community’, and Donovan stood by me no matter what. Again, only Will had been inadvertently left out and had to deal with all this new information at once.
“Will, just let Ori tell it,” Camile murmured to her twin. “Trust me. Please?”
