Aunt Cordelia pins on a pretty smile and swings the door aside. At her loud gasp, Nia and I both stumble down the stairs to where my aunt sways like a tree in a gale, her face as pale as porcelain. Nia tries to get to her, but it’s too late. Aunt Cordelia faints in the foyer.
The man at the door lunges, catching her right before she hits the ground.
When I notice the green-gray tint to his skin, for a second, I think it’s Everett, but then I see his longer hair and realize Maddox is here.
In my aunt’s house.
In Rosehill.
In the middle of a bloomin’ Friday.
“Shit.” Maddox’s arms strain as he awkwardly eases Aunt Cordelia onto the floor. “I think I killed your mother.”
Nia rushes to Maddox’s side, waving him off. “I’m sure she’s fine.” She kneels, looking more annoyed than concerned. “Mother? Mother!” She presses her hands to her mother’s gaunt cheeks. “Can you take her to the sofa?”
Maddox slips his hands beneath my aunt, lifting her as if she weighs no more than a child.
“The living room is this way.” Nia leads Maddox from the foyer and into the living area, catching the cushions and placing them so that her mother can lie flat on the sofa.
Maddox has to duck so he doesn’t hit his head on the door frame. I can only imagine how large Everett would look in this room.I miss him so much.
It’s mad how someone you’ve known for only a short amount of time can have such an irrevocable impact on your life.
When Maddox stands, his face crushes in concern. “Should she be waking up?”
Nia shakes her head. “Not as long as you’re here. Perhaps it’s best if we have this conversation elsewhere.”
Maddox throws one final concerned glance at my aunt before ducking beneath the doorway and following my cousin through the kitchen and out the back door.
He’s so like Everett in his coloring and movements but so different. Not as severe.Not as achingly beautiful.
Stuffing my own feelings deep down, I steel my shoulders and follow them into the garden where Nia and Maddox whisper to one another, which is odd.
“Care to tell me what’s going on here?” I gesture between the two of them. As far as I know, the only time they met was at the Beltane festival. Now it looks as if they’re…friends?
Nia glances between Maddox and me, her lips pressed into a slight grimace. “Don’t get mad.”
Irritation stirs in my chest. Something tells me I’m better off not making that promise.
She steps toward me, leaving Maddox to frown at her back. “It’s just that…you haven’t been the same since…well, you know.”
I do know, but that doesn’t explain why there is an Unseelie standing in her back garden.
Her curls shudder when she blows out a breath. “I went to the well on Wednesday, but Everett wasn’t there, so I spoke with Maddox instead.”
Maddox lifts his eyes toward the cloudless sky, a smirk playing on his lips. “Nice to know I was not your first choice.”
She pinches his arm.Actuallypinches him.
“Ouch,dammit.” Maddox rubs his arm. “Careful, Seelie.”
Nia rolls her eyes. “He wassupposedto meet me at The Divide, not come to my home and try to murder my mother.”
“I meant your mother no harm,” he says with so much sincerity that my heart aches. The Unseelie I’ve met have been such genuinely good people; it really is such a shame that the Seelie are so determined to hate them on principle alone.
Nia’s lips tilt into a smirk. “Just tell her what you told me, all right?”
Maddox braces his hands at the cut of his hips, and I catch Nia stealing a glance at his bare chest.Interesting.
