Page 83
No, we do not. Why the fuck is she in Ryan’s grandmother’s house? Wait, is she Ryan’s mother? My brain fizzes with a carbonation I’ve only experienced with soda on my tongue. How it is inside my mind is a question for another day.
“Ryan’s…”
“Ha! Ryan, what? He’s at his grandmother’s house; they live about two blocks from campus. Was there something you needed there?”
Fog is moving in and settling fast. Water, I need water. Anything to dilute what was in the tea or sandwiches, or what is being pumped through the fucking vents. There is water on the dining table; if only I could stand and make it to the bottle.
“Tali never lived there, Aspen. She moved in with me. For a supposed bright spark—a prodigy, I believe the Dean called you—you are rather stupid.”
Donnelyn’s house. Of fucking course. Tali’s mentor and favorite teacher, the one who helped her with apothecary and cosmetics, and skincare. The one who recommended certain botanicals over others because of their medicinal capabilities while also keeping production costs at a minimum. The same one who teaches poisons and tox, who knows the ins and outs of every plant and the ability to paralyze, induce tremors and vomiting, and to kill.
I stand on foal-weak legs, stumbling back to the entry hall. She trots along behind me, chuckling as I sway and stumble into furniture. I grasp at what I can reach to steady my gait, skewing all the frames she just righted.
“So clumsy,” she scolds, wiping away my fingerprints from anything I touch. Evidence. She’s removing any trace of me, so no one other than Tali and Fox will know I was ever here.
“Fox is c-coming—”
“Oh, no, he’s not. You see, after he was questioned, he’s now been arrested.” Her shrill, maniacal laugh lands everywhere in my brain where the effervescent fuzziness isn’t. Between the bubbles and her bullshit, I’m about to implode.
“Seems he was seen stalking the female dorm on campus. Not long after, poor Merda was dead. The test results indicate foul play, Aspen. Finn and Poppi’s statements to the police were very detailed. Fin told them how Fox paired up with Merda on one of their previous assignments, and they had quite a volatile relationship. Poor thing, dealing with a boy who refused to speak, who was content to sit back and let everyone else do the work, yet turned aggressive when he was unhappy with it.”
She taps her chin. “Then there was the incident with him and Finley back at our first class. Fox becoming physically violent with Finn, who was dating Merda Ferado at the time. All these coincidences start to add up, and the police may have needed a shove in the right direction, but they got there… eventually.”
“Fox didn’t kill Merda…” I slur.
“I know this Aspen. I did. It wasn’t meant for her, obviously; it was meant for you, you fucking cunt. You! Ever since you turned up here, Jack won’t even return my texts or calls. It’s all about you, you, you! The Dean and Elijah are just as profound with their praise for you, and I can’t stand the fucking sight of you. You’re short, and your hair is disgusting. I thought it was your boobs at first, so I started wearing a padded bra to return Jack’s attention, but it was no use. You brought poison to this town, Aspen. And as a result, I decided to poison you out of it again. Easy.”
My limbs are anvil heavy, dragging along her floor. Unlike Tali, I don’t have the luxury of falling asleep on the chintz couch and waking sometime later. I know with Amber Donnelyn, I won't wake at all. I’d rather take my chances out there in the snow than inside the house of a manipulative monster, both deluded and dramatic. Fuck.
“Foxglove Muir was arrested on stalking and murder charges. If you think he’s coming to save you, you little bitch, you are sadly mistaken.”
She continues to wipe as I stumble. I stop near the entry door, knowing that escape from this psycho is right on the other side, dead-end street be damned. Staying inside is a dead-end certainty. The closet opposite taunts me. Do I delay precious seconds, or even minutes, going to the handle, opening it and trying to retrieve my coat and phone? That time is better spent arguing with the front door and placing myself on the other side of it and as far away as possible from this house. I don’t care if I have to crawl on hands and knees in a foot of snow, I am not staying here.
Her heeled foot collides with my backside as she shoves—hard. My arms reach out instinctively to brace for impact, the bite of her covered concrete porch softening nothing. The pain snaps across each palm and splinters along each wrist and forearm. Holy fuck, that hurts. My thumb catches in the locket chain, and while trying to stand, it comes loose from my neck. No!
“I loved him first, you know. I’ll love him last, too. Safe travels home, you fucking whore!”
With great effort, I push to standing. Her front door slams closed, Amber no doubt busying herself with the job of wiping every surface I slouched on or slurped from and destroying my property in her closet. Tali! She’s in there, poisoned with the same agent as me? At least she’s on a couch, warm and somewhat safe. Should Tali succumb, too, any investigation would swarm all over that little house and its nut-job owner. My best chance—our best chance—is for me to get as far away as possible, hoping to be found by someone rather than something. At this point, the odds are about even.
Each step is agony; my feet swing in an arc rather than gliding forward with a natural gait. Every time I look down at the carpet of unrelenting white underfoot, I get dizzy and have to raise my head again to dull the pain behind my eyes. I fixate on the end of the road, to where it intersects with another. The one that meanders back into town and out the other side; Wyldan Way. Left foot, right foot, any foot. As long as I make progress, it doesn’t need to be pretty. As long as I stay away from the banked snow on the shoulders, I have a chance of being discovered before the toxins circulating through my bloodstream hit and knockout any vital organs.
My stomach lurches, emptying most of the contents as I hinge forward, panting around chunks of pastry, bread, and liquid tea. I delude myself into thinking now that I’ve regurgitated most of what I consumed there, I could be safe, even though scientifically I know that’s unlikely. Too much time has elapsed, and the tea, being liquid, would already be working its way to the liver from the stomach lining. I’m fucked. No matter how I observe this, Dad. Inside, outside, around the perimeter, I’m fucked. Before I black out entirely, I send love to my father, wherever he may be, and love to my boys—all four of them. Fox, because he’s my fierce, brave warrior dripping in scars that almost ended his life, but didn’t because he fought back harder. He may hide his voice, but not his intent. He loves hard and fiercely, with the primal ferocity of an untamed beast. And perhaps he is a beast, but he’s no murderer. For Lukaz, my Russian weed who is everywhere. While the weed is a pest and known irritant, it’s so pretty to look at. The way shards of gorgeous purple burst from the bud and say, “Yeah, I’ll fuck you up, or be your friend. You choose.” To my disarming doctor. The first man I let inside my body here in Wyldan. The bear of a man with a gentle focus and thoughtful nature. Our bodies didn’t simply join; they danced to the drumbeat rhythm of the band at the bar on the night we met. And Elijah. The man with more secrets than answers. Frustrating and fancy, aloof yet adaptable. Daylily Eli Monster. What was he trying to tell me with his Larch gift?
Was he a monster, set to slay me and everything my family had worked so hard to establish? If so, then another professor beat him to the finish line, because I’ll never get the chance to tell him that there was never a choice to make. I choose you, Elijah Wyldan. You frustrate the fuck out of me, but you love me in a way I may not always understand, but I respect. And I love you right back. Not in a conventional way, either, because that would be totally boring, but in a way we both need. I choose you, Elijah, and I love you. If only I could have told you so. Perhaps another one of your secrets was that you loved me, too?
Chapter Forty
Elijah
NOT A QUAKING ASPEN, A VANISHING ONE
Following the call from Norway and the news Lukaz was returning, Aspen was over the moon, bouncing around the study with the nervous energy of a sugared-up child. Even Fox’s mammoth embrace doesn’t thwart her wriggling, so in the end he releases her and watches her bound about instead. That gaze, the utter adoration of a man so obsessed with a woman that he’ll do anything she wants because her happiness surpasses his. The need to hold her close and allow her to fly all at the same time. Being proud of her achievements and hoping like hell you get a front-row seat to her success because it eats you from the inside when you’re not beside her, or inside her.
The four of us spent last night crammed into my bed because it’s the biggest, and none of us wanted to be away from her dewy skin and radiant warmth. Aspen was sandwiched between Jack and I while Fox slept perpendicular down the end of her bed, cradling her feet. His position meant he was exposed to three sets of feet, but that’s his problem—not mine. I sure as shit didn’t want him spooning me, and Jack only had to give him the “don’t even think about it look” before he backed down and took the only other available option. It was that, the floor, or fuck off back to your own room. My hands reacquainted themselves with her sinful curves and generous flesh, delighting as she came on my fingers while Jack’s were in her ass or squeezing the tit I wasn’t worshipping. She wants us all, and who are we to deny her wants and satisfy her needs.
We drifted off to sleep, content knowing that Luk would arrive home tomorrow and our five-pointed star would shine bright once more. That, and a promise to all shower together in the primary walk-in big enough for all of us to get soapy and enjoy our girl in a myriad of poses and postures. I only hope Luk’s journey isn’t delayed by the inclement weather due to hit us in the afternoon.
“Hey, can one of you take me to Tali’s?”
