Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Josie

The cabin looked pulled from a storybook. The greenery surrounding it was lush, full of flowers and had an inviting aura that excited me.

Fern seemed to know the man she ran toward personally.

He pulled her in for a hug. His gaze moved to mine and then to Kellan. I was sure that Kellan's resting anti-hero face would deter him from smiling, but it didn't.

"Fern," he said. "Who did you bring with you today, love? I'm so happy to see you and that you're okay."

Fern turned and proudly gestured toward me. "This is Josephine," she said then turned toward Kellan. "That's Kellan, and this is also Josephine."

He blinked while looking back and forth between my body and myself. "Well, that is ... interesting. I'm Ernest. You all come on inside. You look hungry and tired."

He opened the door to his home, and the smell of food wafted outward. My stomach greedily grumbled at the smell. I didn't know what that was, nor did I care. I would eat anything at that moment.

Ernest's modest home was welcoming and comfortable. His living room looked hardly touched, but his kitchen looked lived in. There were all sorts of containers, molcajetes that I learned about in history class and plants galore.

I loved the look of plants, but I could never keep them alive.

Ernest began to pick up his dining room table. At first, I thought it was for a place to eat, then Kellan placed my sleeping body down on it.

Kellan pulled my hair out from under my shoulders and let it hang. The giddy feeling I had when he touched the real me was pathetic. I longed to be back in there, but maybe his reluctance toward the spirit me was because he was attracted to the way I looked but not necessarily me.

"How long has she been this way?" Ernest asked.

"I'm not totally sure," he answered, running his thick fingers into his hair. "She's been with me a little over two days."

"I dreamed of you for two days before," I said.

Those dark eyes turned toward me. I pretended the simple look hadn't flamed my skin with fire. Like they did every time.

"So, four or so days?" Ernest asked, pressing his fingertips against my skin.

"It's my best guest," I said.

He looked over his shoulder at Fern leaning against the far wall. "There is soup and bread on the stove, Dear. Why don't you make all three of you a plate. You all look hungry. Make yourselves comfortable."

Fern rushed over to make the plates, while Ernest leaned over my body. "How did this come about?" he asked.

Kellan's shoulders slumped, as if he'd regretted ever accepting my father's request.

"It started when I saw Deidamia at my home in Louisiana."

The swiftness of his movement startled me. One second, he was hovered over my body, judging the color of my skin, and the next, he was inches away from me.

I gasped, seeing Kellan take a careful step over in preparation of Ernest going crazy.

Ernest's eyes were wide in shock, and worry was written all over his features. "How do you know her?" he asked.

I swallowed. "She took me from my home because someone in my house stole from her. I woke up in another realm. She blew some dust into my face, and then I began to dream of Kellan," I whispered, watching the way his throat moved as he swallowed. "And then he rescued me. I've been following myself around since then."

Ernest closed his eyes slowly and inhaled deeply. Fern nudged my arm with my plate, and I greedily took it.

"Mr. Ernest," I said over a bite of food. "I'm assuming this is because you know who she is?"

He opened his eyes and glared. "Everyone knows who she is, and everyone knows to stay away from her."

A small gust of wind hit my ankles when he turned around and marched toward my body. "She has put you in a sleep state. Your parents asked for Kellan's help?"

Kellan nodded. "I'm a bounty hunter. They asked me to save her, and when I found out it was Deidamia, I had to come."

"You know her?"

Kellan didn't give any indication that he did other than the sad look on his face. He'd done a really good job of hiding his thoughts since he realized I could hear them. But before he found out, he thought of Deidamia often. There was pure hate in his heart for her. She'd taken his family from what I could tell, but he never replayed that so I could see it.

But he did replay her. Analisa. It didn't take much to know they were married. The love written on her face in those short clips that ran on repeat in his head was evident.

Ernest sighing brought me out of my own head.

"Do you know what someone took from her?" Ernest asked before looking up at me. "Or who?"

"No," I said and then I took another bite. The intense look on his face made me shift on my feet. "You don't believe me?" I asked.

"You lived there?"

I shook my head. "It was my second day back since I graduated high school. Everything was already weird when I got there."

Ernest gestured for Kellan to eat his food. He'd been holding the plate Fern passed him. "Eat. All of you. I need time to think."

Kellan was reluctant to leave my body but stepped several feet away to sit down on a wooden chair.

I sat near Fern on a small couch. "Did you know who Deidamia was before this?" I asked her.

Fern's light brows folded inward. "Yes," she said. "Like Ernest said, everyone does."

I took a bite of the stew. "What do you know about her?"

She cleared her throat, pushing her food around with her fork. "Lots of things. Not good things. That she is a witch," she whispered, "that she sees everything, and not to go into the woods alone."

I nibbled on a piece of bread, sneaking a glance at Kellan leaned back in his chair. His legs were spread wide, his elbow perched on the arm of his chair as he ate his stew.

"Our mothers would tell us stories about her," she said. "That she had evil blood and that every so many years, she has to feed off humans to survive—"

Kellan's bowl broke into pieces on his legs, and the stew dripped onto his pants. He jumped up, trying to clean his mess while Ernest rushed into the room to help.

They exchanged a glance that I didn't understand. "Go into the back. I'll bring you something to wear while I clean your clothes."

Kellan didn't bless us with a look backward. He stalked out of the room, leaving us alone.

"He hurts," Fern whispered.

I looked over at her. "What do you mean?"

She patted her chest softly. "He hurts in here."

Fern continued to eat. I felt my stomach balling into knots. The urge to go check on him grew. The coward inside of me said to leave him alone. He wanted to see his wife, and I wasn't her.

I was the job.

The bounty.

The girl he was saving because he'd said yes.

Ernest ushered him clothing into the back and shut the door on his way out. His gaze swept the room and landed on me. "Do you feel your body?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, sir. I felt connected to her at first, but it faded."

"She blew dust into your face?"

"Yes."

He walked over to my body and placed his palm inches above my skin, lowering it over the length of me. "Do you remember how she made it?"

I shrugged. "She used one of those molcajete things that you have on your table."

Ernest walked into a small closet that looked like a pantry and came back with ingredients. Fern shifted on her chair. "What are you doing, Mr. Ernest?"

"Just theorizing, Fern," he said.

She shrugged at me then glanced over at the hallway. Kellan stood there in the shadows in a pair of sweats and a white T-shirt.

My mouth dried slightly. Keeping thoughts out of my head was impossible. I didn't know how Kellan did it so well. Even then, when his gaze shifted toward mine, there was nothing.

On the other hand, I was humiliated at the thoughts running around in my head. I sounded like a horny sixteen-year-old that couldn't help herself. I couldn't stop admiring his hands and how I wanted his fingers in my hair ...

Kellan closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The way his fingers curled into fists, and he propped one forearm against the edge of the wall for balance, almost made me think he was having trouble standing.

Then he jerked his head toward Ernest and avoided my stare. I grabbed Fern's empty plate from the edge of her knee and walked them into the kitchen. Ernest mumbled to himself, scratching his head and pacing back and forth while he smashed something into the stone.

Sliding the bowls into the sink, I glanced out at his backyard. The sunlight was high in the sky, showcasing all of the thick brush and landscape.

A swift movement deeper in the woods caught my attention.

I narrowed my eyes and leaned closer toward the window to see. Strong hands gripped both of my elbows from behind me. Kellan's breath slid along my neck, making my thighs weaken to rubber.

For a brief moment, I thought he would lean in and whisper something dark into my ear.

The heavy pressure of him against me made a moan form in my throat.

He was touching me. The spirit me.

An overwhelming sense of pathetic need pooled in my stomach. It was the first time in my life I reacted so boldly to a man.

Kellan rubbed the pad of his thumbs against the back of my forearms. "Someone is out there," his deep voice hit my skin.

The equal amount of sadness and fear swallowed me whole.

The quick movement from before jolted across the yard and stopped in my view. Kellan hissed under his breath.

A man that resembled Fern stood in the back yard. A fae they called them? The point of his ears was sharp underneath his hair. He wore a low-slung ponytail and a suit. Was he going to sell us something? He looked ready for it.

Oddly enough, he looked like he wanted to kill both of us and like he could do it if he tried.

"Ernest," Kellan said without moving. "I hope you have insurance. This may get ugly."

Ernest stopped his stirring at the table and walked over to the window. "Do you know this fae?" he asked.

Kellan hadn't let go of me and when he stepped back, he pulled me with him. "I stabbed him the first night I got here. He was pimping out Fern."

The image of his journey to get me sounded scary. I would have to make sure my dad paid him generously.

Ernest looked over at Kellan for several seconds. "Then let me get my things. This fae isn't leaving here today."