Chapter 12

TWELVE

WILLEM

‘ So, you get a new fake-boyfriend and suddenly I'm dead to you.' I typed out my text to Andi as I chuckled to myself. It'd been three days, and I'd barely heard from her. As her best friend of five years, I was well within my rights to tease her about the lack of communication.I sent several more texts without response.

‘I see how it is.'

‘You want me to just live here under this rock all by myself with no one to commiserate with.'

‘OR the fake boyfriend has swept you off your feet and made you forget about that devil dick . . . in which case, I applaud you.'

Andi had never been so quiet for so long. Maybe this guy was something new and interesting for her. Maybe she was getting bored of our long-distance friendship. Or maybe you're just being paranoid, Will, I chided myself as I typed out another message.

‘Or you escaped on another dig and didn't tell anyone, including me.'

I typed one last message. ‘I'm carving pumpkins out of boredom.'

"Hey, Will." Zita walked up to where I sat waiting for her."How are you?"

I rose to my feet and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek in greeting. "Hey, I'm well. Thanks for coming."

She tucked a strand of her thick black hair behind her ear and smirked up at me. "I was kind of surprised to get your call. Things felt kind of?—"

"Awkward," I finished her sentence. "I think it was the surprise of my brother setting us up. It was very short warning."

"Yes, you were very suave," she teased as she dropped down into the seat next to me. "An impromptu date with a guy I've known most of my life is not the worst thing that's happened to me the past few years."

I scoffed. "Yeah, that's for damn sure."

I returned to my seat next to her. The fall festival was full of life all around us, and I started to relax. Tents were set up around the park. Each one was a different theme, some even had food, and there were games for everyone. There was always a sense of excitement and peace on the Island that I found comforting. Though I traveled a lot, this place always felt like home.

"I'm still glad you decided to come despite my lack of suaveness."

Before she could respond, Carter, Lexington Prescott's soulmate and event planner extraordinaire, moved to stand at the center of all the picnic tables they had set up. "Just remember when you gut the things, the insides will be used at either Dunn Farms or will go to Bowlicious for toasting."

Carter walked around the middle of the park with her wand in hand. Her dark hair was pulled high on her head, and she wore a cream-colored sweater, dark-blue jeans, and knee-high boots. When everyone nodded in agreement, she smiled and waved her wand. Magic flew from the tip and around the picnic tables set up in the park. Newspapers and pumpkins magically appeared in front of everyone sitting at the table. Each one was perfectly shaped and accompanied by all the tools we'd need to cut them into whatever artistic mess we chose.

Ria, Carter's party-planning partner, raised her voice. "Let the pumpkin carving contest begin."

Zita smiled up at me with big dark eyes. "I'm glad we decided to do this."

The day was beautiful and sunny, but it was crisp and cool with a gentle breeze sweeping across the park at the center of town. The surrounding shops were all bustling with activity as people moved in and out of them. Leaves rustled as they blew across the grass.

"Me too." We reached for the black marker at the same time and our fingers brushed. We both yanked our hands back. "Please, go ahead. I think I recall your artistic skills being better than mine."

She chuckled and took the marker. "You think? It's a good thing you don't have to sketch your trips."

"Ah, so you looked me up."

She rolled her eyes and smirked. "Well, I did have to see your book after you told me about it."

When she started to draw on the pumpkin, I took the chance to open up the message thread between me and Andi. Still no answer. I typed out another message. ‘If there's ever a time when one of us disappears for days at a time, the other should send out a search party.'

Zita leaned back, looking at her handy work. "What do you think?"

I slid my phone back into my pocket. "A bear . . . I love it."

How ironic. I reached for the knife and handed it to her. "Care to do the honors?"

She took the hilt and smirked. "Don't mind if I do."

She stabbed the knife into the top of the pumpkin and began cutting a circle around the stem. "So, Will, why'd you ask me out again?"

"Oh, um . . . you know . . ."

I couldn't say that I hadn't heard from my best friend in three days and it was making me feel some type of way I didn't know how to describe. I also couldn't say that my ex was here on the Island with me for the first time in ten years and I was feeling some type of way about that too and desperately needed a distraction. I also couldn't say the best way to get over someone was to get under someone else, because I honestly didn't believe that. It sounded kind of piggish, and I just didn't want to do that.

I cleared my throat. "Thought it might be nice for both of us to get out. And you know, get away from our invasive family members."

She popped the top off the pumpkin and chuckled. "So this is as much for your benefit as it is mine."

"I'd like to think so."

Zita was a gorgeous distraction. There was comfort in our families being so close and us knowing each other forever. She motioned to the pumpkin. "Well, I stabbed it. You get to disembowel it."

"So you get to do the fun part and now I have to stick my hand in the slop?"

"I feel like since you've led the cushy life, you absolutely get to stick your hand in there," she teased and her lips turned up in a bright smile.

I couldn't help but return it. I rose to my feet and shoved my hand into the pumpkin and scooped the insides out. I smacked them onto the table with a wet slapping sound. "I can for sure say I've had the cushy life."

She shrugged. "Now that I'm home, my family doesn't want to let me out of their sight. They're always asking where I'm going, what I'm doing, when I'll be back. Sometimes it can be . . . exhausting."

I chuckled. "We might have more in common than I thought."

"We might," she admitted lightly.

"Well, not the whole captured in the Fae Realm and freezing to death thing." I finished scooping out the pumpkin and reached for some of the paper towels at the end of our table to wipe my hands off. "But the family thing I can relate to on a very deep level.

She tucked a strand of her long dark hair behind her pointed ear. I tried to be sly as I took her in. Sure, Zita was gorgeous with that lush dark hair, high round eyes, and curvy body. Her nose was pert and cute. By anyone's standards, she was a knockout. Anyone who wasn't totally stuck on someone else, that is. I wanted to smack myself. Things with Indi ended so long ago, and I was a fool to keep holding on to them . . . or, holding on to memories of them.

I motioned toward the pumpkin. "I do believe you're up."

"Right." She still had the knife in her hand and pressed it to the bear face to begin to carve it out.

"This looks complicated." I thought we'd carve out like a fun little face. But Zita had some knife skills, and she was putting them to work.

I slid my phone back from my pocket and typed out another quick message. ‘I think it's a proof of life thing. Yes, I require proof of life.'

"It's not as complicated as you think." Zita stayed focused on the pumpkin.

I didn't know what it was with Andi lately. She'd been so quiet, and deep down, I really hated it. Maybe this fake-boyfriend wasn't so fake. Even when she dated the douchebag formally known as Matt, she communicated regularly with me. I decided one more message couldn't hurt. ‘Okay but if you did die, I'm going to get a Ouija board and reverse-haunt you.'

Just then, Gary, an older mage, walked up to our table with a rolling cart full of all the Halloween treats. "Something for you folks?"

His gray hair stuck out in wild puffs and his cheeks were bright and rosy. I shook my head. "Nothing for me. Thank you. Zita, would you like something?"

She paused from carving the face to look at the cart. There were clear containers full of all different kinds of candy, Halloween-decorated cookies, popcorn, and soft pretzels shaped like bats. A huge smile spread over her face as she looked it all over. "I love that it's just all there."

I motioned to the cart. "Please, get whatever you'd like."

"Oh, I'm going to." Her eyes sparkled with excitement, and she flexed her fingers. "I'll take one of everything."When I chuckled, she turned to face me. "What, you said you didn't want anything?"

"Maybe you're right." I smiled at the older gentleman. "Make it two of everything."

"Right away, folks." He had a slightly rounded belly that bumped into the cart each time he reached for something. He pulled a short red wand from his pocket and flicked his wrist. Two brown paper bags flew from the cart and snapped open. The candy shot up into the air in a whirling funnel of bright colors. The candy funneled itself into the bags, the tops folded over neatly, and the bags landed in our hands.

"Thanks, Gary."

He handed us the cookies and popcorn and we practically had a whole junk food buffet on our table.

He tipped his head to me. "You got it, Will."

Zita dug into her candy and did a little happy dance while she hummed. I raised my eyebrows at her. "Having fun?"

"Mmhmm." She took a bite of a cookie. "It's delicious."

"Well, don't worry. I won't take any of yours." She was leaning over her food like at any moment I might take it from her.

She sat up straight. Her face flushed. "Force of habit. Sometimes you get a little protective when food is hard to find. Please don't ask me about it. Too soon."

"Fair enough." We ate our snacks in silence for a few moments. I pulled my phone out and checked to see if Andi had messaged me back. But when there was no response, I found myself getting annoyed.

She cleared her throat, getting my attention. "I like you Will."

"I like you too." I did like her well enough.We'd always been good friends growing up.

"But this isn't going to work," she said so bluntly.

My eyebrows shot up. "What? Why?"

She gave a heavy sigh. "Well, to start, we've known each other forever and you're not interested in me."

"I am."

"Not in that way." She took a bite of a cookie, then brushed some of the crumbs off her jeans. "And I don't like you in that way."

"Wow, I, um, I don't really know what to say." If I were being honest, she wasn't wrong. We didn't click in a that way , or really in any romantic way, but I would have tried if even to just move forward with my life.

"Look, I spent a decade trapped in Third Realm, and in that time, I realized one thing: life is too short. Even if I am immortal, it's too short to waste time in a relationship that doesn't work. We're friends. Our families are friends. It would be convenient for both of us if this worked. But I can tell we just don't spark that way."

I appreciated her honesty. "I haven't had anyone come at me with that level of honesty in a long time."

At least not since the day that Indi broke up with me. A pang of pain shot through my body.

She looked me up and down. "So can we just hang out as friends and not worry about all this dating crap?"

I sighed and gave a light chuckle. "You know what? Yes, absolutely."

I hadn't realized that this would feel more like relief than drama. It was the furthest thing from dramatic.

She beamed at me as she dusted her hands off and took up the knife once more and began working on the pumpkin. "So, as my friend, tell me . . . Who have you been texting the whole time?"

"And here I was thinking I was being sly." I placed my phone on the table next to me. "I'm texting my best friend. I haven't heard from her in a few days, and it's really weird for her to be so quiet."

"So, this friend, are you guys like . . . together? Or is it friends with benefits? Is there more there?" She plucked a piece of pumpkin out of the face she worked on.

"Do you need help with that?" I leaned over to look at it.

"Definitely not. It's my pumpkin now." She winked and gave me a playful smile. "So, come on . . . dish."

"We're honestly just friends. We've never met in person." I glanced down at my screen. Still nothing. "We met five years ago in a Facebook group for travelers. We started messaging and we've been virtually inseparable since."

"How is that possible? You guys have been friends for five years and never met?" She shook her head and strands of her dark hair fell all around her face.

I shrugged. "We both travel for work, and we travel a lot. We've never been in the same place at the same time. Just hasn't worked out. I mean, we tried a few times in the first year or two, but every time something bad happened and we never made it. We joke about being jinxed and just haven't tried meeting again."

After so long, it was starting to be odd to me that we hadn't met yet. The time for us to meet up was coming soon. I just had to know her more.

Zita gave me a sideways glance. "Yeah, you think it's weird too, okay."

"Hey, no fae aura-reading thing." I took the knife from her hand and turned the pumpkin toward me. "My turn."

"I really can't help it . . . the whole reading your aura thing . . ." She looked me up and down. "By the way, yours is super bright. It just screams whatever mood you're in."

"I don't know if I should say thank you or if I should be self-conscious." I carved out another piece from the pumpkin.

There was a flash of pink in the corner of my eye, and I couldn't stop my head from snapping in that direction. Indi walked across the festival with a smile on her face. Her long pink strands were piled into a messy bun on top of her head. She always had a casual elegance in her dark-blue jeans and black sweater. Her eyes were bright with excitement as she talked to him and pointed things out to him . She was gorgeous as ever, and I couldn't look away from her.

"Okayyyy, so what's up with that ?" Zita waved her hand over me. "Because whoa."

"Hey, I thought we decided reading auras was cheating." I turned away from Indi only long enough to glance at Zita.

"No, you decided that." She pressed her hand to her chest and grinned. "I decided you need to tell me about what's up with that pink-haired girl over there."

I placed the knife back down on the table and looked up at her with a huff. "It's not something I talk about."

"Like ever? To no one?"

"No." I pressed my lips together. The thing with Indi and me had been a secret I'd kept like a promise.

"Try me." Zita moved in closer to me. "Because it's definitely something."

I ran my hand through my hair and tugged at the strands. "Look, if I tell you, then you have to keep it a secret."

"Lucky for you, I'm really good at that." She nudged me with her elbow. "So I promise I won't tell."

I suddenly wanted to spill everything about us. I'd never been able to talk about it with anyone, and now I had this outlet who wasn't going to make a big deal out of it the way my family might. I sucked in a deep breath. "It was ten years ago. We ran into each other off the Island. I was just starting to travel for my work and Indi moves around a lot. I don't know. It was a chance meeting."

She leaned her elbow on the table, then rested her head in her hand. "Like fate."

"Man, did it feel like fate." I watched her as she moved through the crowd. She moved so easily and smiled so freely. "She was everything to me. It was short-lived. And we had . . . chemistry."

"You mean there was fire and passion?"

I groaned. "Yeah, and I was all-in before I even knew what hit me."

"Sounds like you fell hard and fast." She grabbed a piece of candy and popped it into her mouth.

"So fast I didn't even know what happened. And I thought, like a fool, she was also on the same page with me." I shook my head. "That time together was some of the best, or at least I thought so. It wasn't just physical either, though that was amazing. It was just effortless. She got me and I got her. We had our own world."

"It sounds like a fantasy." She lowered her voice. "The kind of stuff we all hope for."

"It was." I folded my hands on the table.

"So, what happened?"

I scrubbed my hand down my face. "She sat me down one day and said we needed to end things. She was ten years older than me and immortal. At the time, I was young and just a mage. This whole vampire thing is so new. But she wasn't completely wrong. I was young and she was immortal. I was inexperienced in a lot of the ways of life while she'd basically single-handedly raised her little sister for fifteen years. I think the immortality issue was the biggest for her? I would die and leave her behind. But the truth was, I was considering changing into a vampire even back then. For her, I would have."

She sat up straighter. "Why didn't you?"

"Indi didn't want to hear about it. She said I had to live my life, and I wasn't in a place to know if that was what I'd want long-term." I scoffed. "If we only had the power to see the future."

She gave a humorless chuckle. "Yeah, I totally would've avoided kicking that guy in the balls and getting deported."

"That's what got you deported?"

"Oh no you don't." She shook her head. "That's a story for another day. We're talking about you."

"Oh yeah, and how I was totally all-in and she was very not."

She placed her hand on my arm and gave it a little squeeze. "Love does suck."

"Indeed it does." I motioned toward them. "And now she's here with her perfect boyfriend, and I'm not sure why it's dredging up so many old feelings, but it has."

Zita glanced in their direction. "I mean, he is very good-looking."

"Not helping."

"Sorry." Her cheeks heated. "Is that why you're on the dating app now?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, that's my family's doing. They have no idea about me and Indi. They just decided I should start dating. They made the profile and somehow they keep breaking into it no matter how many times I change the password."

"And I thought my family was bad for meddling. If I had a boyfriend, they might back off a little. But yours is way worse."

"Thanks." I paused, thinking on the advice I'd given Andi a few days ago. "How bad do you want them to back off?"

She shrugged. "It'd be nice to just breathe."

"They why don't you be my girlfriend?" I blurted out.

Her brow furrowed. "I thought we established we don't like each other like that. And no offense, you've still got it bad for your ex."

I waved her words away. "Not like that. Look, I have to go to her sister's wedding this month, and I really hate being the single one after so long. It's killing me to watch her with him. And you want a little space from your family. It's a win-win."

"So you want to be my fake-boyfriend?" She smirked. "I kind of like the idea of that. Plus, it'd be good to catch up as friends."

"We have a deal?" I didn't know why I'd gotten Andi into this, and now I was getting myself into it, but for some odd reason it made sense.

"Deal." She held a cookie out to me. "Share a cookie to seal the deal."

I broke off a piece and tossed it in my mouth. Just then my phone buzzed with a message. I glanced down and I couldn't help but smile.

‘ Consider this my proof of life message .' Andi finished it off with three laughing emojis.

"Is that her? The best friend?

I held my phone up "It's her!"

"You know she makes you happy too," Zita offered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Of course she does. She's been my best friend for five years."

Another message came through. ‘That was a wild ride.'

"It's good you have her. I miss having friends like that." Zita's face fell.

"Well, now you do." I winked. "We'll be the best of friends in no time, especially with you as my new girlfriend."

"What a way to make a friend." She dug into the bottom of the candy bag and took another piece out. She quickly unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth.

"What happened to your friends from before? I remember them."

She grimaced. "It's hard to explain, but I'm not the same person I was ten years ago. Third Realm changed me irrevocably. Sure, in some ways I'm still me . . . but I'm the new me too. All my old friends expect me to be the friend they knew. I don't know how to be her. It's just . . . being around them makes me sad and angry for what I lost. And I just want to focus on being happy to be home."

"That's some heavy shit, Zita. And totally fair. Well, we'll see if we can help you find some new friends for the new you. ‘Kay?"

She blushed. "Thanks, Will."

I sent another quick message to Andi before I put my phone away for the rest of my time with Zita. ‘That is what you get for ignoring me. And don't think I'm gonna let it slide that easily. Where have you been? What the hell?'

She responded immediately. ‘ I'm so sorry, Liam. I've been having a harder time seeing my ex than I expected. It's been messing with my head. My sister's been giving me the same attitude you have and I'm living with her so . . . it's not just you. I actually hadn't seen my phone in two days until an hour ago. BUT the fake boyfriend plan was genius, so I owe you one.'

‘None of that comforts me, Andi.'

‘I'm fine. We're always fine, remember?' She sent a smiley face emoji and the thumbs-up. ‘ Just an existential crisis over here. Don't let it ruin your time home with your family. I promise I have my phone on me now and the ringer on loud, so I won't vanish on you again.'

‘You better not, Jones.'