Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty

When the sun rose outside my bedroom, it was just another day. I stared out through the window, people walked their dogs, ran laps around Lafayette Square, went to work. None of them had any idea what had happened in Bonaventure cemetery only a few hours ago and for that, I was grateful.

Despite the sticky summer heat, Wyn shivered under the mountain of blankets Ashley had dug out from the closet and piled on top of my bed. I lifted my gaze to the fireplace and orange and red flames sparked into life to lick at the logs.

‘Em?'

The sound of my name on his lips was the sweetest thing I had ever heard. In an instant, I was perched on the edge of the bed, right by his side. He opened his eyes, pupils expanding and contracting until they settled on me. Then he smiled.

‘You're here.' His words were dry and raw and when he instinctively rubbed his sore throat, I saw the painful-looking scar on his shoulder. At least it was only a scar now, all but healed.

‘I'm here,' I confirmed, reaching for a mug of arnica tea on the nightstand. The nightstand that held the silver pin, the arfvedstonite crystal and my birthday gift, a green-grey marble. ‘I promised I would be.'

I held the cooled tea to his lips and watched every muscle relax as he drank. I'd added calendula, feverfew, and yarrow to speed up his recovery. He was going to be just fine, physically at least. This next part wasn't going to be easy for either of us.

‘Do you remember any of what happened in the chapel?' I asked. ‘Catherine said you wouldn't have any control after you phased but I can't trust anything she said.'

‘That's what they told me too but I do remember, all of it.' He pressed his fingers along his shoulder, wincing slightly when he found his scar. ‘I knew you. I wasn't completely in control but I was still there. How is that possible?'

‘I honestly don't know,' I admitted. ‘It shouldn't be that way.'

‘Maybe it's just the fact I could never forget you. Wolf or not, you're part of me.'

The invisible connection that tied me to him shone brighter than any razor-sharp silver wire. It bound us tighter, closer than ever, but I knew there was still a chance the truth could slice it clean in two.

‘There are some things I have to tell you and I don't know if you're going to feel the same way afterwards,' I said as I handed him the mug, wishing I didn't have to do this.

Wyn closed his eyes, shaking his head in disbelief.

‘I think I already know,' he replied. ‘Your grandmother told me you killed Cole. She said he was hunting you, so you killed him.'

It would have been so easy to say she was lying. He would have believed me because he wanted to and we could have wrapped a sad but tidy bow around the whole thing. Neither Cole nor Catherine were here to contradict my version of events. But I couldn't do it. Too many lives had been ruined by lies in this house already.

‘It happened on my second night in Savannah,' I began, pressing my palms together, nails bitten all the way down to the quick. ‘I didn't know the wolf was a Were, I didn't even know I was a witch. I thought it was a wild animal attacking my grandmother.'

‘But Catherine knew,' Wyn guessed.

‘She knew what he was, even if she didn't know who he was.'

My words settled on him and he stared blankly up at the pressed tin ceiling, his features pinched, beautiful chameleon eyes glassy with tears.

‘You didn't know,' he said. ‘If Cole only saw you after he phased, he would have killed you if you hadn't …' He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

‘If there was a way for me to change things, I would,' I told him, guilt still eating me up.

‘Is there?' The hope in his voice didn't help.

I shook my head. ‘No. I can't bring people back when they're gone.'

Wyn moved under the covers, small, exploratory movements, testing each limb to make sure it was still attached and back where it belonged on a human man. He was all in one piece, I'd made sure of it when Ashley and I put him to bed, bandaging the worst injuries, tending to the cuts and scratches with herbal compresses, staying by his side all night to make sure his chest continued to rise and fall.

The logs crackled in the fireplace and he pushed back some of his blankets, the colour returning to his cheeks. Without even turning around to look at it, I extinguished the fire. Wyn's eyebrows lifted and I bit my lip.

‘The power your family saw in Savannah,' I said in the softest voice possible, ‘it's in me. I didn't think I'd be able to control it but now I know I can. It's nothing to be afraid of, I swear.'

He looked around the room, his eyes moving over everything like he was trying to memorize it for a test and I was terrified he was getting ready to say goodbye.

‘You're a witch,' he replied, struggling over the word. ‘And I'm a wolf.'

‘I'm not just a witch,' I said, determined not to cry. ‘Any more than you're just a wolf. Remember what we said? We don't belong to our families, only to ourselves.'

‘And to each other.'

His gaze finally settled on me and my heart soared. Even now, with all of the truth laid bare between us, it was still there. The same wonder I saw in his eyes the first time we met. I loved him and he loved me. Nothing had ever been so certain. But I had no idea if it was enough.

‘Your hair,' Wyn said, reaching for one scarlet lock. ‘It suits you.'

He wound it around his finger the same way he'd touched the moss on the day we met and flames rose inside me again, white, not black, and when he let it fall back against my shoulder, they simmered in my belly.

‘You have to go home,' I said, nodding for him when he opened his mouth to protest. ‘You need to tell your family what happened. All of it.'

‘They won't understand.' His lips pulled tight with frustration. ‘My mom, she knew Cole better than most, she might listen, but it's not just her.'

‘The rest of the pack will want justice,' I stated, trying not to sound too frightened. ‘I guess that's something I'm going to have to figure out.'

‘We have to figure it out,' Wyn corrected. ‘You're not alone.'

It felt good to hear him say it even if I didn't know what one Were could possibly do to change the minds of an angry pack.

‘I'll try to talk to them,' he relented. ‘They never were coming here, did you know that? Your grandmother cloaked me, cast some kind of spell that made them think I'd gone to my cousin in Canada.'

Even after all she'd done, just his reference to Catherine made me catch my breath. Despite it all, I missed her. The energy of Bell House was different without her. Once upon a time, maybe before I was born, she had good intentions. They all did, Catherine, my dad, Wyn's parents. But good intentions weren't enough.

‘They'll be relieved to have you back,' I said, stroking his hair, trying to memorize the silky softness.

‘What happens next?' he asked. ‘What do you do?'

‘I don't know,' I replied honestly. ‘Now there's no one around to make my decisions for me, maybe I'll finally work out what I really want. Work out who I am.'

‘I know who you are,' Wyn said, his voice barely rising above a whisper when he took my hand in his, stroking the back of it with his thumb.

The pale pink buds on my wallpaper trembled when I did and their petals began to open and bloom. I paused, pulling back for just a second and they faded back into buds. Then Wyn leaned forward, wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and pressed his mouth to mine, warm and firm and full. The blooms in the wallpaper exploded into full, lush flowers.

‘There has to be a way to make this work,' he whispered against my lips as he pulled me even closer. ‘The werewolf and the witch.'

‘There has to be,' I agreed and a shower of petals fell around us.

Maybe it was OK to lie sometimes, I told myself, sinking back into him and shutting out the world, as long as we only lied to ourselves.

‘I'll call you as soon as I'm home,' Wyn said, standing on the porch of Bell House hours later. ‘Before I even walk through the door, I'll be on the phone.'

‘And I'll be waiting,' I replied, unable to let go of his hand as we walked down the steps, holding on to him all the way out onto the sidewalk. ‘I love you.'

There had never been three words so insufficient to express the way two people felt but when he leaned his forehead against mine, I knew he understood.

‘And I love you, Emily James.'

Placing one last careful kiss on my lips, Wyn untangled his fingers from mine and climbed into the passenger seat of Jackson's Audi.

‘Hey!'

I looked up to the second floor to see Lydia dangling precariously out of Ashley's bedroom window.

‘Jackson, can you bring my phone over on your way back?' she yelled. ‘It should be charging on my nightstand.'

Lydia was feeling better.

‘Lyds, it's a ten-hour round trip to from here to Asheville and you want me to add on a stop to pick up your phone?' her brother shouted back. She frowned as though it was the dumbest question she'd ever heard.

‘Yes?'

‘You just worry about getting wolfie home,' Ashley said, bounding out onto the sidewalk. ‘I'll get her phone. You know, I can leave the house any time I like.'

‘Good for you,' Jackson replied, accepting, if not quite understanding everything that was going on.

‘Thanks for this,' I told him, holding myself back from the car. If Wyn touched me again, I'd be in there with them and that wouldn't help anyone. The last thing his pack needed was an unexpected visit from the witch who murdered his brother. ‘There's no one else I'd trust to get him home in one piece.'

‘Get him home? I'm trying to get rid of him so we can go on that date you promised me,' Jackson joked before elbowing a still-weakened Wyn in the arm. ‘You ready to go, man?'

‘Not really,' Wyn replied, eyes still locked on mine as Jackson pulled away from the kerb.

He smiled sadly out the window and I watched the car go until I couldn't see it anymore. I sensed them weaving through the streets and out onto the highway and even when the Audi crossed the river, I could feel myself in his thoughts. Every time I flashed through Wyn's mind, there was a pull on the invisible string. One magnet to another. Whatever else happened, we were connected forever. He was my before and my after.

‘You doing OK?' Ashley asked, draping her arm over my shoulder when we climbed back up the steps to the front porch.

‘Not yet,' I said with a smile as feeble as it might be. ‘But I will be.'

‘Do you really think he'll come back?'

My feeble smile wavered.

‘He did last time.'

She nudged me in the ribs and I winced, sucking the air in through my teeth. I was healing but not all the way healed; my magic was a gift, not a miracle.

‘You need to eat. What do you want for breakfast?'

‘You don't have to wait on me anymore,' I reminded her. ‘You can do whatever you want, go wherever you want. Meet whoever you want.'

‘Well, what I want right now is breakfast.' She turned around and marched back inside. ‘Someone drank a lot of whiskey last night and since she lived to tell the tale, she has a hangover that needs tending to.'

‘You're being so cryptic, I can't even begin to think who you're talking about,' I called as I followed her back inside.

We stood side by side, looking around the foyer, both of us searching for what was different. The house felt lighter, brighter, and when I looked up to the forbidden third floor, the constellations twinkled back down. It was mine now, Bell House, and everything that came with it. I breathed in and the sage-green wallpaper shimmered on my exhale, settling down to a soft, warm pink.

‘Beats hiring decorators,' Ashley commented as the rest of the house settled itself into new shades, a fresh start. At the end of the hallway, the door to Catherine's craft door clicked open.

‘Emily,' she said quietly. ‘Where do you think she went?'

I glanced over at my aunt and she looked back at me, gnawing on her lower lip. She seemed so much younger than she had the day before and looked so much like my dad, I felt my heart ache and swell at the same time.

‘I wish I knew. She was there when I carried Wyn out and when I went back she was gone.'

‘And the chapel sealed itself back up?'

‘Like we'd never stepped inside.'

She ran her hand lightly over the polished wood of the banister and let out a conflicted sigh.

‘It's going to be strange around here without her. Especially when you leave.'

‘Leave?' I reached for my mother's locket as I spoke, very confused. ‘Why would I leave?'

‘I figured you'd want to get as far away from here as possible,' Ashley said as I closed the front door on the busy morning outside and basked in the fresh, hopeful energy all around us. ‘Go back home?'

‘But I am home,' I replied, my gaze sweeping around Bell House. My house. ‘And there has always been an Emma Catherine Bell in Savannah.'