19. Lorraine

Chapter Nineteen

Lorraine

“ I can’t believe you’re here,” Cat said when Ash left us alone in the kitchen. “I didn’t know when I would see you again. After your phone got left behind and there was no way of reaching out…” She swallowed hard. “I thought the worst until… well, until that guy came and told me you were okay.”

“What?” I asked, surprised. “What guy?”

“Ash, the guy you came here with. He didn’t tell you? Yeah, he showed up out of nowhere one day and told me you were okay, you would be back eventually. It was beyond weird, but somehow I believed him.”

I blinked at her. Ash had brought me to see that my sister was safe, but he’d told me it was too dangerous to even talk to her. It had been enough to know that she was safe—I’d been worried to death. I hadn’t known that he’d come to tell her not to worry about me, too. I melted at the idea. “He cared so much, even before he realized he did.”

“Who is he?”

I sighed. “It’s a long story. One you might not believe.”

“Try me,” Cat challenged. I smiled at her. “Then again, you might believe every bit of it.” I started telling her what had happened after Oscar had sold me to his goons to pay off a gambling debt. I explained how I’d managed to escape and run through a forest that came out of nowhere. Cat frowned when I explained it. “There’s nothing like that around here.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it doesn’t exist. At least… not in this world.”

Cat narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean in this world?”

“It’s another realm. A… magical realm where gods and goddesses come to visit and dryads and druses live.”

Cat stared at me before her eyes widened. “Are you fucking with me?”

I burst out laughing at the way she put it. “Not at all. It’s real. Ash… he’s a drus, a tree spirit who watches over the forest.”

Somehow, in running away from those guys, I stumbled into another realm and Ash saved me. He reached out from his tree and?—”

“He what?” Cat asked. I explained to her what a drus was and how Ash lived in a tree. “I know how it all works,” Cat said, waving me off. “I learned all about it. Just… didn’t know it was real. I mean, I knew it was real. I just didn’t think in our day and age… wow.”

“You… don’t think I’m crazy?” I asked. “Not at all,” Cat said. “I told you magic was real!”

I laughed. “I never believed you, but I believe you now. You have no idea how crazy this whole thing is. Do you know Philotes? The goddess of?—”

“Friendship, yeah, I know,” Cat said. “Do you know her?”

“Yeah,” I said. “But she goes by the name Philippa because she doesn’t want people to get all worked up when they realize she’s a goddess. I met Artemis, too, but she’s a tough one to figure out.”

Cat stared at me. “Oh my God. You met the goddess of the hunt?”

I nodded. “Yeah, although I’m pretty sure she can do more than hunt, just looking at her and her hostile attitude.”

Cat shook her head. “I can’t believe this! Tell me more!”

“You won’t tell anyone?”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Who am I going to tell? They’ll think I’m crazy.”

I giggled; that was true. I told Cat more about what the vale was like and what it had been like to live there. I told her about the cabin, the orchard with its perfect instant fruit, the lake with the dryads with their green skin and naked bodies sliding through the water. “What about this Ash guy?” Cat asked. I blushed when she mentioned him. “He’s looking after me. It’s his cabin I’m staying in. It was a medieval place when I got there, but he changed it for me, making it more modern.” I told her how things had changed between us, and how the bad guys had come back for me and Ash had fought them off. Finally, I told her about the bond between us that stopped me from coming back until after Halloween. “Oh, that’s less than two weeks,” Cat said. “And then you’re back for good?”

I nodded. “Yeah, if that’s what I want.”

Cat frowned. “What do you mean, if that’s what you want?”

“Well… I don’t know if I want to leave Ash and the vale.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cat asked. “You can’t stay there, can you?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But if I could… I’m starting to think I might want to.”

Cat shook her head. “Lorraine, you’re talking about staying with a man you just met. You’ve known him for two weeks.”

I shrugged. “Time is different there. It feels like months. Besides, he’s a good man. Oscar was in my life for how many years? And look at how that turned out.”

Cat nodded. “Don’t even start on that piece of shit.”

“What happened to him?” I asked. “Are you okay? I was so worried.”

“I’m okay,” Cat said. “After he did that to you, he wanted to get involved with me. He tried to make a move on me.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, maybe he thought if I started dating him I would somehow forgive what he did to you or something. I don’t know; I called the cops on him.”

“You what?” I asked, even more surprised. “That asshole deserved it,” Cat said hotly. “It turned out he already had a warrant out for his arrest and he was thrown in jail. They looked for you, you know. Until that guy came and told me you were okay.”

“Really?” I asked. Cat nodded. “I was so relieved. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you, too.”

I leaned over and hugged my sister. “You have no idea how much I missed you.”

Cat hugged me back.

“I want you to be happy, and if this guy does that for you… God knows you deserve it. I just want you to be careful, okay? And don’t stay away forever if you choose to stay. I can do it without you, but I really don’t want to.”

“You won’t have to,” I said. “I wouldn’t ever stay away forever. I just… I don’t know what I want. I want to be happy.”

“I want that for you, too,” Cat said. She made us each a cup of hot cocoa and we started talking about other things—about her classes and tests and what she had in mind once she was done with her studies. It was incredible being with her again, just hanging out like we used to. I’d missed her so much; being with her now was incredible, and knowing I had to leave again made me ache. Finally, it was time to go. “I’m sorry I can’t stay longer,” I said when Ash arrived at the front door. “I’ll see you again if I can, but it might only be after Halloween.”

“I can wait as long as I know you’re okay,” Cat said and hugged me tightly. “I’m okay,” I said, nodding. “I’ll be okay.”

“Just look after yourself,” Cat said. “Not only physically, but your heart, too.”

I nodded, and having to let go of our hug and walk away was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Ash took me away after that, whisking me back to the realm. We walked in silence to the cabin. “Thank you,” I said to him when he brought me to the front door. “You have no idea how much that meant to me.”

“I’m glad,” he said. “I wanted to do something that would make you happy.”

“You do make me happy,” I said. “Do you want to come in?”

Ash hesitated, but he nodded. “That would be nice.”

We walked into the cabin and I went to the kitchen to find something for us to eat while Ash built a fire in the hearth. I loved having him around, bustling in the cabin, making a fire or cooking with me. I loved a lot of things about him. Today, back home with Cat, I realized how much I missed my life there and my sister, and it tore me up. How could I choose between these two worlds? How could I make it work if I wanted Ash in my life longer than for the next two weeks? I wasn’t sure. I had to find out from him what was possible, and more importantly, if it was something he’d been wondering about, too. If he didn’t care about me the same way I cared about him, then it would be simple. Once it was all over, I would go home. It would hurt like a bitch, but there would be no questions. If he felt the way I did, though, then maybe we owed it to ourselves and each other to try to figure something out that could work for both of us.