Chapter 24 #2
“I’m not in the habit of deciding things for others. You’re free to do whatever you want—stay here, come to the manor, go shopping. That’s your call. But I want that choice to be yours, not something tied to what I’m doing.”
She bestowed a smile on him. “I appreciate that. I don’t want to inject myself where I shouldn’t be.”
“If you’re staying to help, then I think that means you can inject yourself as much as you want,” he told her with a grin.
A quick rap on the front door ended their conversation.
Mason opened it to find Ferne. She stepped inside and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight without a word.
He closed his eyes as he held her. For a while, he worried he might never see her again.
Being with her made him thankful that fate had conspired to send him to Skye.
After a moment, she leaned back and looked him over before smoothing her hands over his shirt. Her voice was tight with emotion when she said, “I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you, too, sis.”
“Good,” she said. “Now that that’s out of the way, where’s Rowen? It’s time to go have some fun.”
“I’m coming,” Rowen called from the kitchen before hurrying to the front.
Mason closed the door behind them and locked it.
He stood on the stoop for a moment, watching his sister and Rowen walk away together.
Without a doubt, they were the two most important women in his life.
One was bound to him by blood and family.
The other, by blood not of kin but of sacrifice by the way she’d held his life in her hands and never once let go.
They had survived together, leaning solely on each other.
“I’m driving,” Ferne called as she headed toward her Mini Cooper.
Rowen opened the passenger door and glanced up at him. “I’ll get in the back.”
“You get in the front,” he told her as he caught up with her.
She hesitated, looking up at him. He reached out without thinking and found his palm settling over hers.
The world narrowed to the pale blue of her eyes.
The color was clear, luminous, and utterly endless.
He was drowning in something he couldn’t name but craved all the same.
There was no flirting, no enticing. Just her.
And that was more dangerous than anything.
Ferne’s door shut, the soft thud breaking the moment.
Mason forced his lungs to work as he drew in a deep breath and folded himself into the back seat as if nothing had happened.
But as the car pulled away, he could still feel her warmth against his palm, and the echo of something unfinished humming beneath his skin.
His sister navigated the roads with ease, pointing out things as she drove.
She told them the best restaurants to visit, pubs tourists didn’t know about, and where all the best beaches were.
He took it all in while casting glances toward Rowen.
Once, he looked up and saw Ferne watching him in the rearview mirror.
She raised a brow at having caught him staring at Rowen.
“I’ve been debating what to show you first ever since you rang this morning,” Ferne said. “I thought I’d take you to the beautiful locations like the Fairy Pools first. It’s a huge tourist spot for a reason, but then I thought it might be better to end there instead.”
“Meaning you’re going to show us something ugly?” Rowen asked with a grin. “I don’t think there’s anything like that on the isle.”
Mason’s gaze met his sister’s in the mirror again. He had heard the change in her voice, the slight tremor that told him she didn’t want to go, wherever she planned to take them, but she was doing it anyway. Which meant it must be important.
They turned off the paved road and traveled along a dirt lane that seemed to stretch on forever. Ferne’s knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. The land was flat and open, devoid of trees or anything meaningful except for a mountain rising up like some mystical location.
“It’s like we’re the only ones alive,” Rowen murmured.
Mason leaned to the side and looked between the seats out the windscreen to get a better view as Ferne slowed the car and drew it to a stop.
She was deliberate as she put the vehicle in park, but she didn’t turn off the engine.
The tension that clung to her seeped into the air, thick and unrelenting, until the entire car was awash in it.
Unease filled him as he slowly looked around to see what might have caused his sister such distress. “What is this place?”
Ferne took a deep breath. “Do you remember when Ariah told you about a place where Killian had been hidden?”
“The house they couldn’t see,” Rowen said. “The same place Song was pulled into.”
Ferne nodded. “That’s it in front of you.”
“Let me out. I want a closer look,” Mason said.
Rowen got out to pull the seat forward so he could exit. He was surprised when Ferne met them at the front of her car. The engine was still running, as if she was afraid to turn it off and have it not start again.
“It’s just a house, right?” Mason asked. “One that’s hidden.”
Ferne folded her arms over her chest. “It was Edie’s first house with her husband.”
Rowen lifted her gaze to the sky. “I can’t see the house or the tear.”
“From what Song says, we should be happy we can’t,” Ferne replied with a shiver.
Mason walked forward.
“Careful,” his sister called. “You might not be able to see the cottage, but you can still get inside. And that isn’t a place you want to be.”