Chapter 10
Finn
––––––––
Finn woke before dawn, same as always.
The house was quiet. He moved barefoot through the kitchen, making coffee out of habit rather than need. The air smelled different this morning. Charged. Restless.
Highly aware that he'd had a visitor in the house last night, he chalked up the changes to Kallie's presence.
He carried his mug down the hallway and stood outside the spare room. The door was cracked open. Soft morning light spilled across the floorboards.
Kallie was curled on her side, hair fanned across the pillow. He studied the curves under the blanket, noting the rise and fall with each slow, even breath. She looked younger when she was asleep. The stubbornness she carried in daylight had melted away in sleep.
He sipped the coffee, trying to ease the tightness in his chest. As much as he wanted her here, he shouldn't have let her stay. She needed to go back.
Yet seeing her like this, safe, warm, and content, made it hard to regret his decision. He gave her one night. That's all he could give her.
"Kallie?" He knocked lightly on the doorframe. "You awake?"
She stirred, blinking against the light. "Yeah."
"You hungry?"
She nodded, pushing herself up to a sitting position on the side of the bed. "A little."
He caught a glimpse of her panties as the shirt rode up while she slept, and he looked away. There was no shyness about her. She moved around the house, half-dressed, believing she was safe with him.
"Go ahead and get dressed. I'll make something for you to eat."
She followed him out, rubbing sleep from her eyes, and headed toward the bathroom. The morning felt almost normal. Two people in a real house, in a real town, living a real life.
But there was something behind Kallie being here. Something let her in.
He cracked eggs into a pan. She shuffled into the room and sat at the table, watching him with a softness he didn't know how to handle.
"Do you always get up this early?" she asked.
"Old habit."
"From before when you were in prison?"
How easily she accepted that he'd had a life prior to arriving in Everstill without questioning anything else. Her age and lack of experience led her to accept the oddness of this place and ignore the dangers surrounding him.
But maybe it was different for her. She still contained her emotions, while none of the men in Everstill did.
Was it because she was young? Because she was a female? Because she didn't belong here?
When he set the plate in front of her, she smiled. "Thank you."
He nodded, leaning against the counter while she ate. The quiet between them was easy and comfortable since learning more about her last night during their talk. If it made her happy to spend time with him, then it was okay with him.
"You're probably the nicest man I've ever known." She bit into the toast. "Who's your best friend?"
"I don't have friends."
She frowned. "No one?"
He shook his head.
"Then..." She finished her toast, and as she chewed, she took off two of the many string bracelets from her wrist. "I'll be your best friend."
She knotted the two threads together, making it bigger, and motioned for his hand. He held out his arm. She tied it around his wrist, tugging it hard to make sure it was secure, and smiled when it wouldn't budge off his arm.
"There you go." She inhaled deeply and gazed into his eyes. "Now, you need to give me something."
He had no idea what ritual it was to swap items. There was nothing he had that she would want. He lived on the necessities.
He rubbed the back of his neck and grunted. There were more important things to do than indulging a sixteen-year-old. She needed to go back home.
"Do you have scissors?" She carried her plate to the sink, washed the dish, and put it in the strainer.
When she finished, he pointed to the drawer. She looked inside, found the scissors, and approached him.
"Turn around." She slipped her hand under his arm, pulling him away from the counter.
He turned. She gathered his hair near his neck. He shivered when her fingers skimmed his skin.
"I'm only taking a little." She snipped. "See?"
He turned around to find her pinching a small clump of hair about eight inches long. "What do you want that for?"
She laughed, and the sound wrapped around his heart.
"I'll braid it and make a bracelet since you don't have any embroidery thread to make one for me.
" She went back to the junk drawer and took out a roll of tape, carefully containing the hair so it wouldn't fall apart.
"I've never used hair, but I'll make it work.
" She glanced over her shoulder. "That's what best friends do. "
"Yeah?"
"I don't know, but I'd like to think my best friend would want to share with me." Her smile faded. "Do you think it's stupid?"
"Nah." He wanted her to smile again.
He stepped around her, brushing her shoulder, as he put his mug in the sink. He needed to get her out of here before he lost all his brain cells and let her chop his hair off.
The wind outside shifted. A sudden, sharp gust rattled the window above the sink. Finn stiffened.
Kallie stepped up beside him and looked through the glass. "What was that?"
The veil was waking up. If they waited any longer, she might not get out.
"Come on." He grabbed his jacket and thrust it into her hands. "Put this on. We need to go."
"Go where?" She shoved her hands into the sleeves.
Dwarfed in the coat, she looked younger and frailer. He put his hand on her back and led her out the front door.
"Finn?" She hugged the front of the jacket closed. "Where are we going?"
"To the road."
She ran to keep up with him. "Why?"
"Because it's time."
The wind whipped dust across the street. The sky had changed. The clouds were too bright in some places, too dim in others, like two worlds fighting to break down the dimensional seam.
Kallie, lost in his jacket, slapped at her head trying to get her hair out of her face. "Finn, what's happening?"
He grabbed her hand, pulling her close so she wouldn't get knocked off balance. "The veil's reacting to you."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you have to go. Now."
Her eyes widened, and she grabbed him. "No. I'm not leaving."
"You don't have a choice."
She dragged her heels. "I'm not going back there. I want to stay with you."
The wind surged, nearly knocking her sideways. Finn tightened his grip, pulling her against him to keep her upright.
"Kallie," he said, voice rough, "if you don't go now, you won't get out. You're not made for this place. You have to leave."
She shook her head, tears streaking down her cheeks. "I don't care. I want to stay with you. Please, please, please let me stay."
His breath caught.
He wanted that too.
But the wind roared, swirling around them, tugging at her clothes, her hair, her hold on him. The air shimmered with dust.
"Kallie," he said, louder this time, "you have to go."
"No!" She clung to his waist, trembling. "Please, Finn. Don't make me. I don't have anyone there who cares about me. I don't have anything."
He cupped the back of her head, pulling her forehead to his chest. "You have a life. A future. I won't let you ruin it by staying here."
"I belong with you." She sobbed.
His eyes squeezed shut. Fuck, that hurt a part of him that had never hurt before.
The wind howled. The clouds covered the sky. The street widened into a dark, pulsing shadow, opening the veil. The only way out.
Finn grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "Listen to me. If you stay, this place will take you. It'll keep you. And you'll lose everything you could've had."
"I only want you," she cried.
"You don't know what you want yet." He swallowed hard. "I'm nobody to you."
She shook her head violently. "Finn—"
He didn't let her finish. It was better to deny the pull he experienced whenever she was around, or how many years he waited for her to come back to him.
He turned her toward the shadow and pushed her away from him hard enough that she entered the veil.
She screamed his name, reaching back for him for a split second before the wind tore her away. The hurt in her wild eyes would remain with him forever.
"Kallie!"
Her body hit the shimmer—and vanished.
The wind stopped.
The street stilled.
Finn stood alone in the silence, chest heaving, hands shaking. He stared at the empty space where she'd gone, the echo of her voice still ringing in his ears.
He'd done bad things in his life, things he deserved to carry, but driving Kallie from him was the only one that felt unforgivable.