Chapter Fifteen
The walk back to Bell House was a slow one.
It took me a while to find my feet and I stuck to the side streets as I picked my way home, my mind struggling to play catch-up with my body.
The fierce spark of vengeance burning in my ancestor’s eyes haunted me even now, when she was more than two centuries away.
What did she mean, I’d seen all I needed?
The monstrous actions of the pirates, the threat of Laffitte, the ease with which she took a life.
It all frightened me but accidentally stepping into the past was terrifying.
I’d slipped back through time so easily, too easily.
I had a hard enough time finding the tea in the pantry without having to navigate through unexpected time periods.
All I wanted now was my bed, to close the curtains, shut out the world and rest until at least one thing made sense again.
But that was not going to be an option.
Sitting on the front steps of Bell House, idly toying with the shoelace of his brown leather boots, was Wyn.
He looked up at me without saying a word, then jumped to his feet, the electric charge that ran through me jolting him into action.
My heart stuttered in my chest and my mouth went dry, and when I tried to open the gate, my hand missed the latch. Not once did I take my eyes off him.
He waited patiently as I fumbled with the gate, walked up the path and climbed the stairs.
A few short feet that felt like a million miles.
Neither of us were smiling, instead we stared at each other, dazed.
Looking at him was like laying eyes on something otherworldly and I lost all capacity for speech.
Finally, I was in front of him, face to face, inches away and I opened my mouth, hoping something smart or funny or meaningful would come out, but before I had the chance to utter a single word, Wyn’s lips were on mine.
His hands cupped my face, his thumbs pressed against my cheekbones, fingertips in my hair.
It was a ferocious kiss, full of need, that I met and matched at once.
We stumbled, the pair of us, into one of the colonnades that supported the portico over the front door, the back of my head bouncing off plaster and stone.
I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel anything other than Wyn, his touch, his hard body, hot and wanting, in my cool and welcoming embrace, and so deliriously happy when I lost my footing, only to be lifted off the ground as he pulled me ever closer, making me his.
‘You’re here,’ I murmured against his mouth as I looped my arms around his neck. ‘You’re really here.’
‘Had to be.’
He pulled back from me, just far enough to stare at my face in happy astonishment.
‘You know what today is?’
‘Tuesday,’ I breathed, dazzled.
Wyn smiled.
‘Three months to the day since we met. I left home at dawn, didn’t stop once the whole way. Could not get to you soon enough, Emily James.’
‘You left home at dawn?’
My breath hitched when he kissed me again, his mouth drawn to mine like a magnet. How was that possible when I’d seen him in the square, hours before the sunrise?
‘We got home yesterday evening,’ he said, nuzzling into my neck and sending sweet shivers all through my body. ‘If I hadn’t been so exhausted, I would have got straight back in the truck and made it here before midnight, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open.’
‘I thought I saw you last night,’ I said, struggling to maintain my line of thought as his hands roamed up and down the sides of my body, as if to check I was exactly as he’d left me.
‘Only if you were dreaming. Same way I’ve been dreaming about you.’
Even though it physically hurt, I tore myself away, taking hold of his hands to keep them where I could see them. My eyes roamed his body, his hair, his indescribably beautiful face.
‘We should go inside. You must be starving.’
Wyn’s crooked smile lit him up, brightening dark circles under his eyes and the scruff of overnight stubble on his chin.
‘For food,’ I added, wondering if he had always looked quite so wolfish when he grinned at me that way.
‘I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse,’ he admitted. ‘Not literally, in case you were worried.’
‘Good because we’re fresh out.’
Using one hand, he yanked his long-sleeved T-shirt back down from where it had ridden up to expose his taut stomach and the blue cotton of the boxers that peeked over the waistband of his jeans. The other gripped mine so tightly, it almost hurt.
‘I should probably freshen up first,’ he said as we walked inside, giving himself a surreptitious sniff. ‘It was a long drive.’
Reluctantly releasing him, I pointed down the hallway.
‘Powder room is right through there. I’ll be in the kitchen.’
‘I’ll find you,’ he said, a throwaway comment that wrapped itself around my heart and refused to let go.
The wildlife painted on the silken walls of Bell House flourished as I passed through.
Flowers blossomed on vines, birds sang in the trees and a handful of tiny rabbits hopped along beside me, twitching their noses with excitement.
He was here, he was here, he was here. Wyn was back in Savannah, he was safe and healthy.
Everything was good, everything was right and the darkness of my morning disappeared, at least for a moment.
I pulled a jug of lemonade from the fridge and poured two glasses, as well as a tall glass of water, sure he must be parched if he’d driven for five hours straight without taking a break.
Although she wouldn’t admit it, the full moon had set Ashley off on an anxiety-driven baking spree so there was no shortage of cookies and cake and freshly baked bread in our kitchen.
I loaded it all onto the table, adding butter and jam and cheese and anything else I could get my hands on.
The only thing I couldn’t seem to do was stand still.
‘So, Mr Evans, what’ll it be?’ I said, full of butterflies all over again when he walked through the door. ‘We’ve got pretty much everything.’
‘All at once I’m not so hungry.’ He stalked around the table to trap me between his arms again. ‘It is so good to see you, Emily James.’
‘Technically, it’s Emily James Bell now,’ I told him, smiling against a fresh onslaught of kisses as a vase full of sunflowers that had begun to wilt on the windowsill sprang up with renewed vigour.
‘You can call yourself any name you like as long as I can call you mine.’
My mind went blank every time his soft lips touched my skin, the longing between us as thick and heavy as the July air, so dense I could’ve cut it with a knife.
And if I hadn’t reached back to steady myself, knocking over one of the glasses of lemonade in the process, I wasn’t entirely sure what might’ve happened.
‘I’ve got it,’ I said, laughing softly, awkwardly, as I reached for a cloth to mop up the sticky liquid.
Wyn took the cue to compose himself and grabbed the untouched glass of water, chugging the whole thing.
‘You had me worried,’ he said, the tip of his pointer finger trailing up and down the side of the now empty glass. ‘When you didn’t answer your phone, I kind of panicked. Don’t think I took my foot off the gas once after I crossed the state line.’
‘It got wet. I’m trying to dry it out but it’s taking forever.’ I glanced over at my phone, dry and plugged in at the wall but still blank. ‘Didn’t Jackson message you?’
‘No.’
He took out his own phone, checking a bunch of different apps to make sure. ‘Haven’t heard from Jackson since the day he drove me home.’
I pressed my lips together to stop the torrent of abuse on the tip of my tongue from spilling out. Jackson would be dealt with later. Right now, my sole focus was Wyn.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ he said, his eyes searching my face for something he seemed to find, judging by the smile playing on his lips. ‘There’s nowhere else on earth I’d rather be right now.’
‘You really only just got here?’ I asked as he hopped up onto a stool. I took the one next to him, shivering when our knees touched.
‘Really.’
The spark that connected us shone so brightly it was blinding.
If he said it wasn’t him, it wasn’t him.
I didn’t feel like he was lying, nothing about the look on his face or the light in his eyes said he was being untruthful.
And what was more likely, Wyn lying about when he arrived or me making a mistake in the dark after waking up in the square without knowing how I got there?
‘What did you tell your parents?’
‘The truth,’ he replied and I felt a surge of magic over my skin. ‘At least part of it. That I had a girl waiting on me in Savannah and needed to get back to her. As long as I’m back before the pack leaves for the crynhoad, it’s all good.’
‘Crynhoad?’
We were in my kitchen, just the two of us but Wyn glanced over both shoulders, as though checking to make sure no one was listening.
‘It’s a Were term, it’s what we call our full moon gathering. Hey …’ He brushed his fingers against my cheek. ‘Something’s wrong. What’s happening here?’
‘What isn’t?’ I replied, but he didn’t return my sardonic smile and so it melted away like summer snow. ‘Last night, I was outside in the square and I really thought I saw you.’
He took my hand and held it against his steadily beating heart.
‘If I’d been in Savannah last night, I wouldn’t have been hanging around in any square. I’d have been here with you.’
And just as surely as I knew how to breathe, I knew he was telling the truth.
‘Maybe it was part of the vision,’ I said, shaking my head as I tucked my hair behind my ears. ‘It’s hard to know what’s real and what isn’t right now.’
‘Vision?’ he replied, fresh concern on his face. ‘I don’t like the sound of that. And I don’t like the sound of someone lurking around Bell House in the middle of the night. Y’all don’t have security cameras?’
When I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud, his lips twitched upwards.
‘Yeah, OK, that was pretty dumb,’ he conceded. ‘Even if you weren’t a witch, I would pity the poor soul who tried to break in and found Ashley waiting for him.’
‘Exactly,’ I said, placing my hand on his chest. At the gentle thud of his heart beating against my palm, all my fears were replaced by hope.
‘Well, well, well, look who it is.’
Ashley entered through the back door, gardening gloves tucked into the waistband of her denim shorts and an unimpressed scowl on her face.
‘Emily, I thought I warned you about letting the dog on the furniture.’
She dumped a pair of gleaming, sharp secateurs on the table and picked up my glass of lemonade, taking a long and thirsty sip.
‘That is so good,’ she said, smacking her lips with delight. ‘Oh right, because I made it. So, how’s tricks, Rover? Made it through the full moon without destroying any chew toys?’
‘Good to see you too, Miss Ashley,’ he said, his smile steady and strong. ‘I hope you’ve been well.’
‘Still alive. Can’t complain.’
‘OK, let’s go,’ I grabbed Wyn’s wrist, pulling him from his stool. ‘This has been fun, so glad the two of you had a chance to catch up.’
Ashley’s smirk grew as I hauled him away. We had too much to talk about to make time for her constant quips. Plus it was at least two minutes since he’d last kissed me and I didn’t know if I could go two minutes more.
‘Y’all leave that bedroom door open,’ she called as she refilled her glass.
I stopped at the kitchen door, looking back at her in disbelief.
‘Seriously?’
‘No. You know I don’t care what y’all do but try to be safe at least. I’m not fixing to be a great-aunt any time soon.’
Wyn grinned when I coloured up, the tops of my ears burning with embarrassment.
‘I swear, Emily, keeping track of your gentleman callers is a full-time job,’ Ashley said with a sigh. ‘We need to get a calendar, stick it to the fridge. I’ll colour code it for you, if you’d like?’
Wyn’s grin disappeared.
‘Gentleman callers?’
‘You didn’t know?’ Ashley asked with mock surprise. ‘Interesting.’
‘Ignore her,’ I said, dragging him down the hallway, the roses on the windowsill wilting as we went.