Chapter Twenty-Seven
‘So,’ Ashley stared straight ahead as we drove onto the Talmadge Bridge, ‘Lydia is a witch.’
‘Lydia is a witch,’ I confirmed. ‘Her mom is going to kill me.’
‘It’s not like you got her drunk on wine coolers and then went joyriding together. Unless …’ She glanced across at me. ‘You didn’t do it on purpose, did you?’
‘No!’ I tugged against the seatbelt that held me in the passenger seat of Ashley’s Mini Cooper, too tight, too restrictive, but knowing Ashley’s driving, not optional. ‘If there was a choice, I would never have put her at risk.’
Ashley stared dead ahead, driving along the empty road into the darkness.
‘She’s going to be insufferable.’
‘She’s going to be incredible.’
‘You think it’s a good thing?’ she asked. ‘Not for my blood pressure clearly, but in general?’
‘I already feel stronger,’ I admitted. ‘Sharper. Like the signal is coming in clearer or something.’
‘First time we’ve seen two witch families in Savannah in decades. Maybe since her great-great-grandmother. This is going to change things.’
‘Hopefully for the better,’ I replied, but Ashley didn’t respond, just reached over and turned on the radio as I burrowed down in my seat, the image of Lydia standing at the edge of the ocean burned into my mind.
With Lydia sleeping so deeply an earthquake wouldn’t have woken her, Jackson was nominated to stay at Bell House and make sure she was safe, leaving me and Ashley to go looking for Wyn.
None of us were especially happy with the situation but Jackson couldn’t very well leave his twin, and the thought of driving around Hilton Head searching for my AWOL boyfriend with him by my side didn’t fill me with joy.
Which meant Ashley was my only option because I couldn’t drive and, unlike my grandmother, I couldn’t bring myself to drag Barnett, our family driver, out of bed in the middle of the night.
I couldn’t bear to drag him anywhere ever – having a driver on call still felt absurd to me – but he’d done Catherine’s bidding without knowing for decades and as far as I was concerned, he had a job for the rest of his life if he wanted it.
The car pulled forward, Ashley hitting the accelerator as we left Savannah behind, making our way onto the open road.
‘Any idea where your boy’s at?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ I admitted unhappily. ‘He’s in Hilton Head but I don’t know where.’
‘I thought you had your special witchy GPS?’
Without asking permission, I turned off the radio; pop songs were too cheerful, slow jams too depressing. In the darkened window of the passenger side, I saw an outline of myself, ghostly and glum.
‘Can’t see him.’
‘Can’t see anyone or can’t see him?’
Back at Bell House, I could feel Jackson’s anxiety spiking every time Lydia murmured in her sleep but he needn’t have worried. Her energy was golden and bright, even as she slept.
‘Just Wyn,’ I replied.
‘Has that ever happened before?’
‘Only once.’
‘Em, I appreciate you’re going through something but I just crossed state lines in my pyjamas so it would be great to get a little more clarity without having to prise every damn word from your mouth.’
‘I couldn’t feel him during his phase,’ I told her. ‘After he turned.’
‘But tonight isn’t a full moon.’
‘Sure isn’t.’
‘Jeez,’ Ashley muttered, slamming her foot down to the floor. ‘Wish I hadn’t asked.’
Not knowing where to start, I directed Ashley to the Stovells’ beach house, peaceful and still, half the lights still on from where we’d run out in such a hurry.
‘You’re telling me Ileen lets people come stay here all the time? Without charging them a penny?’ She gave a low whistle, closing her car door almost silently as she surveyed the front of the property. ‘Note to self, be nicer to her at the next historical society meeting.’
If Wyn had come back to the beach house, it wouldn’t be to hang out in the den, it would be to investigate the bonfire, but how could he do that without me? He wouldn’t understand the crystals or the herbs; running off without me only put him at risk.
‘Maybe he’s on the beach,’ I suggested, directing Ashley to the backyard, too preoccupied to hear her running commentary on the house’s finest features. ‘Unless you’d rather I leave you with the hot tub?’
‘I’d rather you left me in bed,’ she replied, following dutifully through the gate. ‘But here we are.’
A trace of magic still lingered along the boardwalk. It wasn’t so very late, so the beach shouldn’t have been deserted. Ashley, with the blessing in her blood, resisted when I pulled her along toward the soaked and smouldering mess down by the water.
‘This does not make me want to pull out a guitar and start singing “Kumbaya”,’ she stated, holding herself back from the stack of wood and ashes, the disjointed ring of crystals still dotting the sand where they had fallen.
‘Our oaks.’ Ashley laid a hand on one of the blackened tree trunks, her usually dry eyes full of tears. ‘This is a nasty business, Em. I really hope Wyn isn’t caught up in it.’
‘He is caught up in it, because of me,’ I told her, slipping one of the larger pieces of quartz and smaller chunks of malachite into the tote bag I’d brought along for that purpose. Crystals used against a witch could be incredibly useful if she survived them.
‘And what if he’s caught up in it some other way?’
I lifted my head and watched the black waves push and pull each other away from the shore. My mood was so dark, they didn’t try to play with me.
‘Such as?’
‘He is a Were, you are a witch, can I make it any more obvious?’ She crouched down beside me, pyjama pants blowing in the night breeze. ‘It all seems a little suspect is all.’
‘I get it,’ I replied, swiping hair out of my face. ‘You’ve been talking to Jackson.’
‘More like he was talking at me but I picked up some of what he was putting down, against my will.’
‘He isn’t exactly an objective observer, you know.’
‘Oh, I know.’ Ashley gagged, two fingers in her mouth. ‘You don’t need witchy powers to see what that boy is thinking when it comes to you. I was there when he came to pick you up for the dance, remember? The thing is, just because he’s biased doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be suspicious.’
‘No, the fact he’s wrong is why he shouldn’t be suspicious,’ I snapped back. ‘I can’t believe you’re saying this.’
A wave of something ugly passed through me. The henbane still hanging in the air.
‘We should get out of here,’ I said, holding my arm over my nose and mouth, breathing through the thick fabric of Wyn’s plaid shirt. ‘This place is still all wrong. I can’t think straight.’
‘That’s the problem though,’ Ashley said as kindly as she knew how. ‘When it comes to Wyn, I’m not sure you can think straight. Even if he or his pack aren’t involved with this lone-wolf Were whatever, do you really want a life this complicated?’
‘I want him,’ I said, a plaintive statement. ‘I’m a Bell witch, aren’t I? Born complicated. This is part of the deal.’
‘This isn’t part of the deal, this is part of being with Wyn. And sometimes I worry you’re signing up for more heartache than you’ll be able to stand.’
A lighthouse blinked on and off in the distance and I remembered another time at another beach, what seemed like a lifetime ago.
‘How come you can’t feel him?’ Ashley pressed. ‘You said yourself the only other time this happened was during his phase, and there’s already a Were out there wolfing it up off schedule. You ever hear the saying if you hear hooves in Central Park, don’t turn around expecting to see a zebra?’
‘Did you ever hear the saying fuck off?’
It took a lot to earn a look of surprise from Ashley but that did it.
‘I do believe that is the first time you’ve ever said that to me. What a date for the diary.’
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ I scampered across the beach after her when she turned on her heel and marched away, kicking up sand in her wake. ‘I didn’t mean it. it’s this place and everything that’s happening and I’m so tired and—’
‘And you don’t want it to be true,’ Ashley said, a fierce light in her eyes. ‘Trust me, honey, I know a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to convincing yourself of pretty stories. How do you think I managed to keep myself together all these years with Catherine?’
‘I am sorry but I do trust him. And I need you to trust me.’
‘You stand there talking like you’re asking something easy.’
‘I know it isn’t,’ I replied when her eyes filled with phantoms of her past. ‘You’re all I have, Ash, I need you on my side.’
‘Pssh!’ She swiped the back of her hand at her face, looking away so I wouldn’t see the tears she brushed away. ‘You’ve got Wyn, you’ve got Lydia, you’ve definitely got Jackson, whether you want him or not.’
‘But you’re my only family.’
‘Good job I’m the best one,’ she said. ‘Come on, your boy ain’t here.’ She put her hand on the small of my back and pushed me towards the Stovells’ yard. ‘You want to go look someplace else or head home? You look like someone set fire to your hair and tried to put it out with a brick.’
‘We could drive around some, check the magic store?’
‘When a man doesn’t want to be found, you won’t find him. Magic or no magic,’ she said, practically jumping off the sand and back on to the boardwalk. ‘Whatever made him run off like that, I’m sure you’re right. He must have his reasons.’
‘If I could just know he was OK.’
Reaching deep inside, I tried to see our connection, trust the blessing, know it was there.
All the things Catherine and the ancestors told me to do.
Still nothing. Without our golden string tying me down, I didn’t know what to do, which direction to turn.
Something or someone had pulled on our thread and the whole tapestry was unravelling faster than I could stitch it back together.
‘A more cynical person might suggest it’s not real trust if you’ve always got to have eyes on him,’ Ashley said.
‘Eyes, magical connection, an AirTag – same difference. And you do trust him, right? Completely and utterly beyond a shadow of a doubt and I’ll never ever ask you this again I swear it on my own life? ’
I thought of the second wolf I’d imagined on the beach. Of the ash-haired shadow walking across Lafayette Square in the dead of night. And then I nodded and smiled, allowing Ashley to turn into the Stovells’ backyard in silence because anything I did say would be a lie.