Chapter 5 - Dan
A tense silence stretches out between us, and it feels like I’m hanging over the edge of a cliff.
Actually, that would be better. At least then I’d know what to do.
“Do you like the suit?” I ask, mining my brain for a good follow-up question.
“It’s fine,” she answers without turning around.
“The guys found it for me. I didn’t really get a say in what it looked like.”
She makes a small hmm sound that could be approval or denial, depending on how I’d like to take it.
“Not that I’d have any idea what to choose,” I say, laughing a little as I try to make a joke out of it. “Wardrobe design is definitely not my strong suit.”
I deliver the last word with a bit of emphasis, hoping she’ll laugh.
Or turn around. I’ll take anything at this point, even a slap in the face.
“Clearly,” she answers, turning and regarding me with her cool gray eyes.
Like cracked ice reflecting light. No warmth.
“Ah—”
“This wasn’t really a formal event, anyway,” she says, turning back to look out the window. “So it doesn’t matter what suit you wear.”
“But it matters if I use cutlery?”
She turns back around, and this time, there’s a flash of emotion in her eyes, like a bolt of white-hot lightning splitting the sky.
“Like I said, you can eat with your fingers at every meal if you like—but don’t be expecting to put your filthy hands on me afterwards.”
“Even if I wash them?” I keep an upwards lilt to my voice, hoping she’ll finally laugh.
Please laugh, Grace. Please.
She makes a little scoff and turns back to the window. My heart plummets, and my tongue feels like a twisted knot in my mouth. Even if I could think of something to say, my body simply won’t allow it right now.
She doesn’t like my jokes. What else is there?
As we approach the turn-off, the sun begins to slant through the trees, signaling the end of the day.
“I was hoping to get to town before dark,” I mutter absently.
“We should,” Grace says. “It isn’t too far now.”
She spoke to me! Fuck, how can I keep this going?
“Oh, you know the site?”
“Yeah, a little. I used to hike a lot when I was younger, and I found the abandoned town really fun. I used to—”
She stops talking abruptly, and when she looks at me, her eyes are wide, almost panicked.
“Used to what?” I ask, very softly, like I’m talking to a scared horse.
Easy. Easy girl. Just trust me. I won’t hurt you.
“Never mind,” she replies, turning back around.
This time, her silence feels like a living barrier, something I’d need more than my voice to break through. The weird feeling I get from her suddenly increases, and I don’t even want to talk to her anymore.
She’s so strange. I’ve never known anyone like her, ever. She freaks me out, that’s for sure.
The shadows lengthen towards us as we drive towards the setting sun, and Grace looks into her lap, playing with her fingers. That’s when I notice all the little flowers in her hair dying, the petals coming apart and fluttering into her lap like a tiny snowfall.
“They’re dying,” I say without thinking.
She laughs softly. “Of course they are. They’ve been cut.”
“Yeah, I realize that, but they were growing in your hair.”
She shrugs. “My magic will keep them alive for a while, but once they’ve been cut from their parents, they’re dying. Whenever someone around me has cut flowers, it’s like I can hear them screaming.”
What?
“But you dressed your hair with them?”
She smiles, touching her golden braids. “As I was leaving the house, the vines came down and wound themselves around my head. I would never have cut them. It’s almost as if…”
Her voice trails off, and the pain in her voice touches me, a faint ache deep in my chest.
“As if what?”
“As if they knew I wasn’t coming back,” she answers, her voice deep and rough with emotion.
It suddenly hits me how much she’s leaving behind, and I realize I should have been more sensitive to her needs.
I’m not bound here—it was never my home. I’ve bounced around between the packs just like I always did in the military. Grace has a whole life she’s walking away from—she literally has roots here.
She turns to look out the window again, and even though I have a newfound respect for her feelings, her strangeness still unnerves me.
I can’t escape the fact that she’s a witch… and I’ve never been able to trust anyone who uses magic.
Even though the silence is still awkward, I have no idea how to break it, so I decide it’s just better not to. We drive the rest of the way in silence, and by the time we reach the new town, it’s fully dark.
Luke is waiting for us at the main garden in the center of town, and I’m surprised to see a soft glow from the tall, ornate streetlamps.
“Hey,” I say, leaning out the window to greet him. “You guys got the power on already?”
“Yep, and the water,” Luke says. “This place was practically ready to go. All she needed was a bit of repair and cleaning.”
“It’s really pretty,” I say, looking around at the old-fashioned buildings. “Do we know why it was abandoned?”
“Something to do with our fiery friend, I’d say,” Luke replies.
I look over at Grace to get her opinion, and she nods. “It’s outside the blast radius,” she says. “But my best guess is the inhabitants were used in a ritual trying to raise the snake and manipulate it.”
Warriors, and innocent blood, I think to myself. I can’t remember exactly how many lives the thing demands to be free, but I know it’s a lot.
And now, the creature is just loose. We’re truly in unknown territory.
“So, do you want to see your house?” Luke asks.
“Sure,” I answer, laughing. “I don’t want to sit here all night.”
“Okay, follow me.”
Luke gets in his truck and moves off down a nearby side street. We haven’t gone far when he pulls into a wide, stone-paved driveway.
Grace opens the door and gets out almost before the car has fully stopped. A soft gasp of surprise rises from her lips as she looks up at the house.
It’s a solid rectangle, two stories high, with stone walls. Little overgrown gardens gather around its edges, and as Grace gets closer, I can hear a rustling sound as if the plants are greeting her.
I get out and follow her up the drive, feeling a massive shift in her mood. When I come up beside her, she’s looking up at the roof, a little smile on her face.
“Do you like it?” I ask.
She nods. “It’s really beautiful. I wasn’t expecting anything this nice.”
Luke chuckles as he starts dragging our bags out of the car. “Did you think we’d really put up the alpha and his bride in a tiny hut?”
Grace shrugs. “I try not to have high expectations.”
A downward lilt to her voice makes me look at her more closely, and I can see sadness in her eyes again. Seeing her vulnerable makes my protective urges rise, and I take her hand gently.
“This is your home now,” I say, squeezing her hand. “Not just this house, but the whole town—and you’re the luna. That means you can have everything exactly the way you want it.”
Her eyes widen, and the starlight seems to catch in the pale depths, making her eyes shimmer with a sparkling glow.
“You really mean that?” she asks.
“Of course,” I answer. “This is all new to me, as well, and we’ll have to work together to make a comfortable life for the pack as well as for ourselves.”
She looks back up at the house, grinning with just a hint of mischief. “So, the house is really mine, to do anything I want with it?”
“Correct. Go nuts and decorate it however you like.”
“I’m so glad you said that,” she says, letting go of my hand and walking over to the house. The overgrown plants around the stone walls rustle and whisper, even though there’s no wind, and my feelings of confidence are shaken yet again.
She’s so strange… I really don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.
Grace puts her hand on the wall, pressing her palm flat against it. When she closes her eyes, the air seems to thicken as if I’ve been plunged underwater.
A crackling noise breaks out around the house, and sudden movement all around us floods me with adrenaline. Luke and I go straight into a defensive crouch, fists up, ready to fight.
Then the shadows rise, twisting and curling from the ground to creep across the walls of the house. As I watch in surprise, long vines and leaves burst from the gardens and slither across the walls, making beautiful patterns of green across the gray stone.
The slender vines in Grace’s hair move as well, and they slowly wind down her neck and arms to join the other plants. Little white blooms pop up immediately, and even though it feels stupid to think it, I can’t escape the feeling that the little plants are happy.
Not just happy—overjoyed. They are excited to join Grace’s new garden.
It strikes me that if the plants really did know she wasn’t coming back, maybe they came with her so they could be in her new garden. The idea of plants having any kind of will is just way too weird for me, and I have to shake myself and back up a few steps to clear my head.
When Grace turns around, the starlight falls across her hair, tracing it with a silvery glow, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. They look dark to me, almost pure black, and when she smiles, it looks self-satisfied and even a bit secretive.
The smile of a villain planning horrible, despicable things.
“There,” she says. “Much better now. Do you like it?”
I just nod, not trusting my voice. When she turns to go inside, Luke looks at me, raising an eyebrow and letting out a low whistle.
“Well, that was something,” he mutters.
“Yeah… something,” I say.
Luke appears to struggle with himself for a second, then shakes his head. “I don’t really know what to say except good luck, I guess?”
“Thanks,” I growl. “You’re such a big help.”
“Hey,” he laughs. “I’ve been here all day moving furniture and directing people to their new homes. You were—what? Sitting on your ass, eating your wedding feast.”
“Yeah,” I reply. “Correct. But I was also tangled in one of the hardest conversations of my life. Well. Actually, it wasn’t even a conversation. That’s what made it so difficult.”
“Just give it time,” Luke says. “The two of you need to get to know each other, that’s all. Things will settle down.”
“Sure,” I reply, shaking my head. “I have every confidence I’ll miraculously get used to acts of high magic happening right in front of me with startling regularity.”
Luke frowns. “I get it. Magic workers have usually meant trouble for us. But you get along with Alisha and Sarah, right?”
“Yeah,” I agree. “But I’m not married to them.”
Luke sighs. “Grab the end of this box, will you? Let’s just get the gear inside. That’s a job you can do without too much of an existential crisis, I hope?”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “At least, I think so.”
“Good. Because seeing you thinking hard is wigging me out a bit. I know this is a stressful situation, but honestly, I’ve never seen you so worked up.”
“I didn’t realize it was that obvious.”
“Oh, no, I think you’re hiding it okay. I just know you too well.”
I look up at the high walls of the house and the vines still curling happily around the corners, some of them clinging to the windowsills and reaching out to tap on the glass.
I’m going to get strangled in my fucking bed by a goddamn sentient plant, that’s what’s wrong with me!
“Don’t worry about me,” I grunt. “I’m perfectly fine. Best day of my life.”