Chapter 37
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Reece was beginning to learn Delainey, and the signs of stir-craziness were not hard to pick out. She paced back and forth in the living room, idly twirling one of her curls on her finger before tugging at it a few times and letting it go.
She wore an oversized sweatshirt that hung past her hips and a pair of leggings, her feet bare on the wood floor.
She sat at her chair at the desk and spun around, stared at the blank screen like she might try and get some work done, then stood up and began the cycle all over.
The cottage felt smaller every time she crossed it; from the loveseat to the bookshelf was maybe twelve steps, and she covered them like she was wearing a groove into the floorboards.
He didn’t ask her if she wanted to go out for a walk or do something even more enjoyable.
He had tried that once, the last time one of these stir-crazy spells hit, and she had glared at him for several hours for presuming to know what she wanted to do.
His Delainey was prickly, but he was getting to know her spines and learning to dodge the most painful ones, and embrace what he had to in order to keep her.
“Let’s go for a drive,” Delainey finally announced, grabbing his keys off the counter. She shoved her feet into a pair of sneakers by the door without bothering to tie them.
He didn’t argue about who was driving, because that was another thing when she got like this. There was very little point unless he wanted to start a fight, which he did not.
They were several minutes into the drive when Reece realized this was something with purpose rather than an aimless amble to try to expand their world outside of the little house they had been living in for a month now.
“Are you going to share where we’re going?” he finally asked when she took the exit into the city.
Delainey glared out at the road in front of them. “Aya told me Emerson’s back in town. He got in last night.” She took another turn and then another, and he realized the most likely place she was headed was the university. She would have mentioned it if they were heading to the coven house.
“He’s been staying with your sisters for a month now. It’s getting a little ridiculous.” He had no place to say anything, he knew, and he wasn’t dumb enough to try. But Delainey seemed equally miffed by Emerson’s presence.
She backed the car into a space outside the psychology building of the university and put it in park, but made no move to get out.
The building was three stories of pale brick with narrow windows, a set of double glass doors at the front, and a concrete walkway flanked by low hedges that needed trimming.
A handful of students crossed the lot with backpacks slung over their shoulders.
“Aya said he was going to consult some texts at Wallace Grove, but...” she trailed off. “I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone come and stay that long. It’s weird.”
“It is weird,” Reece agreed. “Wallace Grove isn’t exactly strapped for cash. If he doesn’t have the money personally, he could have borrowed some for a hotel. Or if he’s working at the university, which I assume he is since we’re here, they might have had some funds for him to stay somewhere.”
“I know,” Delainey said, tapping her nails against the steering wheel in a quick, impatient rhythm.
“What’s he do anyway? What’s his specialty?”
“For work he’s a psychologist. I think he does mostly online stuff, the video conferencing therapy. And for the coven, he’s a mind healer.”
Reece shuddered.
“What’s the matter?” Delainey asked.
“They always freaked me out,” he said after a moment when he realized he could share the truth of his upbringing with Delainey.
“The body healers were definitely convenient, especially when I broke my leg on a trampoline. I was eleven and they healed it up in no time. But I always felt like the mind-healers wanted to get in my head and change my thoughts. I didn’t like it. ”
“That’s unethical,” she said. “A mind-healer should be helping, not—” she shuddered. “Everything about that very much sucked, and you are going to tell me who they were one day, and we’re going to deal with them.”
Reece smiled and had to keep the words that wanted to escape from coming out of his mouth.
It was too soon, and he didn’t want Delainey to run, though he didn’t think that was likely at this point.
“Oh, shit, get down.” She slumped in her seat, and Reece mirrored the posture. His knees hit the underside of the dashboard, and his head barely cleared the window line.
Emerson came out the front doors of the psychology building and walked to his car without a care in the world.
He didn’t glance their way, and Delainey quickly sat back up.
Emerson pulled out of the parking lot, and Delainey followed at what might have been a safe distance.
Reece was not an expert at trailing vehicles.
Emerson made a stop at the grocery store and walked in with his phone clutched between his ear and his shoulder. He came out a few minutes later carrying a bag, put it into the trunk of his car, then took off again and drove straight for the coven house.
“Well, that’s a bust,” Reece said, stretching his legs out as far as the footwell allowed and resting one arm along the window frame.
“If you didn’t want to come—” Delainey snapped, and then cut herself off.
Because there was not another option.
Where Delainey went, Reece went.
“Aya is going to find answers,” Delainey said. “We all will. We just have to keep looking.”
She headed back to the highway, and they drove back to pack territory without saying a word.