50 Birdie
BIRDIE
“What do you mean, he left?”
“I mean, he left,” Jasper replies. “How can I make that clearer? He’s gone.”
We’re in the Jeep on our way up to Dent Farms. I’m driving and Jasper is in the passenger seat, still looking down at the signet ring, his brows furrowed with worry. The cat sits curled in his lap.
My mind hums as I try to think it all through. “But why would he leave when he only just got here? He said he wanted to stay. He wanted to be close to us—”
“He didn’t have a choice, Birdie. He got pulled away. She pulled him away.”
“She?” I echo. “You mean Ludmilla? That’s the name of the big bad witch, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait, does Daniel work for her or something?”
Jasper sighs, closing his fist around the ring. “Yes.”
Oh shit. Daniel works for the witch trying to kill Jasper? I knew his charm was too good to be true! “But . . . now he’s helping you, right? He’s helping you take her down?”
“Yes.”
“But he still has to report to her?”
“He’s trapped. Bound to her against his will. The magic of his binding means he can’t kill her himself. Someone else has to do it.”
I’m reeling. This is all so much. “And I take it that someone is you?”
With no hint of delay, he nods. “Yeah, that someone is me. I’m gonna kill her, Birdie. I’m gonna kill Ludmilla Latchko. And I won’t lose a wink of sleep over it either.” Slowly, he turns to me. “Feel like running yet?”
I mean, is this crazy? Obviously. We’re sitting here casually talking about forced bondage and plans for murder.
But I never expected to step into the deep end of the magic pool and have it be all sunshine and rainbows.
Call me a pessimist, but I’m just not that kind of girl.
I’m the kind of girl who pairs ass-kicking boots with a sundress.
Eyes on the road, I grip tight to the wheel. “You can’t get rid of me now.”
“Oh, no?”
“Nope. I just did the swirly-water-hand-thing with Mercy. Do you remember?”
A smile ghosts across his lips. “I remember the swirly-water-hand-thing.”
“Yeah, well, that means I’m coven now. Which means you’re stuck with me. You won’t scare me off talking about killing a witch who likely deserves it—”
“Turn left here.” He points to the road up ahead.
I slow the Jeep down. A sign perched just before the turn reads: “Dent Farms: 2 miles.” Under that, another sign says: “Pick your own blackberries.” I make the turn, leaving the island’s two-lane highway for a forested side road.
As the gravel crunches under the tires, I glance towards Jasper again.
His eyes are hidden behind a pair of aviator sunglasses.
“Why are you so determined to help him?”
One of his dark brows arches behind the shades. “What?”
“Why are you helping Daniel? I mean, he’s not coven, right?”
“No, he’s not coven.”
“So . . . are you two just really good friends? Like, were you friends before he was bonded to this witch?”
“No,” he says again. “We met recently.”
“More recently than meeting me?”
“Around the same time, actually.”
“But you trust him? Even knowing he works for your arch nemesis?”
He’s quiet for a moment, considering. “I do, yeah. It shocks me to admit it. I’m untrusting by nature. But he’s sort of begun charming me against my will. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a pain in the ass. Pushy and suffocating.”
I nod along, feeling like Jasper is accurately describing my encounter with Daniel in the shop. “And sort of creepy too, but in, like, an endearing way, right?”
Jasper just sighs. “Through all his annoying, bullshit charm, I could see down to the root that he was a creature in need. And I knew I could help him.” He looks my way, his expression fixed and grave.
“He doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him, Birdie.
No creature should ever be bound against their will.
Not to help him felt like I was abandoning all my principles. ”
I glow with warmth at his words. Jasper Prescott may be an asshole, but he’s an asshole worth knowing. Noble. Loyal. Principled. I can see why his coven picked him to lead. “Even if helping him means you have to kill another witch?”
He growls low, his gaze shifting back to the road. “She chose her fate.”
Dropping one hand from the wheel, I place it over his on the center console, weaving our fingers together. “As I’ve chosen mine.”
He glances down at our joined hands. “You do realize you’re skating perilously close to breaking rule number four.” His tone might be teasing, but there’s a hidden warning in his words.
I force a playful roll of my eyes. “No one said anything about falling in love with you, jerk. We hardly know each other. And we’re both terrified of intimacy, remember? Honestly, I don’t know that I’m even wired to appreciate the happy little couple life. I don’t think you are either.”
“No. I’m not.” He doesn’t look my way again . . . but he also doesn’t let go of my hand.
“I’m not expecting a ring,” I go on. “But I’m also not going anywhere.
I want to be here. On Burr Island . . . and here with you.
And that’s a lot for me to admit because I’ve never really wanted to be anywhere.
But I don’t know, I look at you, and I feel this pull and .
. . you know, Phoebe said this would happen? ”
He flexes his hand in mine. “Oh, yeah? And what did my meddling niece have to say about it?”
“She said when you’re here, you’re home. I think my here might be the island. But I also think it might be you. With or without the sex, I think you might be my home.”
That leaves him speechless.
I smile, happy to get the last word.
“That was beautiful, Birdie,” rasps a Daniel-like voice in my ear.
Shrieking, I drop Jasper’s hand and grab the wheel, nearly swerving the Jeep off the winding road. At the same time, Pickles launches out of Jasper’s lap and into mine. I screech in pain as his claws dig in. “Ouch—”
“Watch the road,” Jasper bellows, grabbing the wheel too. The cat claws his way up Jasper’s arm, leaping into the back seat. “Fuck—Pickles—”
The naughty cat hisses, disappearing into the far back as I slam on the brakes.
The Jeep crunches to a stop, churning up a cloud of gravel dust. The trees sway overhead, making the motes of dust swirl in patches of sunlight.
I hold to the wheel with both hands, chest heaving.
“What the fuck was that?” I look to Jasper. “Did you hear it too?”
Growling low, he tosses his sunglasses onto the dash and opens his door, climbing out of the Jeep. “Get out here, asshole!”
Choking on my indignation, I fling my seatbelt off. “Hey, what the—”
“Not you. Him,” he barks, pointing to the back seat.
I twist to look and see an empty seat. From the far back, Pickles hisses again.
“Do you have the ring?”
A chill creeps down my arms. That was Daniel’s voice again. But it wasn’t Daniel. It was lower and raspier. I shriek. “Wait—are you invisible right now? Ohmygod—are you a ghost?”
From outside the Jeep, Jasper holds up the signet ring. “Just get out here and put this back on so I can punch you in the fucking head.”
The back door of the Jeep doesn’t open, but I watch the ring disappear from the pinch of Jasper’s fingers anyway. In moments, Daniel steps out of thin freaking air looking all tall, and blonde, and beautiful. The lapis lazuli ring glints on the first finger of his left hand.
Flinging my door open, I scramble out from behind the wheel, boots crunching on the gravel as I step around the front of the Jeep.
I abandoned my cardigan when we left Mercy’s shop, so my arms are bare when I cross them, walking up to stand next to Jasper.
“What the heck was that? Did you want us to crash?”
“How long were you listening?” says Jasper.
Daniel’s expression is all innocence. “I simply didn’t want to interrupt your tender moment. Your auras were flowing ever so nicely together. I would no sooner interrupt a sunrise.”
“Our auras?” I repeat. “What the heck are those?”
“All souls present to me as auras,” he replies. “They glow around a person, reflecting their inner being—their truths, their hurts, their many messy secrets. More than anything, your aura reflects the prismatic range of your mortal emotions.”
His words clash inside my head as I try to make sense of them. “Wait, you can see souls?”
He nods.
I lean away, fully wary of him. I mean, he just appeared out of thin freaking air! But his smile is so disarming. And I’m too curious for my own good. “What does my soul look like?”
“Beautiful,” he replies without hesitation.
“Soft and elegant. But strong too. There’s a ferocity to your colors, Birdie.
They constantly change with your many moods.
There are layers I get to tease apart, new emotions to uncover.
Old pains, too. Those colors are deeper, rich purples and blues.
Joy is rare for you. But when it’s there, pulsing at your center?
” His smile softens as he reaches out, his thumb brushing lightly over my parted lips.
“Pinks and oranges . . . like a sunset over the sea after a storm has cleared away. It’s breathtaking.
And heartbreaking. And I never want to look away. ”
I blink back my tears, heart racing as fast as my frantically spinning mind. He got all that from our short encounter in the shop?
Unless . . .
Oh god.
I squeeze my arms around my middle, still leaning away. “That’s a lot of deep introspection about a soul you only just saw for the first time today.”
He says nothing.
“Because it wasn’t the first time . . . was it?”
“No,” he says softly.
His admission makes my stomach flip. There’s a reason why he feels so familiar to me. “I’m not going crazy, am I? You’ve been watching me from before today.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He shrugs a shoulder, as if the answer is obvious. “Because I can’t look away. Now that I’ve found you . . . found you both?” he adds with a soft smile at Jasper. “I just need to be where you are.”
Sweet words aren’t enough for me right now. I can’t handle poetry. I need facts. Details. “But why?” I press. “Why me?”
“You said it yourself,” he replies. “Jasper is your home now. You can’t explain it, but you feel it. Here.” He presses a hand to his chest. “I feel the same way about you, Birdie Rhodes.”
His words pierce through my defensive shell. But then Jasper steps in at my side, one arm going around my shoulders. “You need to tell her who and what you are.”
Daniel stiffens, smile falling. “I can’t. You know I can’t—”
“You want Birdie to be your home?” Jasper says over him. “Want her to trust you and let you in?”
“Yes,” he replies, his expression fervent.
“Then no more secrets. They’re eating her up inside. And she can’t help us the way she needs to without having all the facts. I may not know her well, but I trust her. Last night, I made her coven. You need to trust her too. Trust that she’s strong enough for this. Let her prove her worth.”
I bloom under Jasper’s praise, offering him a grateful smile.
Slowly, Daniel looks to me. After a moment, he sighs. “I’m not a ghost, Birdie. Though that was a clever guess.”
I inch closer to Jasper’s side. “Then . . . what are you?” His eyes widen and I bite back a groan. “God, I’m sorry. That’s rude, right? I can’t just come out and ask it like that, can I?”
Jasper’s arm is a comforting weight around my shoulders. “Under the circumstances, I think the only way forward is through. We all need to be on the same page here. I don’t see this working any other way.”
I look to him, heart still racing. “You know what he is?”
“Of course,” he replies with a nod.
“But you won’t just tell me?”
Jasper looks to Daniel, his gaze narrowing on the handsome not-quite-stranger. “He’s going to tell you himself. He wants to tell you. He wants nothing less than for you to know him and value him.”
I look to Daniel too. I miss nothing of the way he stares back at us. He takes in our easy closeness with a look of quiet longing. His whiskey eyes are warm, but I see something shadowy swirling deep inside them. “Will you tell me what you are . . . please?”
His expression brightens. “You really wish to know me?”
“Of course, I do.”
He’s quiet for a moment, his eyes seeming to read the air above my head before his gaze takes on a hungry glint. “I could show you—”
“No.” Jasper drops his arm from my shoulders, shifting it in front of me like a shield. “That’s not happening. Come on, not here. You can tell her with words.”
I glance between them. “What’s not happening here?”
Daniel groans, rubbing at his chest. “I’m sorry, sweet witch, but if you could see her aura, you’d know how badly she wants this—”
“She doesn’t know what she wants,” Jasper snaps.
“Hey,” I hear myself say, shifting out from behind him. “I can speak for myself, thank you very much. And I do know what I want.”
Daniel turns towards me, the shadows in his eyes looming thicker now.
“Such a brave girl. So fierce and strong. You love the chase, don’t you?
Love the hunt. Your nature calls to mine, Birdie Rhodes.
Gods, I can feel it—taste it in the air.
Let me show you what we can be. If you want to know all that I am . . . run.”
Grabbing my arms, Jasper turns me towards him. “Birdie, don’t do this. Not like this. My magic can’t protect you if we’re wrong.”
My heart is hammering. “Wrong about what?”
“I see your aura,” Daniel taunts at my back. Oh god, how did he get there? “I can taste your desires.” His voice is low and raspy now as he steps to the side, his movements slow and calculated, wholly predatory. “You want to see the creature that lurks within this human form—”
“Stop,” Jasper shouts. His eyes flash. I swear, it looked like twinned forks of lightning just struck within his pupils. Because he’s not human either. Not at all. I shudder, feeling the pull of his magic. Everything in me wants to obey. I want to stop and I’m not even doing anything.
But Daniel just sneers. “You have no power over me, witch.” Something has taken over him. His eyes are dark. His sweetness and playfulness are gone, replaced with a primal hunger. “Let the human go. Let her prove her worth. Let her run from me. You know how desperately I ache to chase.”
This creature wants me to run. Is he right? Do I want this too?
Jasper’s hand is on my shoulder, which makes Daniel snarl, eyes narrowed on our shared point of contact. “Don’t do this,” Jasper warns.
“He won’t kill me,” I say, reassuring myself as much as him.
“Birdie—”
“Hey, he just said I’m his home.” I turn to the creature stalking closer. “You won’t kill me, will you?”
Daniel’s raspy purr rattles in my chest. The sound is almost sensual, even as it raises all the fine hairs on my arms. His smile is equal parts angel and devil. “Oh, my sweet, I will try.”
His threat makes my insides flip and my panic flare.
But I have to know what he is.
Birdie Rhodes, this is quite possibly the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.
Turning on my heel, I run.