Eerie

Chapter 35 Conundrum #2

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not mine—I was never married—but it was once a wedding ring. Now it’s a reminder,” he said. “The man who gave this to me—” Fin paused. “He died in my arms. Right before he died, he pressed this ring into my hand, and he said, ‘Love beats like a drum—”

“—in the heart of a righteous man,” they both said together.

Fin flashed his eyes at her.

“Did you tell Uncle Pix about this?”

“No,” he said suspiciously.

“Because he just wrote those exact words in a note to me.”

Fin blinked.

“I’ve never told anyone about that.”

“You’re the righteous man, aren’t you?”

“I… The man who gave me this thought so. He told me I was marred and worn, like his ring, but still worth my weight in gold.” He raised his eyebrows and released them, shaking his head. Then he replaced the ring in his pocket, his face darkening.

“I was a slave to the Envoys for a very long time, Hailey.” He didn’t meet her eyes. “I was made to do a lot of bad things.”

Fin reached across the table, taking her hands.

“Because of you, the Envoy that tormented me for centuries—the one who marred me—is dead,” he told her.

“You rescued me from an eternity of Hell. And you keep rescuing me.” Fin looked into Hailey’s eyes for several seconds, and she gazed back, unsure of what to say to all of this.

“I didn’t kill him.”

Fin pressed his lips together, smiling.

“Stop saying that. You just don’t remember.”

But Hailey did remember. She remembered Adalwolf’s rotting breath in her face, his skeletal fingers squeezing her throat…

Fin rubbed her hand, and Hailey blinked.

“It’s kept you safe from Cobon and the others all these years,” he said in a low voice, “so quit saying you didn’t kill him, okay?”

Hailey nodded slowly.

“And no matter what happens, no matter what I say to you, no matter what I…do…” He shook his head as he spoke. “…promise me you’ll always be the fiery Irish-American girl, who slaps me in the face and tells me to go to Hell whenever I act like an ass.”

“I promise,” she chuckled, looking at her hands in his. “But if you’re free now, and they can’t control you, what are you afraid of?”

“They still get in my head, Hailey. Especially Cobon. If he makes me break up with you—”

“Break up? Am I one of your women now?” she said smiling.

“What? No.” He almost yelled it, but Hailey couldn’t stop grinning. “Why are you smiling?”

“I’m just glad you don’t think I’m disgusting.”

“Nobody thinks you’re disgusting, Hailey, half the hockey team asked for my permission to date you.”

“What?”

“You have no idea how attractive this cute, disheveled, athletic, nerdy thing is,” he told her, gesturing at her with both hands.

“No, I meant, why are they asking for your permission to date me?”

Fin sat back in his seat and chewed his lip for a few seconds.

“Alright, look, I’m not gonna lie to you—I haven’t always been the kind and gentlemanly specimen you see before you.

I used to date a lot. A LOT. And until I ended things, which was usually very quickly after things started, the guys on the team would respect the relationship for however long it lasted—”

“You mean however short it lasted.” Pig.

“AND they would wait until I was…” He hesitated before he spit it out. “…done…with whoever I was seeing, before they moved in on her.”

“You guys are pigs.”

“Were… No, they were respectful. I was a… I was fickle.”

Hailey curled her lip. He was a pig.

“But those days are over,” he said quickly. “They were over the day I met you, and in fact, I haven’t been with another girl since the day I met you—since my first day as a bartender.”

“I’ve seen you, Fin.” Hailey could name ten off the top of her head.

“What you saw was me tying up some loose ends and letting those girls know that I’d met someone.”

Fin shifted in his seat and changed the subject. “Listen, Cobon thinks he can make me hurt you…emotionally. The little pervert’s been watching my dreams about you.”

“You dream about me?” This was news.

“Don’t you dream about me?” Fin pulled his cheek back as if he couldn’t imagine that she didn’t spend her nights pining after him, and since he was sharing his innermost thoughts…

“I daydream about you,” she admitted.

“Yeah? Tell me more.” He leaned forward, looking wolfish.

“In my daydreams, you never kick me out of your room when I show up naked at your door.”

“Go on…”

“No.” She’d already shared enough embarrassment for at least a decade.

“You don’t dream about me at night?”

“No, not you.” Oops.

Fin pushed back from the table. “Who do you dream of?”

Hailey pressed her lips together.

“It’s Asher, isn’t it?”

She looked away, hoping he’d just drop it, but Fin fixed a stubborn stare at her.

“That’s where I met him,” she said, her eyebrows raised.

Fin gave her a look she couldn’t quite place, and when she tried to apologize, he cut in.

“Look, there’s something I want to ask you,” he said rubbing her hand and looking grave. He was going to ask her to stay away from him, she just knew it—to protect her from Cobon, but that was harebrained, and she opened her mouth to tell him so, but Fin held his hand up.

“Hailey,” he began, and she made a preemptive frown. “Would you allow me to take you out on a proper date?”

Hailey blinked.

“Yes,” she told him, but it came out sounding like, “Finally!” and she couldn’t stop her smile from spreading across her whole head. “When?”

“This weekend. There’s someplace I want to show you.”

“Where is it?”

“You’ll find out tomorrow,” he said taking a bite of his pizza, and Hailey tried to keep her leg from shaking. Asher would not be happy.

And she didn’t care.

Fin wiped his mouth and smiled at her.

“So,” he said leaning over the table, “was that your first kiss,” he asked, poking his tongue in his cheek and looking very pleased with himself.

Hailey bit her lip.

“No?”

“You left me!” she said pulling her eyebrows together. “You left me all alone, and Asher was there, and I was…” She gnashed her teeth and shook her head, tracing a scratch on the table with her finger and concentrating on not telling him about the second kiss.

“You kissed him?”

“Well, yeah.” Asher wasn’t exactly gross. Hailey flicked her eyes at Fin’s then back to the scratch in the table.

Fin leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Not like that!” she said waving her hands in front of her. “Not like…” she put her ear on her shoulder, unable to say the word tongue.

That seemed to brighten Fin’s mood considerably. Leaning forward, he smiled at her, and she could feel her cheeks burning.

“Stop looking at me,” she said, smiling.

“Never.”

Fin walked Hailey to her door and kissed her gently. “Pick you up at noon.”

“No!” Hailey yelled, and she slammed the door in his face, but she opened it again with a giggle.

“That wasn’t funny,” he said dead-pan. Making a quick lunge into her room, he tossed her over his shoulder.

“Oof,” she grunted. “I thought it was hysterical,” she laughed.

“You’re gonna pay for that one!”

With her slung over his shoulder, Fin ran down the stairs and out the door. He tossed her kicking and screaming into a six-foot snowbank.

“I’ll pick you up at noon tomorrow,” he called as he left her struggling to extract herself, giggling and spitting out snow.

Noon on Friday couldn’t come quick enough, and Hailey practically skipped to her 9:30 class. She had just taken her usual seat in the first row when something unusual happened.

David, one of the few students at Bear Towne brave enough to even look at Hailey, plopped down next to her.

“Hey, Hailey,” he said groggily as he opened his notebook.

“Hi,” she answered, confused. Nobody ever sat in the first row with her. She was more than a little suspicious when she saw David had actually combed his hair that morning.

“Are you going to Seven Trumpets?” he said out of the blue.

“Yes—with Asher.”

“Do you know if your roommate’s going?”

Aha! This was too perfect.

“Yes,” she said smiling. “I mean—no, Giselle does not have a date, yet… And I know that,” she explained. “But she wants to go…”

“Really?”

Hailey couldn’t tell if he was surprised or disgusted. She went with surprised. “Yeah. I know. It’s hard to believe. She’s so…um…she has such pretty eyes…”

“Yeah,” he raised his eyebrows and nodded. “But—”

“—but she hasn’t accepted an invitation, yet.”

“You think I should ask her?”

“Well, why wouldn’t you? She’s very…interesting—and really fun…” That was stretching the truth a little.

“She’s a little scary.” He came right out and said it.

“She’s not scary.”

Okay. That was a flat out lie. Giselle could scare the hair off a cat.

David drew a doodle on his notebook.

“I guess I could try asking her,” he said hesitantly. “Maybe I’ll ask her in class—”

“No!” Hailey yelled. “—I mean, you should wait until lunch. She’s much more likely to say yes on a full stomach.” Especially if Hailey got to her first. She’d have to warn her. And coach her. “…and she’s usually all business in class,” she added.

That seemed to make sense to David.

“Oh. Alright,” he said shrugging.

Hailey hoped he wouldn’t lose his nerve before lunch—or try to ask her in class. She’d have to run to catch Giselle in the Pre-Med leaf, and then she’d walk with her to ParaComm while she prepared her for David. And hopefully, she’d have the whole class to convince her to say yes.

As soon as the clock hit 10:30, Hailey bolted. She didn’t even wait for the next day’s assignment—she’d just get it later.

Hailey caught sight of her roommate just as she passed under the Pre-Med gate.

“Giselle!” She waved and ran to catch up.

“What do you want?”

Hailey needed a second to catch her breath. “You remember…” she panted as the two headed to Trinity, “David from…ParaComm…?”

Giselle didn’t respond.

“Well, he just told me he wants to ask you to Seven Trumpets, but he’s really nervous…”

Giselle tilted her head away from Hailey, but she detected a slight pull on her cheek—the banshee was smiling!

“Anyway,” Hailey said nonchalantly, “thought you should know…just in case he tries to talk to you…”

They walked in silence until they reached Trinity’s doors. Giselle hesitated there. “What if he steps on my dress or something?” the banshee said in a weird, almost feigned grouch.

Hailey shrugged as they walked into class.

“Well…uh…wail at him,” she said quickly.

“That’s funny, Hailey,” Giselle told her, once again trying to hide her smile.

The day the banshee appeared in class looking almost happy will go down in history at Bear Towne, because as she continued smiling, Giselle transformed.

Most of her wrinkles vanished, and her wiry gray hair took on a golden sheen.

David decided he couldn’t wait until lunch and just as Professor Mum opened her mouth to begin class, he abruptly stood up and faced Giselle.

Watching David approach her was the whole of their ParaComm class, all shock-faced, frozen in various pre-class poses, and waiting with wide eyes to witness a dumb human try to strike up a conversation with the campus banshee.

David cleared his throat and looked like he was about to lose his nerve when he got close, so Hailey intervened.

“Hi David,” she called, smiling kindly, and she jabbed her roommate with her elbow.

“Oh. Hi,” said Giselle uncertainly.

“Er…Giselle…” said David with a shaky voice. “…hi.” He dropped his head and turned his back on them.

Hailey lunged to grab his arm before he could walk away.

“David, I was just telling Giselle how great it would be if we all sat together at Seven Trumpets,” she prodded.

He swallowed loudly. Actually, he looked terrified, and Hailey had to act fast or else he might pass out before he asked Giselle to go.

“…and Giselle really liked the idea…” Hailey gave David her most encouraging smile.

“Giselle,” he said going pale, “could…would you…”

Now he was hyperventilating and spoke his next words so fast they ran together. “Woul-ja-g-go-to Strumpets-with…me…?”

Giselle’s face softened. “Yeah sure, I guess,” she mumbled.

He smiled widely, but then he passed out at her feet.

Hailey turned to Giselle. “Look,” she said pointing at him. “You’re a knock-out.”