35. Devlin
35
DEVLIN
Y ou can certainly say that Blair’s nana knows how to make an entrance. As soon as she showed her face, that was the tipping point of the night. Not when I used Blair’s power on Storm, and not when Cathy demanded that everyone join her in the ninth circle of hell.
No, those reactions were mild compared to how the crowd responded when Rebecca slid through the wall and started talking.
People screamed. They whispered. I think someone even cried. Don’t ask me why.
Either Rebecca had gotten her hands on the invisibility antidote, or no one had bothered to give it to her in the first place.
Which is too bad because supernaturals take their ghostly wives’ tales seriously. It was only a matter of seconds before people were vanishing in whirls of smoke, making excuses for why they had to leave so quickly.
We knew the truth—they ran off to blab that Rebecca had returned as a ghost, which meant that the Thornroses were in deep shit as a family.
Old wives’ tales, like I said. They die hard in Castleview, and with witches.
The Thornroses were pretty upset with their nana. Clara looked like she could’ve killed her mother if she wasn’t already dead. There was a lot of arguing, which ended in Rebecca shrugging and telling everyone that it would all blow over soon enough.
She’s probably right about that.
Blair had already dealt with enough, so I asked if she’d like me to walk her around to the main house.
“I’d rather go home with you,” she says.
My brows lift. This is unexpected but at the same time not. “You sure?”
She drops her head to my shoulder and nods. “Oh, I am more than sure.”
“Why am I even arguing with you?”
“Yeah.” She lightly pokes my shoulder. “Why are you, fiancé?”
Her parents are talking, and I don’t think they’ll mind if I slip off with their daughter. At this point they know my intentions, and I have to say that Phillip wasn’t too surprised when I requested his blessing to marry her.
“Do you like your ring?” I ask once we’re outside. It’s cool tonight, so I take off my jacket and slip it over her thin shoulders.
She holds out her left hand, inspecting it. “It’s gorgeous. Is that a ruby?”
“Painite. Rarest gemstone on earth, just like you’re rare to me.”
She clutches her left hand in fright. “This must’ve cost a fortune.”
“ You are worth every penny and then some. Besides”—I curl my arm around her shoulders—“it gave me an excuse to buy the rarest gemstone on earth.”
She covers her face in embarrassment. “Stop it.”
“No.” I tug her hands away from her face. “You are a gem— my gem.”
She kisses me lightly and then pulls back, sucking air. “Oh my gods, could you believe Storm?”
“Whew. From the way you gasped, I thought you were going to say something terrible instead of talking about Storm. But”—I brush hair from her eyes—“nope. Not surprised at all. He got what was coming to him.”
“Yeah, he did. And then Cathy!” Blair admires her ring again and then clutches it to her chest like she’s afraid it’ll fall off. “I thought for sure the crowd was going to turn on you. Devlin, I was so scared. The whole time that you were influencing Storm, I thought it was going to turn around and bite you in the ass.”
I chuckle. “I knew the crowd was with me. After he insulted you, there was no redeeming himself.”
“Yeah.” Her face falls.
I stop. “Wait. Wait. Wait.” I tip her chin until she’s looking at me. “You don’t believe any of what he said about you, do you?”
“No. I mean, of course not.”
I study her. She nibbles her bottom lip. I pin her shoulders between my hands. “Darlin’, nothing that he said is true. You don’t lack ambition. The bookshop is amazing. People come from all over the world to see it. He was just being jealous and petty. Put it out of your mind.”
She nods lamely.
“Blair,” I warn.
“Fine. Yes.” She snaps her fingers. “It’s gone. Just like that.”
“That’s better.” We start walking again, and I slip my left hand into her right one and kiss it.
She strokes the hill of my hand gently with her thumb. “I’m sorry for what he did to you.”
“Don’t be. Storm’s a bad guy. I’ve known that about him a long time.”
She rears back. “And you let me go out with him?”
“Are you serious? You wanted to date him. If I recall, you were happy to have me help you go out with him.”
“That was because I hated you.”
“Because you loved me.”
“That, too,” she admits with a smile.
We lock gazes and laugh. She throws her arms around my waist. “I love you, Devlin Ross. I’m never letting you go.”
“I don’t want you to.”
She stops walking again. “What is it?” I ask.
She straightens and pulls the jacket tight as a breeze blows past. “Shouldn’t our powers have switched back by now? I mean, you got your invention. I’ve learned my lesson about the influence. I don’t resent it anymore.” She points from her to me. “We’ve gotten engaged.” She folds her arms and pouts. “Speaking of which, when are we getting married?”
I pat the air to suggest she settle down. “Now, hold on. Let’s take this one at a time. To answer your first question, I have no idea when they’ll switch back, and to answer your second—whenever you want to.”
She looks right and left as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Seriously?”
“As seriously as a heart attack. We will walk down the aisle next week if you want.”
“That’s too soon.” She nibbles her finger. “How about next month?”
I laugh. “Next month it is.”
“And maybe everyone will have forgotten about Nana by then.”
“Doubtful, but it will probably all be smoothed over.” She shoots me a look and I shrug. “It’s true.”
And as I tug her into a hug, inhaling the peach scent of her shampoo, it hits me that I love her with all my being.
I love her—this I’ve known. I’ve never stopped. But it’s the depth of this feeling that bowls me over. That’s why the thought of her marrying someone else made me angry, why the idea of her with Storm made me want to punch him in the face, why I’ve never truly been able to let her go.
And I don’t want to.
I want to keep her, protect her, love her with all I’ve got for as long as I’ve got her.
Her fingers curl into the lapels of my shirt. It’s a nice night, perfect for a walk. Winter solstice lights that haven’t been taken down flare along the street. It rained earlier, filling the air with the scents of ozone and earth.
“What are you thinking?” she asks as I hold her.
“About the Roman Empire,” I joke, referencing a pop culture phenomenon. I kiss her forehead. “I’m not thinking about anything other than you. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that I love you, that I can’t wait to be your wife”—my heart nearly explodes—“and that Nana just ruined a great moment.” She presses her nose into my shirt and sighs. “Way to go, Nana.”
I chuckle and tighten my arms around her. “Why Blair Thornrose, are you saying that your nana planned this? That she let you have all the glory so that she could come in and steal it?”
“No, I think death gave Nana brain damage, is what I’m saying. Pretty sure that she’s out of her mind to show herself like that.”
“I think Rebecca knows what she’s doing.”
She tips her face up. “What makes you say that?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I shrug. “The woman’s had plenty of time to reveal herself up until now. The fact that she took this one moment, this one second to do it says that there’s some other plan.”
Blair rolls her eyes. “Or she’s out of her gourd.”
“Or that.”
We laugh and her eyes crinkle as she grins up at me. My heart’s so big I don’t think it can hold one more drop of emotion.
She turns and we continue on our stroll. “What are you going to do about Storm? Are you going to call the police? Tell them that he admitted to the break-in?”
“Yes. He will be punished.” My body coils in anger at what he said about Blair. But I got revenge for her. It’s over; that’s what I should focus on. “You know he cheated at the carnival?”
She pulls away and shoots me a look of surprise. “What?”
“The night when y’all went to the carnival, he used his power to sabotage the boy who was firing the water gun beside him.”
She gasps. “He did not.”
“He sure did. I watched the whole thing.”
Blair lightly slaps my arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why should I have? Would you have believed me?”
“Well, I don’t…”
“No, you wouldn’t have. You would have thought that I was lying, trying to get you into bed.” I wink at her and she turns to me. “To be fair, I would’ve definitely been trying to get you into my bed.”
She giggles and nudges me with her shoulder. “You are so bad.”
“Badly in love with you. I’ve never stopped wanting or loving you.”
She shakes her head. “Me neither. You’re the first and only person who’s ever seen me. Who understands what I feel. I have a house filled with sisters, and they get me, but you get me more. And when I was cut off from you”—she looks away, exhales, looks back at me—“it felt like I was cut off from myself.”
Now there are tears in my eyes. “Come here.”
She slips into my arms, and I cradle the back of her head. “I will work for the rest of my life to never let you down again. I won’t make the same mistake twice and lose you.”
“You won’t,” she says, muffled in my shoulder. “You won’t lose me.”
There it sits, the one thing that we know isn’t true. I will lose her, and when it happens, it will destroy me. But for now I’m going to live every moment with Blair to the fullest and not take a second for granted.
Because a life without her is no life at all. I know that now. I knew it then, too. That’s why I spent the last ten years immersing myself in work and never seriously dating, because no one could compare to her.
They never have and they never will.
Like I said, we’ve wasted so much time. I don’t want to waste another moment.
The air shifts. A breeze picks up, and cherry blossoms appear out of nowhere, circling us in a tornado of light pink petals.
“What is this?” she asks.
“Magic,” I whisper. “Or Rebecca.”
She laughs and pulls back, smiling at me from ear to ear, her brown eyes shining. “Devlin?”
“Yes?”
She tugs on my shirt flirtatiously. “Take me to bed, or lose me forever.”
It’s a line from Top Gun , a movie I know well.
I kiss her. “With pleasure.”
She walks off and for a moment I watch her, admiring this beautiful woman. A second later a tingle works its way up my spine, crawling to the top of my head. My fingers pulse with energy.
Oh shit.
“Blair—”
She’s taken a couple of steps into the street and when she turns around, our gazes lock. There’s a split second of recognition. The heavy smell of ozone, the way the light’s pooling around her, the feeling that we’ve been here before.
Because we have.
I reach out my hand. One burst of magic and she’ll be out of the way, safe.
But before I’m able to release my power, something slams into my head. Light explodes in my eyes, and I’m knocked to the ground.
I can only watch in horror as headlights appear out of nowhere, a truck barreling down the road, and the next thing I know, she’s gone.