Chapter 31
TWO WEEKS LATER
The exciting details of the case Mendez was briefing me on become irrelevant as that familiar presence draws my attention away.
A gorgeous apparition, the love of my life and death, watches me from across the room, her gaze heating as our eyes meet.
Clinking my beer against his, I put a pin in our conversation and gravitate toward her like a bee to pollen.
Unlike other spirit attachments, she doesn’t need to imprint her will onto me; I’m simply driven through this world with an endless desire to be by her side and do everything I can to see that radiant smile that she’s showing more of lately.
Our arrangement works because we have an equal hold over each other; ours is a symbiotic relationship that has drastically made my life better.
“Hello, Nightingale.” I place a kiss on her neck, then trail my lips across her shoulder and down her arm until I reach our intertwined fingertips. In the mirror, I watch as several sets of eyes trace our every move.
At first, my friends worried over our newfound relationship status, understandably. But after watching us together, they came to the same conclusion we did—this is the perfect existence for us, this next level of closeness.
While I dote on her, she uses her other hand to put the needle on the record. The synth-heavy music is just loud enough to drown out the conversations happening around us.
“Dance with me, Thorne?” Sol asks, as she turns in my arms, resting her hand on my shoulder.
Without hesitation, I wrap one arm around her waist and tug her against me until her shoes rest on top of mine. She laughs, but doesn’t object, allowing me to sweep us across the floor in fluid movements that have the rest of the room falling away.
“I can’t wait until it’s just us again,” I sigh against her hair.
I appreciate the dedication Hale, Zoey, and Ozzie have shown in helping the remaining spirits on the property move on—Sol and I have earned some peace and quiet, they said—but we’ve hardly had any time to simply enjoy each other’s company.
I yearn for lazy days with her in my arms.
“It will be soon. But we have the rest of time to be together.” Her uncharacteristic urge for patience takes me by surprise, but death has had a profound effect on her.
With a dip, I bring my lips down to her shoulder for a quick kiss before breaking into motion again.
“A few decades will go by quickly enough, then our corpses will keep each other company in our coffins, decomposing side by side, and our spirits will haunt the halls of this house in peace.” She sighs with contentment as she meets my gaze, affection and the light of hope I’d missed seeing in her eyes reflecting back at me.
“For now, we’re going to live a little.”
“Which reminds me, I need to pack.” With so much going on, I keep forgetting we leave for Germany in three days.
“I’m so glad I won’t ever have to pack another bag.” After so many years on the road, I can’t blame her. “What’s the situation with our flight?”
“I bought a second seat next to me.”
“That’s ridiculous; I could have just sat on your lap or stood in the galley.”
“Are you out of your mind? Absolutely not.”
“Didn’t they think it was weird that a single man was buying two first-class seats?”
“It’s first-class, babe; they aren’t questioning people spending more money.
Plus, who cares what anyone else thinks?
Maybe I’m just someone who highly values my personal space.
It’s really none of their business.” I can’t help but get a little defensive about her objection.
There’s no world in which I allow her to be miserable for hours while I lounge around comfortably.
“I’ve told you before. You’re not a passenger or observer in my life.
You are my life. We’re doing all of this together. ”
“Thank you.” Pressing up on her toes, she kisses me, and my dick twitches with the reminder of my fresh tattoo. My fingers tighten around her waist as I hold her against me. She smirks knowingly.
“I can’t wait until it heals.”
With a dip, I whisper against her ear, “Who said we have to wait?”
She rolls her eyes. “I can’t imagine having me clench around your dick while the skin is still healing will feel very good. Plus, we can’t have you getting an infection.”
“You’re dead, remember. One of the many perks of having a ghost girlfriend. Plus, we won’t know what it feels like till we try.” Tipping us back to full height, I spin her away, then back into my arms.
“Girlfriend?” She objects to the casual title.
“Come on now. You know that you’re my world, my dreams, my soul. My past, my present, my future. My Omen. There’s no title that could embody everything that you are to me.”
“God, I love you, Hawthorne Addams,” she says softly beneath the music, just for our ears. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
Before I have the chance to remind her that there’s no merit required to be worthy of love, Jayden approaches us.
“Hey, man.” I give him a quick hug and step back to get a better look at him.
The bags under his eyes have finally cleared, and he moves around the house with ease, no longer haunted by Ivan’s ghost. He’s even put back on some of the weight he lost after his possession.
I couldn’t be more relieved that he’s come out the other side of this with us.
“Are you leaving already?” Sol asks with something so close to disappointment in her voice.
“Umm, no, actually…” He runs a hand through his hair. “I just wanted to formally apologize for everything.”
“Like I said, there’s nothing to forgive. You were possessed. Nothing that happened was your fault. You were just as much a victim as I was.” Sol puts a hand on his shoulder, but he shivers and visibly tenses for a moment, and she drops it.
“It’s not you. I’m sorry. I’m just still getting used to being around ghosts again,” he stammers out.
“Understandable,” she assures him.
Turning to me, he rests his hand on my forearm. “I didn’t mean any of that shit I said. I truly am happy for you.” He looks toward Sol. “Both of you.”
“Thanks, Jay.” I squeeze his shoulder and bring him in for a hug before stepping back to wrap my arm around Sol.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” He reaches into his deep pockets, digging around for several seconds, metal clinking and paper crinkling. When he draws his keyring out, a flare of hurt lashes through me.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I thought…” He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “I just thought you two would want your privacy, finally having the house to yourselves and all.”
“Hell no. You’re keeping that. I meant what I said. You’re always welcome here. You’re family.”
“Are you okay with that?” Jayden turns to Sol.
“You’re Hawthorne’s closest friend. You don’t need my approval to be here.”
“I want it,” Jayden insists. “I don’t want to come between you guys. I want things to be good between us. All of us.”
“Of course it’s okay. Please, keep your key.”
He hesitates for several seconds before finally slipping his keyring back into his pocket. “All right. If you insist. Thank you. So, I guess I’ll be seeing you two around then.” He makes it a few feet before he turns back to us. “Take care of him, yeah?”
“I won’t let him out of my sight, I promise.” She laughs at her own joke, and it’s infectious. Seeing her so at ease is something I’ve dreamed about for so long.
Jayden nods and heads into the kitchen, joining the others. Alone again, I pull her back into my arms and sway to the music. Sol’s mind is elsewhere as she considers the staircase for far longer than could be necessary.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to do,” she finally says.
“What’s that?”
“Can we move Curio to the mausoleum?”
“Of course.” I stop dancing to grab her hand and lead her toward the stairs.
“I didn’t mean right now.” She laughs but follows.
“What better time than the present?” I take the stairs two at a time, eager to get her to myself for a bit.
Carefully rolling the candles, dried wood, and other tributes into the velvet cloth that sits beneath the glass case that Curio now resides in, I hand it to Sol while I take charge of carrying the fox.
“Careful,” Sol murmurs. It’s a little more awkward than I expect to carry the case down, but I take it slow, not wanting her to worry.
“Be right back,” I shout over my shoulder as we step out the back door. When we finally get out to the mausoleum, it’s a relief to set her down.
Leaning against the wall, I sit back and let Sol get to work setting up her new space, arranging the candles and dried berries before placing the fox at the center.
“Thank you for doing this, for taking care of her.” Sol is thoughtful as she fusses with the altar.
“I wish I could have been here.” She pauses, choking back the emotion that strains her voice.
“But it’s good to know she wasn’t completely alone.
” There’s nothing to say. I simply allow her to grieve the choice she had to make and the memory of what she considered a close friend.
I couldn’t stop nature from running its course, but I could give her new life, as Sol liked to call it. It was the least I could do, really.
Inside the glass enclosure, Curio rests peacefully on a matching swath of velvet, looking like she could just be curled up, taking a nap as she often was when I’d meet up with Sol.
Like Sol, it took a bit for the fox to warm up to me, but once she did, she’d follow me around just as much, even coming up to the house looking for her companion.
We bonded in that way when Sol left us, together in the loss of her.
When she finishes, Sol leans against me as she admires the faint filtered light that slips through the stained glass, illuminating Curio in a rainbow of muted colors.
“It’s perfect, and now, she won’t be alone anymore,” she voices her running thoughts aloud. “I think I want to preserve some butterflies for her and add them to her case, would that be okay?”
“Of course. Whatever would make you happy.”
As if summoned by the newfound peace of her final resting place, the gray fox runs into the mausoleum and makes her ghostly reappearance. When she greets us with a whine and happy wiggle, Sol gasps with joy, kneeling to give her scratches before gathering Curio in her arms. “She came back to me.”
“She must have just been waiting for the right time.” I kiss the top of her head, grateful that I can still smell the earthy scent of her skin and the plum notes in her perfume thanks to my connection to both sides of the veil.
It’s a unique gift—that she’s just as present and real to me as she’s ever been—one that I won’t ever take for granted. One that makes me excited for the unconventional but fitting future we have together.
I meant it when I said she was my omen. I don’t know what I ever did to get so lucky, but I’m so grateful she walked into my life and possessed me—body, mind, and soul. There’s no one else I’d rather haunt this house with.