Chapter 26
The note arrived folded into the shape of a very aggressive swan, and Edith stared at it suspiciously from across the kitchen table as if it was going to get up and tap dance across the surface.
“I don’t trust that.” Binky looked up from his toast.
“You don’t trust most things,” she stated, but she agreed with the bird.
“Correct.”
The paper swan sat there innocently. Which somehow made it worse. Edith poked it cautiously with the end of her knife, but nothing exploded. That was encouraging.
Slowly, she reached out and picked it up, gently she unfolded it. The handwriting was sharp and neat.
Meet me at the park at dawn.
We need to discuss how to get your family to back off.
Come alone.
S
Edith read it twice, and then a third time, and at the S on the bottom her pulse quickened slightly.
Spencer.
A stupid warm feeling immediately tried to appear in her chest and Edith crushed it violently.
No… absolutely not. She was not getting excited over notes now. What was she? A teenager crushing on a boyband member…
Still… Her fingers lingered on the paper. Because part of her, a very reckless part, actually trusted him. Which was bloody insane. Certifiably so, and completely irrational as well as potentially life-threatening.
But… she remembered the way he’d looked at her in the park and the fact he could have tried to take her already and hadn’t.
Binky narrowed his eyes at her from across the table. “Why do you look like you’re about to make a bad decision?”
Edith folded the note immediately and placed it in her pocket. “I’m not.”
“That’s exactly what people making bad decisions say.”
“I’m offended by your accuracy.”
Binky squawked suspiciously but Edith ignored him, because there was no way she was telling anyone.
Not Jessica, nor the witches, and most definitely not Binky, who would probably organise a tactical intervention involving emotional support knives.
No, this conversation needed to happen quietly. Before the others decided Spencer was the enemy and accidentally started a magical war in the town square.
Which meant she was going solo…
Dawn arrived, cool and pale, over Krakens Hole. The town still slept as Edith slipped quietly from the Hollow, pulling her coat tighter against the morning chill.
No one stopped her or noticed her, which as good and meant she was still a little stealthy. Ha, take that, Binky.
The streets were empty save for the occasional gull and the distant sound of waves against the harbour. The early air smelled of salt and rain. Edith’s stomach twisted tighter with every step toward the park. Because now that she was actually doing this, it felt a little absurd.
Meeting a bounty hunter alone at dawn? Her survival instincts seemed to be questionable and Jessica would definitely kill her… that’s if her family didn’t do it first.
The sky above the bay glowed soft gold and lavender as she climbed the hill toward the park. Wind curled through the trees, stirring fallen leaves across the path. Everything felt too quiet and too still.
Edith slowed slightly as the swings came into view.
They were empty. The old climbing frame stood near the edge of the park, rusted slightly from years of sea air.
Only a figure stood beside it, tall, in a dark coat with their back turned towards her.
Relief hit instantly, sharp enough to almost hurt.
Spencer.
Of course he wouldn’t turn immediately. He had that whole dramatic quiet-person energy constantly happening. Edith rolled her eyes softly despite herself as she approached.
“You know,” she called quietly, “for someone trying to build trust, mysterious dawn meetings aren’t helping your case.”
No response… Edith stepped closer and still nothing.
A flicker of unease moved through her chest. “Spencer?” she called out.
The figure finally turned, and Edith’s blood ran cold.
Spencer. But not Spencer. He had the same face and the same build and the same dark hair, yet she recognised him now as the other brother, his twin. She could see every difference. These eyes were colder, harder, with no hesitation in them, and they lacked warmth.
This one was not Spencer, it was Mark. Fear prickled down Edith’s spine as he smiled, there was something about it that made her instincts recoil instantly, not because it was cruel. But because it was empty.
“Well,” Mark said softly. “You came alone. That was easier than expected.”
Edith stepped backward immediately, and every nerve in her body screamed to run away. Instead she stood her ground.
“Where’s Spencer?”
Mark tilted his head slightly. “He’s a little busy.”
Lie, of course it was a lie. Edith knew it instantly.
Her pulse thundered painfully now. “You forged the note?”
“Not personally. My handwriting’s terrible.”
Edith took another step back, ready to turn and leg it back to the hollow, back to her found family. Her heartbeat roared in her ears.
Then a voice called from behind her, smooth and amused, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that.”
Edith spun instantly and felt her stomach drop straight through the floor. The gold-eyed stranger stood behind her, near the swings, hands tucked casually into the pockets of his dark coat. Watching her like she was something fascinating. Those unnatural golden eyes gleamed in the pale dawn light.
Edith’s mouth went dry because she recognised him now. Not from Krakens Hole, but from home.
No. No no no…
The male smiled slowly. “Ah,” he said softly. His gaze swept over her like he already knew exactly where she would break. “There is my fiancée.”