34. Ash
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ash
S he slept like the dead for three days, but her body needed to recover. She’d been through a hell of a lot. First, she’d nearly died because she’d been taken out of the vale, and then she’d come back from the dead after being killed by the bullet.
Lorraine was safe, and that was all that mattered.
She woke up only to drink water, eat something, and make sure I was okay and still alive before she drifted off to sleep again. Although Lorraine knew I was immortal, the whole concept was tough for her to wrap her mind around.
That would come in due time.
I walked through the trees and tilted my head up to the sun. It was a beautiful day, and the weather was fine. I found all the druses and dryads at the lake, spending time in the water with the nymphs, laughing and joking. Rowan was there with the others. He stood with his arm around Clea. Possessive, loving.
Maybe he felt me looking at him because he turned to look at me. He said something to Clea, kissed her, and turned toward me.
“Hi,” I said when he came to me.
“I’m starting to get used to seeing you around so often,” Rowan said before he clapped his hand into mine. “It’s cool to have you awake and not sleeping through the decades.”
I shrugged. “I have things keeping me busy.”
Rowan smirked. “Yeah, I heard. Rumor has it you lost your shit with a bunch of humans who made their way into the realm.”
I shook my head. “What do the rumors say?”
Rowan shrugged. “You know how rumors are… they get grander with the retelling.”
That was true.
“Something isn’t right,” I said. “The humans had magic, and they kept talking about someone who gave them their orders.”
Rowan frowned. “Humans don’t have magic.”
“Unless someone gives it to them,” I pointed out. “I’m worried. Someone from around here is playing games.”
Rowan thought about it before he shook his head. “I can’t see how someone would want to fuck up what we have. We’re not a threat to anyone, and we’re not like the gods, looking for shit. We’re just doing our thing.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. There has to be more to it.”
“Hmm,” Rowan said.
“So… things look like they’re going well with you and Clea.”
Rowan’s face slid into a grin. “Yeah, things are going pretty good. I mean, it’s still early days, you know? But we have time.”
“All the time in the world,” I said with a chuckle.
“There’s always a plus to being immortal.”
We stood in silence for a while.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Rowan looked at me. “For what?”
“For being a total dick to you,” I said.
Rowan chuckled. “I didn’t think you were going to own up to that.”
“Yeah, well, apparently we can still learn, even if we’ve been around for-fucking-ever.”
Rowan laughed hard at that. “Nothing is set in stone, huh, my friend?”
“No, apparently it’s not. I shouldn’t have blamed you for these guys finding Lorraine. We were stuck, and I was losing my shit over her being gone, and I just…” I took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “I was wrong.”
“It’s all good,” Rowan said, clapping me on the shoulder. “All’s well that ends well, right?”
“Right.”
“You’re sending her back?”
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“Don’t tell me you got attached to this one,” Rowan said, looking incredulous. “We were just talking about not being too old to learn?—”
“We’re bound because I fucked her, remember? She’s not going back until after All Hallows’ Eve.”
Rowan whistled through his teeth. “That’s right. I remember you fucked up.”
“It’s not so bad,” I said.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s less than two weeks now.”
“I just have to keep her safe and in the vale until then.”
“It helps that she knows now.”
I glanced at him and rubbed the back of my neck self-consciously.
“You didn’t tell her?” Rowan asked, his jaw dropping. “Ash… what the fuck did she think was happening when she got so sick?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “She’s been sleeping a lot. We haven’t had a lot of time to talk.”
Rowan shook his head. “You’re going to have to come clean at some point. Now that the guys who were after her are gone, what do you think she’s going to do? She’s not going to want to play house with you just for shits and giggles. You know that, right?”
I nodded. I’d hoped Lorraine would want to stay with me without me having to tell her any of this, but Rowan was right. She would want to go home. I couldn’t ask her to stay without it sounding like I was attached to her—which I was not—and if she left, I would lose her all over again. Eventually, I would send her back, and this weird alternate reality we were stuck in would be over. But until then, I had to make sure shit didn’t go wrong again.
The more she knew, the better.
“She’s going to be pissed at me,” I said.
Rowan nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re right.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I snorted.
“Facts, bro,” Rowan said. “If I had to pull the same shit with Clea…”
“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed. “I know.”
“The upside is you’ll have until All Hallows’ Eve to make it right,” Rowan said with a grin.
I groaned and shook my head. Something told me it wouldn’t be that easy. At least it wasn’t that long until All Hallows’ Eve, but time could be weird here in the vale. What felt like weeks could be days, and sometimes a month could drag on for an eternity.
“I’m out,” I said. “You should get back to your woman.”
Rowan grinned at me. “I’ll see you around. You should bring her to mingle with the girls. They’ll be nice to her, you know.”
“I’ll think about it.”
I turned into the forest, and Rowan walked back to his group. Before I came clean to Lorraine, I had to talk to one more person.
I hadn’t seen Dolus for a while. The last time we’d talked was just after Lorraine had been taken and he’d been disappointed in me that I wanted to go after her. He didn’t get it, but I needed to know if it changed anything.
After all this was over, I still wanted to get out of here, start a new life doing something else. I was going to need the distraction after saying goodbye to Lorraine, and I needed to get my mind off everything else that had gone wrong for me, living my life as a drus.
I just didn’t know if Dolus still wanted to help me. Without him, it could be centuries before I found the goddess of witchcraft and her long waiting list to do something, and I didn’t feel like spending another couple of hundred years asleep in my tree to avoid everything in my life.
“Dolus!” I called while I walked through the trees.
Nothing. He didn’t appear, didn’t show his face. I didn’t get so much as a peep.
“Dolus!” I called again.
Still nothing. Either he was pissed at me, or he was busy. I hoped it was the latter, but I worried it was the former. He seemed to have some kind of idea of what he wanted for me, and I didn’t fit in with that idea. I wasn’t sure if that was a deal-breaker. I needed Dolus to get me the hell out of here.
After I wandered around for a while longer, I decided to go back to the cabin to check on Lorraine. I wasn’t as worried about her as I’d been before. Our bond had saved her life.
I hadn’t known that our bond would do that for her. How far did it go? She wasn’t immortal by any means, but she hadn’t died when she’d been shot through the heart. That allowed me some peace of mind—at least she wouldn’t die while she was here and we were bound together.
Rowan was right, though—I had to tell her what was going on. I had to tell her that she had to stay here until All Hallows’ Eve was over. Two days after that, on All Souls’ Day, the spell would be broken and she would be free to go back home. But until then, she was stuck here with me.
Was she going to be pissed? Probably. I hoped she wouldn’t be, but I couldn’t count on that. I hadn’t told her the truth about a lot of things, and she hadn’t deserved that.
Saving her was one thing. Keeping her captive was another.
I hadn’t kept her here because of the bond entirely, though. Of course, that had played a big part, but I’d become fond of having her around, and to let her go back…
The truth was that I was glad she was forced to stay with me just a little longer.
Of course, she would have to go eventually. It was better that way anyway. I wasn’t going to walk the same road and fall for a human again. I was already in deep shit—I was far too close to my heart getting involved with her. I could still stop it, though.
She would still leave, and I would still get what I wanted.
When I arrived at the cabin, she was awake. She was standing in the kitchen, staring out the window. The fire hadn’t been stoked, and she wasn’t making anything.
“Hi,” I said.
When she turned to face me, she smiled at me. “You’re here,” she said.
I nodded.
She came to me and wrapped her arms around my body. I let her hold me for a second before I held her at arm’s length and studied her. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes bright, and she looked healthy again. The sleep had done her good.
“Are you hungry?” she asked. “I was thinking about making us something to eat.”
“I could eat,” I said.
“Maybe I’ll bake a pie,” she said, glancing at the oven. But she didn’t look like she was in the mood.
“I’ll make us something,” I offered.
Lorraine’s face broke into another smile.
“I want to talk to you about something while we eat,” I said.
Lorraine frowned. “Is it bad? Is someone still after me?”
“No one’s after you,” I said, shaking my head. Someone was still out there, giving magic to humans, but there wasn’t an imminent threat. We were going to be okay.
Lorraine let out a sigh of relief. “Good, because I’m tired of hiding. I just want to go home.”
A pang of guilt shot through my chest.
“I’ll be back,” I said. “I’m getting someone to put something together for us.”
Lorraine nodded, not asking questions. She’d resigned herself to the fact that living in a world of magic meant some things—most things—couldn’t be explained.
I left the cabin again, my stomach twisted into a knot of nerves. I shouldn’t have been worried about what she would think when I told her what I’d done. I shouldn’t have cared so damn much. I was a selfish son of a bitch, and I didn’t care about anyone else.
The problem was that I did care. At least, I cared about Lorraine and what she thought of me. Fuck knew how that happened, but she wasn’t just some human I’d saved anymore. We’d become close, and when I told her… well, I doubted she would be thrilled.
Maybe I would be wrong, and she’d be happy to stay with me for a while longer.
I guess I could only hope.
I headed into the trees to find Rowan, the drus who could make orchards spring up at will and who had contacts who could put together a magical picnic basket for me so that I could treat Lorraine to something nice before I dropped a bomb on her.
Gods, this was going to be fun.