Chapter Twenty-Five
The car ride was delightful. Even though Orion didn’t let me stick my head out of the window to feel the cool air whip against my cheeks because, according to him, although I had feelings for a dog, I wasn’t supposed to act like one.
I promptly informed him that calling Silas a dog would be like someone calling Orion a giant lizard.
After that, we stopped talking, I kept my hand out of the window, and Orion drove us through the streets of Maple Falls with practised ease; the kind of surety that came from someone who knew these roads like the lines on his palms. I allowed my eyes to flutter shut, to just enjoy the motion of the car.
I only cracked open my lids when I felt Orion open my door.
I staggered out of the car, stumbling when I felt that fuzziness hit my system again, making the world around me tilt.
Orion placed his arm around my shoulders, holding me upright, as he steered me somewhere.
The streets were quiet and unrecognizable to me in the dark.
I didn’t really understand where we were until Orion stopped outside a building, used one hand to open the door and ushered me inside.
Once we were in, he hit the lights, and I was blinded momentarily.
It made my head pulse with pain and my stomach revolt.
His arm remained sure around me, holding me upright, as he grabbed a stepping stool shaped like a tree stump with his free hand and pushed it against a wooden counter.
Then, he gently prompted me to step on the stump, and I plopped down on to the counter.
‘Where are we?’ I mumbled, rubbing my eyes so the black spots would dissipate.
‘The Treasure Trove,’ Orion said, shortly.
He was radiating frustration as he moved around the bakery with a sense of agitation marking his every step. He was looking at the tall shelves of ingredients, searching for something.
‘How did we get in?’ I asked, trying to make my tongue work. Everything in my mouth felt cottony, and my mind was still catching up to the events of the night. I could feel my thoughts drifting through my head like grains of sand escaping through my fingers. ‘Only Melodie has a key.’
‘I unlocked the door,’ Orion replied, shortly.
‘How?’
‘I picked it,’ he said through gritted teeth. Then he muttered something under his breath, and five different jars from the tall shelves careened through the air and into his awaiting hands.
‘You picked a lock?’ I asked, incredulously. ‘Where did you learn to do that?’
Orion scoffed as he turned to face me. Well, not really face me.
He wouldn’t look at me. Not even as he came towards the wooden counter and began laying out all the ingredients before him.
‘You don’t need to know. We’re not friends, remember?
Like your little wolf said. I imagine you loved telling him that. ’
I reared back at the bite in his tone. ‘You’re mad at me,’ I said, simply, head tilted to one side as I observed him. ‘You don’t get to be mad at me.’
His head snapped towards me so fast I thought it might hurt. ‘Excuse me?’
‘You heard me. You’re not allowed to be mad at me,’ I said, stubbornly. My hands clutched at the countertop. The overwhelming scent of ginger filled the air as Orion roughly unscrewed the cap on one of the jars.
‘And why is that?’ Orion shot back.
‘Because I’m mad at you.’
His eyebrows lifted mockingly, and that smile on his mouth was sharp-edged like one of my favourite knives.
‘Mad at me?’ he asked, and his voice lifted slightly.
‘For what? For helping you break the curse you set over this town, or finding you a place to hold a party, or making some werewolf fall in love with you? Are those the reasons you’re angry at me? ’
I hated that any part of him was right about helping me. He didn’t deserve to be right. I should’ve said nothing in response, used silence as my weapon of choice. But instead, I said aloud the one thing I shouldn’t have.
‘No, I’m mad at you because of last summer.’
The words hung in the air between us. I felt my head buzzing with energy, my gaze focusing in and out. My tongue felt looser, which is also probably why I’d said the words in the first place.
‘I thought you didn’t want to talk about that night,’ Orion replied, quietly. He’d stopped weighing out ingredients, his hands stilled around a mortar and pestle.
‘Yeah, well we’re not,’ I replied, haughtily. ‘There’s nothing to talk about.’
‘Well, you know what, Reverie –’ His voice cracked with frustration. ‘Maybe I do want to talk about it. Maybe I want to talk about why you’re so mad at me for stopping you from making a stupid mistake. An eye-of-the-beholder spell? Really?’
His scorn made my cheeks flush. ‘That’s not fair. The circumstances –’
‘What circumstances?’ he argued, planting both of his hands either side of me.
‘You know what?’ I said, coldly. ‘I’m not going to humiliate myself for you by repeating them.’
Orion let out a gust of warm breath, making my knees tingle. ‘I get it. You were sixteen. Madly in love with some guy, but why would you ever want to change yourself for someone else?’
‘You weren’t just some guy to me.’
The words came out smaller than I liked, with less confidence than I wanted. But when they landed, Orion’s mouth dropped open. For several long breaths, neither of us said anything.
‘What?’ he whispered, his voice half gasp, half exhale.
‘You knew I liked you,’ I babbled, the words escaping my defences.
‘That whole summer – I wanted to tell you, but you only had eyes for –’ I cut myself off.
‘And I get it, OK? She is beautiful and funny and perfect. I just wanted to be that. For you. For everyone. I was tired of being a mess, or the mayor’s daughter, or a disaster waiting to happen.
I wanted to be loved. And no one loved me as I was.
No one would. You even said so yourself. ’
Once the words left me, the memories that I had been working so hard to forget spilled out like floodwater, and now there was nothing I could do to stop them.