Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Faelan
Lia had called an emergency girls’ night after what she’d seen the night before, and after a day of work where I’d basically operated on autopilot, I found myself tucked on a loveseat inside Bonnie Books, Agnes’s bookstore, which was right around the corner from my practice.
I’d been meaning to visit for a while, but I hadn’t exactly had any free time to read of late, not with Luch in my life, and opening my own practice.
But now, it seemed, my nights would be freed up, so a good book might be just what I needed.
“Och, that’s delightful.” Agnes nodded to one of the books I’d picked up from a pile to be reshelved on the table next to me. “Vampires. Hot vampires. Lots of angst.”
“Is that right?” Sophie asked, intrigued, and I passed the book to her.
“Hot vampire sex is not what I need right now.”
“No, what you need is hot make-up sex with your man,” Sophie said, and I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest and dropping my chin into my palm.
“There’s nothing to make up. What’s to be done about it?” I asked.
The group of women sprawled on the couches and floor, everyone picking through books of interest, all studiously ignoring the reason why we’d been called to meet tonight. But now that Sophie had breached the subject, everyone snapped to attention.
“So. Tell us. Go on … just get it out,” Shona insisted. “You’ll feel better for it.”
“I—”
A knock at the door had Agnes hopping up. She wore cottage socks, leggings, a silky sleep tank with lace at the edges, and a fuzzy cardigan that hung loose from her shoulders. She’d dressed for a coorie in, and like me, she lived above her work.
“That’s the food.” Agnes swung the door open to Graham, whose mouth dropped open when he took in the sight of Agnes’s silk top. “Hi, Graham.”
“Um.”
“Eloquent as always, Graham.”
Graham snapped his eyes away from her shirt and held up the two brown bags in his hands.
“It’s just that words leave me when I’m confronted with such beauty.” Graham’s cheeky grin slipped back into place as he looked over Agnes’s shoulder to the women in the room. “And all in one place. A luckier lad, I do not know. I’m just grateful I didn’t send our kitchen help on delivery tonight.”
“Och, wipe that grin off your face. It’s not like we’re having a pajama party, Graham.” Agnes rolled her eyes and took one of the bags from him, crossing the room to put it on the table.
“But if you were …”—Graham’s grin widened—“could you tell me what you’d be doing? In great detail, of course.”
“Of course.” Agnes dropped her voice, all sultry like, and prowled back across the room. Graham’s jaw went slack as she took the other bag with one hand. “First, we’d all change into something much more comfortable …”
“Uh-huh, go on.”
“And then …” Agnes trailed a hand up his chest. Graham’s eyes widened. “We’d kick all the boys out because it’s our clubhouse.”
With that, she shoved him back and slammed the door in his face.
We all hooted in laughter as Agnes held the bag of food in the air like a champion.
“When are you going to stop toying with that man?” Sophie demanded.
“I am not toying with him,” Agnes exclaimed.
A knock at the window had us all turning. Graham pressed his face to the pane, his mouth pulled down in a dramatic frown, and he ran a finger down his cheek as though he was crying.
We all howled, and Lia threw a cushion at the window. With that, Graham held up his hands in defeat and crossed the street to the pub.
“Right. We’ve got snacks, we’ve got wine, what we don’t have is the story.
Talk.” Agnes could have been a drill sergeant as she unpacked food and delivered orders.
I noticed she was studiously avoiding looking at the window where Graham had been, and as much as I wanted to grill her on the history with that relationship, I didn’t feel like I knew her well enough to do so.
Plus, we were here to talk about me.
That, in itself, made me both cringe and smile.
I have people. Despite the pain I felt about Luch—what the hell can’t he tell me?
—I also felt immense comfort. There were wonderful friends in my corner who had left their comfy homes to be with me tonight.
To discuss my woes. Like I said, cringe-worthy and smile-worthy.
I’d honestly never been in the position with a group, an actual group, of friends who were all invested in listening to me talk about my life. Friends had been few and far between in my life, so this was completely outside my normal operating procedure.
Maybe I just need to start there.
Tucking my feet underneath me, I pulled a cushion onto my lap and hugged it, needing comfort.
“I’ve never really had a group of friends before. I don’t really know how to start this,” I said, and Orla’s face softened. She raised a hand.
“Same, girl. Same. It gets easier. They’ll just batter you over the head with friendship until you accept it. Might as well crack on with it now, as you’re a part of us forever.”
“I wouldn’t say batter.” Shona smiled. “What’s a much gentler type of assault?”
“Is assault ever gentle?” I wondered.
“Either way, you’re ours now. Might as well accept it.” Willow beamed at me. “And let me be the first to say that I am pissed that my dress was ruined on an argument. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told.”
“I mean, it wasn’t entirely ruined.” My cheeks pinkened and Willow hooted in laughter.
“All right then, you go, girl.”
“Ahem.” I cleared my throat. “Right, so, basically, long story short—I’ve been on the run my whole life.
Coming to Loren Brae and finding you all?
It’s ... a relief, really. I can finally make a home.
Have friends. Not be looking over my shoulder constantly with the worry that I’ll be run from town. Date. Actually date.”
“You’re planting roots,” Shona said, nodding.
“Exactly. And at first I wasn’t ready to tell Luch about what I was.
But he found out anyway, though he’d told me he’d had his suspicions.
” I filled them in on everything, from the morning of Oban’s healing, all the way to when I’d met Luch’s family last night.
Agnes paused me once to force some food down my throat, but by the time I’d finished talking the room had gone silent.
“What in the world?” Sophie wondered.
I took a deep slug of my Irn Bru. I didn’t want to drink tonight, worried that alcohol would make me do something impulsive like track Luch down at work and beg him to explain what he was hiding from me.
“How much time are you going to give him?” Kaia asked.
“I don’t know. I guess as much time as he needs? I mean, does it matter? I’d like an explanation, at some point. But whatever his family secret is, it seems he’s just not ready to share it.”
“It was enough to send him running,” Orla mused.
“Do you think he’s magick?” Shona wondered and I froze.
It wasn’t the first time the idea had occurred to me, but at the same time, how could he keep something like that from me when I’d shown him my own secret?
“Honestly? I hope not. I really hope not. Because if he is … don’t you see the position that puts me in? I’ve shared my past and almost all the parts of myself with him and he’s not done the same for me. So where would that leave us?”
“Maybe he can’t, though. Like he’s taken an oath or something?” Sophie suggested.
“Or maybe he’s not ready to put it all on the line.” I looked up in surprise at Agnes’s words, a bitter note in her voice, and found her staring out the window at the pub.
“Um, I don’t know. That’s the thing. I just don’t know. So what do I do? Wait it out or just move on?”
“I think you need to give it a few days. See if he comes back to you, offers an explanation. Give him a little time. You obviously care about him, Faelan,” Shona said.
I love him. But maybe … that won’t matter.
I stifled a yawn as I stood.
“I appreciate the advice, ladies, but I’m absolutely beat. I barely slept last night and had back-to-back patients all day.”
“I’ll walk you back up the road,” Sophie said, rising as well. “I’m headed that way.”
“Do you want a lift?” Shona asked. “I drove in because I didn’t want to walk back alone in the dark.”
“Nah, it’s close enough. I like the walk. I know I own the castle and all, but it still gets me, every time, when I walk up that hill and the castle is all lit up against the dark sky.” Sophie held a hand to her heart.
“I get that. I felt that last night, walking to the restaurant. Makes you feel like a princess.”
“It really does,” Sophie gushed and tugged at the hem of her UCLA jumper. “If a princess wears leggings and sweatshirts, that is.”
“Hey, it’s your castle. Your rules.” I laughed, feeling a touch lighter than I had all day. Turning to the room, I held out my hands. “Honestly? This helped. It didn’t solve anything, but it helped. Friendship matters and I want you to know that I won’t take any of you for granted.”
“Och, you’re going to get me going.” Willow waved a hand in front of her eyes, and then after a hearty round of hugs, Sophie and I were out in the cool night air. We fell into step, walking down Main Street toward the loch.
“I’m happy here,” I said, surprising myself. “I mean, just look at this place.”
“I know. It’s just a postcard, isn’t it?” Sophie agreed.
The moon hung, bright and full, a fat bulb in the sky, illuminating a silvery path across the loch.
Lights twinkled in the windows of the houses, and up on the hill, MacAlpine Castle stood, a beacon in the night.
It was a quiet evening, not unusual for a small town night, but as we rounded the corner where Main Street T-d off with the loch, apprehension flared through me. Something felt … off.
A low growl sounded and Sophie grabbed my arm.
“Did you hear that?” Sophie whispered.
“Aye.” I scanned the bushes that lined the road, searching. We waited, but when nothing more came, we looked at each other.
“My flat’s not far. Should we go for it?” I asked, fear creeping in.