Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“It’s time he knows,” Xander says to her softly, but I notice he doesn’t reach out to touch or reassure her.
“Why?” Lucy asks, and the anger in her tone actually surprises me. “Why is it time that anyone told him and not let them figure it out organically? Just because the two of you have known that you’re fated since you were in fucking diapers, doesn’t mean that everyone else is on the same path. It was rude and hurtful, Lorelei. And you know how soft Breena’s heart is.”
“I know,” Lorelei replies miserably. “I’ll go apologize right now.”
“No, I’ll go,” Giles says, holding up a hand.
“None of you will go,” I interrupt, and all heads turn to me. “She’s embarrassed, and it will only make things worse. Leave her be for now—to recover a bit. Giles, if you go in now, she’ll think it’s only because you feel obligated.”
“I do,” he says.
“That’s not what she needs from you,” I reply. “I think we’re all tired here. We should get some rest.”
“I’ll take you home,” Xander offers to Lorelei, but the woman shakes her head.
“I’m fine.”
“If you think I’ll let you go anywhere alone until after the end of the month, you’ve lost your gorgeous mind,” Xander replies, his voice perfectly cordial.
Lorelei’s green eyes sharpen in temper.
“If you’ll let me?” she demands. “In case you missed it, I’m a grown-ass woman who does what I want, when I want, and I don’t consult you for any of it. You made damn sure of that, Xander Appleton. And I’m in the kind of mood this morning that I almost dare anything to try to fuck with me. I’d take delight in tearing something apart.”
With that, she sets off, her cloak billowing behind her like the pissed-off witch she is.
Lucy simply smiles at Xander. “For someone so smart, you’re really quite dumb.”
His eyes narrow, and then he shifts into a raven and flies off, I suspect to keep an eye on the woman he loves.
“Don’t overthink it,” Lucy advises as she turns to Giles, who’s staring at Breena’s cottage, his hands planted on his hips and his face lined with misery.
“You obviously don’t know me very well if you think I won’t.” He shakes his head. “I’m going to stay here in my car for a while. Just to make sure she’s safe.”
“That’s a little creepy,” Lucy says, making Giles smile. “Sweet, with a tinge of stalker.”
“I won’t stay too long,” he promises and walks to his car, settling in the driver’s seat and seeming to brood.
“Do you know how to drive?” Lucy asks as she, Nera, and I make our way to her vehicle.
“No. I don’t go much farther than a couple of miles from Hallows End, so there’s never been a need.”
“Do you want to learn?”
“Someday,” I reply as we all climb in, and Lucy starts the vehicle, driving us to her house. “Your aunts invited me to their home for dinner tomorrow evening. I’m to come alone.”
“It’s not as ominous as it sounds,” Lucy rushes to assure me. “It’s just that they want you all to themselves so the cousins can’t take over the conversation.”
She glances my way as she turns into the driveway and smiles.
“You don’t have to promise to marry me or anything.”
I can’t do that until we lift the curse and I’m able to promise to spend the rest of my life with her.
My stomach clenches at the thought of watching her grow old without me. Of watching her die while I’m stuck in this hell for more centuries to come.
“That’s not going to happen,” she says softly, and rather than getting out of the car, she reaches over to take my hand.
“We don’t know that,” I reply, and after giving her hand a squeeze, I get out of the car and walk around to open her door for her. Nera joins us as we walk wearily up the steps to her door, worn out both physically and spiritually from the night’s events. “We should try to catch a few hours of sleep.”
“You don’t have to go to Hallows End?”
I shake my head and take her hand as I lead them both up to the bedroom. “No. No one is expecting me for anything. Let’s rest.”
Nera immediately lies on his bed, and once Lucy and I shed our clothes, we climb into her bed together.
But rather than settling in for sleep, she turns to me and presses her lips to my ear.
“I need you,” she breathes.
And, without any more words, we make love in the silence.
Lucy’s aunts live in a beautiful little stone cottage in the woods, not far from the ocean. With ivy and roses climbing the side of the building, and the established gardens, not much has changed here in the past few hundred years.
This used to be my good friend Samuel’s home. It didn’t look all that different back then.