Spotting Anders sitting on a low wall at the junction of the house and garden, I crossed over to him, passing through the small garden gate and crossing the lawn. He was sitting slightly hunched over, hands folded under his arms for warmth and staring off into the distance.
“Are you all right?” I asked, stepping over the wall and settling down next to him.
“Three bloody years I’ve been with that woman and she would have sold us all out.”
I didn’t quite know what to say to that. We sat in silence for a while until I said, “I’m sorry.”
“You’ve nothing to be sorry for.” A sudden noise behind us made him glance back. Checking over my shoulder, I noticed people filing from the barn, some getting into cars and leaving, some aiming for the house. Anders hopped down from the wall, holding his hand out to me. “Come on. Let’s walk a while.”
Anders led us along a path by the side of the house and down to another field where he rested his hands over the top of a wall. I propped myself up against him, wincing at the exercise. My wound might look healed, but it was going to take a few days for it to feel right inside. “You okay?” he asked.
“I’ll live.” We stood there, thinking about that before I said, “If I hadn’t come here, you could have kept your eye on the Brotherhood. We might have had the opportunity to find out more.” I trailed off when Anders made a sceptical noise.
“Maybe it’s a good thing that you’re here. Perhaps it’s time we made the Council listen.”
“Étoile is the right person to talk to about that.”
“Do you know anything about this?” Anders reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. He studied it for a moment before passing it to me. When I opened it, a familiar card slid out. A summons.
“I got one a week ago. Étoile, too,” I told him.
“Do you know who’s running for the Council?”
I shook my head. “Don’t know. I’m not exactly at the top of the Council’s secret phone tree.”
Anders huffed. When he turned to me, he was sober as a judge when I asked, “You ever thought of running?”
“For the Council or away?”
“Away.”
I thought of Georgia Thomas’ face the last time I saw her. Having her as Council leader didn’t even bear thinking about. I doubted there was much I could do to change that, but I could, at least, make my vote count in a different direction, assuming the summons meant I got one. “You have got to be kidding,” I said. “Running away does no good for anyone.” I gulped when I realised Anders might take that as a huge criticism of Rachel’s actions. A decision to run hadn’t helped her either, or anyone else.
“How did they know to send you a summons?” I asked.
“Perhaps they’re not as ignorant as I thought,” mused Anders. “Or maybe it’s just magic.
“Just magic.” I smiled. Anders turned to me and surprised me by smiling too, repeating my words with a laugh. “Never thought I’d say that.”
“So this summit... You are going?” Anders pressed.
“Yes.”
“Then I suppose I’ll see you there.”
“I suppose you will.”
“It’s cold, Stella, and I don’t like to keep you out when you’ve been hurt. Wouldn’t want you to get ill.”
“I don’t mind sitting with you, if you want the company.” I knew a dismissal when I heard one, but I offered anyway.
“Thanks, but I’ll take some alone time. I like the early mornings, the sunsets. Rachel never did, she never really liked the life here.” He stared out at the dawn.
“You’ll be okay,” I whispered.
He didn’t turn his head. “I know.”
I left Anders there to enjoy watching the sun rise, hoping that it would help ease his first steps towards putting Rachel behind him, not that things are ever easy. But seeing the beauty in something natural, after something so ugly, was always a good start.
The nymphs were the first to go, disappearing into the woods just as the dawn broke and the birds started to sing. They’d been a quiet sort, able to calm the agitated witches. I noticed that Bree and Daniel talked quietly a lot and she waved cheerfully to him as she went, following her kinfolk.
Next went the wolves, who had taken to setting up a camp of sorts in the garden. Some of them left in cars, some of them melting into the woods. I guessed that they must have been helping run interference as per Anders’ plan and that was why I hadn’t seen many of them until now. Gage and Annalise had been sorry to see the local wolves go. Then Annalise and Beau slunk off to the barn to talk in peace and I decided it wasn’t worth losing a limb to interrupt and ask how they found their brethren.
“Hey.”
I spun around and smiled when I saw Gage. “Hey yourself.”
“Can we talk for a moment? Alone.”
“Yes, of course.”
We walked away from where Anders sat, still silently staring at the fields, and around to the small parking area, now empty.
“I wanted to say thank you for everything you did for Annalise,” he started.
“I only did what any friend would do.”
“Not many friends would put themselves in danger. You got shot, Stella.” He leant against my car, his face shadowed.
“Everyone came to help, not just me,” I pointed out, uncomfortable with any kind of hero status. “Étoile told me Evan came to see you in Wilding, to help.”
“Yeah, he really came through. His demon friend, Micah, helped coordinate the search in Wilding. We even flew over together; Evan, Beau, and me. He helped us negotiate with the local wolves to come help us. He and Beau came up with new tactics for Anders’ plan to draw the guards out front, away from the house.”
I smiled. Evan’s business clearly put him in good stead for organising getaways. “Good.”
Gage’s next words stopped me still. “It came with a price.”
“Wha... What do you mean?” I stuttered, puzzled by the stiff line of his jaw and the dark look that flashed across his face.
“You sure you wanna know?”
I took a deep breath. Did I want to know? Did I want to know what condition Evan had stipulated in return for helping save my friend? What could Gage possibly give him in return for his assistance? “Out with it, Gage,” I said, bracing myself.
“For his support, for his help in getting Annalise out of there, he made me promise that I would stay away from you.”
“But we’re neighbours,” I protested, realising immediately I was being way too literal. Gage was clearly talking about something that concerned Evan far more: our very brief past when we kissed, and more than once. “Oh,” I said, flatly.
“I swore,” Gage continued, his voice laced with anger and resentment. “I swore to Evan, I wouldn’t pursue you, that I wouldn’t do anything to make you doubt your relationship with him. No matter how much you got under my skin, I swore that I would never make a move on you even though you and I both know that I want to.”
I was quiet for a moment, absorbing that. “You have a girlfriend,” I said, at last, like that solved everything. “Michelle.”
“Michelle isn’t my girlfriend. We’ve been on a few dates, that’s all. It’s nothing serious.”
I shook my head, looking away, unable to look at him. The short distance between us could be a chasm now and I had no idea how to breach it, to keep our friendship. “Evan shouldn’t have said anything like that to you,” I said, after I thought about it for a moment. “That was wrong. He should never have put any kind of condition on helping Annalise.”
“Yeah, well, he did. Look, I respect Evan. He’s a good guy and he said something stupid because he loves you. I get that, I do. Do I think he’s the right guy for you? Maybe not, but that’s because I’m me and he’s him. Do I hope that you’ll give me a chance some day? Yeah, I do.” Gage looked at me, his eyes burning bright. “I’m glad I, we, got Annalise back. My sister’s safety was the most important thing and we got her b
ack. I’m grateful. But I thought you should know what he said. Whether that’s because I’m looking out for you, or because I want you mad at him... I don’t know. Maybe both.”
Gage went inside the house without a backwards glance and, a few minutes later, when I could put one foot in front of the other, I found him stretched out on the sofa, fast asleep. I covered him with a blanket and figured any more questions I had would wait for another time.
I found Étoile and Evan in the kitchen. “Daniel’s taken the spare room upstairs,” she said. “I’m going to find somewhere to sleep too.”
“Gage is on the sofa.”
“Not for long,” Étoile said, and winked as she left the room. I suspected Gage would hit the floor within the next few minutes.
“What about you? Tired?” asked Evan.
“Worn out,” I confessed. The day’s events, my injuries, Gage’s bombshell were all speeding up on me. “It feels like the world’s longest day. I can’t remember the last time I slept properly. I want a warm bed, a soft pillow and fluffy covers.”
“Will you take the study floor, a pile of blankets and me?”
I stood on tiptoes, kissed him, and pulled him in the direction of the study. He didn’t need to ask me twice. “Absolutely.” I could wait for his explanation, for his side of the story because I owed him that. After all, I had been the one who charged here, and Evan had come, condition or not, to help. I refused to believe he wouldn’t have come. If Gage had said no, I doubted Evan would have even considered walking away. I yawned, slapping a hand over my mouth as Evan pushed the door shut behind us. We had plenty of time to talk this through. Right now, all I wanted was pure sleep.
Eighteen
“Go away,” I said, pushing at the hands that were shaking me awake. A pair of lips landed on mine, kissing me into the land of awake. “Much better,” I murmured, forcing my eyes open. For a moment, I didn’t have a clue where I was, then the past few hours came rushing back to me all at once. The escape, the collapsing tunnel, being shot, Rachel Kelly’s exile and Anders’ surprise summons.
“Hey, sleepyhead. Time to wake up.” Evan’s voice had just a note of amusement as his hands reached my sides, just above my wound, tickling until I pushed him away.
“I haven’t been asleep nearly long enough,” I complained, burrowing back under the blankets we’d scavenged and arranged on the floor. It didn’t have a hope of being as good as a bed, but we curled up together and I’d fallen asleep quickly. Speaking of beds, I missed mine.
“They’re waiting for us.”
“Tell them you couldn’t wake me up,” I mumbled, pulling Evan to me, but it was half hearted because my stomach ached... hell, everything ached. I was definitely taking it easy for a couple of weeks when I got home. “Let’s have ‘I missed you’ sex.”
“On the floor of Anders’ study?” asked Evan.
“With us watching?” asked Étoile. I cranked open an eye, looking up to see Étoile and behind her Annalise standing in the open doorway. I saw Beau walk past, pausing to kiss Annalise’s cheek. Étoile looked amused, perky even; Annalise meanwhile was sporting several unattractive shades of black and blue.
“You could leave,” I suggested hopefully.
“I’ll make her coffee double strength,” offered Annalise, edging out with a wave of her lightly bandaged hand. “You’ve got five minutes, guys.”
“You could do it twice in that time,” Étoile teased and followed Annalise out, closing the door behind her.
Evan lay down next to me. “I think she just insulted me.”
“You must have really grown on her.”
“Lucky me. Time to get up, Stella. We’ve got things to do and time waits for no witch.”
I got ready in the bathroom seeing as Anders wanted his study back and it was there that I realised the source of my stomachache, and that I wasn’t pregnant. Sitting on the floor for a moment, I counted to ten slowly, waiting for relief, or disappointment, or something to hit me. While I had no doubt that I would probably enjoy being a mother someday, enjoy having a family of my own, it wasn’t going to be soon, and that was okay by me. I wasn’t in a hurry. I had a lot to do first, things to see, college to organise, several days of work to catch up on for sure. I hadn’t even discussed the subject with Evan, nor the surprise of thinking I was pregnant. That would be something to add on to that talk we’re going to have very soon.
After I got over the idea that it was really rude to go through someone else’s cabinets, I scrabbled in Anders’ bathroom cabinet and found some things Rachel had left behind which would do until I went to a shop. With the worry of motherhood now off my mind, I went downstairs with a spring in my step.
I found Evan and drew him outside, seeing as it was the only place we could talk alone. Evan made a coat appear and slid it around my shoulders, though he seemed impervious to the cold. We had some talking to do and we needed to do it quickly. “I know what you said to Gage,” I told him. “I know that you put a condition on helping him.”
Evan rolled his eyes.
“So, it’s true then?” I persisted.
“Yes, I told him to back off but you’ve got to understand this, Stella. Even if he had told me to go to hell, I would still have come. I would still have helped both of you. There was never any question of that.”
“So what was the point?” I asked. I guessed, but I wanted to hear it nevertheless.
“I knew when I found you that things happened with Gage. I knew that he kissed you when I walked out and I know that if I had never found you, maybe you would have loved him instead. I’m not blind. I see how he looks at you. I just wanted him to know that you were off limits.” He ran a hand through his short crop of hair, and I think I saw a touch of chagrin. “I wanted him to be clear that you are with me.”
“You couldn’t just have trusted me? I’m with you. I want you. I love you,” I reminded him as I poked his chest lightly, smiling at him. I could have gotten mad, I could have shouted, but where would that have gotten us? So, he did something stupid. For all his power, he wasn’t infallible.
“You’re not mad at me?” he asked cautiously.
I stepped closer, sliding into his arms. “I should be, but I’m not. Just trust me in the future, okay? I know there are some issues there so I don’t expect you to like him, or trust him, but I do and I hope you will. Gage is my friend and nothing is going to happen between us, I promise.”
“Okay,” Evan said at last and I felt his chest rise and fall as he held me lightly, like I was fragile. Given how sore my whole body felt, he wasn’t far from the truth. “Okay,” he said again. Then Étoile was at the door beckoning us inside and we were pulled into the warmth of Anders’ home.
An hour later, after two cups of coffee, three slices of thickly buttered toast, and my attempt to make myself look vaguely presentable, Anders suggested we go to see what was left of Hawkscroft.
We piled into Anders’ car, a huge Land Rover Defender that had seen better days, and drove the short way to Hawkscroft. I half expected him to drive right up to the house, a thought that made a cold shiver run through me, but instead of taking the country roads that led that way, Anders swung the Land Rover away, finally parking on the side of a road. We followed him along a country track, worn by thousands of feet, over a stile dissecting the fence, and up a hill where we stopped, gazing down at the house, close enough to have a bird’s eye view, far enough that we wouldn’t get in anyone’s way.
“The first floor took most of the damage,” said Étoile, pointing to where windows had blown out.
“We call it the ground floor here,” I murmured, but semantics aside, she was right. The fire damage was extensive. Piles of smouldering debris lay on the charred lawn, curtains, furnishings and other things all contributed to the mess. Some windows gaped, their glass spattering the gravel and lawns, including what looked like the windows to the library where I sat with Auberon Morgan. The ground floor seemed to have borne the brunt of the damage w
hile the upper floor appeared to be largely unscathed.
“Look over there,” said Annalise. Beau stood next to her, his arms crossed as looked over the scene. He hadn’t left her side since they were reunited, not hovering, but always there if she needed anything. It would probably take a long time before he didn’t worry every minute that he wasn’t with her. “Is that... was that the tunnel?”
I followed the line of her hand, taking in the sunken strip of earth that ran away from the house. After two hundred yards or so, it abruptly stopped, the rest of the grounds shaky but intact. Two police officers stood back while their sniffer dogs circled the area, pausing to smell the grass and racing back whenever some of the ground crumbled away.
“Doesn’t look like they found anyone down there,” Annalise continued. “Maybe they all ran back to the house.”
Looking around, at the one solitary police car and the two fire engines, bright red under the cool morning sun, I said, “It doesn’t look like anyone is too interested in investigating. I mean, there would be more police, wouldn’t there?”
“If a gas explosion is the official cause, they wouldn’t look further,” replied Evan.
“What about the bodies you found last night?” I asked, when I remembered that I hadn’t asked when he first told us. “Wouldn’t they show foul play?”
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