I wasn’t even out the door before Blake had slid into my chair, leaning it back so it scraped against the bookshelf and putting his dirty fabric boots on top of the desk. I glared at him and whirled around. I can’t bear to watch this.
Rowan appeared beside me, I glared at Rowan. “Are you happy? You got your way.”
“I didn’t do anything. Blake was the one who—”
“You gave him the idea.” I was being a dick, but I couldn’t stop.
Rowan looked away. I could tell from the sag of his shoulders that he was crushed. Well, fuck him. He wanted to come with me, he’d have to get used to being yelled at. “We should go,” he whispered. “It’s a long bus ride.”
Arthur maneuvered his car out of the shed, and we all piled inside. Rowan had to hide in the boot so we could fit Connor’s car seat into the back. I sat in the front seat, while Maeve squeezed in the backseat beside Jane and Connor. Arthur had music blaring so loud no one could talk over it, which was just as well because the next words out of my mouth weren’t going to be pleasant.
We pulled over outside the small row of shops on the corner of Blossom and Honeysuckle roads. My friend Bianca Sinclair waved at us from where she was cleaning the window of her shop, Resurrection Ink – the tattoo parlour where Arthur, Flynn and I got most of our ink done. I couldn’t bring myself to lift my hand to wave back.
“I’ll just drop you here,” Arthur said, pointing around the corner at Jane’s cottage. “The Jag doesn’t like turning around in that narrow lane.”
Maeve leapt out and yanked open the boot. Rowan rolled out, rubbing his side. “Bloody stroller in my spleen,” he muttered.
Maeve leaned in the window and pressed her hand to my cheek. “I’m worried about you, grumpy face.”
“You’d be grumpy, too, if you knew where I was going.” And if the one thing that gave your life meaning had been taken away from you.
“I wish you’d tell me where you were going. You can’t keep secrets, Corbin. You’ve already kept a huge secret from me to try and protect me, and I’m telling you it was the wrong decision.”
“Noted.” I pressed my cheek against her hand, the warmth of it giving me a strength I didn’t know was possible. “I will tell you, I promise. I just can’t deal with talking about it right now. I need all the energy I have just to actually do the thing, especially since I’ve got Rowan tagging along.”
“What have you got against Rowan all of a sudden?”
“Nothing. It’s not about me. I’ll explain later.”
“But you think this could help us?”
“I know it could help us. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to get the answers we need.”
“Okay, fine. Good luck out there, mystery man.” Maeve pressed her mouth to my forehead, and darted away to catch up with Jane.
Arthur yanked the car away from the kerb so hard, my body jerked forward, and I slammed my head into the dash. ‘Easy, mate!” I rubbed my head. That’s going to leave a lump.
“Did you do something with Maeve?” he growled, as he jerked the wheel around a corner. Rowan’s belt flew out of his hands, and he slid across the backseat.
“Careful, mate.” I gripped the edge of the window. “I don’t think this car can handle a Formula 1 circuit.”
Arthur stared straight ahead, his teeth grinding together. “I asked a question, Corbin.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, we both did. But we didn’t break the rule. At least, I didn’t. Maeve made the first move.”
“She made the first move with me, too.” Rowan said quietly.
“She’s been with you, too?” Arthur looked totally rogered.
“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” I said, feeling I should stick up for Rowan, despite the fact he’d probably ruined my chances of success by coming along. Why shouldn’t Maeve want him? He was … well, he was special.
“So how far has this gone?” Arthur growled.
I didn’t say anything. He could fill in the gaps.
“And Flynn, too?” Arthur asked.
“Flynn and I … did some stuff,” I said. “Not all the way, but we might have if Rowan hadn’t interrupted.”
“Sorry,” Rowan whispered.
“Mate, don’t apologise. But yeah, I don’t know what Flynn might’ve done on his own.”
“Fuck,” Arthur growled. “Next you’ll tell me she’s been with Blake, too.”
I bloody hope not. “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “You know what the atmosphere in the house has been like since she arrived. It was bound to be this way – Maeve seems to be forming a connection with each of us, and if those dreams of hers are any indication, she doesn’t want to choose.”
“I like her,” Arthur said.
“We all do.”
“No.” Arthur seemed to be struggling with words. “I like her. I want—fuck!”
A flame burst from the dashboard behind the wheel. Arthur yanked his hands off the wheel, and the car lurched to the other side of the road.
Without Flynn here to put the fire out, it lept high, licking the windshield glass and crawling up toward the canvas roof. A horrible chemcally smell filled the car. Quickly, I sucked all the air from inside. Arthur’s face puckered as the air was driven from his lungs, his fingers on the wheel turning bone white. Without oxygen, the flame fizzed out, and I released the air. Arthur and Rowan gasped for breath.
“That was close,” Rowan breathed.
Arthur leaned over the wheel. I wanted to reach out to him, pat him on the back or something, but Arthur didn’t do that kind of shit. He never had a Dad like mine, a Dad who supported him and gave him books to read and told him he was doing a good job. He had no idea what to do with his emotions, which was why they flared up at inappropriate times and set fire to his precious car.
Arthur stomped on the brake so hard my body lurched forward, my forehead coming only a hair’s breadth from hitting the windshield before the seatbelt yanked me back. “Mate, are you—”
“Get out,” Arthur mumbled, not looking up.
“But—”
“I said, get out.”
I pushed the door open and dragged myself out. Arthur sped off before Rowan had even properly shut the door.
“What’s his problem?” Rowan asked, shoving his hands in his pockets and staring down at his shoes. Whenever Rowan went outside of the castle, he had to count the eyelets in his shoes. Most of his obsessive behaviours didn’t make sense beyond his need to control his anxiety, but this one I thought I could explain. When I found Rowan, he was drowning in a pool of his own urine in a doss house, off his face on heroin, his bones jutting out of his sagging skin like drumsticks. His torn clothes reeked of shit and rotting flesh, and he wasn’t wearing any shoes. When he’s outside, especially with concrete beneath his feet, he has to look down and remember that he’s a different person now, a person who wears shoes and drinks tea and has a life worth living.
“Arthur thinks he’s in love, and he doesn’t want any of us touching his princess,” I sighed. “No matter how much she’s begging to be touched.”
As if I needed another problem to deal with.
Hang on a bloody moment. Why am I assuming it’s my problem? I’m not the leader any more. I’m just another guy who lives in that house. If Arthur wants to get all grumpy because he’s the only one Maeve hasn’t slept with, that’s his business.
The pure selfishness of the thought sent a weird thrill down my spine. Such a weird sensation. I don’t have to stress about it. It’s not my problem.
But then Keegan’s face flashed in front of me, his skin blue and his glassy eyes glaring straight at me, reminding me what happened when you let your guard down, when you stopped looking out for those you care about. My chest tightened. I dug my phone out of my pocket and started scrolling for Arthur’s number.
“Don’t call him,” Rowan whispered. “He needs to calm down.”
“I can’t leave it like this. What if he sets fire to the church? Then how
will Jane get Connor baptised?”
“Corbin,” Rowan’s voice was quiet, but there was an edge I rarely heard, an edge that said he was going to push this.
“Fine.” I shoved my phone back in my pocket, but the tightness didn’t leave my chest. “I’ll deal with it when we get back.”
We walked into the bus station. I scanned the timetable, but the numbers blurred together. My head throbbed. The scones I had for breakfast squirrelled around in my gut. I squeezed my eyes shut, and Keegan’s face taunted me from behind my eyelids. I don’t want to do this.
“Corbin, you don’t look good.”
“I’m fine,” I sighed, fishing in my pocket for some cash. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”
TWELVE: MAEVE
“Did the guys seem weird to you?” I asked Jane as we walked up the lane toward her house. Arthur let us out a block early, but in all honesty, I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in that car with him any longer. Things had got weirdly tense all of a sudden.
I scanned the street, suddenly aware of how alone and vulnerable we were. I thrust my hand into my purse, searching for the trinkets the guys had given me for protection. My fingers brushed each object in turn – the medallion, the small dagger, the twig, and the parchment. Arthur had left to drop Corbin and Rowan off, and he was going to meet us at the church on his way back, so it was reassuring to know I had some of my guys’ magical protection.
There was also a package of cookies in there Rowan had slipped to me as I climbed out of the car. He called them “biscuits”, but I’d already eaten one and they are sweet and lemony and delicious.
“They seemed like normal guys to me.” Jane munched on a cookie. “Why, they don’t usually get all sulky when you tell them you want to keep fucking all of them?”
My cheeks flared. “I didn’t say that. That’s not—”
“I can read between the lines, Maeve. You’re young, full of witchy hormones, and in mourning for your own special tragedy. If I was in your shoes, I wouldn’t have lasted two days in that castle with those hotties. You’ve been here a week, so I know you’re fucking at least some of them. My question is, who?”
Now my whole face was on fire. I tried to turn away, but something in Jane’s eyes held me. I remembered what Inspector Davies had said, and I realised that Jane might be the only person I ever met who I could actually talk about this with. The pain of losing my parents still clung to my chest, following me everywhere like a ghost. Jane lost her grandmother long enough ago that the raw pain of it had faded a little – I could see my future in her knowing eyes. I needed that. For all her guy-crazy antics, Kelly was still a virgin, and she was dealing with her own grief that was as raw and all-consuming as my own. I didn’t have any other girlfriends I could talk to, and as much as I was growing close to the guys, it didn’t seem like a thing I could really discuss with them.
“Two of them,” I mumbled. “Corbin and Rowan.”
“Oh.” Jane flicked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. “Interesting.”
“Yeah?”
“I wouldn’t have expected you to go for that combination. Corbin, sure. Those dark eyes, the huge shoulders, that infuriating need to take charge of every situation. But I had you pegged for the sword-wielding maniac, not the quiet queer guy.”
“Rowan’s not queer!” But a flicker of Rowan’s face when he’d seen Corbin and Flynn on the couch with me passed in front of my eyes. “Is he?”
“Hell yeah. At the very least, he’s bi. He’s mad keen on that Corbin, I reckon. I’m not surprised. Damaged guys like Rowan always cling to their saviours. Usually it’s the mighty pussy that puts them on the straight and narrow, but in Rowan’s case, it’s Corbin and his savior complex that have Rowan all hot under the collar. And you too, Maeve the witch.”
“Don’t call me that. It sounds weird,” I laughed. I didn’t think she had it right about Rowan and Corbin, but what did I know about stuff like this? “I’ve never met a guy like Corbin before.”
“Please,” Jane said. “I’ve met a hundred Corbins in my lifetime. They’re the protectors, the guys who have to be in charge because they can’t stand the idea that someone else might take responsibility for their actions. If I had three guesses, I’d say he’s carrying guilt about something he did in the past. Any history of drug use? The Corbins of the world are often users.”
“I actually don’t know much about his past, apart from the fact that his family lived at Briarwood until he was fifteen, and then his parents moved away for some reason and left Corbin behind.”
Jane waved a hand. “Whatever. They aren’t as interesting to me as you, Maeve Crawford-Moore of Arizona and Briarwood House. What’s your story?”
I shrugged. “You know most of it already. My parents died. I came to Briarwood, discovered I was a witch and my ancestors have spent centuries preventing the fae host from invading earth and causing chaos and mayhem. And I’m living with four hot guys—”
“Five hot guys.”
“Right.” I gulped. I couldn’t forget Blake. I wasn’t sure how long he’d stay, how long the others would tolerate him if Corbin didn’t accept him. But I guessed now that I was in charge of the coven I could force him to let Blake stay.
The sense of Blake’s fingers sliding between my legs while Flynn’s mouth devoured mine. Flynn’s already accepted him. At least, as far as I’m concerned.
“What were you doing in Arizona, before you found out about this place?”
“I was in community college, studying physics.” The memory of my MIT acceptance letter on the fridge flashed in front of my eyes. “It’s my dream to attend MIT. Last year I was accepted, but I couldn’t get financial aid. I reapplied last year and managed to get a scholarship. But Daigh somehow got to the college and they rescinded the scholarship offer. I got that news right after my parents died.”
“So no MIT?”
I shrugged. “I could sell the castle and get enough money for pretty much anything I wanted, but …”
“But it’s full of hot guys?”
“Yeah. And the whole my-father-is-a-fae-king-hellbent-on-destroying-the-earth-and-I-have-to-stop-him thing has kind of taken precedence. Plus, I’m still all messed up right now. I can’t seem to get through a day without breaking down about my parents. That’s not the ideal state-of-mind to be making decisions about my future.”
“So why physics?” Jane wrinkled her nose. “I was always rubbish at maths.”
We rounded the corner on to Jane’s street. The bright flowers in her front garden spilled over the low wall.
“Physics isn’t just numbers on a page. It’s the essence of life. It’s the laws that govern our universe, and potentially even universes beyond ours.” I started to explain my theory about the fae realm being in another part of the multiverse, and the gateway a wormhole between them, but Jane screwed up her face in disgust.
“Christ, you really are a nerd.” Jane laughed as she pushed open the gate, and we squeezed up the path between the overflowing beds. “I used to hate on girls like you at school—”
Jane stopped short, her breath catching. I crashed into her, tripping over the edge of the path and toppling over a flowerpot.
“Ow!” I cried as my knee hit a garish gnome. “Jane, what—”
Jane’s face turned bone white. I followed her eyes to the door of the cottage. Written across the cherry-red door in thick black paint were the words:
THE WHORE WILL BURN.
THIRTEEN: ROWAN
I paid for my tickets and followed Corbin onto the bus. He slid into a seat near the back. I hesitated, not sure if he wanted me to sit next to him or give him some time alone. But then someone bumped me from behind, and I stumbled down the aisle. “Move it, darkie,” someone hissed in my ear. I nearly fell in Corbin’s lap as I hurried to sit down, my heart pounding.
This is why I hate going outside. At least when I lived on the street, the drugs numbed the sting of dicks like that.
A few
minutes later, the bus pulled out of the station, heading for the Cotswolds. I’d never been before. On TV, it was all picturesque rolling hills and medieval thatched villages, the kind of place where an earth witch like me would be happiest. Corbin shoved his earbuds into his ears. Loud metal music blared from the tiny speakers. He stared out the window.
My heart hammered against my chest. I knew why Corbin was acting so cold, why he didn’t want me to come with him. Well, I didn’t really know, since I’d never had any family of my own. Except for Corbin. And the thought of disappointing him in any way made my body clammy with sweat.
But I knew what it was like to not feel in control, to have something burrowing inside you that altered you so completely that all it left behind was a shadow of yourself.
The Castle of Water and Woe Page 9
