“Fine. What about your friend? She isn’t a civilian. I remember her,” he says, nodding toward the counter. Abby is back from the stock room and standing at the counter scanning Haley’s new book into the computer. “She caused the whole building to shake that night in Charleston.”
I glare back at him. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Why?” He grins at me now, that love of a good challenge on his face that reminds me way too much of Julien. “She’s badass. I’m sure she could take me, and I like that in a woman.”
I grab his head and force his eyes back out the window. “First of all, Abby has a boyfriend.”
Lyric shrugs. “You mean that big scared guy who ran away from me last night? Minor complication.”
This time I give his head a shove. “Secondly, an Innocent getting too close to the Haunted is one of the reasons we’re in this big mess anyway.”
Lyric leans back in his seat and smiles up at me. “I like how you say that like it wasn’t you who got too close to one of the Haunted.”
I glare back at him, but it does no good to deter his grin.
“My brother loved you.”
I turn away from him, and he sits up in his seat to make me see his face. “Julien loved you so much that he risked my life and his own to save yours.”
“Which is why I didn’t let Reid kill you last night,” I say, spitting the words out through my teeth. “I want to find that book. I want to end this curse for you and him.”
Lyric leans in closer. “And if the Julien we know comes back to us…what then?”
“What do you mean?”
Lyric playfully taps his fingers along the arm of the chair, his voice dripping into a singsong effect. “One knows not the true magnitude of love until it’s been ripped away. It is then, in the deepest part of one’s despair, that you truly know the depth of its power.”
I glance down just in time to watch Lyric’s eyes revert back to normal. His Mr. Hyde is toying with me. I grab hold of his shirt. “This is your last warning. I don’t need you or your know-it-all Monster in there meddling in my business. Julien was my friend, and I admit we blurred the lines, but Julien knew how I felt. He knew it didn’t matter how much I cared about him, I cared about Reid a little more.”
“Sounds to me like you’re still trying to convince yourself.”
I shove Lyric back into his seat as I turn away from him. I’ve had enough of him today.
“What’s going on here?”
I glance over to see Reid coming through the door. I didn’t even register the ring. He’s carrying a giant stack of books. I glare back at Lyric. “Nothing.”
Lyric holds up his hands. “I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.” Then he glances at Abby. Sizing her up. “Everything else…I can’t make any promises.”
The books drop on the small coffee table next to Lyric with a thud. Reid leans over it, jerking Lyric’s chin around. “You look at my sister like that again, Cote…and you’re going to regret the day you stepped foot in Sanctuary.”
Lyric’s eyes widen. “Sister?”
“Twins, actually,” I say, smirking at him.
Lyric’s surprise slowly turns into a smile. “Not to play devil’s advocate, but exactly what can you do about it?”
A spark of lightning flashes in Reid’s eyes. It turns them completely white. I’ve never seen them do that before. “I can do a lot about it. So just try me, smart ass.”
Lyric jumps back. “You’re—”
This time Reid smiles. “And I suggest you keep your mouth shut about it.”
“There’s no way,” Lyric says, gasping. “The legend. The legend says only females…”
“Like I said,” Reid gives him the death stare, “look at my sister like that again, and that little hangover you’ve got will feel like a day at the spa.”
Lyric slowly looks around the room. “Do the others know?”
“No,” I say, stepping closer.
“And it’s going to stay that way.” The lightning flashes in Reid’s eyes again. He’s powerful. I had no idea he had that much skill. Is he still getting stronger? “You understand me?”
Lyric nods. Then he glances at the books, gesturing toward them with his chin. “What are those for?”
The mood lightens, and Reid sits on the stool next to Lyric’s chair, pulling the other stool out for me to join him. “We’ll get to those. First, I need you to tell me everything you know about Roux’s brothers. We need to figure out who the curse passed to in his family.”
Lyric sighs and relaxes back in his seat. “Where is my hangover cure?”
Reid pulls a brown glass bottle out of his pocket and sits it on the table. “Talk first.”
Lyric sneers at him. “Roux has two brothers. He always mentioned a Talbot Bessette. He said Talbot lives down in the Bayou in some swamp.”
“You think the curse went to him?”
Lyric shakes his head. “No. I specifically remember Roux calling him the baby of the group. The curse definitely went to his other brother. Roux didn’t like to talk about him, though. He’d never mention his name.”
I sigh and slump down on my stool. “That sounds familiar.”
“Yeah, that’s why I stopped at the library and got these.” Reid pats the stack of books he set on the table. “Catalogs of family trees in Sanctuary. If Roux and his brothers are named after the same brothers who stole the Book of the Moon, then we need to find the other name.”
Lyric smirks across the table at him. “You’re not going to find any family history of the Haunted in there.”
“How do you know?”
“Because every Haunted knows our family history is kept in the Raven’s Tower.”
Reid glances at me and then back to Lyric. This is news to us. “What Raven’s Tower?”
Lyric laughs. “You’re part of the Innocent and you haven’t heard of it?”
Reid shakes his head like it should be obvious by now. Lyric leans closer to him, lowering his voice so Abby and her friend chatting at the counter can’t hear. “I always heard Roux rave on, angry about how my father left Raven Ridge and everything in the tower unprotected. He said everything you ever wanted to know about the Haunted is in there.”
“Where is this Raven’s Tower? We hiked up the entire Ridge last week and didn’t see any tower.”
“Only one of the Haunted can open the door,” he says smugly. “That means you need me. It’s going to take some convincing or some highly skilled trespassing to get you guys there, though.”
“Who do we need to convince?”
“The person who lives in that house at the bottom of the Ridge. That Raven she has sees everything. I came across the mountain on my way into town, and it followed me. Any time I got too close to that long wall of ridge, it would swoop down and practically peck my eyes out.”
Reid looks at me. “Svetta. That’s her Raven.”
“We will just have to convince her to let us pass through.”
Lyric shrugs. “Works for me.” He glances back at the counter again and then to Reid. “Be sure to invite your sister to tag along.”
Reid’s eyes flash white again and Lyric laughs. He grabs the bottle of potion off the table. “I think I’ll go enjoy my drink over here.”
He trots off in the direction of the counter and Abby. Reid turns to me. “I’m going to hurt him before he gets to be any use to us.”
I smile and point at the counter. Lyric says something to Abby, and I can only assume it’s wildly inappropriate by the way she gasps. The glass bottle in Lyric’s hand suddenly turns a scarlet red. Lyric drops it like a hot potato, shattering across the counter. The contents leak off the corner onto the floor. Lyric clutches his palm against his chest.
I laugh. “Not if Abby beats you to it.”
Reid smiles and moves over to flop down in Lyric’s vacant seat. That’s when I see it. A person across the street, standing out on the second story balcony. Black hair. A tailored dress shirt. A cherry co
lored glass in their hand. The figure leans on the banister, watching us. I stand up and move around Reid to the window. As I blink, the image disappears. The man is gone. Vanished into thin air. No door opened. No hidden shadow. No sign of him at all.
“Willa?”
I move down the window. He has to be there. I saw him. I saw Julien on that balcony. A cold sweat breaks out across my forehead. Reid stands behind me now, brushing his hands across my shoulders. “What is it?”
I touch the glass, pressing my finger against it, smudging the spot where I saw him. I imagined it. The lack of sleep and the stress has finally gotten the best of me. Or maybe it’s the memories I took from Lyric. I thought about them all night as I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling. Julien’s emotionless stare as the madness splintered every last piece of the humanity he had left inside of him.
Each breath I take drives Julien deeper into his manic state of self-torture. The thought hurts. Svetta’s right. The Haunted aren’t the only ones who suffer from this curse. We all do. We all feel the pain of their loss. We have to end it.
“How soon can we go see Svetta?”
“I’ll send the request tonight. We should hear back as soon as tomorrow morning.”
Reid moves beside me now, his touch never breaking contact. “What did you see out there?”
My gaze drops to my feet.
Reid’s gaze drops too. “He’s here.”
I shake my head, rubbing my eyes. “I’m not sure. After stealing Lyric’s memories last night, I keep reliving them like they’re my own.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have had you do that. I didn’t think about what seeing Julien in that condition again would do to you.” He rubs the side of my arm. “We had to make sure he wasn’t using Lyric to get to you.”
“I know.”
“I say we close the shop early today and get you back to Frog Hollow just to be safe.”
I stare out the window at the empty balcony. It didn’t look like a memory, but even Julien can’t disappear like that. “Okay.”
Reid helps Abby get the shop ready to close, but I stare out the window. I watch the rain tip tap against it. Lyric sits back down in the chair behind me. His Ray-Bans are back on and his hood back up. “Where do you think your brother went when he left Charleston?”
Lyric pulls the glasses down to look over them at me. “I think we both know the answer to that question.”
I turn around. “Lyric.”
He pulls his glasses all the way off and sets them down on top of the books on the table. “He wants you dead, Wilhelmina. You know that. I know that.”
“Say it.”
Lyric stands up. “Julien screamed it in his sleep. Your name. Nothing but your name. Over and over again. He can’t think of anything else but causing you the same kind of pain he feels ripping him apart every second of every day.”
Lyric reaches out and touches my arm, but a spark ignites at the point of contact. Lyric jerks away, cupping his hand. “Shit. That hurt.”
Reid walks up behind him, grinning. “I warned you. Keep your hands to yourself.”
Lyric rubs his fingertips. Reid grabs the books off the table and throws Lyric’s glasses back at him. “I’m going to drop these back off at the library. I’ll be back in ten minutes. I’m sure you can manage to behave yourself for that long.”
Lyric intentionally reaches over and touches my elbow, testing if the shock was a one-time thing. Electricity rises over my skin and stings his fingertips again. I glare at Reid. “How are you doing that?”
He winks at me. “Not me, babe. That’s all you. Some spells have lingering effects.”
He disappears out the door. Lyric touches me again. The spark is strong this time, causing him to hop around on his tiptoes as he tries to shake it off. “Shit. That really hurts.”
“Then stop touching me. It’s obviously an effect of me stealing your memories last night.”
Lyric glares back at the door. “He’s clever. I’ll give him that. I wonder, though, if your theory is correct and it’s just you who so conveniently has this reaction.”
Lyric’s gaze turns back to Abby. That determined Cote-type look on his face. Lyric is way too much like his older brother.
“Don’t do it, Lyric.”
He shoots me a grin. There would be no talking him out of it. He waltzes across the room with that slow, confident swagger.
“Lyric.” I follow behind him, whispering frantically now. “Trust me on this one. Don’t do it.”
He doesn’t even bother to turn around and acknowledge me. Lyric jumps the counter, grabs Abby, whirls her around and dips her over rom-com movie style and plants a kiss straight on her unsuspecting lips.
No sparks. Well, at least no visible sparks. Abby’s response rate is longer than I would have suspected. She doesn’t jerk away. She doesn’t even stop the kiss. Lyric brings her back to her feet, setting her back in place. It’s then, and only then, after the shock fades from her face, that she punches Lyric in the nose.
I warned him.
Chapter 9
Ultimatum
The rain definitely brought in a crisp autumn chill to town. I sit wrapped in two blankets in the middle of my bed, staring at the foggy morning outside my window. We are headed back into the depths of Raven Ridge today in hope that with Lyric in tow we can convince Svetta to let us into the Raven’s Tower. We need the book of the Bessette family history. Right now, though, my mind can’t concentrate. All I hear is the sound of my shower. The sprinkling of water against the hard tile. Reid’s clothes hang over the arm of the armchair right next to the bathroom door.
He’ll have to open the door to retrieve them.
Reid probably expects me to go downstairs, maybe whip up some of my famous adventure day coffee with extra espresso in preparation for the long day ahead of us. If that’s what he thinks, then he’s been wrong about me this entire time. I’m not moving from this spot on my bed. He very clearly told me our conversation and everything that conversation was about to lead to that morning out on the porch would be continued. It’s been a week. A rough, busy, full of surprises kind of week, but this morning I effectively decided that to be continued means right now.
The shower kicks off. I climb down my bed, unraveling myself out of my blanket cocoon, and slip off the end to grab the clothes off the chair. His t-shirt is still warm where he got it from the dryer this morning. I slip it on over my tank top and then do the same with the black flannel shirt. Both of them smell like him. I raise the collar of the shirt and inhale the scent.
“What are you doing?”
I glance over my shoulder.
Damn. He got to his boxer briefs, but his jeans are still strung over the edge of the chair. His arms spread out to cover the entire doorframe, his eyebrow cocked in my direction as he watches me tie a knot in the bottom of his t-shirt. A sign that I’m not going to give it back.
“Just getting dressed.” I smile innocently at him, but then enjoy the sight of him again. All of him. Every single exposed inch. “Is that a blush on your face, Reid Thomas?”
He grins, his gaze on the floor, but it gradually rises to meet mine. “Hint taken.”
I shake my head. “Nope. No more hints for you.”
I trot over to my closet, casually dropping the cotton shorts I’d slept in to the floor. Torture Tuesday makes Wicked Wednesday panty selection seem tame. I take my time finding a pair of jeans to go with the shirt I stole. When I finally slip them on and turn around to face him again, his face is more serious.
That’s good because so is mine. “I don’t like ultimatums, but I feel you’ve left me with no choice.”
He doesn’t say anything. His gaze doesn’t leave mine, though. His fingers flex around the edge of the doorframe. I ignore it. “Twenty-four hours,” I say, flipping my horrible bed head version of gorgeous-enough-to-make-ultimatums hair over my shoulder.
He drops his hand and comes toward me. His fingers graze the edge of the sleeve
of his flannel shirt and then up my forearm. “Twenty-four hours, huh?” He circles around me, his chest and waist easing up behind me. His palm catches on my hip as he carefully brings my hair across my shoulder to expose the small space of skin at my neck. His breath brushes across it. “Twenty-four hours to do what exactly?”
My head cranes over. A reflex. A reflex in hope that he’ll kiss my skin the way he’d showed me in that altered memory of us on the couch.
He does.
His fingers flex against my ribcage while the others sneak under the hem of my shirt. I want more of this. More of him every day. He twists my hips, turning me around to face him. I lift up on my toes to find his lips. It’s even better than the first time. Like he’s been waiting his whole life to kiss me. He pulls back just enough to whisper against my lips. “Shut the door.”
I reach back for the handle, but I’m too far away. I take one tiny step back, trying not to break the kiss, but have to pull away long enough to grab the handle.
“Geez.” A very familiar and annoying voice says. “My eyes.”
I open my eyes all the way to see Lyric in the door of my room with his hands cupped over his face. He’s shaking his head like he’s trying to throw something out of it. “Ugh. What do you want, Lyric?”
“I want to unsee that,” he says. “Can that black sludge rip that memory out of my head?”
“What do you want, Lyric?” Reid asks now, a little more annoyed and forcefully than I did.
He slowly brings his hand down and peeks cautiously through the slits in his fingers. “Could you put on pants first?”
“What do you want?” This time Reid doesn’t mean it as a question. It’s a demand. The entire atmosphere in the room changes.
Lyric shrinks down a notch. “Abby is downstairs. She’s threatening to torture me.”
I roll my eyes. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. I’m not the one waving scissors around like a mad woman down there.” Lyric glares back down the hallway.
Raven Ridge (Witches of Sanctuary Book 2) Page 9
