“That’s not really an answer,” said Eldon. “I didn’t tell them I was coming to the fair.”
Bryan scratched the back of his head. “I have a location app installed on the phone I gave you. Only for situations like this, I swear. Come on, let’s get home and warm up, okay? You can talk to me about what you’ve been struggling with.”
Bryan took a step toward the fair’s entrance. Eldon hesitated, glancing at Tess instead of immediately following him.
“You should go with him,” she said. “Have some alone time. I’ll catch up with you later.”
He raised an eyebrow at her, wishing he could talk to her directly without it being suspicious.
“Ask him some questions,” she said with a mischievous smile. “It’s exactly as I told you. He really isn’t your brother, regardless of how good of an actor he might be. I wouldn’t do anything rash, but you might be able to trap him just through thinking out loud.”
Eldon nodded slowly and followed after Bryan through the rain. Bryan had taken his car, and he climbed into the passenger seat alongside him.
“I should have brought an umbrella, too,” said Bryan. “I didn’t realize I’d be standing out in the rain for so long.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” said Eldon. “Hey, I appreciate you giving me this phone, but it does raise the obvious question. What happened to my old one?”
“Ah…” Bryan shrugged as he pulled the car onto the street. “It was lost in the car crash. You were texting and driving.”
Eldon almost wanted to whistle in appreciation. Bryan’s tone was a bit lacking, but the lie was smooth. It was still enough to lend evidence to everything Tess had told him, or at least the elements concerning his “brother.”
“Oh yeah,” he said lamely. “Tell me again. Was there another driver involved in the crash?”
“I believe so,” said Bryan.
“Were they injured?”
Bryan hesitated. “No, they weren’t. Their car was totaled, though.”
“Well that’s good. My insurance rates must still be through the roof, though. I should check into that.”
“I actually spoke with your insurance company directly. They agreed to hold off raising your fees due to your unique circumstances.”
“Oh, thanks,” said Eldon. “I just realized, I don’t think I’ve ever been to the scene of the crash. I should do that sometime soon. Maybe it’ll bring something back.”
“You’re more than welcome to,” said Bryan.
“Where was the crash, again?”
The conversation continued on like that for the entire drive back to the apartment. Bryan was adept at spinning his fiction on the fly, almost to the point where Eldon began to doubt his own assumptions. There were small cracks in his façade, however—times when he’d think for a few seconds too long, or dismiss a fair question without proper consideration.
He didn’t take all that much pleasure in poking holes in Bryan’s story. It wasn’t a curtain obscuring the truth, but a tapestry against a blank wall. The only tangible fact that he felt like he did manage to uncover was that whoever Bryan really was, he didn’t have much knowledge about who Eldon was before his “accident.” He wouldn’t be able to confirm much—or possibly any—of what Tess had said.
Realizing that only further highlighted the choice he’d have to make. He had two paths in front of him, two potential versions of reality to subscribe himself to. He had only his intuition, pure gut instinct, to choose between them.
Eldon retired to his room once they’d arrived, stripping off his damp clothing and sitting on the bed in his boxers. He didn’t have to wait for long. Tess phased through the doorway after about ten minutes, her ethereal head peeking through first, followed by the rest of her.
“I was hoping you’d come,” he said.
“Of course.” Tess settled down on the bed next to him. “Did Bryan reveal anything illuminating?”
Eldon breathed out slowly, blinking in amazement as he again pulled her into his “mystic stream.” She looked beautiful in the dim light of the room, and she’d shifted out of her original dress into a thin, silver nightgown.
“Bryan managed to answer almost all of my questions without answering any of them,” he said. “If he really is my brother, I might have to get him a referral to the TBI ward.”
Tess let out a small giggle. She slid her hand across the bed, her fingers briefly grazing his knee, then pulled it back. She seemed nervous, and it was infectious. Silence lingered for long enough for a slight tension to enter the moment.
“You were my girlfriend before, weren’t you?” he asked.
“Did all the kissing give it away?” teased Tess.
“No, I just mean… I can tell that we were really close.” He shrugged. “You wouldn’t have put this much effort into helping me if you hadn’t cared about me.”
Another silence, this one interspersed with the faint sound of Tess taking a breath and swallowing. She gave him a small nod.
“Was the date painful for you?” he asked. “It must hurt to care about somebody like that, and then reach a point where… they don’t even know you.”
He looked at her, and though she met his gaze, she seemed unsure. Her cheeks were flushed, and her mouth twitched as though she couldn’t decide whether to smile or frown.
“Parts of it, maybe,” she said. “I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some pain in being near you like this. But in another sense, it was quite the opposite. It almost felt like being able to relive a few of the best moments we’ve shared over again. Our first stroll. Our first date. Our first kiss. I’m sure that sounds cheesy. Maybe it’s even a tad selfish on my part for leading you into it. But it outweighed the pain. That’s how much I cared for you. Enough that I’d do it over again.”
Eldon took her hand and laced his fingers through hers.
“You’re right, that’s super cheesy.”
Tess let out an exaggerated growl and hit him with a pillow. Eldon laughed, catching her wrist and pulling back. The movement stretched her out across his bed, her nightgown sliding up a few inches that may as well have been a mile for the amount of pale, flawless thigh flesh they exposed.
She lay there, breathing intentionally. He let his hand run down the length of her arm, coming to a stop at her face. He traced the line of one of her cheek dimples with his finger. Tess put her hand on top of his, gently moving it back down to the bed.
“Lee,” she whispered. “Eldon. I don’t want you to feel as though you have to rush, or like I’m pressuring you into anything. If you aren’t comfortable, you don’t have to do anything that you’re not sure of.”
Eldon had already stripped down to his boxers upon arriving back to his room. He moved in closer to Tess, sliding up against her and giving her a preview of his arousal, which prodded into her thigh.
“At least one part of me is sure,” he said with a smirk.
She rolled her eyes at him. “It’s the rest of you that I care about, not to diminish the importance of your, ahem, manhood.”
He prodded her with it again, and Tess bit her lower lip slightly. He kissed her, and they spent a few furious, long-overdue seconds making out and grinding into each other. She set a hand on his chest, stopping him.
“I’m serious,” she whispered. “I want you to make this choice, the real choice that you have to make, after thinking about it. Not just because you’re turned on.”
“Can’t it be because of both?”
“You’re too much.”
“Part of me might be.” He took a grip on her hips and let his erection tease at the hem of her nightgown. “I’m a little curious, now. What was our first time like?”
Tess’s face turned a bright shade of red, and she shook her head, clamping her lips shut. Eldon leaned forward, rubbing himself against her with more intent and intensity.
“Come on,” he whispered into her ear. “Tell me.”
“It was romantic,” said Tess. “It was at the end
of a long date, with flowers and chocolates and—”
“Liar.” He slid his hand between her thighs. She was already wet, and he let a finger run across the length of her opening. Tess shuddered and leaned her head back.
“Lee Amaranth,” she whispered. “You’re so… mean.”
“Come on,” he said, sliding her thighs open. “Tell me a story, Tess.”
Her eyes flashed with a sudden, devious glint. She grabbed the hand he had between her legs by the wrist and pulled it away from her, clearing her throat.
“You want a story?” she asked. “How about a reenactment? I’ll provide the narration.”
With surprising strength, she shifted him onto his back on the bed. She gave him small pushes, urging him along the mattress until he was sitting upright against his headboard.
“It was when you first came to Primhaven,” she said. “You, or at least the old you, was capable of handling ghosts.”
“I still am, as far as I know.”
“That remains to be seen.” Tess smiled wickedly and ran a hand over his bulge. “I was helping you, but I think you knew that you’d bitten off a little more than you could chew. We were in the library together, trespassing at night.”
“I like where this is going.”
“We almost got caught and needed to hide, so I pushed you into a closet.” She pressed a hand to his chest, illustrating her words. “You’d drawn me into your mystic stream, and there wasn’t much space for the both of us. We were in… very close confines.”
She sat down, letting her naked crotch settle onto his heavily tented boxers. Eldon could feel her heat and wetness through the thin fabric and groaned with anticipation.
“I started teasing you,” she whispered. “Seeing how much you could take.”
“And how long did I put up with that for?”
“You had to stay quiet,” she said, sending a wave of pleasure through him with another undulation. “You couldn’t be caught trespassing on your first day, after all.”
“How frustrating that must have been.” He ran his hands up the length of her body, cupping her small breasts through her nightgown. He pinched one of her nipples and heard her moan softly.
“Once we were in the clear, however…” Tess slid her fingers into the waistband of his boxers and pulled them down. “Well, I think you can guess what happened then.”
“Can I?” he asked. “Maybe I still want you to paint the picture.”
He took her firmly by the hips and held her over him, the tip of his cock intruding under her nightgown and ever so slightly parting the lips of her opening. Tess shuddered and her breathing intensified.
“Mmm,” she moaned. “I’m sure you can work the scene out for yourself.”
“We’d known each other for how long, at that point?” he teased. “And we were in a closet? So romantic.”
He pulled her further down, pressing an inch or two of his length into her. The combination of his words and actions seemed to hit Tess deeply. She arched her back and began moving on her own, gyrating on his cock.
The foreplay was over. Eldon kept a strong grip on her petite body as he started bouncing her up and down. The pleasure was unreal, but it was more than just that.
The hidden well of emotions he’d gotten a taste of upon first seeing Tess, before even remembering her name, suddenly had both a purpose and a release valve. She was here, against him, moving and moaning. He had an outlet for the confusing intensity of feelings he felt for her, and he intended to make full use of it.
The sentiment was apparently mutual. Tess let him take her for the first minute, touching her body, playing with it as he wished. But then, abruptly, she pulled forward, turning to kiss him and leading him with each one. She had him flat on his back in the center of his bed, and then she was riding him with the loving, purposeful movements of a woman seeking a destination.
Eldon pulled her nightgown up and over her head, tossing the useless garment aside. The sight that greeted him underneath was as cute as it was pornographic. Tess’s small breasts bounced with quick, perky movements, in perfect time with the movements of her hips. Eldon gripped her buttocks and tried to match her rhythm, spearing up into her.
“Oh god!” she cried. “Oh, Lee! Lee!”
It certainly sounded like his name when she said it like that. Tess leaned forward, kissing him and then burying her face in the nape of his neck. Eldon gave her butt a small slap, flipped her underneath him, and proceeded to thrust into her as though it was the first and last time they would ever fuck.
For all he knew, it might well be.
She came before he did. The sensation of her tensing and writhing underneath him, overcome by ecstasy, was enough to push him up to and then past his limit. He pulled her tight against him as he let go, pleasure forcing out all thoughts of anything other than her.
CHAPTER 9
Eldon and Tess lay in bed together, breathing and recovering. She was running her hand through his hair gently, affectionately caressing him, when she inhaled sharply.
“Your nose,” she said.
Eldon sniffed and brought a hand to his face. A small trickle of blood was running across his upper lip.
“Huh,” he said. “Is this normal?”
“It’s from holding me in your mystic stream.” Tess’s voice was tinted with guilt. “You should stop, for now.”
He nodded, not wanting to risk whatever consequences he’d just brushed up against. He immediately released his mystic stream, and it was apparently a quicker shift than Tess had been expecting. The hand she’d had in his hair fell downward, briefly sliding through his scalp. A cold stab of pain similar to an ice cream headache echoed through the confines of his skull.
“Ow!” he said. “Be careful.”
Tess was staring at her hand. She looked back at him after a moment, and then back at her hand.
“Interesting,” she said. “Do you remember what I mentioned about our encounter with the lich?”
“A little. You didn’t say much. Just that he attacked the school and he happened to be one of your teachers from the time you spent at Primhaven.”
“Because of the pact between us, I was able to show you a few of my old memories. During my trip to find you, I’d considered whether we could use the same mechanism to bring back at least some of your memories, the ones you’d formed in your time with me.”
“That’s a really good idea,” said Eldon.
“I thought so too, at first,” she said. “I decided against it after considering how my emotions might affect your recollection. It seemed safer to just tell you about what you’d forgotten, except now I think there might be an even better way.”
Eldon sat up. “Go on.”
“I felt a flash of your mind just now, when my hand touched you outside of your mystic stream,” she said. “Your memories, as far as I can tell, are still there.”
“What?” He shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. You said I underwent the Cropping, which you said was like magically induced amnesia.”
“You resisted when it was happening,” said Tess. “I was there. It wasn’t fun to watch, but I specifically remember Constantine having to switch to a different method. Instead of erasing your memories with dream weaving, I think he may have only locked them away, or painted over them.”
“So you’re saying that I could potentially regain what I’ve lost?” he asked. “Could you do that? Go into my mind and undo the blockage?”
She shrugged. “I can’t guarantee anything, but I could at least try. The worst that would happen would be… actually, um, let’s not think about the worst outcome.”
“Tell me.”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Tess…”
Eldon folded his arms. Tess let out a small sigh and sat up, pulling the sheets over her chest to preserve her modesty.
“Theoretically, if it doesn’t work, you might end up sort of… comatose,” she said. “I don’t know how large t
he risk is, given that I’ve never attempted anything like this before, but I don’t think it’s huge.”
“You’re not doing the best job of selling me on it,” he said.
“You’ll just have to trust me. You can do that much, right?”
Eldon stroked his chin and made a show of furrowing his brow.
“You were willing to have sex with me, a potentially dangerous ghost, but you aren’t willing to let me try to restore your memory?” she asked.
“Those are two very different things. Besides, you were teasing me. I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly about the consequences.”
“You are such a boy,” said Tess. “Look, if you really don’t want to do this, I won’t force you. I’m capable of trying it, though. That’s my point.”
Eldon exhaled through his nose. He looked out his bedroom window, taking in the scene of the streetlights and the city. It wasn’t just the risk of ending up in a coma, he realized. He was on the precipice of a choice even larger than he’d been expecting, a choice of returning to a life he didn’t remember or continuing on with the one he’d been cultivating.
“Let’s do it.”
***
He stretched out on the bed, and Tess sat down with her legs on either side of his head. She was in her ethereal state, so he could feel a slight chilly sensation tickling his ears. He stared up at the ceiling and Tess’s face, which was upside down from the angle she was leaning over him.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
He gasped as her ghostly fingers entered his skull through his temples. The pain was there, but only for an instant before he was tumbling backwards, lost in a mindscape of someone’s memories. His own memories, like an old, forgotten pile of clothing rediscovered in a discarded traveling bag.
Lee Amaranth. The name he’d taken as a way of creating a new identity for himself when he’d first decided to pursue being a mystic as a career. He’d always carry that first ghost, the girl who’d loved amaranths, forward with him.
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