Summer's Gone

by Jen Talty

  Trust your gut.

  His father’s words hung over his head like a thick, warm blanket.

  His gut told him that he was talking with Coral and that she would do her part to protect all Wolfairies and the Legend.

  “Can you communicate with it?” he asked. If he were being honest, he had a need to hold her and not just because he had empathy for what she must be going through, but because a connection had been formed.

  But he had a hard time trusting it.

  Not that he had a choice.

  “I don’t know. I just found out about whatever it is in my body shortly after the twins were born.”

  “Can you try?” Drew had no idea if this was a good idea or not. The leader of the Coven of the Raindrops had told them that banishing a spirit could be deadly for the host as well as those close by. And the kicker had been that Gerri said they had to contain the spirit. Not kill it.

  Which made it even more difficult because the spirit could be toxic outside of a host.

  And if they did destroy the creature, the twins die as would every Wolfairy that might ever exist.

  Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

  Coral closed her eyes and settled into the crook of his arm, her head resting on his chest. A spark flickered in his heart, but something—a presence—seemed to block it.

  “Am I supposed to talk out loud to it? Inside my head? I speak a little French, I could try that.”

  He chuckled. The few times they had a conversation, she often said something sarcastic and funny and he really liked that about her. “Start with inside your head and try to feel it more than talk to it.”

  He stared at her while she breathed slowly, but deeply. He made sure he didn’t touch her, giving her space.

  “It’s like a child living in the corner of my brain,” she whispered. “I think. I don’t know. I mean, ever since the spell was lifted, I’ve felt a little lost. I don’t really fit in with the other fairies. I’m different. I also feel like I had been living in this tiny corner where the spirit is tucked into now.”

  “I don’t always fit in with my family, much less my pack, so some of that is normal. And Chaz thinks the spell affected you different than Isadore because of this possession.”

  Coral lurched from the sofa. “That’s it. The spell. I need a copy of that spell.”

  “You’re not a witch.”

  “But I lived like one for eighteen years.”

  “I don’t mean to be mean.” Drew stood, curling his fingers around her biceps. “But did you? Because you really don’t remember your life in a way that matches the reality.”

  She nodded. “So, what is changing me? Being here with you? Or the fact the spell is gone? I’m supposed to be developing and growing my fairy abilities, but it’s not happening. I mean, I’m almost becoming less fairy in a weird way.”

  “Fairy kids might be all sorts of happy, but not like you were when you first got here. Hell, at Nico’s wedding, you were acting different, and now you’re behaving more like everyone else, just not with the added fairy dust floating from your body and the building of your talent.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “I’ll call my sister, Cheryl, and see if she can email the spell the Coven of the Raindrops think was used on you and Isadore. Plus, I should check in and see if they found anything else.” He stepped toward the kitchen and paused, glancing over his shoulder. “Are you hungry? I’ve got some leftover pizza I can heat up.”

  She smiled. “If all this stuff is true, you will never live down that our first date was day-old bread with crusty cheese.”

  Chapter 3

  Coral sat at the kitchen table, picking at her pizza, which wasn’t bad as leftovers went. She could see Cheryl, Drew’s sister, walking across the fields toward the cabin. The majority of the lights had been turned off, but a white glow similar to the northern lights, filled the star-filled sky. She had never considered herself much of an outdoorsy kind of girl in the sense of being adventurous. She enjoyed looking at nature, not engaging with it, but being on the farm, made her feel as though she might want to climb a mountain.

  Isadore had been the athletic one, and Coral had been the… she blinked back a tear. Crying had been something she never remembered doing as a kid. She was sure she had—or maybe she hadn’t. Her memories were nothing but a fuzzy haze floating in her mind.

  The pounding of knuckles at the door drew her to the present. She watched Drew stand and scuff off toward the door.

  She leaned forward, soaking in his backside.

  Oh. That was weird. Or was it? She was supposed to find him sexy. Then again, she figured every woman who breathed found him handsome. His brown hair, cut short, but not so short it didn’t have a wave. It looked thick and she had an urge to run her fingers through it, something she’d never done to a man before. His blue eyes sucked her in like the ocean rolling from the beach, taking the sand with it. She remembered finding boys cute, but just in the last few minutes, butterflies filled her stomach and she wondered what it would be like to rest her hands on his firm chest.

  “You didn’t have to come all the way out here,” Drew said. His strong, confident voice filled the cabin.

  “I have another file I need you to look at and it’s too big to send in email.” Cheryl’s voice had a slight tremble. “Where’s Coral?”

  “I’m right here.” Coral leaned against the half-wall between the kitchen and the family room, eyeing Cheryl. It wasn’t that the woman made her uncomfortable. Not at all. Actually, she made Coral feel at ease, but at the same time, a tiny voice in the back of her mind begged her to keep a safe distance.

  “How are you?” Cheryl asked, taking a step closer.

  Coral folded her arms, closing herself off, even though she wanted to run and hug Cheryl, which was even weirder. “Confused.”

  “We all are.” Cheryl handed her brother a flash drive. “The spell is on that but also a video I think the two of you should watch.”

  “Of what?” Drew asked, setting the drive on the table.

  “Of the wedding. But I’d rather not try to explain because it doesn’t make that much sense, but it might to Coral,” Cheryl said. Her long, dark hair had been pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. She had pulled the strands over her shoulder and ran her fingers through it. Cheryl was the second-oldest child and only a few years younger than Chaz. She tended to be quiet and reserved. As an art historian, she knew a lot about the past of the Royal Fairies and other fascinating things.

  Coral liked that and liked her but didn’t want to spend time with her in close quarters, and that made no sense.

  “Why do you think I would know anything?” Coral asked, her stomach gurgling as the room filled with a thick fog. She blinked as she gripped the railing. A towering blond woman came into view holding the vase in her slim, elegant hands.

  “You have two choices. Make the right one, and you and your kind will be safe, especially…” The woman faded toward the sky, never finishing the statement.

  “Coral!” a harsh voice yelled. Her arms burned as she pushed herself from whoever held her in a death grip. Fire coursed through her veins. Her skin prickled with a heat more intense than the hottest summer day.

  “Protect the spirit,” the woman’s voice echoed. “Protect the connection.”

  “I’m scared,” a little boy’s voice said. “She wants to take me away.”

  “What’s happening to her?” Drew asked.

  “I don’t know,” Cheryl whispered.

  “Don’t touch me.” Coral stepped back, holding her hands out. Blisters exploded on her arms, sending red fairy dust into the air. The trail of dust, thicker than most, circled around Cheryl and Drew and with each slight brush of the dust across their bodies, small bubbles dotted their skin, bursting into flames.

  “You can control what is not yours,” the woman’s voice whispered. “Ease the spirit’s fear and ensure the future.”

  “Fuck, that hurt
s,” Drew said behind a clenched jaw as he grabbed his sister, dragging her toward the bathroom.

  All Coral could do was stand there and try to command the dust to return to her aura. She’d seen Daphne do it a dozen times and Isadore as well, but this stuff didn’t want to come back.

  She also knew the woman in her head was right. She wasn’t hurting Drew and Cheryl, but the spirit was, and she had to stop it.

  Running toward the bathroom, she tried to collect as much of the red powdery stuff attacking both Drew and his sister. “Oh, no, you don’t.” Gritting her teeth, she ran her hand through the cloud, breaking up the particles. It seemed to work, but they still coated so much of Drew and Cheryl, and even with both of them standing under the shower, the dust continued to swirl around them.

  Coral reached into the shower with open hands.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Drew yelled.

  “You’re making it worse.” Cheryl ducked her head under the running water, blisters covering her face.

  “Please, trust me.” Coral’s heart pounded as she waved her hands in the air, pushing the fairy dust around, breaking it apart as much as she could. Maybe if she focused on happy things, like she did as a kid, she could change the energy of this fairy magic.

  Raising her hands over her head, she tossed what she could out of the bathroom. When she repeated the motion, blue, flakey granules flew from her fingertips, mixing with the red, until it all fell into the bottom of the tub, swirling down the drain. The blue dust turned to white but continued to spread across Drew and Cheryl, their blisters slowly disappearing.

  Coral dropped to her knees. The searing pain stabbed like lightning in her head. She held her hands over her ears, trying to make it stop, but it got worse and worse.

  “I wouldn’t touch her, if I were you.” Cheryl’s words cut through the storm in Coral’s brain.

  She wanted to agree because she didn’t have it in her to create whatever healing powers she might have developed before they burned into ashes.

  “She’s my fated mate. I’m not going to leave her side,” Drew said.

  Coral rocked back and forth, her eyes shut tight. It wasn’t so much the pain that affected her, but the conflict and confused that lingered in her mind. Warm, strong arms engulfed her. She struggled to get away. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, and if he held her, he’d probably die.

  “Don’t hurt him. Or his sister. They are trying to help us.” She hoped the spirit could hear and understand her words.

  “Relax,” Drew whispered.

  She could have sworn his lips brushed across her forehead as he carried her somewhere. “Whatever that was, it’s over, and neither Cheryl nor I are hurt. It’s okay.”

  She shook her head. Nothing was ever going to be okay.

  “Coral. Open your eyes,” he commanded as he lay her on what she thought might be the sofa, but when she blinked her eyes open, she was too aware of being in a bed.

  His bed.

  She knew this because it smelled like pine and thick, autumn air at sunset.

  “I’m going to leave now,” Cheryl said. “I think Chaz needs to know what happened here and maybe Isadore can help with her.”

  “Her, has a name and I think you should use it.” Drew brushed Coral’s hair from her face.

  The pain subsided to a dull headache. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how that happened.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” he said softly, rubbing a thumb over her cheek, staring into her eyes as if he honestly cared.

  A restlessness stirred inside.

  “Whoever is inside me did that. I would never hurt you or anyone in our family.” The word our rattled in her mind.

  “I know you wouldn’t, and whatever you did made the burning stop and actually go away completely. But I don’t think it did for you.” He gently lifted her arm, showing charred skin up and down her hands and arms.

  She sucked in a breath and blinked back the tears. “I should be able to help heal myself,” she whispered.

  He stood and turned toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” she asked with a terror-filled voice.

  “We need a first aid kit while we wait for your sister.”

  “Please, don’t leave me.” She worried if he walked out that door, whoever was inside her would do something drastic.

  As if burning everyone wasn’t horrific enough.

  “All right.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “Does it hurt a lot?”

  She bit down on her lower lip and focused on the burns. “Not as much as it should.”

  “Then perhaps you are healing yourself, and it’s just taking you some time.”

  She nodded.

  “I won’t let them take me away from you,” the boy’s voice echoed again. “They want me gone.”

  “Who are you?”

  But she got no answer in return.

  Chapter 4

  Drew anxiously wrapped Coral’s burnt arms with cream and cool compresses while he waited for reinforcements.

  She let out a long sigh.

  “Did I hurt you?”

  “No,” she said. “And look.” She pointed to her right hand. “It’s healing.”

  “I knew it would, but it’s going to drain you, so why don’t you take a nap.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his hand resting on her thigh. Guilt plagued his heart for leaving her to burn while he took his sister into the bathroom.

  He should have found a way to ensure all three of them got to safety.

  But what concerned him the most, was that as soon as she started sending out a different color of dust, he and his sister were free from pain, and the blisters vanished. It was as if nothing happened to them other than getting wet.

  Where poor Coral still suffered.

  “We can’t afford for me to do that. I need to read the spell, and we need to watch whatever Cheryl brought over.”

  “We’ll get to it. Please. Just shut your eyes for a minute or two. I’ll make some tea or coffee or cocoa. What do you like?”

  “Coffee would be nice.”

  “All right. I’ll be back shortly.” He inched closer, licking his lips before brushing his mouth against hers.

  She responded with a slight gasp before kissing him back. It wasn’t the kind of kiss that rocked his world, but he loved that she tasted like blueberries, which he thought kind of funny, but fitting since that was his favorite fruit.

  “That was nice,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “I’m so sorry, Drew.”

  “For what?”

  “For trying to kill you.”

  He laughed. “You did no such thing.” He pulled her into his arms, kissing her cheek and drinking in her fruity smell. She was sweet.

  And innocent.

  Yet powerful.

  He pulled back. “Have you ever had a boyfriend?”

  Her cheeks flushed. “No. My father wouldn’t have approved. I might not really remember a lot, but I do know he scared me and that I hated how he treated my sister. The older I got, the more I understood, the more I knew we needed to get out. Isadore always had a plan.”

  “She’s a badass chick.”

  “And I’m a pathetic, possessed girl who is stuck somewhere between knowing that I’m meant to be with you and wanting to run away forever. Yet, even as charming as that kiss was, I know it’s not like what Isadore and Nico have. Or Chaz and Daphne.”

  “I think once we banish the being, it will be different for us.” He kissed her forehead and stood.

  “And I won’t shoot fireballs at your face.”

  He smiled, resting his hands on his hips. “Was that your first real kiss?”

  “You mean all the other ones were fake?” She cocked her head and batted her thick eyelashes.

  “Look who is teasing now.” But that didn’t really make him feel better. Not that he’d had many girlfriends. It was that he was five years older; it was that she had yet to see the world. She hadn’t experienced anything but ugliness, and s
he should be able to go and enjoy the next few years.

  Not have the weight of a new creature on her shoulders.

  “I haven’t kissed many men. Only two.”

  He arched a brow as a pang of jealousy shocked his heart with a mini jolt. “But no boyfriends?”

  “Well, last year, I sort of had one. He was in training with Isadore.”

  “How old was he?”

  “Twenty, maybe. Anyway, he was always nice to me, and we’d go for walks. My dad liked him because he was the son of a very respected warlock, high up on the council and he hated fairies and wolves. But I didn’t like him that much, so I didn’t let him kiss me again.”

  Drew scratched the back of his head. “And the other?”

  “My first kiss was when I was sixteen. He was nineteen. It was at the dance at school, but my dad forbade me to see him ever again, and I’d seen what happened to Isadore when she disobeyed him. What about you? How many girlfriends have you had?”

  “A couple, but they honestly bored me to tears. My last one actually wanted Nico, not me, so that kind of soured me in general.” He wished he wanted Coral like he was supposed to.

  “You’re much more handsome.”

  “Are you flirting with me?” What a dumb question that was when he’d been the one who started it. But the idea that something was indeed brewing gave him hope.

  A feeling he hadn’t expected.

  She touched her lips, nodding. “But the kiss angered the thing inside me.”

  “How do you know?” He sat back on the edge of the bed.

  She held out her fisted hand. Red sparks popped off her burning skin.

  “Jesus,” he muttered. “You need to tell me when something like this is happening.” He went to grab her hand, but she yanked it away.

  “It doesn’t hurt. Not right now anyway. I don’t know how I did it, but I’ve been able to contain it, but if you touch it, I fear it will do something horrible.”

  Drew bolted from the bed and paced. “Tell it to leave you alone.”

  “I think he hears you and is also responding to your anger.”

  “He?” Drew paused at the foot of the bed, glaring.