Raven Ridge (Witches of Sanctuary Book 2) (19 page)

Julien glances between us. “Okay, you two are doing that weird thing again.”

Reid laughs. “C’mon, let’s go back to my house and get you a beer and I’ll explain it to you.”

Julien eyes him skeptically. “You’re offering me a beer?”

“You did die today.”

Julien pauses, considering Reid’s offer. “True.”

Reid points at Lyric and Talbot. “You two can join too. Actually, please join us. I don’t think it wise to let us drink alone.”

I concur.

Reid sniggers, glancing up at me.
I’ll behave. Mostly.

“I’m there,” Lyric says, jumping forward.

Talbot shoves his hands in his pockets and quietly follows.

Abby, Sadie, and I walk down the hill together arm in arm. Reid and Julien wave as I snuggle against Abby’s shoulder. We’re so close to ending this curse, but yet…it still feels a world away. Tonight, though, I have my family. I have them with me, close enough to hug. Close enough to tell them how much I love them. Tonight everything is okay.

***

The morning is cold. Autumn is already slipping away from us. The leaves that only last week were a vibrant orange now fall, brown and crumbling to the ground. I sneak into Reid’s room, a hangover pounding in my head. I quietly open the door only to realize he isn’t there. His bed is made. I walk all the way in, searching every corner like he might be hidden and ready to pop out and scare me.

“He’s gone.”

I turn around to see Lyric standing in the door, his hair a mess from where he slept on my living room floor in a sleeping bag next to Julien. “He went to Rooster’s with Julien to help finish cleaning up.”

I cock my head to the side. “I’m not really in the mood for jokes this morning. Really, where is he?”

Lyric’s smile is small as if he’s trying to hold it in. “No. I’m very serious. They went to Rooster’s together.”

“You let Reid and Julien walk out of this house together and go somewhere alone?”

Lyric shrugs. “I asked to tag along. They denied me.”

I run my hands down my face. “This can’t be good. In no way can this be good.”

Lyric laughs. He can’t hold it any longer. I slug in him in the shoulder. “Laugh now, pretty boy. Let’s see how happy you are when the old Grady returns to normal and Abby has to decide whether or not she wants to forgive him.”

Lyric’s expression goes still. “She can’t forgive him. Even before he transformed, he still lied to her every day. Grady passed information to his brother about all of you for years. There is no forgiving him.”

I smile at him. “You haven’t heard his story yet. What if Roux threatened his life for the information? You don’t know.”

Either way, I wouldn’t want Abby to forgive him, but Lyric doesn’t have to know that.

He frowns at me. “You just had to ruin my morning, didn’t you?”

“Serves you right for ruining mine.”

“Fine. How about I go with you to intervene? Will you forgive me?”

I pat his shoulder as I walk over and steal one of Reid’s sweatshirts from his closet. “I would rather you stay. I can handle the boys on my own. I want you to go with Abby.”

“Really?”

I slip Reid’s shirt over my t-shirt and pull my long hair around. “Grady’s Changing should be complete sometime today. I want you there with her when she talks to him. I want you to be a voice of reason.”

Again Lyric tries to hide his smile. “You believe I am unbiased enough for the job?”

“Of course not. I simply want you to remind her of the truth when her heart’s judgment might be clouded. You were right before. Even if Roux forced Grady to do all those things, he could have come to us for help. We could have protected him. He made a choice, and I want you to make sure she remembers that.”

“That I will,” he says. “Trust me.”

I move past him out of the room and start down the steps. “Good. You’ve got my number. Call me as soon as you hear something.”

He follows me down the stairs. “Sure. And could you do me a favor too?”

I stop at the last step and turn around until he makes his way down to meet me.

“Let my brother down easy.”

I raise a brow and Lyric sighs as if he’s lost some sort of competition. “I’ve seen the way you look at Reid,” he says. “And I see now the way you look at my brother. There’s a difference. His heart’s judgment is beyond clouded when it comes to you. Break it to him gently, and don’t let your boyfriend break his nose.”

I laugh. “It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s nose got hurt.”

“What do you mean? Have they fought over you before?”

I head toward the door and grab my jacket. “Have Abby tell you the story sometime of my first couple weeks in Sanctuary. Then maybe you’ll understand why I’m in a hurry to go find these two right now.”

Lyric leans against the railing of the stairs, suddenly smug. “So, you want Abby and me to spend more time together?”

I roll my eyes at him as I close the door. It’s not like me saying no would stop him. And Lyric isn’t a bad guy; he’s never been. Abby could probably use someone like him right now. I drive into town. It’s busy. Everyone has come out to join in the effort to clean up Erika’s mess. They all stop to stare, and I get out of my car.

“Wilhelmina.”

I turn around, and a brown-haired woman stands on the sidewalk across the street with a broom. I don’t recognize her. “Yes?”

Her voice is small and she attempts to not make eye contact. “Thank you for saving our town last night.”

My eyes widen a little. Had someone seen me? There had been people in the stores, running away from the madness. Did someone witness the power I’d used in the middle of the street? The woman didn’t look scared. None of them did.

I glance around at the mess. “I wish I could have done more.”

“You do enough,” a man next to her says.

I smile and nod. They go back to their work, and I walk down the street to Rooster’s. I wave at Carolyn who stands across the street talking to one of the other store owners. “Go on in,” she yells toward me. “They’re expecting you.”

“I bet they are,” I say under my breath.

I open the door, and the familiar ding of the bell rings out. Reid and Julien carry a giant table across the room, and I can’t help but laugh at the sight. “Look at you two…not killing each other.”

They set the table down next to a stack of chairs. Reid wipes sweat from his brow. “We might not agree on a lot of things, but this town means a lot to both of us.”

“Yeah,” Julien says, sitting down on the edge of the table to rest. “Nobody messes with our town. Plus, we needed somewhere quiet to chat.”

“Chat?” I step over to inspect both of them. “I don’t see any blood. I find it hard to believe you two have been discussing anything.”

Julien smirks. “Compromise isn’t normally my strong suit, but for you, I’m willing to make an exception.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “What kind of compromise have you made, exactly?”

Julien bites his lip as if what he’s about to say doesn’t want to come out. “You chose him. I’ll accept it and won’t interfere.”

Reid scoots up next to me and places his arms around my waist. “And I won’t interfere in your friendship with him. I know that you two have a special connection, and you care about him.”

“She loves me,” Julien says, correcting him.

Reid glares at him. “Don’t test me, or that no kissing her in front of you rule will get broken really quick.”

Julien sighs. “Fine. Use whatever terminology you want. It’s still true.”

“Aww,” I say, pulling Julien over so I can hug them both, “I’m so proud of you two almost getting along. I’m so impressed.”

My cell phone dings in my pocket, and I let them go to reach for it. Reid tugs the end of my sweatshirt. “Hey, isn’t this mine?”

I grin at him. “You’re my boyfriend now. All your clothes are fair game.”

I glance down at my phone, and it’s a text.

Lyric: Grady is awake and talking. Abby is a mess. She wants to go confront him, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. She’s stronger than she looks. HELP.

“We need to go,” I say, shoving my phone back in my pocket.

Julien groans. “Who is it now?”

“Grady. He’s awake. Abby isn’t emotionally stable to face him on her own.”

Reid motions us all forward. “Come on, let’s go.”

By the time we make it to Sera’s house, everyone is in the back yard. Abby obviously won the fight against Lyric, because he throws his hands out in frustration as soon as he spots me. “I tried to keep her inside, but she zapped me with some kind of lightning.”

“It’s okay.” I run to her, but she’s already standing in front of Grady, screaming at him.

“You don’t have anything to say to me?”

Grady’s head is down, his shoulders slumped over in complete defeat. “What can I say? I was a kid when my father sent me here to live with my aunt. He changed my name. He stripped me of my identity. I had to tell everyone she was my mother. All for the sole reason of getting him information. He gave up ever knowing his son, because of some book.”

“You could have told me.”

“I wanted to. When my father died, and the curse passed to Roux, I thought maybe there was a chance my brother would let me go. That he’d give me my life back, but I was wrong. Roux was even worse than my father.” Grady raises his tear filled gaze to her. “I know I’m the one responsible for Katherine’s death. For Zeke.”

“Don’t you dare say his name. All those times you cried about him. The times you talked about how much you missed him.”

“I didn’t mean for him to die.”

“Like you didn’t mean to kidnap me? Like you didn’t mean to try to kill Willa?”

“I was under the curse then. The monster in me did those things to you. I would have never hurt you.”

Lyric comes up and takes Abby’s trembling hand. “Things you do after you transformed are forgivable. I’m sure we can all agree on that.”

I glare at Erika’s unconscious form still on the ground. “However,” Lyric says, helping Abby take a step back away from Grady, “like Zeke and Julien, you had a choice about the kind of life you lived before you transformed that night in Charleston. You chose wrong, and now you’ve lost everything.”

Grady steps forward. “You don’t get to decide that.”

“It’s over, Grady.” Abby moves in front of Lyric. “I’m not your girlfriend. We’re not your friends. If it wasn’t for poor Talbot, I’d let the darkness claim you on the Winter Solstice.”

Her voice breaks, so I finish her speech for her. “You have a new choice,” I say, moving Abby to Lyric’s arm. “You help us break the curse, free yourself and your brother forever, and maybe earn our friendship back, or you can leave. Abandon your family and the people who loved you and wait in loneliness for your fate.”

Grady turns to his brother. Talbot stands next to the porch, quiet as ever, his hands in his pockets with his gaze on the ground at his feet. “I want to be a better brother to him than my big brother was to me.”

“Good,” I say. “We could use your help.”

“What about her?” Sadie points to Erika who still lies on the ground, unconscious from her battle with the evil inside of her.

“She’ll come around soon, I guess.” My teeth are tight together as I speak. Forgiveness is difficult when it’s your turn. I would have to forgive her for trying to kill Julien in an attempt to steal Reid away from me. Eventually. At some point. Not today.

“She’ll be different when she wakes up,” Julien says, looking directly at me.

“She was still evil before she transformed,” I say, and then point at Grady. “Like him.”

“I know. But take it from someone who spent their entire life fighting back against the voice in his head. Doing what Zeke and I did is difficult. We had to fight against the monster inside of us every second of every day to do the right thing. It was easier to let them have their way. I’m not saying what Grady and Erika didn’t wasn’t wrong, but if I had the freedom back then that I feel now, I know I would have made some different choices in my life. Give them a chance.”

I press my lips tight together. “Fine. We’ll wait and see what kind of crazy she is when she wakes up.”

Something wet lands on my nose. A raindrop? The thick, gray clouds above our heads linger. The freezing wind whips through the valley as I stare up at them. It isn’t rain. One single small, white snowflake floats down from the sky in front of me like the last grain of sand in an hourglass. It’s a reminder. Time is running out. The line between allies and enemies can no longer exist. The Haunted and the Innocent must come together for each other…for Sanctuary.

I point over at Erika. “Bring her inside. I’d hate for her to freeze to death before I decide whether or not I’m going to drag her back to the grand hall for that chalice by the hair of her head.”

Reid takes my hand, but doesn’t look at me.
Softy.

I squeeze his hand.
We’ll see.