The Lebrus Stone (30 page)

I frowned. "Gee. Thanks for saying that so casually."

"Sorry," she said with little feeling. "So?"

"So, what?"

She stood, coiling the red fabric around her hand.

"I think it's time you saw what happened to them, Crystal."

"To whom?"

"To this Fallion and human that created a child called Arrious. You have to find out the cause of their deaths."

"How? I can't, not unless I have a time machine." I chuckled despite how nervous and afraid she was making me.

Elandra sat down again. "There is a way. It's difficult, but it can be done. I can transport you back in time to see what happened. It's a lot like regression, except you'll be seeing other people's lives, not your own."

I shot up and gave myself a head rush. "Are you serious? I can't do that. What if I can't come back or I get stuck there or…or…"

Elandra grabbed my hands. "I'll ask for professional help. I know of a group of people who have tried this once before."

"What group of people?"

"My coven."

"No. NO! I don't want any hocus pocus covens experimenting on me."

"Oh, Crystal, it's not hocus pocus. Please trust we only have your best interest at heart. We mean no harm. But…I will understand if you feel uncomfortable with a subject. You're new to this. I'll let you think about it. Hopefully, you'll make the right decision while there's still time."

I didn't say anything and turned to leave. Elandra pulled me back, reminding me she promised to give me a lift. I reluctantly accepted, dreading the prospect of driving back to the house with Elandra jabbering on about witches and time travel. It was all too much. I didn't know what to do with all the information. My only way to find a solution was by visiting a bunch of witches who could mentally transport me back to the past. Ironically, I didn't have all the time in the world to think this through, but I needed at least a day or two. Elandra must have sensed my dampened mood. She didn't say a word during the ride back.

She only said, "Take care," before I ran for the door and banged on the knocker as loud as I could.

Syd answered. No one seemed to be home but her.

Where had Cray gone? Was he hiding something?

I started to feel unsure again, so joined Syd in the kitchen for tea and homemade pecan pie to ease the tension hurting my shoulders. The dessert was so delicious, I ate all of it. Syd pulled out another steaming pie from the oven, perhaps sensing I needed comforting.

I warned her not to come near me with it if she wanted me to fit through the doorway. She just chuckled, joyous of the fact. She was definitely conspiring to fatten me.

"So," she said, and sat with me at the kitchen table, "I hear you and Cray have become a lot more…acquainted."

Her brief terminology to our relationship left a lot to be desired. It didn't sound like it had been easy for her to say it, either. And I didn't want to talk about Cray. I didn't want to think about how odd he acted at times, how it had seemed like he was silently dueling with Elandra. Besides, Elandra pushing me to meet her coven was still at the forefront of my mind. It had me anxious, eager to do something, but at a pace where I could feel less pressured.

Syd looked at me expectantly. Her hands on the table were dry and worn, lacking their usual softness. I grabbed hold of one to inspect. "Syd, you need to wear gloves or something when you wash up. You're ruining these pretty little hands of yours."

She placed her other hand over mine. It was nice, just what I needed after my last conversation with Cray and Elandra. But then she smiled and it seemed contrived, without a hint of her usual warmth, not even in her eyes. "Are you sure it's a good idea to reciprocate Cray's advances?" she asked.

Was that what she thought of it? Advances? Nothing more? Why did people think so negatively of him all of a sudden?

She must have seen my anger diffuse into a sigh.

"I'm sure you both know what you're doing," she added quickly. "I just thought living under the same roof and then having to live so far away from each other…" I noticed she emphasized the far part as if Cray was the galaxy and I Timbuktu. "…that it may become difficult for you to part ways."

Part ways?

I guessed she was right. I needed to stop acting like I was having my first high school crush and think sensibly. I wasn't a teenager anymore…almost. I had to act my age, get a grip on things. Figure out a plan.

I mean, did I know him well enough to feel I could be falling for him so fast? No. I didn't. And that was the problem.

Syd uttered Cray's name again in a dislikable way. He appeared behind me at the door just then, leaning against the frame and breathing heavily. His hair was windswept. His face moist.

I think he was weighing up the seriousness of our conversation before speaking.

"Are you trying to put her off me, Syd? Keep me to yourself?" He winked at me and then grinned at Syd who bashfully began to clear the table

"Don't be ridiculous, Cray," she playfully scolded. "I'm just seeing the bigger picture. Crystal is only here for the summer. Have you both considered what you would do then?"

Cray stepped into the kitchen. The scent of his spicy cologne was weaker, dampened by the smell of burned wood, cigarette smoke, and…Kellice's cheap perfume.

They were just friends. There was nothing more to it.

My stomach still churned.

Cray leaned against the counter, stuffing his hands in his pockets and rolling them into fists.

"No, I can see that you haven't," Syd lectured.

Cray raised his eyebrows at me. "Have you thought about it?" His expression was somehow serious and amused at the same time.

He knew I had thought about it. But I just shrugged, trying not to make any eye contact. Whenever I did, he stared long and hard. My face would heat up and my hands would shake. I didn't want Syd to see me behave like a lovesick pup. She was already convinced I was sick in some way.

"We've discussed it a little," Cray said casually to Syd. "We'll just have to see what happens." He was observing me again, maybe waiting for me to elaborate. Maybe he needed some kind of convincing that I didn't know about. Maybe he was giving me the brush off.

"Well, you should think," Syd rebuked, "very seriously about where this...relationship…" She paused as if finding it difficult to say the last part. She even grabbed the back of a chair to steady herself. Why did my love life matter to Syd?
"…You need to think about where this is heading."

"We will," Cray said, his tone low, but commanding the conversation. And though his voice was at ease, his body language wasn't. He was too slumped against the counter; his hands were still too fisted in his pockets, almost ripping to be let out. To do what, I didn't know.

"Off you go," Syd said, waving a cloth at us. "Both of you. I have too much work to do to be sitting here playing Agony Aunt."

I pushed back my chair and headed for the doorway. Cray followed me. His body temperature was a coiling heat that ran up and down my arms. His hands were on my shoulders, rubbing gently, his thumbs doing circular motions. I wanted to collapse into him, fall asleep and dream I had nothing to worry about.

"Let's go to your room," he whispered in my ear.

I jolted back. Now that we were in the hallway, Syd had closed the door to the kitchen, leaving us in the dimness.

"Why?" I asked, getting tetchy.

"To talk."

"But why in my room?" My voice hitched, sounding strangled, scared, insinuative, totally suspicious, and maybe with good reason. I couldn't do it, pretend to believe Kellice and him were just friends. My insecurities were tucked away deep down, but they were there, like most people. I wasn't being irrational. I was being inquisitive. That was it. This was like a quiz, the kind where I would win my dignity and keep my heart from being trampled on if I got all the answers right.

Cray scratched the side of his head. "I thought it would be more private, is all."

"For what?" I stepped back. He stepped forward, his smile automatically making my stomach do a somersault.

"Not for what you're thinking."

"And what am I thinking? How do you know exactly what it is? What do you really, and I mean, really want from me, Cray?" I was sounding suggestive, but I was way too unbalanced by this sudden change in my life, by him.

My comment must have brought something home. He stepped back.

"And where have you been?" I folded my arms, playing the nagging wife well. If I had looked at myself as I did this, I would have cringed, laughed or both. But while I was just me, getting uptight and unable to control what needed to be blurted out of my mouth, I was going to be awkward.

His clothes were bedraggled, his face was wet from the rain and maybe perspiration. I had to know why.

"Why is Kellice suddenly following you like a bad stench? I can smell her all over you." I wrinkled my nose. "It's there, soiled in your shirt, her cheap perfume with the smell of a…a…car exhaust fumes."

I looked away, disappointed with myself for being so stupidly jealous and disappointed with him and everything we did and didn't do. He had to be lying. At that moment I was convinced. I had to have been deceiving myself as well. There was no passionate love affair between us. There was no soul mate that could complete you and give you another reason for living. There was nothing romantic about this situation. We were just drifters, sifting into one another, desperate to be healed in some way.

"If you'll stop answering your own questions, I'll tell you," he said, all too calm

I pursed my lips, waiting for a so-called explanation that I had already decided wouldn't make much sense. I had
that
much faith.

"Can we at least sit down?" he asked.

"I'm okay standing," I said, stubbornly.

"Well, I would like to sit," he said, just as stubbornly back. "And are we always going to discuss Kellice?"

"If you insist on acting erratic, maybe, yes."

He had the audacity to roll his eyes. "If you want answers, I'll be in the drawing room."

He walked away. I was expected to follow him. I didn't for a long time. I kept telling myself I didn't need to know anything, that whatever he had been doing was none of my business.

But not knowing only made me agitated. It had me reeling out of myself until I didn't recognize my anguished face in the hall mirror. My eyes and skin were red, blotchy.

I needed answers. And I knew he had them. He knew I was desperate, too, now in more ways than one.

I walked into the lounge and found him pouring a glass of white wine.

"Would you like one?" he asked, lifting up the half full glass.

Did he always need a glass of wine at hand?

I shook my head.

"Suit yourself," he muttered before taking a large gulp.

I sat rigid on the couch. He stayed standing considering he was the one who wanted to sit.

He peered into his drink, swirling the glass with his wrist. "I bumped into Kellice again on the way to my friend, Luke's. Her car broke down," he said.

"How convenient."

He stared at me in the way I now found a little affronting. "Please…" he said, softening his gaze.

I tucked my hair behind my ears and smoothed down the front of my dress. I had goose bumps all over me, but it wasn't for anything titillating. I was afraid of what he was going to tell me. I was breaking out in a sweat. My hands were so clammy they were sticking to my dress.

"I tried to help her get the car re-started," he continued.

"Let me guess. You had to take your clothes off and push the car with her on your back."

"You're doing it again," he said, finishing his drink to pour himself another.

"Doing what? Reading it all on your face?" I knew I should have just shut up and kept my thoughts to myself, but I had to air all this, even if I was wrong.

"You can't read me," he said dully, and he was right. I couldn't. Not properly. I hated it.

"The car wouldn't start so I drove her home." He poured himself a third drink. Perhaps it was more than that if he had been drinking before I entered. "I'm wet because it's still raining. I'm hot because I'm tired. I'm covered in her scent because she hugged me goodbye."

He turned to look at me. I didn't look back. "What was I supposed to do? Push her away? Say I'm untouchable now? Am I going to need your permission from now on?"

I swallowed my response. I would have preferred him to ask me before any type of touching happened with the likes of Kellice. But he was right. He had to be, didn't he? I wouldn't have wanted him to dictate my relationship with anyone, or misconstrue an innocent embrace. But I had a right to be a little suspicious. I chose not to throw my hands up and have a tantrum. That definitely wouldn't have gone well.

"You're right." I skimmed my eyes over to his. They were getting brighter. He seemed surprised to hear me say it.

"I can't assume you have something going on with Kellice. Every meet, greet and friendly touch can't be scrutinized by my…insecurities." I hesitated on the last part. I didn't like admitting to my malfunctions. No matter how natural and human they were.