She jumped and turned to me, hand on her chest. “Goodness, you scared the life out of me.” She made to get up. “Lunch?”
“No. I’m meeting Selene at the beach… Are you okay?”
She offered me a bright smile. “Me? I’m perfect.”
But her eyes didn’t shine as brightly as they usually did. “Bea… come on, you can talk to me.”
She sighed. “It was dangerous being in the faewilds. Frightening but…I kind of miss it.”
Not the faewilds. The outdoors. Any place outside of these four walls. Bea needed to be free. There had to be a way to make that happen.
I approached her and crouched so we were at eye level before taking her tiny hands in mine. “Listen to me, Bea, if there is a way of freeing you from this house, then I will find it. I swear to you.”
Her eyes welled. “You will?”
“I swear it. In the meantime, we need to do more stuff together, so as soon as we know this Mageri stuff is over, you and I are going to have a movie marathon.”
“Mageri stuff?” Her eyes went wide. “What Mageri stuff?”
She was a worrier, and if I told her the full truth, she’d spend the rest of the day in a fit of anxious cleaning. “It’s not a big deal, just a misunderstanding with the Mageri that Lorenzo is going to clear up for us. We’re waiting to hear back from him, but I’m sure everything will be fine. We can have a movie date tomorrow night.”
Her eyes lit up. “I can make snacks.”
I couldn’t help but grin at her enthusiasm. “Buttered popcorn, please.”
“Oooh, and fresh, gooey cookies and hot chocolate and marshmallows.”
“Perfect.”
I dropped a kiss on her temple and stood.
She clapped her hands together. “It’s a date!”
Selene and I swam for an hour, staying close to the shore and reveling in the cold bite of the ocean. Selene was right, it seemed that I did still need the touch of the sea, maybe because of my connection to Dillon? I couldn’t know for sure, but my body was fizzing with energy after the long dip.
We ate at Decker’s. I looked for Dillon but didn’t find him, much to my disappointment. After that we took a taxi into town to do a little light shopping and stopped to grab takeaway coffee.
Summer was waning, slipping into fall, and the air was chillier than usual as we walked down the pier.
“I’ve had a fabulous time,” Selene said.
“Me too. I haven’t had this much fun since…” Willow…
“Quinn?”
I sighed. “Willow and I hung out here a couple of times.” I kicked a small pebble out of my path. “I can’t believe I fell for her friend act.”
She pressed her lips together. “Because you’re not a lying, sneaky bitch.”
“Still, it feels like…I don’t know. It feels like I should have known. I should have picked up on something.”
“Maybe you did but you ignored it because you wanted to see the best in her.”
I sipped my coffee. “Maybe.”
Soft funfair music drifted to us on the breeze.
“Hey.” Selene nudged me. “The night is young, what do you say we hit the carnival?”
I glanced up at the setting sun. “Lorenzo will be meeting with the Mageri now.”
“And there is nothing you can do about the outcome so we should go have some fun, forget about the shit for a while.”
She was right. If we headed back to the pack house now, all I’d be doing was sitting around waiting for Tate to call with news. If I went back to the clifftop house, I’d still be waiting and trying to avoid telling Bea about it, which I’d probably fail at doing, and then there would be two of us sitting around being worried. Then Meri would join us and Grumble, and it would be a whole thing.
Best to kill time out here, with distractions. But the carnival? I wasn’t sure.
I looked across the peer toward the carnival, a place filled with a mixture of memories, all containing Willow.
Selene hooked her arm through mine. “Let’s go make some Quinn and Selene memories.”
Her enthusiasm was infectious. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Willow was gone, and dwelling on why she’d done what she had wouldn’t get me answers. It was time to close the book on her chapter. Karma was a bitch and Willow would get what was coming to her soon enough.
WILLOW
I huddle against Luke’s fever-hot body. He sits slumped against a blackened tree trunk, head lolling against his chest. His usually flawless tanned skin is covered in inky veins. His favorite green T-shirt is covered in bloodstains and what looks like moss. It’s almost as if this deathly forest is slowly claiming him, crawling over him and under his skin to make him a part of it.
This is her influence.
Her touch.
My eyes are swollen and raw from crying, throat scratchy and sore from pleading with the monstrous bitch to let him go, just let him go please, because I did what she asked. I did everything she wanted me to.
We should never have come to this godforsaken place. Never chased the story about the town with a deadly secret. But Luke, ambitious, vibrant Luke, my Luke with his floppy brown hair and twinkling dark eyes, had needed this break. Needed this story to get a coveted position at Inquiring Minds, the news podcast for supernatural mystery. I should have talked him out of it. I should have stopped him. Instead, stars in my eyes, I’d come along for the ride, and then…
“Stop it,” a male voice orders gruffly.
I look up at the man with the emerald eyes and angry mouth. The woodcutter is what I call him in my head, on account of the axe he carries everywhere with him as if it’s welded to his palm, and who knows, maybe it is.
“You can’t change what is,” he says.
“Why are you helping her?” The question comes out as more of an accusation.
“I made a deal to save someone I love. Much like you.”
I blink, surprised by his candor, surprised that he answered me at all.
I look down at Luke, then back up at the woodcutter. “She said she’d let him go. She said she’d fix him.” I hate the whine in my voice, hate how helpless and broken I feel.
I hate what I’ve been forced to do. The lies and the manipulation. I have a man’s death on my conscience. I hurt Quinn. I made her…I squeeze my eyes closed, not wanting to think about it.
I did what I had to. For Luke. All for Luke. “She promised to let us go.”
“Once your task is complete. Once you’ve served your purpose. She gave you her word and she always keeps her word. Promises, not so much. Her word, though… always.” He sighs and looks off into the dark, twisted forest. “We must simply ensure we examine those words carefully.” Another sigh. “You’ll get your freedom.” He sounds wistful.
“But you won’t? Your deal…was for life?”
“Eternity and then a little more.”
“I’m sorry.”
He frowns down at me.
“Aw, look at this.” The taint materializes out of the darkness. “My pets are getting along.”
The woodcutter stands up straight and fixes his gaze on a point in the distance.