Slightly Spellbound (13 page)

“
We
aren’t going anywhere,” Bryn said, tying his white terry-cloth robe closed. “I’m taking Jenson to Ireland, and then I’m meeting Andre in Gstaad.”

My stomach lurched like I’d fallen from a cliff. Bryn leaving?
That’s not right
, I thought.

Bryn and I were connected forever by the oath. I wasn’t supposed to ever have to worry about losing him. He tossed a toiletry bag into the case as if he didn’t know the new rules of our relationship, which of course he did since
he’d
been the one to tell me!

He clipped the suitcase strap over his clothes, and I was overcome with a possessiveness I hadn’t felt since a girl tried to steal the Edie locket during third-grade recess.

Like the locket, Bryn wasn’t allowed to disappear. He belonged to me.

Even as the logical part of my brain tried to argue that you can’t own a person, another louder part yelled,
Yes, I can. Bryn is mine.

I stared at him, practically speechless. The only thing I managed to say was, “No.”

13

“NO, NO,” I said again, walking to his suitcase. I scooped out clothes, fighting the tight strap I hadn’t bothered to unclip. Some shirts fell from my arms to the floor. I grabbed them up into a rumpled heap, the buzzed fae part of my nature giving Bryn a defiant look.

“Get dressed,” he said, grabbing the suitcase and pulling it away from me.

“You get dressed. I’m busy,” I said, marching into the closet with the clothes I’d liberated. I hung them on hangers, shaking out the wrinkles.

“Tamara, goddamn it,” Bryn said, stalking into the closet. He grabbed the first thing of mine that he reached. It was a silver and turquoise dress. He dragged it down over my head, covering my body, and then spun me away from him and zipped it up.

“What are you dressing me in this for?” I asked, giving a little twirl. The skirt flared. “Not like we’re going dancing. You’re not in a dancing kind of mood, are you?”

“Go down to the guest room and sleep off whatever drugged you. And while I’m gone, you should stay out of the woods. There may be more fae snares. Who knows if you’ll be lucky enough to escape next time?”

“It wasn’t luck,” I said, blocking him from retrieving the clothes I’d taken.

“Cut it out and go downstairs.”

“I’m not going anywhere. If I do, you’ll keep packing. And that’ll just make more work for me to unpack since you’re not going anywhere.”

“Listen,” he said, lowering his voice. “I’m leaving. If I could take back what happened, I would, but I can’t undo it.”

“Take back what happened? You mean the fight this morning?”

“Further back.”

I sucked in a breath. “You mean the vow?”

He nodded.

“That’s not yours to take back. That was my vow. I made it.”

“And you regret it.”

“I do not. It saved your life.”

“But you regret what it cost you.”

“What it cost me?”

“Sutton.”

“Oh,” I said, remembering Zach for the first time. “It’s true that I love Zach. Might always.”

The look on Bryn’s face just about stabbed me through the heart. He turned and stalked back into his room. In the closet, I still felt his power rolling over me. Magic that was angry and restless and passionate. Magic that made my ears ring and my feet want to chase him to the ends of the earth.

I don’t love Zach the way I love you. Not anymore
, I thought, knowing it was true. Bryn and I had been through too much together. We were the ladyfingers and coffee in a tiramisu dessert. Once the coffee soaked into the cake, there was no way to separate them.

I moved to the doorway and leaned against the jamb, watching him pack.

“You’re wasting your time,” I said, making my voice extra gentle.

“It’s mine and mine alone to waste.”

“You’ve got a right to be mad. If you still cared a lot about one of your exes, I’d be jealous, too.”

“You warned me enough times that you weren’t through with Sutton. I should’ve listened.”

“I hurt you.”

“Of course you hurt me,” he said, pouring himself a whiskey. The crystal decanter was almost empty. I tried to remember how much had been in it the last time I’d visited.

“If you’d seen your face when you walked out of that house,” Bryn said. “How much you didn’t want it to be over between you and Sutton. It ripped the heart out of my fucking chest. I’d have done anything to have been spared that. I wish to the stars I’d never gone to that Halloween party.”

I sucked in a small breath, feeling like he’d dumped ice water over my head. Bryn was always so smooth, able to handle anything. Sometimes I forgot that I had the power to hurt him. I took it for granted that I couldn’t lose him. I’d been so worried about Zach ignoring me that I hadn’t thought about what pursuing a relationship—even a friendship—with Zach might do to Bryn.

I sat on the bed, folding my hands on my lap. “I’m sure sorry you feel that way. That’s not how I feel.”

“How can you say that?” His magic snapped like a whip, sending a glass flying. He jerked the power back, and the glass dropped to the carpet without shattering, but reining the magic in had cost him. He vibrated with unspent emotion.

I spoke softly, trying to soothe him. “Zach was my first love and he’s family. We had almost twenty years together and made lots of passionate promises. That sort of thing doesn’t just go away.”

“Tamara—”

“
But—
” I said, quick to cut him off. “If I had to choose between him leaving town and you leaving town,” I said, shaking my head. “It hurts to lose Zach and I’ll sure miss him a lot, but he can go if that’s what he needs to do,” I said. “You can’t.”

“What are you saying?” he asked, becoming very still.

“You know. You’re always two steps ahead.”

“Tamara,” he warned.

“I don’t want you to go, and I won’t let you.”

“You can’t stop me,” he said.

“You sure?” I asked softly. I stood and walked to him. I took his face in my hands and kissed him. “I love you more than chocolate,” I whispered, breathing in his magic and letting it mingle with mine. I blew against his lips, feeling the tingling warmth spread from my mouth to his.

He rubbed the kiss away. Had it tasted of the Never? Or was he just upset?

“If you knew that of the two of us he was the one you could live without, why the hell did you—?”

“I didn’t know. I figured it out when I saw your suitcase.” I shook my head with an exasperated sigh. “I’ve got recipes and spells and emotions all jumbled together in my head. I figure stuff out when it hits me, like the button popping up on a Thanksgiving turkey when it’s all cooked.”

“If it’s so chaotic in your heart, maybe tomorrow you’ll see Sutton and realize he’s the one you can’t live without.”

“Maybe so. Faeries are mercurial, and I’m half. Maybe you’ll never know from one day to the next what I’m going to do. God knows, sometimes I don’t know myself. But I can tell you one thing,” I said, taking a step back.

He raised his brows in question.

“If you try to leave, you won’t get very far.”

“Why not?”

“Because you want to stay, and now you know that I want you to stay, too.”

“Why do you want me to stay?”

“Because I love you,” I said.

“It’s not enough to love me. Obviously.”

“I love you more than anyone.”

He scrutinized me. “Do you?”

“Yep,” I said, putting a hand over my heart. “I swear to God and Hershey and all that’s holy and delicious.”

“To all that’s holy and delicious?” he asked skeptically.

“Yeah, I swear on the important stuff.”

I walked to the drawer, pulled out a pair of underwear, and slid them on. “Unpack, Bryn, we’ve got work to do. Later, if you want, we can make up in a way that’s fun.”

His hand shook a little as he ran it through his hair. “I’ve never felt this out of control in my life. Not even the times in college when I got dead drunk.”

“Yeah, welcome to love. It’s a mess.”

He choked out a laugh. “That’s your expert opinion, huh? Christ,” he murmured. After a moment, he seemed steadier. “Come give me a kiss.”

I looked over my shoulder at him. He watched and waited.

“I might still taste like fae magic.”

“I’ll risk it,” he said.

I strode to him and planted a kiss on his mouth. His arms slid around me, and I felt restless magic, dangerous and delicious, slide against me.

I had to wrestle free. His eyes blazed blue with a look that promised the best kind of makeup sex, but I shook off the temptation.

“Later,” I said firmly. “I need my brilliant-guy Bryn first.”

“All right.” He retrieved the fallen glass from the floor and set it next to the bottle. “And Tamara?”

“Uh-huh?”

“If you ever sleep with Sutton while you and I are together, I will kill him.”

I huffed a sigh. “Don’t you guys ever get tired of threatening to kill each other? There are more important things going on in Duvall than who I spend the night with.”

“It doesn’t feel that way.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Jealousy’s the reason love’s a mess. But don’t worry. You’ll be okay,” I promised, which made him smile.

 • • • 

DOWNSTAIRS, I PICKED up the security phone in the kitchen. “Hey, Steve.”

He cleared his throat. “Hey, Tammy Jo. How are things?”

“Oh, yeah, everything’s okay,” I said. “Where’s Mr. Jenson’s room?” I asked.

Steve gave me directions. A minute later, I knocked softly on Mr. Jenson’s bedroom door.

He invited me in, and I heard a deep, wet-sounding cough that worried me straight down to my toes.

“Hey there,” I said.

“That’s interesting attire for eleven p.m. Did you come from a party, Miss Tamara?” he asked, pausing between sentences to catch his breath.

“Dr. Suri’s coming over.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“I know it, but I can’t talk him out of it now after I woke him.”

He coughed. “You shouldn’t have done so. This is just a bad cold. And if it isn’t, well, an old man has to die of something,” he said.

My jaw dropped.

“And,” he continued after a pause, “a young man needs something to do.”

“What young man? Bryn?”

He nodded. “Your preoccupation with your ex-husband’s return has been hard on him. I realize you have to follow your heart, my dear, but I can’t sit by and do nothing. Shuttling me to Ireland will take his mind off what’s happening here.”

I took Mr. Jenson’s hand in mine and squeezed it. “He’s so lucky to have you, but you don’t have to worry. I’ll keep Bryn busy. That’s all settled.”

“Is it?”

“Yep.”

He sighed with relief. “If you aren’t the death of him, you’ll be the making of him.”

“I don’t know about all that, but we’ll take care of us. You concentrate on getting better. Or we’ll have to sit by your bedside and might miss saving the town next time around. You don’t want Duvall’s destruction on your conscience, do you?”

“Certainly not,” he said with a slight smile. “It’s good to have you home, Miss Tamara.”

“It’s good to have you home, too, Mr. Jenson,” I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. I pulled the covers up to his neck and left the room, closing the door gently. Back in the kitchen, I picked up the security phone and told Steve to get Dr. Suri to come to the house right away.

“Mr. Jenson will see him?”

“Sure thing.”

“How’d you do it?”

“Made a promise he liked.”

“A promise you intend to keep?”

“Of course. You don’t lie to a sick-bed Mr. Jenson, Steve. It’s against house rules.”

“All right. Good to know,” he said, and I felt him smiling.

“Hey, Tammy Jo?”

“Yes?”

“Welcome back.”

14

IT’S NOT HARD to figure out how Bryn became a successful lawyer and top-tier wizard. Laser beams have less focus. As I rambled on, he managed to follow even my most wandering thoughts, which I appreciated.

I told him about the dustup with Vangie’s stepmother and stepbrother.

“I wonder if the skeleton guy in the tree could have been some special zombie that Oatha raised to spy on my house. A creature who was stalking Vangie, maybe? I did meet Vangie and Skeleton Guy on the same night.”

“Oatha’s not powerful enough to raise and control a zombie that sentient.”

“Not even if she used black magic she conjured with a smelly animal sacrifice?”

“Well,” Bryn said with an uncertain shrug. “Depending on the size of the animal. It would almost have had to have been a human sacrifice.”

I shuddered. “Hope not.”

“While scanning for sources of magic in town to see if I could detect the spells that are affecting the Duvall ghosts, I did detect water magic. The Theroux family casts using water.”

“Not water again! Not after the flood!”

Bryn smiled. “They’re not using it to make rain. That’s weather witches. Water witches harness the power of flowing water. They use it to power spells, the way you use herbs and I use the stars. The power drawn is the energy source, not the target result.”

“Oh, right.”

“It’s possible it was used against the ghosts, but it didn’t feel nearly powerful enough to have animated a collection of bones and to make it sentient enough to move around independently.”

“Why would the Therouxs care about driving the ghosts out of Duvall?”

“Maybe they haven’t driven them out. Maybe they’ve collected them.”

My eyes widened. “To spy?”

“That’s what the ghosts around here do best,” Bryn said grimly.

“It seems like a lot of trouble. Couldn’t they just use a strand of Vangie’s hair to scry for her and track her down? She thinks they messed with her hairbrush.”

“Sure, much easier.”

“Although, she said she doesn’t leave hair in the brush,” I said, tapping a finger against my lip. “The other thing is that if they’ve heard that we use Edie and the Duvall ghost network to get information, maybe they don’t want the ghosts loose.”

Bryn ran a hand through his hair and nodded. “We’ll investigate the Therouxs more deeply, but first I’d like to do a more elaborate spell to check the seals on the doors to the underhill.”