hair went through in the backyard of Clara Thomas’s house.”
“You did not see what you went through on the balcony at Ruthie Goode’s house.”
“Well, I kinda did. You showed me.” And I’d lived it.
“No. You don’t understand. You didn’t just fall. You were shoved with such violence, Dephne. Such malicious intent.” She leaned close and looked at me from over her glasses. “He aimed to kill you.”
“Well, then his aim is lousy.”
“Not from where I was standing.”
I took another bite and washed it down with cool water. “You’re telling me I can’t take a shower because the Puritan from hell is on the balcony?”
“I don’t know where he is. I just know he’s not in here, and here is where I’m staying.” She popped an entire slice of the crunchy roll in her mouth and, well, crunched.
Draping the blanket onto the back of a chair, I rubbed my hands together. “I guess it’s time for a rematch then, because I am taking a shower if it kills me.”
Annette did the deer-in-the-headlights thing.
“Excellent hearing,” a voice came from below. Not, like, hell, but below us. And here we thought our whispering would be nigh indecipherable.
Roane rose, the vines falling away to let him. Ink scrambled away from him while I scrambled to the floor to help.
“I’m good, gorgeous.” He managed a sitting position. He pulled a knee up and put an elbow on it, and all I wanted to do was look under the kilt. I had to know. “But you are in no shape to take on the revenant.”
So that’s what we were calling it now. So much cooler than the Puritan. “And you are in no shape to stop me. You don’t know how bad I want a shower.”
The grin that slid across his face took my breath away. “I didn’t say you couldn’t have a shower. You can use mine.”
While the thought alone sent a warmth to my nethers, I shook my head. “It’ll be fine. I challenged him. He fought back. I’ll use the passageway to sneak up to my room and then deal with him when I smell better.”
Roane surprised me and leaned close. Ran his mouth along my jaw. “You smell like midnight rain and jasmine,” he whispered into my ear, his warm breath giving me goosebumps.
A single chopstick fell to the floor. We looked up at Annette, who sat watching us, transfixed, her chin cupped in her hands.
After a quick giggle, I looked back at the wolf. “I’m so sorry, Roane.”
His thick lashes cast a shadow over the olive green in his eyes. “You said that already, but it was my decision.”
“Your decision?” I was confused. “I didn’t know what that spell would do.” Not till after it was too late, and I’d literally transferred my pain to him.
“Why do you think we didn’t tell you?”
Frustration coursed through my veins like sand. I stood and looked down at him. “You don’t get to make those kinds of decisions without me anymore.”
He stood to tower over me. Not fair. “Then you don’t get to go out in the middle of the night without me anymore.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
We only realized we’d raised our voices when my dads stirred. Papi snuggled closer, and they went back to sleep. Ruthie never moved a muscle, snoring softly. Ladylike.
Roane accompanied Nette and I through the passageways upstairs. He showed us where the passageway opened into Annette’s room, pressing and pushing aside a sliding door to reveal the back of a freestanding mirror.
“It’s in my closet?” she asked.
“So that’s how you unlock them.”
Roane carefully moved the mirror aside, and we stepped in.
“This is your closet?” I marveled because it was marvelous. The thing was massive. While my closet was big, my room was ginormous. Her closet took up half of what would’ve been allotted to her bedroom. Not that she had it even half full.
“Why do you think I chose this room?”
“You need more clothes,” I said.
“I agree. We have to get our business going asap. Baby needs a new pair of shoes.”
We giggled, and she asked Roane, “Are you sure we’re safe?”
“No.” He looked at me. “But a revenant can’t normally do what the Puritan did to you. I don’t think he could hurt a mundane.”
“Oy, with the mundane again.” She held up a hand in surrender. “I’m a witch. I swear.”
He grinned. She melted. It was like his smiles had supernatural powers all their own.
We stepped into her bedroom. She had decorated it with all things witch. It was alarmingly similar