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She could lie… But then, her relationship with Thalea would become tainted by that. “Yes.”
“And who is this?” Her sister’s lilac gaze landed on Gavin.
“This is Gavin, my husband.” Violet swallowed past the flutters that awoke in her stomach. This was it. Her old life and her new one colliding in today’s horrid events. The two most important people in Violet’s world. Would Thalea have liked him, had they met under different circumstances? Violet moved closer to him, drawn like metal to a magnet.
“Hmm. I wish I could say it was a pleasure.” Thalea looked Gavin up and down, and her scowl softened somewhat. “I guess you pass. At least in terms of looks.”
“Wow, it seems the charming personality runs in the family,” Gavin said, but he didn’t appear happy. Where both her sister and herself were masters at masking their emotions, Gavin clearly was not.
Thalea’s gaze flashed across Violet’s shoulder toward the cave’s entrance, then settled on her. “Dad always maintained that you’d be back one day. I wish he’d been alive to see you home. At last.” She exhaled, and a warm, bubbly feeling took over Violet’s body at her sister’s tentative smile.
Then her sister crossed the distance that separated them and wrapped her in a tight hug. “Welcome home, Violet,” she whispered in her ear.
27
GAVIN
Guilt was an ugly feeling, and one he didn’t experience often. He tried to swallow past the knot in his throat as the images of what had happened in the cave replayed in his mind. The spirit who’d come charging at them, and the light that dissipated from his vacant eyes when Gavin’s spell had hit him full force.
They’d given Thalea Twenty-one to ride as they headed back to the coastal city of Sagewood. She’d mentioned that she enjoyed hiking up to the hills where the mine was at least once a month to speak to their father.
The horrifying reality of that statement lingered with Gavin for the better part of the three hours it took them to get to the town.
How lonely must she be? Why seek the company of an angry, murderous spirit instead of that of a living person? It also made him wonder how much education the non-magical people of the outer towns received on otherworldly creatures. Talking with a Neem wasn’t only sad, but reckless. Her “father” would have killed her without a thought. Not that Neems had thoughts.
Violet had been suspiciously quiet as well, and the worry for her weighed on his chest. It clawed at his insides and was hard to shake. How would he act if something similar ever happened to him? He couldn’t imagine.
“How are you really doing?” he probed, unable to stand the suffocating silence any longer. He gently wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to ignore the way his stomach clenched at the memories of her father’s spirit, and what he had to do.
Violet’s back curled forward, her shoulders hunching as if she couldn’t keep her usual proud pose, and that alone wrecked him. “I’m fine.” Lies. “I suspected I wouldn’t ever see him again.” She shrugged.
Her sister rode far away enough that it gave them the privacy they’d lacked around the shifters. “You know… it’s a good thing to admit when you aren’t feeling all right. You can’t be strong all the time. I will lead by example.” He cleared his throat. “I’m not fine, and I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“Because I dissipated your dad’s—Neem.” His forehead scrunched as he replayed the awkward words in his mind, wishing he could take them back.
“I would have done the same, Gavin.” Violet shook her head and stared ahead, a sigh rippling through her shoulders. “He would’ve killed us all.”
“Even if that’s true, I’m sorry. Your turn.”
But she didn’t answer, and her body tensed under his arms. Maybe he shouldn’t push this further. Perhaps a change of subject would help. “Do you think he would have liked me?”
“My father?” At his nod, she scoffed and looked back at him, a smirk almost breaking her serious expression. “No.”
“No? But I’m very likable.”
A grin. He would take that as a win.
“You would have had a hard time with him. He was the prickliest of us all.”
Gavin hummed. This was working. The tense set of her shoulders had already eased. He dropped his nose to her neck, enjoying the way her skin reacted to his touch. The scent of warm vanilla that clung to her was intoxicating, mixing with the saltiness of the ocean air around them. “I got through to you, didn’t I?”
“You barely did.”
“True, but it doesn’t change the fact that you let me in. Literally.” At her surprised gasp, he chuckled. “I bet he would have warmed up to me eventually.”
“You should stop betting. You’re poor now.” She batted his hand away from her hip, though the air lodging in her throat was enough of a signal that he had succeeded in his task. He’d distracted her, at least for a moment.
