“What the hell…” Donovan trails off, his gaze bouncing between their retreating backs and me.
“We’re having a sleepover in here, like we did that night after the bonfire,” I explain, motioning around me. “Shove everything against the walls and there should be plenty of space. We’re going to need Mildred too. At least until Callie falls asleep. Anyone know where she is?”
“Taking a call out on the upstairs balcony last I saw her,” Nolan answers, his attention not leaving Callie. I can’t tell if it’s guilt or sadness in his eyes.
“Someone needs to go tell her Callie is awake and… not doing so well,” I direct feebly. “I’d do it, but she can’t see me.”
It’s weird talking about Callie like she isn’t half wrapped around Donovan and Nolan, but between her muttering things that I have no context for and racking sobs, she doesn’t seem to be fully with us at the moment. It’s like a dam has broken inside her and there’s nothing left to hold back her pain.
“I’ll go get her,” Donovan grumbles, shifting Callie over to Nolan. Callie makes a noise of distress when he leaves her grasp, but relaxes when Nolan promises that he’ll be right back.
I feel like I’m invading on something private watching Nolan hold her tight against him. More than just holding her off the ground, he appears as if the idea of losing her is as painful as it is for her to lose us. He closes his eyes and presses his lips to her ear, murmuring gentle words that are too quiet for me to fully hear. She nods, her fingers digging hard into his back, and her crying settles to something quieter—her body shaking and breaths reduced to wet gasps.
He opens his eyes and meets my gaze, offering a sad smile with guilt filled eyes that makes me uncomfortable. I appreciate that he’s trying to protect my feelings or whatever, but I’m not an idiot. He’s been acting differently around Callie since I saw them together—distant and careful—as if I’ll go full emo meltdown if he acts like his normal self. Now is not the time to be distant. Not when Callie keeps worrying we’ll disappear on her. Not when, despite what I promised, I might cease to exist at any moment.
I meet his guilty expression with an eye roll. “You might want to go sit on the couch while Kaleb and Connor set up the mattresses. Unlike me, they won’t go through you.”
As if on cue, Connor and Kaleb climb down the stairs with two mattresses sandwiched together, which they flop haphazardly on the floor.
“You get the third mattress. I’ll get the bedding,” Kaleb instructs Connor, before turning back toward the stairs.
Connor watches Nolan move to the couch with Callie wrapped around him, nods like he’s deemed her safe for the moment, then heads down the hall in the search of another mattress to put on the floor.
From the top of the stairs, Mildred appears with her cell attached to her ear. “I don’t care what you have to do, you selfish git!” she shouts at the person on the line. “After what you did, you owe me. Get it done.”
With a frustrated breath, she hangs up the phone and has a protective, ‘will murder anyone who hurts her niece’ kind of expression that makes me extremely glad she can’t see me. She quickly makes her way down the stairs and walks straight toward Callie.
Ignoring Nolan, she kneels on the couch and runs her hand down Callie’s hair, murmuring, “It’s alright, darling. I’m here. Everything is going to be okay.”
“I’m sorry I’m so much trouble for you,” Callie whimpers, sitting up enough so she can look at her aunt. “I don’t mean to be difficult. Please don’t give up on me.”
“Never. I’ll never give up on you, do you hear me?” Mildred insists, wrapping her arms around Callie in an awkward hug. “I’ll love you always.”
Callie sobs while Nolan is just kind of there. He flashes me a ‘what am I supposed to do?’ look, and I shrug—inappropriately amused by his floundering.
Donovan and Kaleb make their way downstairs, both arms filled with bedding, at the same time Connor comes out with another mattress.
Mildred sends Connor a scathing look over Callie’s head, hissing, “You were supposed to tell me when she woke up. That was the whole point of you staying with her while she slept. I was less than ten feet away behind a sliding glass door for bloody sake.”
“Sorry,” he apologizes, his voice low but sincere, and he arranges the last mattress to lie at the foot of the other two.
As the rest of us take a moment to blink at him because he used words versus a shrug, Callie sniffles and comes to his defense. “It’s not his fault. I told him to leave.”
Our blinking is joined by a few raised brows, because what the hell did he do for Callie to throw him out? At least the sobbing apology makes more sense now—sort of.
“Yes, well, he could have informed me before leaving,” Mildred argues, then gives Callie a hard squeeze before leaning back. “How about I make you some tea that will help you relax?”
“What kind of tea?” Callie asks, snuggling into Nolan’s arms and resting her head on his shoulder.
“Mint with a little magic,” she answers with a wink that elicits a small smile from Callie.
For once, Nolan holds his tongue on the use of magic for mundane things. Probably because it might upset Callie again after she begged that he not hate her because of her magic. Instead, he sighs and starts running his fingers through her hair, gently combing out the tangles.
I perch next to Nolan on the couch, while Mildred goes off to make the tea and the rest of the guys make the beds on the floor. Peering over at Callie who looks listlessly back, I promise, “It’s all going to be okay, pretty girl. You’re one of us, which means we’ll always be here for you.”
∞∞∞
If the clock is to be trusted, I was gone for over an hour this time. To me, it’s like blinking, except time jumps between blinks, and it’s been getting progressively worse over the past few weeks. I haven’t told Callie or the guys because it would only worry them, and unless Callie can do her spirit magic stuff to save me, there’s nothing they can do about it. Even my door has started to forget me—it hasn’t been back for more than a week.
