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“Chatter? You started to say Chatter.” I cocked my head. “Rhia . . . please, promise me you won’t settle. That you won’t tie yourself to someone you aren’t sure about.”
She bit her lip, staring at the floor. “I know . . . I know . . . but what is love? Love brings pain and sorrow. Isn’t it better to marry someone you consider a good friend rather than getting your heart broken?”
I pulled her close, kissing her cheek. “Oh, Rhiannon . . . whether they’re friends or lovers or both, we’ll always have broken hearts. When they reject us, if they love us and then leave . . . if we live with them a hundred years loving them, and then they die—our hearts are bound to break. Why cut yourself off from the wonderful part just to avoid the sad?”
She shivered. “What if . . . what if I throw away something good to find I’m chasing an illusion? What if I discover that I’ve built something up in my mind? Can I hurt him, because I just maybe think I might be in love with someone else?”
“You’re walking on a tightrope. Please promise you’ll talk to Chatter? Find out how he feels before you say anything to Leo?”
She glanced at the closed door behind us. “That feels so wrong. Like I’m going behind his back.”
I bit my lip, not sure what to say. “Just promise me you’ll think long and hard before you actually get married. Breaking an engagement is a lot easier than five years down the line when you’re filing for divorce.”
Rhiannon let out a low sigh. “Yeah, I know. I’ll think about it.” She shrugged. “Come on, let’s get you dolled up.”
As we entered my bedroom and I closed the door, Rhiannon sat cross-legged on the floor next to the bed, resting her elbows on her knees. She played with the hem of my blanket as I slipped out of my clothes and into my bathrobe.
“I’ll be back in a few—I just need a quick rinse off.” I headed into the shower and, dropping my bathrobe, called out to Rhiannon. “Can you find me something nice to wear? I’m not sure what, but it’s not a party, as far as I know, although he said formal dress.”
When I finished soaping up and rinsing off, I climbed out of the shower to find her holding up a gorgeous cobalt blue sleeveless dress. Low cut, it was made of a simple jersey, with gathered shoulders and a woven black belt. I stared at it, struck by its beauty. The color was rich—so rich it was hard to look at.
“Where did you find that? I know full well I don’t own anything like that.”
She grinned. “I raided Heather’s back closet. This never fit her—it was too short and too . . . well . . . a couple sizes too big. But it looks like it’s made for you. I think she bought it for you on your last trip home, but you didn’t stay long enough for her to give it to you. Not after you and Grieve . . .”
“After we broke up.” I’d taken off, wanting nothing more than to get out of New Forest, to forget the look of pain on his face when I’d told him I wasn’t ready to come home. Now I’d give anything to go back to that moment in time, to take it back. But then again, would I? Would I give up being who I’d become?
I shook off the thought. “Let me try it on.” I dried off and fastened my underwire bra, then slipped the dress over my head. It clung in all the right places and was just the right color for my skin and hair. As I gazed into the mirror and saw the beaming smile of Rhia behind me, a crack in my mood started to fracture. I tried to repress it, but within minutes, like a glacier calving, the façade fell away and I sank to my knees, in tears.
Rhia was by my side instantly. “Cicely, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
I shook my head, weeping into my hands. “I want to tell you things, I want to so bad, but I’m afraid to because of Leo. Because I don’t know where your loyalties lie. I want to talk to you, but I can’t . . . I can’t trust anybody but myself—and I feel so alone. I’m walking into a vampire’s lair tonight and I don’t trust him. But I have to go, and I have to go alone.”
“I’ll go if you like—I’ll be there with you.”
“No, Geoffrey told me to come alone. Oh, Rhia . . .” I turned to her, grasping her hands. “I know Leo trusts him. I know Leo works for him, but Geoffrey’s not the fair, just leader we think. I know. Trust me, I know. And I’m afraid that he’s using me for something . . . something that could lead to everybody’s destruction.”
“What are you talking about? I promise you—I give you my word to keep it silent, upon our mothers and our grandmothers. On the Veil House itself . . .” She held up her hand to swear.
I quickly grabbed her fingers. “Before you do that, you should know—I saw the Veil House from the astral. This land is almost a living being. Its energy is brilliant, a beacon in the night. We live on top of Grand Central Station—we’re the blue-light special at Kmart. If you swear on the house, the land will hear and hold you to it. Don’t say anything rashly.”
She nodded, serious now, and pulled her hand away. After a moment, she held it up again. “I swear to you on the memory of our mothers, on our legacy with this land and this house, on flame and fire, on the Veil House itself, I will not betray your confidence. You are my cousin and we are in this together. Neither love nor men nor circumstance will sway me from my oath. You have my back, Cicely. And I have yours.”
A pale light, orange and flickering, formed around her hand. I stared at it, feeling a pull I’d never felt before. I held up my hand opposite hers.
“I swear to you on the memory of our mothers, on our legacy with this land and this house, on wind and air, on the Veil House itself, I will not betray your confidence. You are my cousin, and we are in this together. Neither love nor men nor circumstance will sway me from my oath. You have my back, Rhiannon. And I have yours.”
From my hand spun a whirlwind, tiny and gray; it began to increase, as did her flame, and the two met in the air, producing a firestorm of sparks, but none that stung as they landed on our skin. We brought our hands together, clasping them. The energy spiraled around us and as we held tight, we were dancing through a vortex, through a spiraling tunnel that wended with flame and cloud.
And then, we were aloft, spinning in a dance through the stars, while the pounding beat of drums in the night surrounded us.
“We are powerful together,” I whispered. “We can move mountains.”
“We can take down armies. We combine our powers and we are the sun and the moon.”
“The night and the day. The summer and winter.” I let my head drop back and laughed wildly as we began to spin faster, and then I was standing outside myself, watching as we spiraled even higher. I glanced to one side and saw Rhiannon’s spirit there, too, watching, laughing joyfully. And then, before our spirits could journey too far from our bodies, we were back in the room, dancing, laughing, stomping on the floor until we collapsed in a pile in the center of the room.
After a few moments, I looked up, surprised no one had come to find out what the fuck we were doing. Rhiannon looked just as confused.
