Page 63 of With All My Haunted Heart

She sniffs, and I picture her wiping tears from her cheeks. “What do you want, Pippa?”

“Can I come in?”

There’s shuffling on the other side. Footsteps on the wooden floor. The door swings open, red eyes the only sign of the grief I know I heard. Her voice is an exhausted whisper when she asks, “What do you need, Pippa?”

“I don’t need anything,” I reassure her. I want to reach out, to hold her, but I don’t know if that’ll help or hurt. If she’ll think it’s worth it with Xander one door away. “I came to see what you need. Are you okay?”

She shrugs, and I feel like an idiot.

“Sorry, I know that’s a ridiculous question. Of course you’re not okay.” I shift my weight awkwardly from one foot to the other as she crosses her arms tight against her chest. “I just…I want you to know you’re not alone. I’m here. I can listen, or I can keep you company. Or help you sleep.” I hold up my hands. “I’ve got magic for that, if you want it.”

Elle stares at me, those pale green eyes wide and shimmering with unshed tears.

“Unless you want to be alone,” I rush to add, swallowing the sinking sensation that I’ve overstepped, that I’ve read too much into all the times she’s reached for me today. “I can go if that’s what you want.”

“Wait.” The gentleness of her voice, the hope there, is stronger than any command. “Stay with me?”

“Always.” I step over the threshold and close the door behind me. “What do you need?” I ask, reaching for her hands. “What can I do?”

Elle shakes her head, and the tears spill free. “I’m tired of making decisions. Tired of being strong for this.”

“Oh, Ellie.” I pull her into my embrace, and she tucks her head into the crook of my neck. “You don’t have to make any decisions tonight. You don’t have to be strong. I’ve got you.”

A sob gets caught in her throat, and she smothers the noise against my shoulder.

“Let it out, love.” I hold her tight with one arm and let my free hand brush through her hair. “You won’t scare me away.”

“I don’t…I don’t want Alex to hear.”

“Well. That part is easy to solve.” I press a kiss to her temple and trace the concealment sigil in the air, shifting and forming the sound barrier into a bubble around Elle’s entire room. “There. Scream as loud as you need. He won’t hear a thing.”

A choked laugh bubbles out of her. “Such a serial killer move.” But then she sighs and leans deeper into my touch. “You’re so warm when you do magic.”

“Come on.” I tug her toward the bed and let her curl into me as she cries. And when she’s out of tears, I bring her water and distract her with magic. The tiny fireworks in my hands that delighted her nieces and nephew. Calming sigils to ease some of the edges of her grief. The same protection sigils I offered Rykelan to keep him safe.

Eventually, I release all the magic and simply hold her close, trying to fight the growing certainty that I’m falling for this woman. Even though I shouldn’t. Even though our time is short and a relationship has to be the furthest thing from her mind.

But I stay, fingers trailing up and down her back as the tension bleeds out of her body.

Until finally, she falls asleep in my arms.

Chapter

Nineteen

For the next three days, I dive full steam ahead into solving the problem of a self-sustaining ghost room.

Despite Xander’s sobered-up insistence that the glasses and spirit boards are good enough, seeing the joy he and Ellie felt dancing with the ghosts convinces me to keep trying. I want them to have dance parties when I’m gone. I want them to have lazy Saturdays to watch Colton’s antics. Time for deep conversations with Laney or to listen to the Jennifers tell stories about all the drama they’ve witnessed at decades of proms and weddings. To talk philosophy by the fire with Harry.

And Willa.

My heart aches to imagine it. To see the young girl I met come back to her smiling, vibrant self. To hear the voice Elle so desperately misses. I imagine Willa and Colton playing tag around the house while Elle watches, enjoying the chance to keep loving her niece the way she deserves. Before the cancer invaded Willa’s brain and stole her future.

I won’t be here to see it, but it helps to know I’ll have made it possible.

Since Thursday night, Elle hasn’t brought up Willa, and I haven’t pushed. She let me hold her that entire night—and we barely managed to avoid Xander spotting us together Friday morning—but since then, it’s been business as usual. Heads down, all three of us focused on our work.

Now that it’s Monday, there are only five days until Midnight Manor opens, and everything needs to be perfect. The chef Xander and Elle hired started this morning, testing and prepping the menu for both the opening night festivities and the offerings for Sloane’s inaugural spiritualist retreat.