Page 134 of A Ghost’s Guide to Haunting a Witch

Theo exhaled suddenly. “They weren’t just dreams, were they?”

For a heartbeat, Augustine couldn’t move. Before she could answer — before she could ruin it or confirm it or unravel everything between them — she turned back to the door, forcing her key into the lock.

“Theo,” she said simply. “Just come inside.”

* * *

She flicked on the lights and dropped her bag by the door, gesturing for Theo to follow her into The Priestess Reversed. He hesitated by the door though, and she looked at him over her shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

“No. No, not really,” Theo replied, his gaze moving slowly around the shop, like he was matching reality to something already mapped in his head. “It’s so . . .” He trailed off, stepping further inside. “It’s so real. Just like I remember it.”

His fingers brushed lightly along the edge of a shelf as he passed, lingering for just a second too long. His eyes flicked to the counter and then the back wall. He took in the array of candles across every surface. His eyes were everywhere, all at once.

Augustine didn’t interrupt. She couldn’t. She knew he needed this moment. Needed this time.

Theo moved deeper into the shop, slower now, quieter, until his gaze caught on something at the back.

The sofa.

The one on which they’d made love.

Recognition flickered across his face, followed by a faint flush dusting his cheeks, before he turned again, now looking at the door.

The one that led upstairs.

He stilled. Something about the door seemed to wipe the colour from his face. “I know what’s up there,” he said quietly. “In my dreams I lived up there with you.” He turned and looked at her properly. “There are two options here. That’s either news to you . . .” A beat passed. “Or you’re not surprised at all.”

Augustine didn’t answer. She couldn’t: her mouth was dry and her heart in her throat, with every possible response caught somewhere behind her ribs.

Theo watched her for a second longer, and something in his expression shifted. “They weren’t just dreams, were they?”

Augustine swallowed. “No,” she finally admitted. “They weren’t just dreams.”

For a second, Theo didn’t move. Then his shoulders dropped, the tension leaving him all at once like something inside him had finally unclenched. “Thank God,” he breathed. Augustine watched as he dragged a hand over his face, letting out a shaky, relieved laugh. “I thought I was going mad,” he admitted. “I thought my brain had just built the whole thing out of nothing. Invented a beautiful woman and tricked me into loving her. Tricked me into losing her. Tricked me into missing her.” His eyes found hers again. “But it didn’t. You’re real.”

Loving her? Augustine’s breath caught in her throat.

She licked her lips. “I’m real, and I . . . I missed you, too.” She took a step closer to him. “You’ll never know how much I’ve missed you.”

“You know who I am.” His voice changed, something almost like awe threading through it now. “Because you were there, too.”

Augustine held his gaze. “Yes,” she said. “I was.”

Neither of them moved, and the world outside the shop seemed to fall away entirely, leaving just the two of them standing there.

Theo let out a slow breath. “Okay,” he said, more to himself than to her. “They weren’t just dreams. I’m not crazy.”

“They weren’t. And no, most likely not.” Augustine gave him a wry smile. “Although you did get involved with me. That was pretty crazy.”

“Involved with you?” Theo shook his head. “I wasn’t just involved with you. Augustine, I loved you.”

“You . . . you can’t remember that,” Augustine stuttered. “Maddy’s spell, the coma . . .”

Theo acknowledged that with a small smile. “I don’t remember you from before the coma, that’s true. But I remember searching for you. I remember missing you. I remember finding you and falling in love with you all over again. Maybe my memory isn’t what it was but I know I loved you. I know that for a fact.” He paused. “And you?”

She let out a small, breathless laugh. “I think you know the answer to that.”