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“I’m fine,” she whispers.
She seems calmer. Quiet, probably confused, but more at ease.
“Tell me the truth.” I wrap a strand of her ghostly hair around my finger. “If there’s someone who understands ghosts, it’s me.”
She closes her eyes and releases a shuddering breath. “I was comfortable with the idea of losing my magic along with my father. He was my magic. He taught me everything. But my magic is changing, and it’s so different.” Her voice lowers until it breaks. “It feels like I’m really losing him now.”
“It’s not.”
“I know. It’s silly.”
“Not silly at all.” I sigh and draw her closer, kissing the side of her hair and inhaling. Gods, I missed this smell. “But you’re not losing him. You still have all those memories. You have everything he taught you. You’re still the woman he and your mother raised you to be. Smart. Funny. Bold.”
“I hope so.” She turns, her face too close to mine. “I’m leaving. That’s part of why I was avoiding you and part of why I was—what did Jewel say?”
“Dysregulated.”
“Sure. I… the cottage has been really upset. So, I summoned her. Your—”
“Wendy?” My throat tightens. “You summoned Wendy?”
“I was trying to help.” She sits up straighter, as if preparing to defend herself. “I thought if I could talk to her… well, I don’t know what I thought anymore. It didn’t work.”
“It’s all right. I understand.” Am I supposed to be upset about it? Strangely, I’m not. I already told her about the situation, and she was as supportive as she could have been. “Did she really hurt Luke?”
“She was trying to get my attention, but it’s not safe living there. Not when she’s getting our attention like that. Mom even mentioned us staying in the motel until we’re ready to leave, but Leo refused, and we couldn’t exactly leave him alone. Wendy hates him the most.”
“Then they’re…?”
“Leaving.” She looks away.
Is she going with them? I don’t dare to ask.
My jaw is steel as I look away, staring into the fire. “When someone’s spirit is stuck on this plane, it’s not all of them. Sometimes it’s the good. Sometimes the bad. Sometimes a mix. Wendy left behind a hurt version of herself, and I take responsibility.”
Everyone said it’s not my fault, but years later, I realized if I had been by her side… maybe her passing would have been different. Maybe she could have gone to the Underworld.
Instead, she’s stuck.
“My family is leaving,” Aurora whispers. “And I don’t know if I want to go with them—”
Desperation claws from my chest. “Then don’t.”
Stay. It’s one word, or maybe a few more. Stay with me. I can’t bring myself to say it.
“But that’s why I moved here. To be with them. So…” She chuckles bitterly. “You can have what you wanted in the start. I have to go.”
It’s so like her to lighten the mood with a joke, but I don’t want to hear it.
What was it I wanted? I can hardly remember how I felt when she came to Starbrook. Worried about the change. Worried about my position. None of that matters now. Only she matters.
My brow furrows. “I want you.”
But I’m too afraid to ask her to be with me—to move into my cabin, to make a life with me. She’s right. She should be with her family. And there’s still a part of me wondering if she’ll be safer without me around, if the ghosts will stop chasing her as they chase me.
“That’s not true.” She laughs softly. “You wanted to run the coven, remember? Your competition won’t be around to foil that.”
Aurora hasn’t been my competition in a long time, and she knows it.
