AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nate
I can’t keep putting it off any longer. I have to come clean. I have to tell her. “You.”
She looks at me like I might have lost my mind. And I would love to give her time to come to terms with all of this. It’s hard for me and I’ve lived with this stuff all my life. “You might want to sit for the next part.”
“I…I’m confused about…everything and I don’t want to sit. I want to get the hell out of here.”
My temper flares, “Yeah, well I tried to send you away, didn’t I? And you didn’t want to leave then? You wanted to just stay and do this stupid story.” She visibly swallows at my less-than-subtle reminder. She all but falls in the chair and I hold to my anger. “You aren’t leaving now that the whole damned town is depending on you to save them.”
“What?!”
Now how the hell am I going to tell her the rest? It only gets more unbelievable from here. “The star that Deliverance and my grandmother wrote about…it’s you.”
I’m saying that a lot it seems. It’s her. It’s all I can hear in my head. Repeated over and over again.
“I…I don’t understand.”
I stand and walk to the bookshelf giving her my back. “Evil’s come to Stone Island, the kind of evil that first chased Deliverance here. And the only person who can do anything about it, is you, Nova.”
“That…how can that be? I’m not a witch. I don’t know anything about this…I don’t…I don’t understand any of this.”
“Come on, Nova.” I turn and use my gaze to pin her down. “It’s in your very name. Nova. A star that borrows power from another star causing a large bright flash of energy and light.”
“What does that have to do with saving the town? What does any of this have to do with me?”
“Because a male can’t save the town.” I bend down in front of her so we are eye level, “It has to be a woman. It has to be a star that gets her power from her mate. It has to be you.”
She’s quiet for so long that when she does move it’s easy for her to push me back far enough she can not only stand but run.
“This…whatever this is, is not me. It’s not.” She’s up the stairs before I can catch up.
She doesn’t stop at the top of them either. She’s halfway to the door before I finally catch her. “Brian can take you back to the inn.”
“And then to the dock.”
“The ferry doesn’t run this late at night. Looks like you’re stuck here for at least one more night. I would…I would really like it if you stayed.”
“Why? Because you need me to save your town? Because you finally found a use for me? You were so ready to shove me aside, wanted nothing more than to have me ‘off your island’ that you would have bent over backwards if it would have convinced me to leave. But now…now, just because of something someone wrote in a book years and years ago you suddenly can’t live without me. You suddenly see me as something other than an annoyance, not because of who I am. No, it’s all because of what you think is written in those books.”
She pulls her arm from my hold, and I let her go not wanting her to feel even more trapped than I’m sure she already does.
“No, thank you, Mr. Magnus. I don’t want to mean something to you just because someone told you I was supposed to.”
There’s a hurt in her eyes that she doesn’t have to explain for me to be able to define it. She doesn’t understand any of this. She doesn’t understand that it isn’t because of some damned book, that I felt drawn to her from the very beginning. That even before I realized she existed something compelled me to go to her on that road that night. Something made me go out in the storm that night and I am sure it’s because our souls are so entwined that one cannot live without the other. I must have sensed the danger close by and was drawn to go find her. She doesn’t understand that doesn’t happen for just anyone. It can only happen when the two are soulmates - meant to be.
Before she walks out the door with Brian, I call out to her, “Nova. Be safe.” You hold my heart and soul in your hands and don’t even realize it.
She pauses only long enough for me to tell her before she turns and rushes for the car parked in the driveway where Brian is already standing. After she’s gone, I sit in the library and watch the flames dance in the hearth. I could have handled that better. I could have told her a thousand different ways other than the way I did.
I should have been able to tell who -and what- she was to me that night. A part of me did know. It’s why I felt the need to get her off the island…to keep her safe. It was there when we touched when we shook hands for the first time. That electric zing that flows through me was a dead giveaway.
I start plotting and planning ways to make her stay now that I understand she’s the one. But I need her to stay for longer than just a couple more days. I need her to stay forever. Hell, the entire town is already in love with her. They’ve all been trying to make me see what they already did. I can ask any of them for help. In fact, I might just do that. Something real big and public so she can be sure it’s not just something I believe I should feel. That this thing between us is not just meant to be, but something I very much want.
Brian comes through and notices me sitting in the dark save for the blaze of the fire. He comes into the room and over to where I am sulking. “She’s back at the inn, Sir.”
I nod and wave him to the other chair but the look on his face has me looking up wondering what is wrong. “What is it, Brian?”
“Sir, your…nose is bleeding.” I feel it trickle down the top of my lip even as he says it. Then an intense pain flashes through my head causing me to double over and grab it.
