“I’m not going with you, Calliope,” he said. The car keys Jessamyne had dropped in the dirt when she’d shifted jangled in his twitching fingers.
“It’s your choice.” I shrugged. Put one foot then the other in front of me. Took hold of the tarnished metal handle of the screen door. Looked down at my dirtied toes.
I’d passed from exhaustion into that state where anything could make me cry, and I wished the thing pushing me over the edge had been a twee lamb or piglet, and not Tanner Marechal.
Fuck. I couldn’t do this.
“Does that mean you’re staying here?” I asked, scuffing my feet across the welcome mat.
I didn’t wait for Tanner to answer. I turned, ready to leap up the stairs and wrap my arms around him and reassure him we could do this, that we had to do this. Together. That we could leave our baggage right here, right now, and never have to pick it up again.
But that was fanciful thinking, and by the time I finished turning around, mouth open to impart some conciliatory, soothing balm into the tension hovering between us, Tanner was gone. I tore down the stairs, dug my toes into the soil, and begged the ground to give me a sign, a clue, something.
Dropping to my knees, I added my palms and fingers and waited, breathing in time with the rhythm of the earth. Tanner’s mint, and Jessamyne’s baked apple scents, were completely gone from the air.
Where is he?
I connected first to the vibrations of feet hitting the ground. Running. Fast. I lifted my head in the direction of the rhythmic footfalls. The driveway melted into black ahead of whoever, whatever was running. The hard, fast pace turned into a softer loping within a handful of strides.
Paws.
Ahead of the beast, the ground split, just as it had split in my yard.
The pounding stopped.
I stayed on all fours, in disbelief, in hurt. After all that business about baggage and getting to the point where past relationships didn’t matter, I was hurt that Tanner chose to follow the Apple Witch. I sat on my heels, brushed my dirty hands down the front of my dirtier pants, and stopped caring how grungy I was or how tired I felt.
Tanner was a druid. Jessamyne was the daughter of a druidess, and that was only the start. Both of them had inhabited their magic far longer, maybe centuries longer, than me. Their magic permeated everything about them. Their accumulated knowledge, tested and honed, allowed them to switch back and forth between forms—humans, trees, wolves, and who knew what else.
I blew out a frustrated breath. Dug my fingernails into my palms. The training I had been promised had better start soon. I’d had it with being left in the dark.
I waited, propped on my shins. Tanner wasn’t coming back. At least not tonight, not via the path ahead of me. Nature, usually my ally, stood silent. My insides continued to hollow out.
Time to report to the others. I swung open the screen door and made a grand entrance of my own to the echoes of an empty hallway. At the kitchen table, I told River, Rose, and the others about the Apple Witch and what she’d done. Those words came easy.
Filling them in on Tanner’s apparent choice to follow her was not. Getting those words formed and out choked me. Wes offered to accompany me to the hospital, and when I couldn’t stop my face from contorting as I tried to moderate my emotions, he insisted. I washed off my hands, and we left.
The building was in after-hours mode so we had to be buzzed inside. When Wes and I stopped to speak with the nurse in charge, the man informed us the Pearmains were resting and could not have visitors until tomorrow at the earliest.
Relief tumbled through my limbs. Cliff and Abi were here, and they were safe. Wes’s hand on my lower back steadied me. I left my phone number.
As we made to leave, the nurse added, “The RCMP are involved in this case. You’ll have to clear any visits with the chief officer first.”
Jack had been promoted. Interesting. Soon, the chief officer was going to know more about my personal life than I wanted. Wes took the wheel. Our ride to my house was mostly silent until we pulled into the driveway. I teared up at the sight of my A-frame’s stone foundation.
Wes cut the engine and waited, resting his forearms across the top of the steering wheel. “Calliope, before we go in, there’s something I want to say about Tanner.”
“I’m listening.”
“For as long as I have known the man, he’s been in a tug-of-war with Jessamyne.”
“How long have you known him?” I asked, rolling against the back of the seat and headrest.
He squinted, got that look that said he was doing the math. “At least a century. Probably more.”
“That’s a long time for a lover’s quarrel.”
His snort was soft. “Anything involving a woman who’s beholden to a Norse goddess is going to be epic,” he said. “I’ve never met Idunn, but I know the story. At least, I think I do. Our mutual friend can be a bit enigmatic.”
I side-eyed Wes. “And here I thought he was just moody.”
That got a laugh. Wes brushed his knuckles over my cheek and smiled. “I’m not going to tell you everything will work out.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“I will say, though, that I hope Tanner figures out how to extricate himself once and for all from whatever hold that woman has on him and moves on. For all our sakes. He’s a better man when he’s…” He stopped speaking and grabbed the door handle.
“When he’s what?”
“When he’s not with her.”
I gathered my bag and boots and closed my door. “I appreciate you sharing your thoughts, Wes. It’s obvious you guys all care for each other.”
“We care for you and the kids too.”
“I’ll be right in,” I
