by CJ Flynn
My flight wouldn’t leave until morning, and every muscle in my body ached for sleep.
“Let’s just get some rest,” I said. “If you’re still worried in the morning, we’ll readjust.”
Anita nodded, once. “Fair enough.”
* * *
I left for home the next morning without much trouble for Anita. My next few days were jammed full of stuff to do, and she would fly up so we could make the trip to California together. With Charlie Haden behind me, I was finally ready to tackle the nuts and bolts stuff.
I scheduled the realtor for the evening before the scheduled flight to California. Laura and I had sorted and packed for hours, and when she was too tired to keep working, I kept going. My grandparents had left behind so much.
But after a week of intense work, it was mostly done. The realtor, a tall, sandy-haired guy named Greg, was upbeat about selling the place. It’d go on the market in early spring, and he assured me it would sell quickly. The sale price of a house and acreage less than a mile from the Hudson would net me enough cash to live for a while without having to worry.
I gingerly sat down on the back steps as the realtor’s sports car’s taillights disappeared around the bend at the end of my driveway. The tires crunched and hummed on a patch of ice at the road, and I shuddered against the cold. It was in the twenties, and a sharp wind carried the smell of snow. I pushed the smell out of my mind and closed my eyes. If I tried hard enough, I could practically taste the salty California air. I was beyond ready to leave the snowy, gray world behind. I wanted the light.
I stared out at the old garage, now empty. I had tossed a lot of stuff from the house and my grandfather’s workshop after carefully collecting the things I wanted to keep. A couple that owned a large resell and antique business took the rest of it. There hadn’t been much worth keeping, but I had three large cartons packed with the best parts of their beloved kitchen. I had photos, a quilt, and a few other odds and ends I couldn’t let go.
I wiped away the tears that rolled down my cheeks as I looked out at that garage. It looked older somehow, than it had just a day earlier. It was without purpose, a season of rest. I hoped a family would buy the place, or an artist. My grandfather would have loved his old garage used as a studio.
I heard a rustling in the woods and smiled when I recognized the familiar shape of Daniel creeping around the garage.
“Allie.” He spoke just as he stepped into the driveway, the moonlight bringing his golden hair into focus.
“Daniel,” I said, my voice breathy. Relief washed over me as he crossed to me and knelt before me in the snow.
He pressed his lips against my forehead, before moving to my cheek and finally my mouth. The urgency was gone, but he still felt solid and so very, very present.
“You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” I said, when he finally pulled back from me.
“Not half as glad as I am to see you.”
“How did you know I was here?”
He shrugged. “I took a chance. I was not planning to come here, but I leave for Europe tomorrow, and I needed to see you one last time.”
“Europe? What's happened? I've been out of commission,” I said, gesturing my head towards the purple cast that covered my arm from my shoulder to my fingers. “Between this and trying to get the place ready, I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything else.”
“I must move forward. I have found some allies, people far removed from the center of the Queen’s little universe. Sorrell’s death is threatening to tear apart the careful peace she has worked towards.”
He lightly traced his fingers across my cheek. “It is dangerous there.”
“I know.” I tilted my face to kiss his fingertips and again the tears came, unbidden.
“I think you will be happy in California.”
“I would settle for being alive, and being left alone.”
He shook his head. “I would love to debate with you all night about the exact level of happiness you deserve, but I cannot stay long,” he said. “I need to be on a plane by midnight.
I kissed him, letting my lips linger on his. He tasted and smelled like winter, and I was reminded of how very much I happened to like that scent after all. “What happens next?”
“I will not rest until they have all paid for the destruction they have caused. I will go to the Coven of the Crows, and seek assistance. The Earthborn must unite to fight this cancer within, or we will be wiped out as others before us.”
“Can't you at least stay tonight?”
He nodded, and stood from the ground. In a single, gentle movement, he scooped me from the porch and settled down into a frozen deck chair. He nestled me in, cocooning me in his wide, warm embrace.
“Rest, Allie. Your work is done. Sorrell is gone, Benjamin is healing, and your family is safe.”
I closed my eyes as I rested my head against his cheek. “But I need to know you're safe, too.”
He curled his arms tighter around me. “I could stay right here as long as you needed me, but it would not solve the problems of my kind.”
I opened my eyes and pulled back. “What are you saying?”
“I have never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. But I cannot seek happiness with you when I know so many suffer under the oppression of Lillith and her princes. I need to help them, so that they can find and feel as I have. When my brothers and sisters are free, then so can I be.”
Sadness filled me as his gaze shifted away from me. I knew his mind was made up, and nothing I could say would change that. I even knew exactly where he was coming from.
But my own selfish heart wanted him to stay in that chair with me forever.
He laughed when I told him that. “I would outlast you. And it’s much too cold to stay here indefinitely.”
His words brought me back to reality. I shook my head. “I’m so glad to get away from this place. Just a few more days until I can stick my toes in the sand and work on a really rad tan line.”
“Did you say rad?”
“I did. I think it’s probably good to work on the lingo.”
“I had high hopes of someday figuring out a way to see you in the sunlight again. If this is how they really talk in California, I may have to rethink that vision.”
I nudged his shoulder with mine, and swallowed around the lump in my throat. It was all too easy to imagine Daniel as a human again, but I guess now it was impossible. My serum hadn’t worked, but Ernie’s magic had. And Ernie’s magic was gone.
* * *
It took us two days to make the trip to California. My body could not handle the additional air travel after so many busy days, and we ended up changing our layover in Chicago to add a night between flights. I spent the entire night sprawled on the bed, dizzy from the effects of the pain meds.
It was well after dark when Anita pulled up in front of a tiny, shabby little beach cottage, sandwiched between two glistening mansions. It was closed off from beach access, but the views from the back porch were stunning.
She escorted me in, and settled me in one of the oversized white chairs in the darkened living room.
“Where are we?” I asked, as I nestled against the pillow. My pain medicine was wearing off, and I was anxious for more numbing and a glass of water.
“This place belongs to a friend of a friend. We only have a few days here, but it gives me time to sort things out.”
“I need to let Laura know we've arrived safely,” I said.
“She knows,” Anita replied, bustling around the living room and kitchen.
“And?”
Anita handed me a glass of water. “And she'll be here tomorrow.”
My heart jumped into my throat and I smiled for the first time in days. “Really?”
“Yes. So let's get you something to eat, and you can get some rest. Your whole life is ahead of you, Allie, but you not if we can’t get you over your bum arm.”
Epilogue
I looked down at t
he bundle of muslin blankets. We'd discarded them on the porch swing as soon as we realized they were making her sweat in the California heat. Now, Laura was carrying her daughter, Nora, around our new backyard. The place was classic Santa Barbara. The concrete terrace faced a backyard lush with lemon, avocado, and orange trees. Laura was showing three-week-old Nora the last of the avocados we would harvest.
I watched them, sighing with contentment as the smell of the sea blended with the last whiffs of Valencias. I heard the soft ping of the doorbell and stood up, stretching in the sun before ambling inside. I had expected to get bored, fast, but it never happened. I had a job at the local library, and I was helping with the baby. August had come and was nearly gone, and I didn't want one thing to change. There wasn't anything exciting in a change-the-world kind of way, and I was fine with that. Keeping up with Nora was enough.
For now.
The doorbell sounded again as I walked across the cool tile of the living room towards the front door. I slid back the deadbolt and opened the door, expecting a delivery of yet another package of diapers. It was too early for Anita and the twins to be showing up for dinner.
But it wasn't my sisters, or even the delivery man.
Instead, Ben stood there, looking for all the world like it was the most normal thing he could do on a hot August day in Southern California.
He was golden-brown, practically glowing in the afternoon sun. A pair of sunglasses hid his eyes, but I could see the pink on his cheeks. He was wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans.
Did I mention that he was standing in the sun?
He slid his glasses off his face and grinned at me.
I tried to think of something pithy, but my mind was blank. He was Ben. My Ben. The exhaustion, the anger and frustration... gone. Everything that had come between us melted away, and I saw him, really saw him. Just as he'd always been.
I stepped forward, standing one stair above him on the front porch. Just almost eye level.
Almost.
I tipped my chin up, still trying to come up with something to say that wasn't so boring as “Hi.” He broke the tension though, by leaning forward and giving me the tightest hug I had ever received in my life. He stepped away from me, and gave me a wide smile.
“I was so terrible to you,” he said, his voice soft. “You fought for me, and I only gave you hell. You gave me life, Allie.”
I felt the blush creep across my cheeks.
“I don't know what's happening in your life now. I don’t know if you’re still using your ability, or if you’ve left it all behind. And I don’t care. I need you in my life, Allie. You’re my best friend, and the only person that knows everything I’ve been through. I’m sorry for everything I put you through, and I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done for me.”
My Ben.
Tears slid down my cheeks. I didn’t feel that panicky love rush through me that I had once been so familiar with. I saw a friend and a confidant.
He pulled me in for another hug. I didn't know what would happen, or even what could happen, but in that brief, sunny moment, I just didn't want to think about it. We would figure this friend thing out, one way or another.
“You don’t have to thank me,” I whispered into his shoulder. “It was worth it.”
Coming Spring 2017!
The Arcana Prophecy: Oaken Moon
The stories of the Druids continue in CJ Flynn’s upcoming series: The Arcana Prophecy.
Join CJ’s mailing list to get the latest news, early access to new releases and more!
Find CJ online:
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Twitter: @cjflynn_write
www.cj-flynn.com
Acknowledgments
Thanks…
To Linda, my favorite teacher.
To Ginny Fralick, for your endless patience, friendship, and proofreads,
To Rebecca, for answering questions that Google probably could have,
and
To John, for everything.
About the Author
CJ Flynn is an author, farmer, and mother. She has been writing for most of her life, and has used her skills professionally in writing technical documentation, online articles, and marketing. Her first love has always been fiction.
After moving back to begin a small family farm in her home state of Ohio, CJ left behind the technical and marketing writing to focus solely on her fiction. The Mythos of Cimme series is her first published fiction work.
Join CJ’s mailing list to get the latest news, early access to new releases and more!
Find CJ online:
Facebook.com/cjflynn.write
Twitter: @cjflynn_write
www.cj-flynn.com