Page 10 of Whispers of the Dryad

“It sounds to me like he wasn’t a good guy at all.”

“He wasn’t.”

“You didn’t mean him when you asked about a soulmate… who did you mean?”

I hesitated before I said, “I don’t know.”

“Did you mean Ash?”Philippa’s mouth rounded in an O of surprise, her eyes sparkling.She stopped and grabbed my arm.“Tell me you meant Ash!”

I shook my head.“Soulmates don’t exist in realms where I can’t be forever.It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Do you care that much about him, though?”Philippa asked.The way she tilted her head in a childlike way when she asked questions was endearing.Her questions were never asked with ulterior motives or double engenders.She always asked exactly what she meant to ask.“I don’t know,” I finally admitted.“That’s not a no.”

“It’s not a yes,” I pointed out.“No, it’s not, but you’re asking about it for a reason.”

I shrugged.“I thought I was really falling for him.”

“You thought?”

The questions were getting tough.“I don’t want to fall for him.We’re not meant to be together.We don’t live in the same world, and after all this is over, I’m going back home and Ash won’t follow.”

“How do you know he won’t follow?”Philippa asked.I turned to her.“Let’s be real.I’m not the kind of girl a guy leaves everything behind for.I’m the kind of girl guys settle for.”

Philippa frowned, and for the first time ever, she looked angry.It was a surprise.She always looked like she was in a good mood.I’d never seen a negative expression on her face.“Don’t you dare say that about yourself!Just because you had the wrong guys in your life doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you, just with them!You’re worth everything, and you won’t accept the love you deserve because you don’t think you deserve it!”

The more she talked, the angrier she got, until her cheeks were red and her brows knitted together in fury.“Wow, you’re really worked up over this,” I said.“It just makes me so mad when someone great doesn’t see their true worth!Ash isn’t just with you because he’s looking for a way to pass the time.Trust me, I know what that looks like.He’s with you despite the fact that he’s trying to make time pass without being aware of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re the first person who’s been able to get that man out of his tree and awake every day.You have no idea—that woman he was with did a number on him, and if Ash wasn’t immortal, she would have been the death of him.Since you came along, it finally looks like he wants to live again.If that doesn’t mean something, I don’t know what does.”

I blinked at Philippa.“That’s really what’s going on?It was that bad?”

“Oh, you have no idea.We all thought he was going to be stuck in that limbo of heartbreak and regret forever, but along you came with your entourage of villains and snap!”She snapped her fingers for effect.“The real Ash returned.I don’t know what the true definition of a soulmate is, but if you could draw him out of his shell like that, and you feel the same way about him…”

I shook my head.

“The one time I meet someone great, and this happens.He’s a drus—or whatever—and I’m human.Figures.”

Philippa smiled, the anger gone without a trace.“I don’t think this has to be the end, you know.”

“Why?”I asked.Philippa shrugged.“There’s still some time before All Hallows’ Eve.Who knows what could happen?”

I shook my head.I didn’t know what could happen, but I also didn’t know if something would happen.After all, none of this had been planned, and thinking of Ash as someone who cared that much about me just scared me all over again.Not to mention the fact that I couldn’t shake the lingering thought of Oscar.It was like he was watching me, although he had no idea where I was.How did I let go of the past and look toward the future when I didn’t know if the past was gone, and the future kept trying to evade me?

ChapterTen

Ash

Lorraine wasn’t in the cabin when I got there, so I entered because that was what she said she wanted me to do.I liked being able to come and go as I pleased, to be a part of her life that made her light up when I walked in and made her look down when I left.I liked that I had an effect on her because that meant she felt something for me, too.Just thinking it made my heart sink a little.Rowan’s wise words still mulled around in my mind, and it was hard to think about sacrifices.I would have to sacrifice being with Lorraine if I wanted to do this life.The only way I could hold onto her was by giving up my immortality again, but I wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment.I couldn’t—not after what had happened the first time.It was only thanks to Artemis that I’d had a Hail Mary pass after that at all, and she wasn’t going to be so generous a second time.I pushed everything out of my mind and opened the fridge.I didn’t know much about cooking, but that didn’t matter.I’d asked Philippa to help me, and she would drop by in a short while with everything I needed.All I had to do was make sure that the cabin was ready.That seemed easy enough to do.I just had to think about Lorraine and how she would respond, how she would feel about something, and I knew what to do.It was just like the cabin and decorating it.All I’d done was think about her reaction when she saw it, and giving her something she liked was easy.I had a box of candles with me.Rowan told me girls like candles.It seemed stupid to me—a source of light was a source of light—but I unpacked the candles on every surface I could find and slowly went about lighting them one by one.When I was done, the place flickered with the soft glow of candlelight, and it looked almost like it used to before I’d made the place electric for her.I still didn’t know why that worked for her—again, a source of light was a source of light.When someone knocked on the door, it was Philippa.She held a basket and beamed at me.“Where is she?”I asked.“She’s in the orchard, napping on the grass.I put a spell on her to sleep a bit after we spent some time this morning.She could do with a dreamless rest.”

Philippa looked worried for a moment, but before I could ask what was bothering her, she wiped the expression off her face and smiled at me again.“I got it all right here.”

She handed me the basket and craned her neck to look into the cabin behind me.“Come on in and see,” I said with a roll of my eyes.Philippa was curious as fuck.Philippa hurried inside, excited.“Oh, wow,” she breathed, looking around.

“I can’t believe what you’ve done to the place.”

“You haven’t seen it yet?”

---