Page 80 of This Haunted Heart

“Pirates are good at finding treasure,” he said playfully around the catch in his voice. “Why not take me with you?”

I shook my head. “If there’s to be any digging, it’s got to be me that does it, I think.”

He rocked me gently side to side, the motion calming as the fire warmed my face. “I often think about what it would be like if we could go back in time. What I would change. What if we could do that?”

“I would want to change so many things,” I said.

“What if you’d never buried my ring at all? Then no one would have to do any digging.” His voice took on a dreamy quality that soothed me. “What if we pretended you escaped to safety, then sent it back to me. My ring is stored away unharmed. I knew you were alive, and I came for you just like you always wanted me to. What if we pretended that’s what you’re doing here right now? You came to this inn, to meet me again for the first time.”

Turning in his arms, I blinked at him. Searching his face, I found him to be sincere. An excitement brewed inside me that made me feel lighter. “You want to begin again? Here and now?”

“As a start,” he said, squeezing me against him. “If we’dfinally found each other right here and right now—no theft, no running away, no coercion, no revenge, no need for forgiveness because it’s all been righted—what would you want to do first?”

The fire consumed the logs with a spark of light and a crackle as I pondered his heavy question. “I don’t know if it’s the right thing . . .”

“Tell me anyway,” he said encouragingly. “Tell me whatever is on your mind. We’ll decide together.”

“I want to return to Light Lily,” I said, surprised by how resolved the words sounded sliding out of my lips. “I think I need to go back to the house one last time. I’m not quite sure why. I just know that when I looked through the window in the parlor, it finally made those dreams about that door stop, and when I learned the baron was really gone, I finally got his voice out of my nightmares. What if we could put that whole house out of our minds for good? Banish itforever?”

“You think visiting the old house will make us stop dreaming about it?”

“Yes! But I could never go back there alone. I wouldn’t dare. If I’m pretending I met you here for the first time, if I think about why I’d come to this place over any other, I think that’s what I’d be trying to do. Trying to make myself go back there again.”

“Come with me.” He stood, holding my hand in his. “Cutting through the mire into Light Lily will be quick, but we should hurry while we have the sun. You’ll need to keep close to me on your horse. The mire is deceiving. It can appear safe, and then suddenly you’re chin-deep in muck.”

Chapter 19

Lochlan Finley

Ihadn’t been back to the house of my youth in ages. Not since the waters began to rise as growth in nearby cities doubled, and the marsh flooded. I’d returned just once to make sure my adoptive mother was delivered safely to her sister’s home in Ohio, and then I abandoned that horrid place completely.

Nature had reclaimed it. Ivy wound up the steep gables and overwhelmed the lattice. Greenery covered most of the windows. The tree canopy above us had grown so thick, sunlight filtered through in weakened beams.

“It’s sinking,” Rynn said as I helped her dismount.

It was. As we neared, its unlevel foundation buried in the water became clearer. We left our horses on higher ground between two ash trees.

“The mire will claim it all eventually,” I said. The house leaned slightly to the west. There was something satisfying about knowing that it would soon exist no more. I hoped it would take all my dreadful memories with it.

“It’s not claiming it fast enough,” she said, and I understood immediately what she meant. She wanted it gone, too. Wanted to obliterate it and everything it represented from the earth forevermore.

Rynn hoisted her skirts and marched through the wet.

“The house isn’t safe. Especially not on that side where it’s sinking,” I cautioned, and nerves had my heart thundering in my chest, but determined as she was, she didn’t slow. I raced after her, splashing in the muck that came up over my ankles.

“Do you have your lighter?” she asked when I caught up to her.

“Yes, but—”

“Good. I’m going to burn it down!”

“Rynn,” I said, concern diminishing my voice. “He’sin there.”

She knew immediately who I meant, and she stopped, dropping her skirt into the water. Muck soaked up into the hem, darkening the blue shade to black.

Rynn let out a shuddering breath. “I’m so fucking tired of being afraid of that man . . .” She stuck her hand out, palm up. “Give me your lighter.”

“No. I’m going with you,” I said, more resolve in my voice than I felt in my soul. I was tired of fearing Father too, though the sentiment did nothing to dull the sensation tightening my chest and pebbling my skin.

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