Page 14 of Light As A Feather
With an arched brow of disapproval, he turns his attention to Sol. “It’s unkind to fill his head with such fantasies. Pathetic that a man of your age would cling to some fairytale version of young love.”
“Pathetic is it? That must make you pitiful.” The ghost’s arrogant smirk twitches, a quiet rage distorting his features. My sign to continue. “What kind of man traps a woman to have her despite her hatred for him?”
“Hatred and desire are two sides of the same coin. With enough time, it is bound to land on the other.” His attentionsettles solely on me. “Unlike you, I’ve learned the art of patience.”
“Desperation, patience, what’s the difference, I guess?” I shrug, all nonchalance on the outside despite the fury that boils my blood. “Whatever you want to call it makes no difference to me because your time is up. Sol is mine, and I don’t intend to share.”
“It doesn’t matter what you want, or what she wants, for that matter. If you’re under the impression that you have any say, sadly, you’ve been misinformed.” The eye contact he shares with Sol sends a flare of anger down my neck, the hair standing on end.
I nearly miss it when she shakes her head side to side. A warning, a plea to the malevolent entity that plagues her. As someone who’s been fluent in Sol for nearly two decades, the not knowing of everything that’s transpired between them blossoms into an uncomfortable itch.
“Hawthorne,” she snaps. “I told you this ends here. It was my choice to stay away.” Every muscle tenses as she clears her throat. “Just like it’s my choice to leave now.” A shudder passes through her as she moves away from me and takes intentional steps toward the door.
The click that echoes through the room as the metal meets her skin halts everything. The panicked look in her eyes when she turns to me should elicit guilt, but I only feel a sense of peace wash over me. I hold her gaze as I snap the other half around my own wrist.
“What thehelldo you think you’re doing?” Her fingers latch around the cuff, nails prying at the metal. “Listen to me, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. You need to let me leave.Now.” Fear rattles her words.
A war wages itself inside me. Conflicted by my desire to comfort her and my need to keep her close. “I do.” I ignore howshe shakes her head in protest. “I know that you stayed away to keep me safe from him.” My eyes flick over her shoulder to the spirit who insists on remaining with her. “But you don’t need to protect me. I’m not afraid.”
“That’s because you don’t know what he’s capable of,” she insists.
“You’ve been gone a long time, Sol. You don’t know whatI’mcapable of.” Stepping around her, I approach the spirit.
“Name your price. What will it take for you to let her go?” I don’t have patience for games anymore. All I want is for this to be over once and for all. All I want is to start the rest of my life with her. I’m willing to make whatever sacrifice he demands.
“Nothing.” The spirit’s aura grows darker, shadows collecting around him, far more entity than man. “She is mine.” Ivan turns to Sol. “We had a deal. You would do well to honor it.” His gaze returns to mine. “Both of you.”
She forces her way between us. “I have.I will.” Despite the fear that I can feel vibrating through her body, her expression hardens with challenge. “Will you?”
“I’m a man of my word, Solaneen, you know this.” I jerk when he reaches for her, but her fist tightens around mine. “You forget who holds the power here. Don’t let young love make a fool of you again.” The ghost’s spine straightens as he towers over both of us. When I was a kid, it would have been a successful intimidation technique, but I’ve confronted my fair share of ghosts on a power trip in the years since.
Grabbing the entity by the throat, I force him backward and pin him against the wall. Everything falls silent as they register what this means.
“How did you do that?” Sol asks breathlessly as she reaches for the spirit, her hand slipping through him ineffectively. “It shouldn’t be possible; the living can’t touch the dead, can’t reach across the veil like that. Even I can only see and hear them.”
“Like I said, you don’t know what I’m capable of now.” It’s my turn to be smug as I speak directly to Ivan. “You aren’t the threat you think you are anymore.”
“Well, this makes things interesting, doesn’t it?” His hand wraps around the wrist that holds him in place, but something shifts in his hateful gaze. Instead of the escalation I expected, he retreats into the wall, fading into the abyss.
“What the hell was that?”
“A reality check.” Despite not wanting to piss her off, I squat and lift her into my arms bridal style. I’ve put on a lot of muscle since we were kids, so I figured this would be easy, but her resistance makes it much more of a challenge than I expected.
“What do you think you’re doing?” My muscles strain as she attempts to escape my arms, but I revel in having her soft body against mine again, my hands squeezing into her plush thighs and waist. Not quite handsy but relishing in finally having what’s mine in my grasp. “Put me down.” I ignore her and ascend the tight, spiraling staircase.
“You’re ridiculous. You do know I can walk, even without both my arms free, don’t you? I’m not that uncoordinated,” she huffs.
An easy laugh escapes me, and she relaxes slightly as we near the top. “I used a blend of cleansing and banishing herbs . A mixture me and my team have been formulating over the last year.”
“Your team?” It’s almost as if I can see her organizing the bits of information I’ve shared into her internal filing system—the way she processes details is fascinating.
“I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”
“Why not now?” She objects.
“Because you’ve already had to take in too much today.” I hold her close to me. “Your eyes are growing heavier by thesecond, and your speech is slowing; all of this has completely drained you.
“You can’t expect me to just go to sleep after you’ve kidnapped me, somehow temporarily banished Ivan, handcuffed us together…” she lists each item off on the fingers of her free hand, “...and am seeing you again for the first time in years?”
