Page 99 of Ghostly Touches

“Then why are you smiling?” I demand.

“Pay attention to the road, and you won’t even notice it.” Her voice wavers.

“Stop laughing. Now, stop smiling, Willow!”

My orders are not only ignored, they amuse her even more. The soft sound of her laughter softens as she tries to muffle it with her other hand. My teeth gnash together in annoyance. Willow’s laughter grows more hysterical. My mouth twitches. Then my bottom lip trembles. My frustration fizzles. I’m ready for it to erupt into anger. Is this how Viktor feels all the time? Rather than blossoming into a full-blown anger, it shifts to something else entirely.

A chuckle slips past my lips. The sound surprises and amuses Willow even more, sending her into another round of laughter. Try as I might, I can’t hold my own sudden amusement in. I join her. Together we laugh, and it’s cathartic. The stress and worry bearing down on me, suffocating and eating away at me, lessens the longer I laugh. Tears stream down our faces, and soon I find myself gasping for air.

Without thinking about it, I reach over and grab Willow’s still waiting hand. The moment I do, the rest of the anxiety rushing through me disappears. I’m tired, my body aches from so much fighting without enough time to recover, and I’m hungry. But I’m well. I’m whole, and for the moment, I’m happy. When was the last time I laughed? Yes, it’s borderline hysterical, but still, it feels fantastic to let it all out.

Finally, when our laughter subsides, I take a deep breath and squeeze Willow’s hand. The last time the two of us spoke, it was in the stables hanging off a wooden beam. There, she forced me to stop and appreciate the things around me. Now, here she is offering me her hand to comfort me while easing the fear clawing at me.She’scomfortingme.And what have I been doing the past few hours? I’ve been stewing about leaving her behind once this is all over, so she’ll have to face the consequences of being cursed on her own. What type of man am I?

A goddamn bastard. That’s what.

“Are you okay?”

This time when Willow asks, I tell her the truth: “I’m worried.”

“We’re going to figure this out, Theo,” Willow says after a moment of silence.

Her quiet confidence gives me a small boost of certainty that we would figure things out.

“I’m glad you think so.” My thumb seems to have a mind of its own as it creates a circular motion along the back of her hand.

“Can I ask you something?”

I nod, curious to know what she’s thinking about.

“That woman, Margaret, said that her boss Fredrick wants to talk to me. Do you think we should explore that? Maybe I should hear what he has to say. He could remove the curse and maybe he knows something that could, at least…” She flounders as she searches for a word. “Make it so we’re not dependent on one another.”

I let her finish before I shake my head.

“Jonah said that book is full of twisted spells. If Fredrick collected spells like that and if he went through the trouble to curse that book, he’s not someone we want to mess with. We’ll find ourselves in more trouble getting involved with him.”

Willow frowns.

“He’s already gotten himself involved with us. He sent someone after me. What’s to stop him from doing it again?” She squeezes my hand before letting out a sigh. “This is the longest nightmare of my life.”

I can’t agree more.

“What would you be doing right now if this hadn’t happened?” I ask her curiously.

Willow considers this.

“Well, I had a date planned the night after you guys showed up.” She chuckles. “I totally forgot about that until now. I hope Marcus wasn’t too upset when I didn’t show. I’d probably be on my second or third date by now.”

I picture the woman next to me dressed up and smiling as she leans across a table at a fancy restaurant talking to a potential partner. Of course, she would be smiling. Before we burdened her with the Elders and forced her to come with us on the run, she smiled a lot while we lingered in her house. I shift uncomfortably in my seat picturing her on a date.

“Or I would be on the road to my next destination. I’d be camping in my little bus under the stars somewhere, hanging out with a few spirits and learning about their lives.”

I glance over to her. “You travel by yourself? No friends?”

No protection?

Willow shakes her head. “I’m never alone. Spirits sense me from miles away and come to talk. Imagine going years shouting for someone to hear you, praying someone will look at you and not through you? When spirits come to me, I make sure they’re heard and seen. Then, when they’re done, I send them over to the other side.”

Interesting…

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