Page 16 of Edge of Wonder

A bewitching smile curled her lips as eagerness stole across her features. She spun—an actual twirl that lifted the edges of her skirt, showing off the tops of her thighs. Her thick hair whirled around her shoulders, floating in the air like the strands were submerged in water. A pounding echoed in my ears as if I’d become submerged, too. My lungs turned to fire as I held my breath.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked, halting mid-spin.

I hardened my features. “Like what?”

“Like you don’t know your top from your bottom. As if you’ve fallen down a rabbit hole.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” I pounded down the steps and out into the yard, striding past her until I reached the tree line. My back was ramrod straight, muscles tense, senses off-balance.Get it together, Sebastian.She’s a ghost—likely a murder victim—not your next mistress.

A bark of laughter clogged my throat. What was I doing musing over the seductive qualities of a ghost? It was pure fantasy.

Alice chased after me, oblivious to my ranting thoughts, while I kept up a grueling pace through the forest. Fallen branches snapped under my boots and birds stopped their chirping as I trampled the overgrown path.

“Sebastian?”

“What?” I grumbled, picking up my pace further.

“What does it smell like?”

My feet ground to a halt. Alice nearly floated through me but caught herself in time. She tilted her head back, revealing the slender column of her neck. My gaze dropped to the base of her throat and stalled there for a beat, before slowly gliding back up until our eyes locked.

“What does what smell like?”

“You know.” She waved her hands in the air. “The surroundings.”

“Why do you want to know that?”

She looked at me in disbelief. “Because I can only see things. I want to know how things smell, feel, even taste!” Her brow creased. “It’s the only way to experience something fully, and never forget. If there’s even a chance a part of me might still exist after I cross over, I want to remember these final moments.”

With me?I almost spoke the question out loud but bit my tongue.Of course not with me.She was simply reacting to leaving the cottage for the first time. If she’d been bound to the milkman, she’d be asking him the same thing. My teeth ground together at the thought of her traipsing through the forest with another man.

Great!Now I was jealous of a fictional milkman. Was there any end to this madness?

I looked around the forest before I realized what I was doing. Somehow, I’d gotten entangled in her nonsense. I sucked in a breath through my nose. Noticed the way the pine needles brushed against my sleeve. Felt the light breeze ruffle my hair.

Had I ever done that before?

No. Never. There was no point in grounding yourself when you were always on the run.

“It smells like pine,” I said.

“That’s it?” Her voice rose in annoyance. “That’s all you got? Just pine?”

“No,” I snapped and inhaled another breath, determined to rise to her challenge. “It’s crisp and woodsy with a hint of sweetness. The scent is invigorating and clean like the air here is untouched by human intervention.”

“So the air is lonely?” She asked with a laugh.

“No, not at all. It’s soothing, and somehow still captures the essence of adventure, of the unknown.”

She closed her eyes for a long moment, and when her lashes fluttered open, she whispered, “Thank you, Sebastian.”

I nodded as she moved past me, floating through the trees. In the process of answering her question, my senses became heightened, and my attention sharper. I drew in a deep breath and ran my hands along the tree trunks, feeling the coarseness of the bark.

My shoulders relaxed, and my mind cleared. For the first time, my urge to escape lessened.

Maybe there was something to this, after all.

Chapter 7

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