Page 2 of Seal My Fate

“Trust me, Tessie,” her gaze turns pleading. “For old time’s sake. I swear, I’ll explain everything. You just have to trust me on this. Pinky swear?”

She holds up her little finger, the way we always did when we were kids. It was a sister thing, rare and precious, and only meant for the most important kind of promises, like when I wanted to sneak out with my friends to a rock show in the next town, or Wren accidentally scraped the paint on our parents’ old Honda.

It seems absurd to be doing it here, in the dark shadows of Saint’s garden, when my sister has just come back from the dead. But the old gesture pierces my shock and confusion, and I can’t help holding my own pinky up to link with hers.

“Promise,” I echo, still stunned.

“Good.” Relief flashes across her face, and then she’s backing away, into the shadows. “Tomorrow,” she whispers. “It’ll all make sense.”

And then she’s melting into the dark as if she’d never been there at all, leaving me standing there in the middle of the yard, my head spinning with a thousand questions as I struggle to process the impossible.

She’s back. Wren’s alive. As if my prayers have all be answered. All year I’ve been wracked with guilt, tormented by grief; I would have done anything to have my sister back again…

And now I do.

So why is she so scared? What—orwho—has she been hiding from?

What the hell is going on?

Chapter2

Tessa

Ilay in bed awake all night, unable to sleep for even a second. My mind is still reeling, and my emotions ricochet from joy to anger and back again a thousand times over.

What happened to you, Wren? What the hell have you put us through?

The minute dawn breaks outside the windows, I slip out of bed and into the bathroom, but even the sharp shock of an ice-cold shower can’t snap me out of my confusion. Wren hid from me. She lied. We grieved her, all of us, Mom and Dad and—God, do they know? How could she do this to them? Why would she torment us all like this, when all the while, she’s been alive?

When all this time, I’ve been trying to avenge her death.

“’Morning, sunshine,” Saint greets me as I reenter the bedroom. He’s sprawled in bed, looking with his dark hair rumpled and his plush mouth curled in a grin. As he sees me, wet from the shower and wrapped only in a towel, his smile grows. “Damn, if I knew what moving in with you would be like, I’d have done it eons ago.”

I muster a faint smile. “You didn’t know me eons ago,” I correct him lightly. “And asking me to live with you the first day we met wouldn’t exactly have played too great. We’re moving fast enough as it is,” I add.

Saint searches my face, as if intuiting my mood. “No morning-after regrets, I hope?”

“No,” I say immediately, crossing to the bed. I lean over and drop a kiss on his lips. “No, I’m happy to be here.”

At least I was, up until the moment last night when Wren turned my whole world upside down.

“Good,” Saint gives me a lazy grin, reaching up to stroke over my damp skin. “Because I’m not hauling any more boxes for you, baby. So it looks like you’re stuck with me.”

“What boxes?” I tease. “I had all of two suitcases, thank you very much. I travel light.”

“Not anymore.” Saint suddenly pulls me into his lap and wraps his arms around me. “You travel with me now,” he promises, his mouth humming against the sensitive point right above my collarbone. “First class all the way.”

He pulls my towel open, already skimming his hands over my curves as his mouth moves to claim mine in a slow, heated kiss. My body reacts to him in an instant, the way it always does, but my mind is a million miles away, still fixed on Wren’s cryptic comments.

‘You can’t tell anyone… Especially not Saint’.

What does she mean? Why can’t anyone know she’s really alive?

How can I keep this from him?

Luckily, his phone buzzes loudly on the nightstand, interrupting us. “You should get that!” I blurt, slipping out of his embrace.

Saint gives a rueful laugh, checking the screen. “It’s work. Hold that thought,” he adds, as he answers. I quickly move to the massive walk-in closet, and dress for the day in good jeans and a button-down. By the time I emerge, he’s just finishing up.

---