Between (22 page)

“Charlie.” Seth shakes his head. “You can’t be involved.”

I spin around. Aegis or not, if he thinks I’m going to stay in my room and draw while my mom and brother are out there being held hostage by a madman and his harem of harpies, he is out of his mind. I have to make this right. This begins and ends with me and my connection to the people I love. They’ve given up enough for me already. I can sacrifice some things for them, too.

“This isn’t about protecting me,” I tell Seth. “It’s about saving my family. If I figure out a way to find them, I’m doing it.”

Seth flies off the couch. “You. Can’t.” The harshness of his tone silences us both for a second. When he speaks again, his voice is fierce. “Apprentices don’t do that kind of work. You can’t stand out any more than you already do. It’s not just monsters like harpies and the Mothman, Charlie. You don’t understand the lure of your blood and what some creatures would do to have it.”

His nostrils flare and he stops talking, staring at the floor. When he calms down, he looks back at me. “You’re having some kind of overactive guilt complex right now, but none of this—none of it—is your fault. I can keep you safe from anything in the mortal realm. But here? If the wrong creature realizes what you are, you’re dead.” He snaps his fingers. “Like that.”

A chill tiptoes up my spine. It’s not that I don’t understand the threat. I know what happened to the muralets. I know what Marian went through to keep me from all of this and what Seth is trying to accomplish by tying me up with fear.

I also know, no matter what he says, Mom and Sam wouldn’t be in this situation at all if it weren’t for me. Their only mistake is being loved by a muralet. If they didn’t know me, they’d be safe. I swallow and take a deep breath.

“I’m as responsible for them as you are for me. Can’t you see? They’re out there because of me, and I’m doing nothing.”

Seth shakes his head and clutches my upper arms. “You’re not alone in this,” he whispers. His eyes shine, and I realize his concern is about more than me. He’s determined to find them, too. “I swear the Fellowship will find them. I’ll bring them back to you.”

My chin trembles, but I know he’ll do everything he can. He loves them. I have to remember that. “I know I’m not alone. They are family to you, too.”

He drops his hands from my arms. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

I drag my fingers under my eyes. Why did I even bother to put on mascara today? Have the last two days taught me nothing? “Where are we going?”

“We’ve got a little time before Alexander will be looking for you.” He laces his fingers through mine. “You need to see something good. Close your eyes.”

“Charlie?”

“Hmm?” My nails dig into his arms.

“You can look now,” Seth says against my forehead.

I squint open one eye and then the other before slowly releasing my grip and easing away from him. I stretch my fingers as I lower my hands. This flicker was longer than the others, and I sway a bit on my feet. I grab Seth’s forearm to steady myself. “Where are we?” I ask.

He raises his eyes and makes a sweeping gesture with his hand. “The edge of Ellauria. This is the Wisteria Tunnel.”

Wisteria. Twisted vines arch over our heads, each one dripping with cascades of flowers and creating stripes of pastel colors that stretch the entire length of the tunnel. White. Blue. Purple. Violet. Pink. An intoxicating sweetness hangs in the air. It’s straight out of a fairytale.

And I don’t have my sketchbook.

“What is it?” Seth asks.

I frown at him. “You’re supposed to tune me out, remember?”

He smiles with his lips closed. “Sorry. I forgot. I told you it’d be an adjustment.”

I nudge him and smile. “I’m just sad that I don’t have my sketchbook. This place is gorgeous.”

He tips his head down to mine and whispers, “I’ll bring you back.”

All my thoughts scatter when his breath mingles with mine. I open my mouth to say something, but I have no words—at least, none I feel brave enough to say just yet. I could go on and on about his lips and his eyes and the way his smell makes me want to bury my nose in his chest, but I won’t.

“Shall we?” He holds out his arm, and I close my mouth.

Pull yourself together, Charlie
.

I curl my hand around his elbow as we tread beneath the flowering vines.

I try to watch Seth without watching him, admiring the way he moves. Every now and then I sneak a direct glance at his face, and I catch his eyes before they dart in a different direction.

It’s quiet and peaceful here, like Seth and I are the only two people in the world. It’s easy to forget that there’s anything else at all—nothing to cry over, nothing to fear. Just sweetness and splendor, created by the very hands that created me. I run my hands along the blooms and bring my fingers to my nose, inhaling their scent. Seth watches me and smiles when I catch him.

“I knew you’d like it,” he says.

Of course I do. I could fill an entire sketchbook with drawings of this place alone. Colored pencils would work. They’d capture the variance in the pastels completely.

When we’ve walked so far that I can’t see either end of the tunnel, I pull on Seth’s arm to make him stop, and he turns to face me. “I needed this,” I tell him.

Seth nods, looking upward. “So did I.”

He pulls a long strand of violet wisteria from the vine over his head and loops it around my wrist. It’s so silly and perfect it makes me giggle, and he smiles. My laughter fades, and neither of us find words to fill the silence. I look from his eyes to his lips.

His very soft-looking lips.

Something shifts in his gaze, and there’s a gleam, a tiny spark of life that tells me he’s still tuning in. The fact that he knows is both exhilarating and terrifying. I want him to kiss me, but I want it to be his idea. Now, I feel like my emotions are making the first move.

Stop looking at his lips
.

Don’t look at his eyes, either
.

Just stop looking at him altogether
.

My eyes dart to the wall of flowers beyond his shoulder, and Seth laughs softly. He trails the backs of his fingers from my shoulder to my wrist, and then pinches my shirt at my waist, pulling me closer. My heart beats faster, so much that I’m sure he can feel it. I watch my hands slide up his arms like they have a mind of their own. They move across his shoulders and drift to his chest.

His other hand cups my chin and tilts my face upward as he dips his head closer. When his lips are a breath from mine, he stops. He looks at me, silently asking permission, and I nod. His eyes are mostly closed. His lips part, and he freezes. He blinks, and his forehead creases before he drops his head and backs away.

No. Not again.

I know he was going to kiss me; I may not be an empath, but I know he wants to. What’s stopping him?

“Seth?”

When he raises his head again, he looks so lost I can’t decide if I want to hug him or wring his neck for bringing his lips so close to mine without sealing the deal.

I step toward him, then change my mind and take another step back.

“Forget it,” I say. It’s the second time he’s pulled away from me in two days. I can take a hint.

“Charlie.”

“It’s fine.” I feel my blood pressure rise as heat branches out from my chest throughout my body. Oh no. I’m about to start saying stupid things. “I don’t know why I keep getting so flustered around you. And I get that it’s weird for you or something.” The words come faster and faster.
Oh my God, Charlie, shut up
. “It’s just sometimes it seems like you want me close and sometimes you don’t.”
Stop talking. Just. Stop. Talking
. “But I get it. You’re not interested.”

Seth flinches. “Is that really what you think? No, Charlie. That’s not it at all.” He moves toward me again until something behind me catches his eye. His face pales and he croaks, “Alexander!”

I spin around. The enormous founder stands a few feet away with his arms clasped in front of his belt.

“Seth.” That’s all he says. One word so full of judgment I nearly crumble beneath its weight myself. I glance at Seth, but his eyes are locked with Alexander’s.

What’s happening here? Seth wants to kiss me, but he doesn’t, but I’m wrong, and then Alexander’s here, and now I’m pretty sure I’m missing a giant piece of the equation.

“I’d like to take Charlotte to work on her powers now,” Alexander says, raising his eyebrows and staring down his nose. Somehow, he appears even larger than normal. “I assume you two are all finished here?”

“Yes, sir.” Seth’s gaze falls to the ground. “We’re finished.”

The founder’s lips set into a thin line, and he lifts his hand to me, beckoning.

I twist my bracelet around my wrist. Whatever’s happening, Seth must be in trouble. I can’t tell if I am, as well. Maybe we weren’t supposed to be out here. I try one last time, but Seth won’t look at me.

I walk to Alexander, my legs quivering with each step. When I reach him, he takes my arm and we disappear.

T
WELVE

W
e land in front of a charming stone cottage that spreads across an open space amid towering pine trees, and the smell of pine is nearly overpowering. The closer we get to the house, the more the scent is replaced by the perfume of flowers. There are magnificent, well-maintained flowerbeds tucked around the sides of the house and surrounding the wooden porch built across the front.

“Welcome to my corner of Ellauria,” Alexander says, his tone decidedly more pleasant than it was moments ago.

I follow him up the steps onto the porch. I pause and look back, wondering if he ever sits on his porch and listens to Ellauria the way I used to sit on mine. He pushes open the door and motions for me to enter before him. I hesitate inside the entryway, taking it in. A dimly lit hallway extends in front of me. To my left, there’s a small kitchen with a bricked floor. Yellow wooden cabinets stretch across the wall, ending at a large sink. It’s weirdly cheerful. I’d sort of imagined him living in a stone building with cement furniture.

Oh my God.

Is there a Mrs. Alexander?

“You live here?”

“Indeed,” he replies.

“Alone?”

He stops midstride to give me a look. “Yes, Charlotte. Alone.”

“I’d really prefer you to call me Charlie,” I tell him.

He lowers his brow. “I will call you by the name your mother called you.” He lays his stare on me a moment longer and then disappears through a doorway to my right.

I guess that’s that.

I follow after him. Towering bookshelves line three of the four walls, extending from the weathered wooden floor to the top of the lofted ceiling. Each shelf is filled, sometimes two or three rows deep, and even more books sit on top of the exposed beams running across the length of the ceiling. In addition to those, numerous stacks of books rise from the floor throughout the room, serving as makeshift tables and footstools. A couple of oversized reclining chairs sit in the middle of the room. Alexander sits in one. I take the other.

He waves his hand, and a crackling fire materializes in the large stone fireplace. The orange glow lights the left side of his face, and the warmth shines against my right.

I crane my neck to read the titles perched on the shelf across from me. I twist around, eyeing the stacks and weighing the risk of picking up one of the books for a closer look. I glance at Alexander. His eyes are on me, waiting for my full attention. I sit up a little straighter. The bigger the silence gets, the more I’m pushed to fill it.

“Your house is nice,” I say. He glances around the room then back to me, and I scrape my mind for anything at all to say. “I like the ceilings. They’re very vaulted.”

I cringe as the words come out of my mouth. It would be really outstanding if I could stop making a fool of myself in front of this man.

He stares down his nose at me. “Are you aware of the restrictions on romance between Aegises and Apprentices?”

I glance around the room. Did I miss the segue to this particular topic? “Huh?”

He looks pointedly at the wisteria bracelet on my wrist. “You and Seth, back at the tunnel.”

My eyes immediately begin a frantic search for anything else in the room to focus on besides his face. The almost-kiss with Seth ranks right up there next to fashion choices on the list of Things I Do Not Want to Discuss with Alexander.

“Romantic relationships are not allowed between Aegises and their Apprentices,” he says.

But—

So Seth and I—

We can’t—

Oh
.

Suddenly all the times Seth’s come so close only to pull away make perfect sense. He would never break a rule. Especially one as serious as that.

I’m a weird mix of confused and disappointed. I’m conpointed.

“Do you have any questions about that?”

My cheeks grow hot. Only about a million, but I want answers from Seth, not Alexander. “No.”

He leans forward. “And you understand that what I saw at the tunnel—it can never happen again?”

I need this conversation to stop. “Nothing happened. Seth and I have always been close, but he’s never crossed any lines.” No matter how much I’ve wanted him to.