Perigee Moon (9 page)

He smiled. “It’s magic, love.”

“Alex,” I whispered. He softly brushed a few wayward strands of hair from my face and smiled. The warm look in his eyes was enough to silence me. My fingers crawled up to his neck and my eyes followed when they closed around a silver chain. He was wearing a necklace just like the one I had found in the grimoire. The same necklace that was around my neck. I pulled up the charm to inspect it but he wrapped his fingers around my chin before I could see it closely. He pulled my face up to meet his and pressed his lips to mine. The heat pulsed between us and I could feel it burning my lips, my tongue, my skin. I clutched at his bare back but he jerked away from my touch, breaking our fused lips. He took a pronounced step back and started to shake. I could still taste him on my lips and I wanted more, but when I started to move towards him he cried out in pain and I stopped.

“Alex no!” I said, but it was too late. I was burning, the flames dancing across my skin, keeping me from reaching him. His body was withering before my very eyes. His face sagged and his beautiful features disappeared beneath a mound of wrinkled skin. I reached for him but he crawled away like a wounded animal flinching from my touch as if I had done this to him. As if the flames consuming me were burning him from the inside out. He crawled against a tree and within seconds his once beautiful body had collapsed into a wilted mound of ash. I screamed but the flames swallowed the sound. As usual, I was cursed. Always burning. Never allowed to die.

When the sun finally broke across the sky sending warm sunshine spilling in through my window, I was screaming. My eyes flew open and I immediately pushed away the leather bound book that was still tucked down next to my chest. I’d fallen asleep reading Rebecca Foster’s haunting words and it had obviously affected me. I slipped the book back into the nightstand drawer and headed off to the shower, trying to suppress the bits of dream still lingering in my mind.   

Thirty minutes later I sat down at the little round oak table in the sunny breakfast nook and flipped through my grandfather’s paper, my wet hair leaving droplets of water scattered across the black and white print. The news here was definitely tamer than back home. But then again, this was a much smaller town. Grams breezed into the kitchen, mumbling into the phone.

“Are you sure?” she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “She’s right here.”

I pretended not to listen. Pretended I didn’t know she was talking to my dad.

“Alright then. Next time. Bye honey.”

Grams hung up the phone and sank into the chair across from me with her hands wrapped around her cup.

“He didn’t want to talk to me?” I asked.

“He was busy hon, said he’d call you later.” She stopped when she saw my wrists, free of my armbands, and had to tear her eyes away. I wrapped my fingers around the scars and stared at the table cursing myself for forgetting to put them on.

“So I take it your date with Tyler didn’t go very well last night?” she asked. Her eyes gravitated back towards my wrists then up to my eyes. Her cool fingers pried mine from my wrists and she smiled tenderly. “You don’t have to hide from me honey. You should know that.”

I nodded, forcing the lump down my throat.

“Now.” She slapped my arm and took a sip of her coffee. “About that date.”

“Um…no. Actually it didn’t really go well.” I paused wondering if she had been spying on me last night, but quickly dismissed the thought. That wasn’t really Grams’ style.

She took a sip of her coffee. “I figured as much since there is a boy outside waiting for you right now that is most definitely not Tyler Banks.”

I choked on the cold juice that was now sliding down my windpipe instead of my throat. “What?”

“I said that boy Alex is outside waiting for you. I invited him in but he said he’d rather wait outside.”

I almost fell out of my chair as I sprinted for the staircase, leaving my orange juice sitting on the table.

“Rowan don’t make him wait too long. It’s rude!” she shouted as I disappeared up the stairs and into my room. My heart was pumping at an unbelievable speed and I was shaking as I slipped on a pair of sandals and ran a brush through my hair one last time. It was nearly dry now so I didn’t bother to do anything else with it. I sprayed some perfume into the air and stepped into it feeling the fine mist coat my collarbone and face. The bottle was nearly full and the fragrance was sweet and unfamiliar. Bevin had gotten it for me last Christmas but this was the first time I had bothered to wear it. My thoughts were a jumbled mess but when my phone vibrated on the dresser across the room I forced myself to focus. I picked up the phone and scrolled down to read the new text message. It was from Bevin.

You never called me! You are in so much trouble!

The phone buzzed again beneath my grasp before I could type a response.

That is unless you report to me immediately with a good excuse and extremely juicy details.

I laughed and let my fingers peck at the keys as fast as possible until my response was displayed across the screen waiting to be sent.

Too much to say right now. I’ll call you later. And I do have a good excuse–scratch that a hot excuse and he’s waiting for me right now. So I’ll call you later. Love you!

It buzzed again almost immediately.

GOOD. Go make some bad decisions and call me later. Ha!

I slipped the phone into my pocket and took a deep breath, slapping the leather armbands over my wrists before I darted down the stairs trying to steady the way my body was shaking.

The sun was blinding when I walked outside and my bare legs immediately began to soak in the warm rays. I brought my hand up to shield my eyes from the light and started to scan the yard but I didn’t have to look very far. Alex had his back to me. Hands shoved in his pockets. His face turned towards the trees, watching them sway and move with the wind.

“Alex?”

He pressed his foot into the dirt and slowly pivoted until he was facing me.

“Rowan…hey,” he said.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my insecurities creeping back in. I let my senses snake out searching for his reaction to me, but to my surprise–nothing. It was like there was a wall between us.

He paused and averted his gaze to the ground. “I don’t know. I just…”

“What is it?” I took a bold step forward to close the gap between us.

“Rowan.” He sucked in a lung-full of air and combed his fingers though his hair. He wouldn’t even look at me. He laughed a bitter sound and shoved his hands back into his pockets, like he didn’t trust what they would do without the restriction. “I can’t stay away from you. I
should
stay away from you. But… I can’t stop thinking about you. I…”  

“You think about me?” I allowed a small smile to seep out onto my lips.

He blinked at me. “Of course I do.”

“Then what’s wrong?” I asked.

“Fate,” he said softly. “Not having any control over my own life. That’s what’s wrong.”

Alex took a few steps back and leaned against the trunk of a tree. A line of ants marched down the grooves of the bark next to his face. He didn’t squirm or inch away. Just watched them out of the corner of his eye. After a few seconds he placed his hand on the bark and allowed a lone ant to scurry onto his finger. He watched it frantically search for its companions, over the valley of his palm, up the pale ridge of his wrist.

“So small,” he said, gentle, calm. “People are so naïve, thinking there isn’t something bigger than us out there. We stamp out anything smaller than us, wanting to own it, to master it.” He pressed his fingertip against the tree and we both watched it scuttle back to its land of small and simple.

“Alex?” I made a move to get closer but stopped cold in my tracks when he looked at me. He looked so hopeless.

“We’re not the biggest things out there Rowan,” he said. “Fate is much bigger than us. Sometimes I wonder if there’s even any use fighting it.”

“Nobody’s asking you to change fate Alex.”

“You have no idea what you’re asking.” He straightened his shoulders and leaned away from the tree. It’s branches and leaves cast origami shadows over his face that folded and flapped over his features.

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to sound calm. Really all I wanted to do was scream at him by this point but I knew it wouldn’t help anything. “I don’t know because you won’t tell me.”

He didn’t acknowledge that I’d even spoken. I stepped forward until we were toe to toe, breathing in each other’s breaths.

“Look, I get that there is something going on with you and for some reason you feel like you shouldn’t be here. But for just one minute could you forget about what’s right and wrong and what you’re supposed to be doing,” I said. “Do you want to be here Alex? With me?” I asked, commanding his attention, placing my face wherever his eyes tried to escape. He finally gave up and stared back at me. His eyes darted to my lips then back up to my eyes.

“Yes.”

“Then be here,” I said, soft, afraid to scare him away. “Stop running.”

He searched my face and nodded again. “What do we do now?”

I searched the air around me as if there was an answer there, ready for me to pluck from the sky. And then there it was. The ocean wafting in on a breeze, ruffling my hair. Salty. Sweet. I remembered how calm and serene I’d felt there. How it seemed as if the rest of the world could have melted away if I’d been there with the right person. “Well for starters, you’re coming with me.”

“Where?” He looked around, his brows drawn, a forehead wrinkle appearing for every question he wanted answered.

“Just to the beach. You look like you could use the fresh air.”

I grabbed his hand and he stared at the way our fingers wove together like a braid.

“This won’t change anything,” he said.

“I know.”

His eyes squinted at me. “Do you really?”

“Come on.” I ignored his question and tugged him towards my car.  He stood awkwardly gawking at it for a moment making no attempt to open the door.

“What’s wrong?” I said, puzzled at his behavior. He looked…nervous.

“I’ve never ridden in one before,” he said and took a deep breath.

“What? A mustang?” I asked, bewildered.

“No. A car.”

My eyes widened in shock but when his terrified eyes met mine I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic and laugh.

“How is that possible?” I asked incredulously. “Are you Amish or something?”

He didn’t answer and I didn’t want to get him upset again by delving into his past so I just shrugged it off. It wasn’t normal, but then again nothing about what we had was so far.

“Well there’s a first time for everything right?” I asked and climbed in, leaning across the seat to pop open his door.

“It’s safe?”

I laughed at the nervous look on his face. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”

I caught Alexander doodling in my book of shadows again today. I’ve always thought his obsession with this nameless girl was silly nonsense. But now I know different. I have seen his future. And I have also seen this face, this girl. I have felt the noose around his neck, and the fear and longing fighting in the pit of his soul. All due to his inability to hide the truth, what he is. All in the name of his ridiculous quest for her. I hate to deprive him of the love that awaits him, but his life is too precious. He is my only son and I cannot let this be his undoing. And Marion. Goddess help me know what to do with my misguided sister. The darkness in her is doubling every day. She wants my coven. And I fear what she will do to get it. Oh William. My love. If only you were here. Life is not the same without your warm presence to guide me.

~ Rebecca Foster 1691

***

I bit down on my lip as I watched the waves wash up onto the shore as if they were desperate to escape and then flinched as the sea pulled them back to their sparkling blue prison. It was a slow, steady dance and the rhythm made me almost sleepy. I shook it off and decided to ask the first of a thousand questions that had been building up inside me. I wanted to know everything about Alex, but I didn’t know where to start.