Whispers at Moonrise (44 page)

“Sit down.” Miranda pulled a chair out. “I’ll get you some ice cream.”

“No … not now.” Kylie didn’t have any strength to explain or to even talk.

“Tomorrow.” She went into her room. Socks looked out at her from under the bed, and then disappeared. Even her cat betrayed her. It was the last straw. Kylie dropped on the bed and cried herself to sleep.

*   *   *

Not that she stayed asleep for long. At four in the morning, Kylie knocked on Miranda’s door. “I need to talk to you.”

Della had already gotten up and stood by the kitchen table, staring sleepy-eyed and suspicious at Kylie.

When Miranda came out, wearing her duck slippers, she pushed a curtain of hair from her face. “What time is it?”

“Early,” Kylie said. “I’m sorry, but … I have to talk to both of you.”
Make it short and sweet. Short and sweet.
She’d told herself all morning.

She’d tried talking herself out of this, but she couldn’t. Leaving Shadow Falls was the right thing to do. But the right thing didn’t always feel right. Coming to Shadow Falls had felt wrong, yet it had turned out to be a step toward finding the truth. This was just another step—a needed step.

Someday, Kylie hoped her choices could be made by what she wanted, and not by what she needed. But that time hadn’t arrived yet.

“No,” Della said.

“No, what?” Miranda asked.

“She’s going to tell us she’s leaving.” Della’s eyes filled with emotion.

“No, she’s not,” Miranda smarted back.

Short and sweet,
Kylie thought again. “Della’s right. I need to go live with my grandfather for a while. Not forever. I’ll be back.” God, she hoped so.

Miranda stared, her expression one of disbelief. “You can’t do that. What will your mother say?”

“I haven’t figured that out. But I will. I just need you guys to understand, and not be mad. And…” Tears filled her eyes. “And take care of Socks because he doesn’t want to … go with me.”

“You’re leaving us,” Miranda said. “You can’t leave us. We’re roommates, we’re best friends.”

Della stood there, stoic, tears glistening in her dark eyes, and she swiped away every drip of moisture that slipped from her lashes.

Kylie went to hug Miranda first. The witch started crying and Kylie’s heart hurt so much she couldn’t breathe. When Kylie turned to Della, the girl held up one hand. Anger flashed in her eyes.

“Oh, hell no,” Della screamed. “You’re freaking leaving us. I don’t hug people who walk out on me.” The vamp stormed back into her bedroom. Kylie felt the door slam all the way to her soul and it hurt so damn bad.

She walked into her room, picked up her suitcase, and left, before it got harder. Inside, Kylie felt raw. Sooner or later, it would stop hurting, she told herself.

Derek stood outside her cabin. He looked as if he’d woken up, pulled clothes on without thinking, and came running. His jeans weren’t snapped, his shirt unbuttoned.

She wasn’t sure how he knew, but he did. She saw it in his green eyes.

“Why?” he asked when she walked up to him.

“Because I have to figure things out.”

“But you’ve already figured a lot out while you’ve been here.”

“I know,” Kylie said. “But it’s time to take the next step.”

He didn’t try to talk her out of it. He didn’t speak on the walk to the office. But she felt him reading her every emotion. When they arrived at the office, she looked back at him. For some reason she recalled the first time she’d seen him—sitting in the back of the bus, not very happy to be there.

She dropped the suitcase and hugged him. Tight. They had something special. She wasn’t sure what it was, or if it should have been more, but she knew she cared about him. Probably always would.

He touched her cheek. He didn’t say anything, but that touch said so much. He still loved her.

She picked up her suitcase and walked up on the porch. She left her suitcase by the door, then looked out toward the exit. She’d called Hayden earlier and told him to meet her at four thirty. She suspected he was already here. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d be late.

“Holiday.” Kylie called out her name when she walked in.

“In the office,” Holiday called back. “I just poured you a cup of coffee.”

Kylie moved to the door. Holiday sat at her desk, her red hair hanging loose. She looked … happy. She wore her love for Burnett very well.

“You’re up early … again,” Holiday said.

Two cups of coffee waited on the desk. Had Holiday known she’d be here? Kylie went and sat in the chair. “How—?”

“Lucas came by late last night,” the camp leader confessed.

Kylie swallowed.
Short and sweet.
She didn’t want to talk about Lucas right now. “I have to go live with my grandfather for a while. Just until I figure out who I am.”

Desperation entered Holiday’s gaze. “You can’t…”

Emotion lumped in Kylie’s throat. “I need to figure this out.”

“We can figure it out together,” Holiday said, but her expression was one of sad acceptance. And it wasn’t like Holiday not to fight harder. Unless …

Kylie remembered that when Holiday died, she’d spoken with Heidi, Kylie’s grandmother. “She told you I had to go, didn’t she?” When confusion filled Holiday’s eyes, Kylie explained, “Heidi, she told you about this.”

“No, not…” She paused. “She said I shouldn’t stop you from making your own choices.”

“And this is my choice.”
Damn, it hurt to say that
. “I’ll be back. You know that.”

Holiday pressed her open palms on the desk. “What am I going to tell your parents?”

Kylie paused. “I’ll figure it out and call you.”

Holiday exhaled. “Burnett is going to be so furious.”

“I know. That’s why I was hoping you’d just tell him about this. I don’t think I could face him right now.”

“I don’t like this.” Holiday’s voice sound so tight.

Tears filled Kylie’s eyes and she stood up. “Della wouldn’t hug me good-bye. Please don’t say you won’t.”

Holiday bolted up. “I’ll hug you for me and Della. And Burnett.”

The embrace lasted for several long seconds. “I love you,” Holiday said. “And I expect a phone call from you this evening. And every day. Every morning and night.”

Kylie nodded. “Thank you for not fighting me on this.”

Holiday put a hand on each side of Kylie’s face. “Don’t think I don’t want to.”

“But you know it’s the right thing?” Kylie asked, hating that she needed a little more confirmation. But damn, should doing the right thing feel so wrong?

Holiday inhaled. “I don’t know if it’s right. I won’t stop you.” She frowned. “But I will say this. If this is about what happened with Lucas—”

Kylie inhaled. “This isn’t just about him.” And it wasn’t. He was just the proverbial straw that brought the camel to its knotty knees.

Holiday sighed. “Sometimes, when we’re hurting, we make choices we wouldn’t normally make.”

Kylie shook her head. “Remember how my dad told me that we would work out these things together? I think by ‘we’ he meant chameleons.”

Holiday frowned. “You don’t know that’s what he meant. You thought he was telling you that you were going to die. Maybe if we went to the falls you might—”

“No, this is right,” Kylie said, and there was a part of her that believed it.

Holiday exhaled, her breath shaky. “Then I have to let you go, even if I don’t agree.”

They hugged again.
Short and sweet.
Kylie walked out.

The dad-blasted blue jay swooped in. More tears filled Kylie’s eyes. “Go,” she told the bird. “It’s time to leave the nest. For both of us.”

Turning, she spotted Hayden waiting by the gate. She picked up her suitcase, the same one she’d brought with her to Shadow Falls last June. She started walking and got a few feet from the gate when a sudden whisk of wind, a familiar whisk, flashed past, then stopped.

Della’s arms embraced her. “Promise me you’ll get your wolf ass back here soon. Promise me, damn it!”

Tears filled Kylie’s eyes and she held on to Della extra tight, the way only really good friends do. “I promise,” Kylie said. “I promise.”

It was a promise Kylie intended to keep, too. Della, obviously another believer in short and sweet, flashed away. Kylie looked back one more time. She saw a crying Miranda with Perry running up from the path into the main clearing; she stopped and just waved. Kylie knew that Miranda had helped convince Della to come. Dear God, she was going to miss her roommates.

Then Kylie’s gaze shifted to the office porch. Holiday stood there. But not alone. Burnett stood by her side. Even from this distance, she saw his disapproval, but she also saw how his arm tenderly circled Holiday’s waist. A warmth filled Kylie’s chest; she’d played a small part in helping that happen. And somehow she sensed that had been part of her destiny.

Suddenly she saw Derek standing to the side of the office. He met her gaze and smiled.

If she wasn’t hurting so much, she would have smiled back. Right before she went to turn away, she felt another presence. Felt it, didn’t see. Somewhere behind the first line of trees, a certain blue-eyed were watched. He was hurting, but so was she.

She turned toward the gate. Hayden had come closer. “You ready?” he asked.

No, her heart said, but her head said yes. She didn’t know what awaited her at her grandfather’s, but nothing, nothing would take the place of Shadow Falls.

“It’s hard to say good-bye,” Hayden said.

“I’ll be back,” Kylie said. “I swear I will.”

And she wanted to believe that more than anything, too.

Love will be won, powers will be revealed, and one final choice will be made …

Don’t miss the explosive final installment of C. C. Hunter’s
New York Times
bestselling Shadow Falls series

Chosen at Nightfall

Coming from St. Martin’s Griffin in Spring 2013

ALSO BY C. C. HUNTER

Born at Midnight

Awake at Dawn

Taken at Dusk

About the Author

C. C. Hunter lives in Spring, Texas, where she’s at work on her next Shadow Falls novel. To learn more, visit her on the Web at
www.cchunterbooks.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

WHISPERS AT MOONRISE.
Copyright © 2012 by Christie Craig. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

ISBN 978-1-250-01191-6 (trade paperback)

ISBN 9781250011923 (e-book)

First Edition: October 2012