Page 27 of Samhain
“Bleeding Christ.” My heart raced, but I tried to keep my wits about me.
Certainly, I was hallucinating. Maybe the result of what happened to us in Ireland? There could be no other explanation for why I suddenly had the greenest thumb on the planet.
I thought about Ivy, about what she believed happened. The Fairies. I had survived a car crash that killed everyone else in my family. If anyone had reason to believe in the miraculous, it should have been me. Yet, there I stood, staring at my own fingers, wondering what was wrong with me.
I went for my phone, every instinct I had telling me to call Ivy and let her know. I hesitated because I didn’t have her new contact information, and she didn’t want to hear from me anyway. Besides, this was too unbelievable. What exactly did I plan to tell her? That I could grow flowers with my bare hands?
If it got out, my gran would lock me away. They’d lobotomize me, and no one would ever see me again. No, this had to stay with me until the grave. Not even Carter could know.
My phone buzzed in my hand, startling me back into reality.
Gran.
Like I’d summoned her, and if she’d taken the time to call me personally outside of our regularly scheduled one-on-ones, then that meant I was in deep royal shit. Fuck. I answered and tried to keep my voice level, like I wasn’t having a complete internal freak-out. “Hello, Gran.”
“Hello, Miriam, darling,” came her saccharine high-pitched voice. “How are you?”
“Oh, you know…” Discovering I have mutant powers. Nothing completely out of the ordinary. “Gardening.”
“You and your flowers,” Gran said with a small chuckle. “Such a lovely talent. You should foster that. Turn it into a humanitarian effort.”
I needed to get her off the phone so I could figure out how the hell I could grow plants with my hands!
“What can I do for you? This wasn’t in my schedule?—”
“Have you seen The Puck today?” Gran interrupted. “You know how I feel about public displays of affection. You and this boy from Chicago walking on the beach together. This after that fiasco with your uncle’s car. Miriam, he’s still furious.”
“Gran,” I tried to say.
“No, enough.” Her tense tone indicated exactly how far I’d stepped out of line. “I’ve tolerated this summer holiday for longer than I’d wanted. The time has come to return home.” My heart sank. Carter was in the background, rummaging through the drawers, looking for clothes that had long since mixed with mine.
All I could focus on was how terribly this was going to crush both of us. We’d only just started to feel better, started to heal. In each other, we found a solace we never knew existed. It couldn’t last. I knew that going into it, but it still hurt like hell that it had to end so soon.
“Sharon has lined up a few more events,” she continued. “Make yourself useful and show up on time. I’ve sent someone to bring you home.”
Bloody Christ, who the hell could that be?
“When it’s time to go,” Gran continued, “it’s time to go.” The slurping sounds of her sipping her tea radiated through the other side of the phone, the universal sign that the conversation was over and my input was no longer needed. “I’ll see you when you return. Love you, dear.” She disconnected the call.
My stomach filled with concrete and my eyes stung. I wanted to stay with Carter. Everything in me, every molecule, every fiber of my soul, needed to be close to him. The thought of leaving tightened my chest and made my blood run cold.
My arm brushed against the irises I’d grown, and I refocused on the most important thing that had happened.
How had I done it?
I didn’t have a good answer. I needed to test it with other plants and figure out how to get rid of its errant energy buzzing under my skin. Like the rush of blood in my veins, the iris’s energy hummed through me, both foreign and familiar.
This meant something.
Carter wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder. He smelled like soap and man, and hell, I loved him so much.
“You know,” he said, pointing to a spot in the backyard. “We ought to build you a greenhouse right out there.”
He was trying to be sweet, but I couldn’t focus. Too many thoughts raced through my mind, too many complications, too many things happening all at once. It irritated me—the paparazzi and the media and the public obsession with my life. They couldn’t leave me alone. They couldn’t leave Ivy or Lex alone. And the more famous Carter got, the worse it would be for him. He thought he was nobody now, but that wouldn’t last for long. Roxy had big plans for him, and based on what he’d accomplished thus far, so too did the universe.
Fuck the paparazzi. Fuck my family. Fuck the whole bloody lot of them.
I sank to my knees, right there on the balcony, and sucked Carter’s cock until he exploded down my throat, his fingers gripped in my hair, the back of my head banging against the concrete balcony wall. Then he lifted me up and set me on the edge, wrapping my legs around his head so he could return the favor.
