Ambrose steps into the room, reaching out to tuck a wet strand of hair behind my ear. His gaze is too knowing. Ambrose plays the part of a lovable playboy, and yes, that is a facet of his personality, but there’s a depth to him I don’t think he shares with many people. He doesn’t miss much while pretending to notice nothing.
“We can rest, Piper. You’re safe here.”
It would be so easy to believe that lie. To fall into the enormous bed, sleep for the next day, and forget my nightmares. I can’t do that. Not if I’m serious about freeing myself from at least one of my curses.
I roll my shoulders back and gaze up into Ambrose’s eyes. I’ve always been quiet and shy. The girl who sits in the corner and nobody notices she’s there. I perfected staying silent, so I didn’t make a fuss or draw attention to myself. Then I learned how to become invisible so people would forget about me. I’m so grateful for my friends who have never looked at me that way, but there’s something about Ambrose that makes me feel bolder than I’ve ever been before.
“No. I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Ambrose shakes his head. “I can’t believe I’m about to get married.”
“Lucky you,” I say, as I hoist my bag up on my shoulder. Ambrose immediately takes it from me.
“All right, then, future wife, let’s go.”
4
AMBROSE
Piper is huddled in the passenger seat of my car. She doesn’t look cold anymore, and she shouldn’t be with the heat blaring and the heated seats on, but she appears small, curled in on herself. The color has returned to her pale skin, but her eyes keep darting all over the road, as if she’s expecting someone to jump out in front of us.
“I already got our tickets.” She checks her watch. “The flight leaves in a few hours.”
It’ll take us another hour, at least, to get to the airport.
“You can close your eyes and sleep if you want.” I tap her on the knee.
She shifts her seat to look at me. “That’s not really fair to you.”
“What do you mean?” I offer her a smile, but keep my eyes on the road. It’s still raining, and the wipers scrape across the windshield, just slightly off rhythm.
“The passenger can’t fall asleep and leave the driver to stay awake on their own. You haven’t slept, have you?”
Earlier tonight was our coven’s new moon ceremony. It’s a time to recharge our magic and gather together. In better times, I’m sure it’s a way for us to support each other and find community, but our coven is broken. Even before the Tenebris and Lumen covens combined to form one coven, we were in trouble. Now that we’re the Luminara coven, things have only gotten worse. There’s little trust between witches who were taught to loathe those on the other side of the river. Even with the old coven council shut away on house arrest, the distrust has only grown.
I wasn’t sleeping before Piper showed up, soaking wet on my front doorstep. I’d only gotten home from the ceremony about an hour earlier. And it doesn’t appear that I’ll be getting rest anytime soon. My eyes have that gritty feeling of being open for too long, but I’m not about to pass out. Piper looks like she needs to be distracted, though.
“Fine, talk to me then. Tell me something interesting. That’s your car tax. Keep me awake.” I laugh when she opens and shuts her mouth, huffing out a sigh.
“Nothing about me is very interesting.”
I highly doubt that. I give her a skeptical look, but she’s not paying attention. She truly believes she’s boring.
“Why were you running in the rain tonight? Tell me about that?” There was no car in my driveway when we left the chateau. Piper ran over to my house. I’m not sure from where, but her soaked clothing tells me she’d been out in the storm for a while.
A quiet, pained sound has me jerking my head toward Piper. She’s bent over, her hands digging into her thighs while her breaths saw in and out.
“Never mind. Fuck. Stop. Forget I asked.” The car swerves when I nearly drive us off the road. I keep my eyes straight ahead, my heart pounding.
“I’m sorry,” Piper pants, swiping her hand across her forehead. “Um…how about our friends? What do you think of all the fated bonds happening?” She still sounds like she’s been running, but at least she’s not convulsing in pain. It’s not the topic I would have chosen, but it’s common ground.
“I’m really happy for them.” It’s the truth. Fated bonds in the witching world always appeared to be a legend. It turns out, the only reason none of us had ever seen one in real life is because our parents, and the generations before them, all married for power instead of love.
The most incredible thing about a fated bond, besides finding the person who is your perfect match, balances your strengths and weaknesses, and is the light to your dark, is that a fated bond breaks the Briar Witch’s curse. That was something we didn’t know about until our friends Josephine and Roman turned out to be magically bonded to one another.
“Do you think you’ll meet your fated bond?” Piper’s sitting up straight again, her breathing back to normal.
I snort. “No. I don’t.”
