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“Yeah, well, apparently we can still learn, even if we’ve been around for-fucking-ever.”
Rowan laughed hard at that. “Nothing is set in stone, huh, my friend?”
“No, apparently it’s not. I shouldn’t have blamed you for these guys finding Lorraine. We were stuck, and I was losing my shit over her being gone, and I just…” I took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “I was wrong.”
“It’s all good,” Rowan said, clapping me on the shoulder. “All’s well that ends well, right?”
“Right.”
“You’re sending her back?”
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“Don’t tell me you got attached to this one,” Rowan said, looking incredulous. “We were just talking about not being too old to learn?—”
“We’re bound because I fucked her, remember? She’s not going back until after All Hallows’ Eve.”
Rowan whistled through his teeth. “That’s right. I remember you fucked up.”
“It’s not so bad,” I said.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s less than two weeks now.”
“I just have to keep her safe and in the vale until then.”
“It helps that she knows now.”
I glanced at him and rubbed the back of my neck self-consciously.
“You didn’t tell her?” Rowan asked, his jaw dropping. “Ash… what the fuck did she think was happening when she got so sick?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “She’s been sleeping a lot. We haven’t had a lot of time to talk.”
Rowan shook his head. “You’re going to have to come clean at some point. Now that the guys who were after her are gone, what do you think she’s going to do? She’s not going to want to play house with you just for shits and giggles. You know that, right?”
I nodded. I’d hoped Lorraine would want to stay with me without me having to tell her any of this, but Rowan was right. She would want to go home. I couldn’t ask her to stay without it sounding like I was attached to her—which I was not—and if she left, I would lose her all over again. Eventually, I would send her back, and this weird alternate reality we were stuck in would be over. But until then, I had to make sure shit didn’t go wrong again.
The more she knew, the better.
“She’s going to be pissed at me,” I said.
Rowan nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re right.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I snorted.
“Facts, bro,” Rowan said. “If I had to pull the same shit with Clea…”
“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed. “I know.”
“The upside is you’ll have until All Hallows’ Eve to make it right,” Rowan said with a grin.
I groaned and shook my head. Something told me it wouldn’t be that easy. At least it wasn’t that long until All Hallows’ Eve, but time could be weird here in the vale. What felt like weeks could be days, and sometimes a month could drag on for an eternity.
“I’m out,” I said. “You should get back to your woman.”
Rowan grinned at me. “I’ll see you around. You should bring her to mingle with the girls. They’ll be nice to her, you know.”
“I’ll think about it.”
