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I shook my head. “I haven’t seen her either. She’s really busy, but you pointed me in the right direction, and I got another god to help me out.”
Rowan frowned. “Who?”
“Dolus. Have you heard of him?”
Rowan’s face paled. “You’re joking, right?”
I shook my head. “He said he could help me out while Hecate is busy for the next two centuries.”
“Do you know who Dolus is?”
I shrugged. “There are so many fucking gods and goddesses, I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep up with all of them.”
“Dolus is the god of deceit. He’s not going to help you.”
“So, you figured the goddess of magic and witchcraft would have been a better bet?” I asked skeptically. “Come on, man, they’re almost the same.”
“They really aren’t,” Rowan said. “Hecate can still use her magic for good, but Dolus… there isn’t a good kind of deception.”
I shook my head. “He wants to help me, and I’m going to take what I can get, Rowan. I can’t keep doing this.”
“Bullshit. You just don’t want to.”
“Whatever,” I said. “It doesn’t make a difference. I just don’t want to do this anymore, so I’m changing things for myself. I’m not hurting anyone else in the process.”
“It’s not anyone else I’m worried about,” Rowan said. “I’m worried about the shit you’re getting yourself into. I meant for you to talk to Hecate for advice, not to get involved with her evil counterpart.”
I snorted and shook my head. “He’s not evil. He’s just?—”
“If you say misunderstood, I’ll punch you in the fucking face.”
I burst out laughing. “It’s not such a big deal, okay? Calm down.”
“You’re digging a hole for yourself,” Rowan said bluntly. “Who’s going to come dig you out of it when you cut yourself off from the rest of us who can help? I can’t see Dolus offering you a better deal than you have now. If it looks better, that’s exactly the point—he’s deceiving you.”
I shook my head. “You know what? This is my choice. Your opinion is noted, but I’ll do whatever the fuck I want.”
“Yeah, you’ve proven that over and over. You keep getting yourself into shit, and you can’t dig your way out again. You won’t listen to the rest of us either. First Ava, then Lorraine, and now this.”
I shook my head again and turned my back on Rowan. I didn’t want to hear it. He had no idea what he was talking about. He didn’t understand me or my life, and he didn’t know shit about Dolus, so he had no foot to stand on.
The only thing he was right about was Lorraine. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with her. I should have stayed far away. I should have let those bastards get her that night in the forest so she wouldn’t have been my problem.
I just had to get involved, didn’t I? Well, that was one thing I could change.
She couldn’t leave until after All Hallows’ Eve, thanks to the stupid bond I created, but I could tell her in so many words that whatever she thought was between us wasn’t real. I wasn’t interested, and I would just make sure she was safe until she could leave.
I walked to the cabin. The sun shone brightly down on it, and the air had a shimmering quality to it that didn’t happen anywhere else but in the vale where magic laced the air.
The magic here was one of the reasons the druses and the dryads were so happy here. We breathed magic, and the more of it we felt, the better. The vale had a lot of beauty in it, and I was going to miss it when I finally left. I had no idea where I would go yet. I just hoped that wherever it was, it would be beautiful, too.
Walking toward the cabin when everything was drenched in magic and sunlight was hard when I knew what I wanted to say. I had to tell Lorraine now that nothing would happen between us. Expectation management was the name of the game—it was how heartache was prevented. If only Ava had told me what her expectations were, it would have spared me a lot of heartache, too.
I shook off the thought of her. I would do the right thing.
I opened the door, and stilled. From inside, the sound of Lorraine humming drifted to me. Her voice was sweet. The melody drifted toward me in the air, and it tugged at me.
I took a step into the cabin, and the humming stopped.
