“It’s a binding spell, to hold her there and likely her familiars, we can’t remove it. But I can do this.”
I place my hand over the book and flip it open with a twirl of my finger. We both lean in trying to see what’s written there in the dim light.
She sighs. “It’s not English. It’s symbols, that look like a bunch of train tracks on a map.”
I frown. “I would assume it would be written in Gaelic, but that doesn’t look like anything I’m familiar with. Whatever it is, it’s old.”
“Wait a second.” She pulls her cellphone out of her pocket and starts to take pictures of it.
“That’s probably not a good idea.”
“Just a couple, I can reverse image them and see if anything pops up on the internet.” She smiled, and when she did, I knew then that I would give her the world if she asked me to.
As she gets busy taking pictures, I keep an eye on our surroundings.
“Okay, you can flip to the next one,” she says.
With one more twirl of my finger I open the next page and glance at it. There on it is a hand drawing of an altar with the blood moon in the background. On the altar lay two people in the throes of passion. She takes a quick photo of it too and then I close the book just as we hear a rumble of thunder in the not too far distance.
Putting a finger to my lips, I motion for her to follow. I duck behind the pile of bones and drag her down with me, against her protests of ick. A lightning flash on the wall near the mouth of the cave announces that someone has arrived to bed down for the night. It’s Peter. Strolling in, he walks straight to his coffin, climbs in, and closes the lid.
Cassi enters my mind and says, “I thought they can’t see us.”
“They can’t, but their smell is like a hound dog’s. Come on, we’re getting out of here.”
Normally in tight spots like this, I would just turn myself into a wraith, but I can’t do that to her, we have no choice but to walk out. I help her to her feet and we both freeze when a skull goes skittering across the cave’s floor.
With bated breath, we wait precious minutes to see if Peter will arise. When he doesn’t, I make a beeline for the mouth of the cave tugging Cassi along as I do. The second we step outside, three rumbles of thunder sound out. I grab her by the waist and start to spin up into the air as three bolts of lightning touch down.
––––––––
C ASSIDY
“Oh my god that was so close!” I mumble against Cash’s chest. I nuzzle my face between the folds of his shirt and inhale deeply. He smells of sandalwood and bergamot with a hint of cedar. An intoxicating mixture to my brain to say the least.
I feel the rumble against my cheek as he says, “Open your eyes and look.”
“But I thought you said—”
“Just look.”
I raise my head and turn, looking over his arm that holds me tight. We are still in the air but instead of a whirlwind, we are flying just like a bird would. He turns me within his embrace and criss-crosses his arms over my body. I stick my arms straight out at the sides, and I feel like I’m soaring just like a bird. And it feels just like I thought. I’m speechless as I see the hotel come into view, and we come in for a soft landing. As soon as my feet touch the ground I leap into his arms and rapid-fire kisses, all over his face.
I lean back and look him in the eyes and see the love he has for me in their depths. I trail my thumb over his bottom lip. “Is there ever a time that you’re not in my head?”
“No. Never.”
I kiss him then and a tear rolls down my cheek.
He leans back, searching my face. “You have nothing to be afraid of, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll never leave you like your ex. Do you understand that?”
He knew exactly what was bothering me. I slide down his body, taking pleasure in the hardness of every muscle that I meet, until my feet touch the ground.
“Come on. You need to get some rest.”
“What about you? Will you sleep beside me?” I ask as we start walking towards the hotel.
“Do you want me to?”