Taken aback, I asked, “Where the Hell did you come from?”
Vi winked. “You got it right. Hell, baby.”
Ness rolled her eyes. “Vi was blowing up your toilet while you were napping.”
“I was unconscious?” As far as I remembered, I hadn’t missed a moment.
Vi gaped at us. “I was not! I had a…” She stole a glance at the men in the room. “Plug your ears, boys. I had a tampon malfunction.”
Maddox blew a sigh out his nose. Ryder complained loudly. Vi never failed to get under any man’s skin. How she convinced Morgan to love her for it, I would never know. He seemed to welcome her under his skin, where she irritated him the most.
Cerri lingered at the back of the crowd. All four of us were in the same room for once, yet the girls’ night vibe was ruined by all the changes that still hung in the air. Cerri wasn’t all that she seemed. I was struggling to use the arcana I’d been running from. Vi’s arcana had become supercharged into light. And Ness…Ness was still struggling with the ghosts from her past.
“We need a goddamn break,” Ness grumbled before running her hands over her face.
“Aren’t you trying for a kid right now?” Vi asked. “The two of you should be having so much sex that there’s no room for stress in your life.”
Cerri blinked in surprise at Vi’s words. I cocked my head and glared at her. Ness laughed. It was the first time she’d seemed happy since arriving. I think we all let out a collective sigh of relief.
My stomach growled to cut through the moment of joy. Ness leapt up from her seat on the edge of the coffee table to snatch my bowl and run back to the kitchen to get more ramen.
That’s when Maddox cleared his throat.
“Ness, do you know a wolf shifter with a copper-colored coat? He…Someone who’s dead?”
The ladle fell from Ness’s hand to clang in the pot. She stared at Maddox. He seemed to understand what he’d done and avoided her gaze. He didn’t look at Ryder, who was staring the detective down.
“Do you?” Maddox pressed.
“C-Connor?” Ness’s voice was small.
I remembered the lanky redheaded wolf shifter who had been head-over-heels in love with Ness. Love hadn’t stopped him from being Alvin’s pawn, though. Connor had fallen for every one of Alvin’s ploys, which had put Ness in danger more times than we could count.
Connor had died to protect Ness.
And he’d…
I didn’t know for sure. I had an idea of what might have happened after I’d died, but Maddox refused to tell me. He kept that time a secret to everyone until now.
“Sure. Well, he said you don’t have to forgive him.”
Ness gripped the counter in my kitchen and bowed her head. I could see the way her shoulders shook. When she lifted her head again, there were tears in her eyes. She gave us a lopsided smile.
“He’s in a better place now. That’s all that matters to me.”
Maddox didn’t say no. Not exactly. He made a sound that contradicted her statement.
That told me all I needed to know. When I woke, Connor and Catriona had been gone. I’d hoped they’d moved on again. Instead, they’d stuck around and passed their energy on to me so that I could come back from the dead.
I fumbled out of my seat and ran for the door. There was no way that I could stay in that room and bear the look on Ness’s face a moment longer, especially when I knew I was the reason that Connor no longer existed in any world.
He was gone.
How was I supposed to tell my friend that her childhood crush no longer existed in any world? I couldn’t. There was no good way to put it.
I’d put my trust in this power that I’d kept hidden, but all I got for it was more strife. I couldn’t keep going this way. If something terrible happened every time I tapped into my own innate power, then there was no point in trying. I would have to smother it again, letting it out only to keep it from overflowing.
Dropping to my knees on the front lawn, I let my head hang while I dug my fingers into the wet ground. Behind me, I heard Maddox’s sigh. He reached for me, but I shoved his hands away.