Page 14 of An Oath at Midnight

I smiled. I loved the way he always called her his.

“You’re back,” Mom said when she saw me. “I was getting worried. Grab some dinner and come watch TV with us.”

I plonked down in the chair by Art. “Bram’s coming home tonight. I’m going to wait at the tree house. I’ll eat when he gets here.”

“I made apple sponge pudding,” Art said.

It was Bram’s favorite and one of Arthur’s specialties. “I hope you used the big dish?”

He flashed me a smile. “Sure did.”

Arthur was middle-aged with dark brown skin and kind eyes. He was an owl shifter, but preferred his human form, and Mom’s familiar. He’d been in love with her from the moment they found each other. It took Mom a little longer to work it out, but they were now deeply in love, and we were all thrilled about it.

Art was loving and protective and the closest thing any of us had to a father, since our own sperm donors were either absent, wastes of space, or in Rose’s case, a psychotic, power-hungry piece of shit. We all adored Art.

Both Mom and Art had also welcomed Bram into the fold when he showed up and promptly built himself a tree house in our backyard. They were the best, and I’d do anything to protect them…and to make up for what I’d done. If I could only give them back half of what they’d given me…

I stood. “Enjoy your show. I’m gonna take some food to the tree house.”

“Okay, baby,” Mom said, squeezing my hand as I walked past, then stopped me by holding fast. “Promise me you’ll be safe. After what happened to Margot… I can’t think why anyone would want to hurt her.” Her hand trembled around mine. “Promise me, Magnolia.”

“I promise.” I kissed the top of her head. “Besides, Bram will be here.” Though as I said it, I wasn’t sure it was the truth. It used to be, but not anymore.

I shut those thoughts down and loaded a basket with food, getting double helpings of dessert, and headed out the back door. It was dark, but it was still hot. I hated summer. The last thing I wanted was my skin and all my scars on display. People mostly just stared, but there were always others who didn’t think there was anything wrong with asking how I got them.

I reached the tree house, attached the basket to the pulley, winching it up to the deck, then locked it in place. I climbed up after it, and grabbed the basket. Bram had built this place when he was seventeen, and he’d lived here since.

I walked into the tree house and switched on the light.

It was beautiful, a work of art, and even better than his tree house back at the village. The living space was fairly big, with enough room for a kitchenette and a short breakfast bar on one side, a decent-sized couch and flat-screen TV on the other. The windows in this room were all different shapes and sizes. He had designed and made each one with different colored glass that bathed the room in a rainbow of colors during the day. His bedroom was off the living room, and only a bit smaller, and there was an ensuite as well. The entire tree house was bigger than a lot of apartments in the city.

It was my favorite place in the entire world.

I put the food in the fridge and tidied up the living room, then stripped the sheets from the bed and put on fresh ones for him. I always liked fresh sheets after I’d been away, even if it was only after a night or two.

Then I opened the reading app on my phone, so my mind didn’t wander back to Margot, and lay down to wait.

CHAPTER 4

Magnolia

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up, blinking into the dark room. “Bram?”

“Yeah.” The bathroom door opened. “Go back to sleep.” He shut himself in and the water turned on.

I stared through the darkness. It’d been too dark to see him, but something wasn’t right.

The door finally opened again, and I flicked on the light and gasped.

Bram stilled, his jaw tightening, his gaze dropping to the floor. “I’m okay.”

I flew out of bed. “What the hell happened to you?”

His wet hair had fallen forward, covering his face. My hand shook as I lifted it to his bruised stomach and chest, to the bloody slices scattered across his smooth, inked skin. He’d pulled on shorts, but the rest of him was bare, and I took inventory of every mark on his lean, muscled body.

“Please,” I whispered. “I can’t take this anymore. I can’t bear it. You’re hurt, you keep getting hurt, and I’m terrified that one of these times you’ll leave me…and you won’t come back.” I finally said it, the thing that terrified me the most. I couldn’t survive without him. I just…I couldn’t. I wouldn’t want to.

He reached for me, and I pushed his hands away, scared and angry as hell. I couldn’t be hugged by him then; I couldn’t hear how much he cared about me when he wasn’t being honest with me. I knew he loved me, I was his best friend, but that didn’t make the secrets any less painful.