Lost in Magic (Night Shadows Book 4) (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Mmm, Mick?”

Allison rolled onto her back when she received no answer to her sleepy inquiry, her extended arm flopping onto a cool pillow. A cool, empty pillow.

Immediately awake, Allison shot to a sitting position and looked around. The bed, the room, was empty save for her. It was a moment before she noticed the clothes she’d left in the washer the night before were folded on the lone chair across the room. And a piece of paper rested on top of the pile.

A note.

Lead weight sank to the bottom of her gut and she slid to her feet. She knew, without having to look, what that note would say. She just knew. But she also knew she’d look anyway. The rental house was eerily quiet as she crossed the room, the muffled sound of the ocean breaking on the shore her only company.

Allison lifted the piece of notebook paper with a shaking hand. She’d never seen Mick’s handwriting before, but this was definitely a man’s handwriting.

Ali,

I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to wake you when it took you so long to fall asleep last night.

Please know that I’ll never forget you. I’m sorry, more than I can say, that it has to end this way.

The house is paid for through the weekend. Rhea says you can take your time straightening yourself out before finding your way home. Baltimore’s just an hour or so from here.

I hope you find something that makes you happy, baby.

Love, Mick

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at the last line of his letter. Those words … they were so similar to the fateful advice she’d given her once-best friend, Veronica, almost a year prior.

“Be beautifully happy,”
she’d said once.

Allison’s throat swelled and she had to fight the urge to crumple the note. “You were my beautifully happy, you idiot!” She didn’t know who she was shouting at, but it was better than having nothing to fill the silence.

Why hadn’t she told him? Why hadn’t she found the courage last night to say those three words to him? Her hand tightened over the paper and a portion of it folded over. For a moment she just started as she realized there was another type of handwriting on the back.

Rhea.

Rhea had left her a note? That seemed awfully … nice. And for as intelligent and dutiful as Rhea seemed, “nice” was not a word Allison would have applied to her. Then again, it could always have been a lecture for using one of her shirts. She was, after all, still wearing it. Still, Rhea had gone out of her way to write her something, so she flipped the paper over properly and wiped at her cheeks in an effort to clear her vision.

Men are idiots.

Beneath that was an address, somewhere in Michigan. No sign-off, no nothing in terms of identifying the significance of the address.

But Allison was pretty sure she didn’t need an interpreter for this one. And all of a sudden she wanted to hug Rhea. Instead she grinned like an idiot and set the paper aside in order to quickly change back into her fortunately-clean clothes. She was starving, so she’d raid the refrigerator for some of the food they’d found the night before. Then she’d see about arranging transportation to Michigan.

****

“Frankly,” Rhea declared as she unlocked the Michigan safe house, “I think you got off easy. You’re lucky your pal Doon’s on the Council.”

“Lucky?” Mick repeated incredulously. He sure as hell didn’t
feel
lucky. It’d been three days since they’d left Maryland. Left Allison. Three days since he’d slept worth a damn. Leaving Allison behind, without even waking her up to steal one last kiss, had been the worst decision he’d ever made. Hands-down. And now that the Council had finally handed down judgment Rhea was accusing him of having
luck
?

After a day and a half of “trials,” the Council had agreed to return him to work under supervision. He was on probation for a full year. His new supervisor, an older earth witch who’d taken the moniker of Terreus, was due to arrive sometime in the next forty-eight hours. Mick was under house arrest until then.

“You’d rather have been arrested and locked down for months?” Rhea returned, leaning against the wall across from the chair Mick claimed.

Mick let his gaze roll up to the ceiling. “Not what I meant.”

“You’re the one who chose to leave without saying anything,” she said. “You get to live with that.”

Mick ground his teeth but didn’t comment. She wasn’t wrong. The very fact that she’d said as much told him how obvious—and probably annoying—he was being. So he did his best to change the subject. “What are you still doing here, anyway? You didn’t have to come inside.”

“And I’m not staying,” Rhea assured him. She straightened and held out her hand expectantly. “You owe me some money. Then I’m out and you’re on your own.”

Sighing, Mick stood and dug out his wallet. He’d left the cash he’d had on hand in the rental house in Maryland for Allison, knowing she hadn’t had her wallet on her when they’d gone overboard. But the nice thing about having been returned to the Council was that he’d had an easy time reconnecting with his bank account. Not that having money was any kind of consolation. He dug out a fifty and pressed it into Rhea’s palm. “I don’t suppose I can ask a favor of you?”

She arched a brow but took the cash. “You can ask.”

Accepting her response as the best he was going to get, Mick tucked his wallet away and swallowed his pride. “Could you check up on her? Just … make sure she made it home safely?”

Rhea’s face fell into an unreadable neutral. “If you cared about that you should’ve made arrangements. I’m not your messenger.” She turned, her loose hair swishing and exaggerating the movement. “Goodbye, Thare.”

Mick watched her leave with an odd sort of weight settling on his chest. Of course Rhea would have refused his request. Even voicing it was stupid. He’d let himself forget, for a moment, who he was dealing with. She faked being personable fairly well, considering her reputation. But at the end of the day she was a soldier for the Council—the very same Council he’d pissed off when he fled California. Which was, of course, where he’d be headed as soon as Terreus arrived.

“This is it, then,” he muttered to himself as the door locked behind her. It was him on his own for a day or two. And in three days’ time he’d probably miss that fact. Life was a bitch sometimes. But standing around and dwelling on it wasn’t going to make him feel any better, so he took a breath and turned to face the small house that had been, and would continue to be, his home for a couple of days.

Try as he might, though, he couldn’t stop thinking about Allison.

He should have betrayed Rhea that last night. Should have left her soaking in her hot tub, exhausted from having carried all three of them to shore. He should have taken Ali into his arms and run as far and as fast as he could. He could have ditched his credit cards, he’d already lost his phone. It would have been easy enough to disappear.

Then he could have been with Allison instead of standing alone, facing a lifetime of never seeing her beautiful face again.

He could run again, try to go find her, but he knew he wouldn’t get far. Especially if Rhea was the one who gave chase again. She of all people would know exactly where he was heading. He’d be intercepted before he ever made it out of the airport.

Mick dragged a hand through his hair and moved toward the kitchen, looking for something to do. Something to keep his mind busy.

It was no use.

The stench of burnt cake filled the kitchen sometime later and Mick chucked the mess into the garbage with a grunt of frustration. He couldn’t believe he’d turned to baking. He was skilled enough with savory foods, a good breakfast or anything on the grill, but baking?
Talk about desperate.

Hesitant knocking sounded on the door and startled him out of his thoughts.

Was this some kind of test?

Mick frowned and moved to the door, making a mental note to open a window or three once this was done. Burnt cake didn’t smell very appetizing.

He pulled the door open and found himself staring into the most beautiful hazel eyes he’d ever seen.

“Ali?”

****

Here she was. She’d finally found the address Rhea had left for her. It’d taken some effort to get enough funds together to get up to Michigan, especially since her ID was all she’d had on her when they’d gone overboard. But that and some cash had finally allowed her get a rental car—after sufficient begging—and from there it had been pretty easy to make her way out of Maryland.

None of which would matter if this was some sort of joke. Or if she was just too late. Really, it would be so easy for this part to go wrong that all of a sudden she was nearly overcome with nerves. But she made herself knock, knowing she’d never forgive herself if she gave up when he could be so close. This could be her very last chance to fix her mistake. To finally tell him her feelings.

The door swung open after several agonizing seconds and she held her breath until she finally caught sight of brilliant green eyes.

“Ali?”

The surprise in his voice assured her he had no idea she might have been showing up.

Somehow that felt better.

“Hi,” she said, feeling entirely ridiculous.

But it triggered something, because Mick pulled her roughly into his arms without another word. He buried a hand in her hair and locked his lips over hers, his other arm tight around her waist. He held her as close as possible as he devoured her mouth with his. His tongue was everywhere, stroking, sliding, and pulling moans from deep in her throat without her conscious thought.

Allison let go and curled her arms around his shoulders, holding him close. Reciprocating his kiss as best she could.

Seconds, maybe minutes, ticked by before he eased back and rested his forehead on hers. “Ali, I’m so sorry,” he said.

“Stop saying that,” she interrupted, trailing her fingers along his jaw. “I didn’t come after you for apologies. I came after you
for
you.”

He grinned at her brushed a lingering kiss over her lips. “How did you find me?”

It took all of her control not to laugh at the surprise she had for him, because she was sure he wasn’t prepared for her answer. “Rhea left me a note.”

Mick blinked at her. “She what?”

“Yeah.” Ali pulled back a little and framed his face in her hands. “Mick … I love you.”

He swallowed visibly and his grin softened into a sweet smile. Both hands on her hips, he whispered, “I love you, too.”

She fought the tears that stung her eyes and leaned up, pressing her mouth over his for a long minute. When she broke the kiss she softly asked, “So what are we going to do about this?” She didn’t know what was going on with him and the Council. She only knew that she couldn’t be without him anymore. Whatever that meant.

Mick’s grin returned and he asked a question of his own. “Are you up for one more adventure?”

Epilogue

Seven months later

“I can’t believe we finally made it to the Bahamas,” Ali declared as she and Mick stepped onto the balcony of their suite. Their entire suite was a spacious one bedroom, with a spa-style bathroom, and a small kitchen off the living area. Everything was high-end and beautiful. It’d be the last time in a while that they could afford something so nice, but they’d saved up their money especially for this trip ever since fleeing Michigan together.

It’d been months and Mick was still avoiding the Council. Apparently they were the unforgiving type. But he seemed confident that they’d be okay as long as he never ran into certain witches face-to-face. Apparently the whole idea of keeping real names a secret ran deep. Even though his parents had been close to a Councilman, Mick swore they’d never revealed their real surname. Meaning traveling as Mick Darringer was safe so long as
she
never traveled as Allison Drake.

And, they’d decided, if she was going to travel as Allison Darrigner then it was high time they made it official.

To that end they’d mutually agreed it only appropriate that they finally make a trip to the Bahamas, the original destination of the cruise ship that had brought them together. But they’d had to wait a while, since it would be assumed that they might make a return trip sooner than later. And though the
Salty Sweet Euphoria
was no longer sailing, its burgeoning reputation too damaged by the disappearance of so many passengers, Mick and Ali had chosen to fly in this time around. They could only hope that Boris had never made it all the way to the Bahamas.

“Are you ready for today?” Mick whispered in her ear as his arm came around her waist.

Tingling chills danced up her back and Ali smiled. “Oh, I’m
more
than ready. I’ve been waiting for this day for seven months now.”

Mick chuckled and spun her into him for a long, wet kiss. His tongue delved into her mouth and stroked hers until she was all but climbing him. She buried her fingers in his thick brown hair and arched dramatically into him, assuring him that his little tease was working even as she returned it.

The kiss broke with one of his hands on her ass and one of her legs looped around his.

“We could always go tomorrow,” Mick suggested, his voice thick.

Ali swatted his arm and lowered her leg. “Oh no, buster. You don’t get out of it that easy. You’ll just have to wait until tonight.”

He grinned, his green eyes dancing. “Trust me, I’m
very
eager for tonight.”

Allison rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you are.” She eased out of his arms and gave his chest a push. “Go get dressed and we might just make it to the chapel on time.”

“Can’t wait to marry me, huh?” Mick teased.

“As a matter of fact,” Allison replied, fingering the engagement ring he’d given her four months earlier, “I really can’t.”

“Then you’d better get your dress on, baby,” Mick said with a smile. “So I can tear it off you in a few hours.”

Allison laughed him off the balcony and all the way into the bathroom. But her body tingled at the promise even as her heart fluttered at what would happen first. In just a few short hours she wouldn’t be
traveling
as Allison Darringer. She would
be
Allison Darringer. And she didn’t know everything that the future held for them beyond their vows, but she knew they would find out together. That was enough for her.

The End

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