The Blue Woods (39 page)

“True.”

The snow had melted, and the trees along Main Street were covered in buds waiting to bloom. Spring had finally come to Twin Willows. I breathed onto the window and traced the outline of a wolf with my fingertip. I stared at it for a moment, then smeared it away with the heel of my hand.

Alessia's driveway was filled with cars and trucks. We parked up the street and each took a canvas bag from the trunk. Mom linked her arm through mine. Her red hair tumbled over her shoulders in loose waves and glinted in the morning sunshine. I leaned my head on her shoulder as we walked down the driveway. She was like a flower; Dad had blocked her from the light, and now that he was gone she was in full bloom. My heart twisted a little that this was his legacy.

But that was the choice he had made, and that wasn't my fault. I knew that now.

“Hey, they've made pretty good progress.” Mom pointed past the farmhouse where the skeleton of a new barn was beginning to take shape. Carly's dad, who owned a construction company, stood in the middle of the rising framework, calling out directions. I spotted Jeff and Mr. Salter, the usual suspects, along with half the town. In the field next to the barn, a few long tables were set up, their checkered tablecloths fluttering in the breeze. Mom and I headed toward them.

“This is like a good old-fashioned barn raising,” I said as we squeezed the bottles of wine and cheeses and meats in between the bowls of pasta and potato salad. “I feel like I should be flicking a fan and looking for a husband.”

Mom laughed. Lidia crossed the field to us, a platter of bagels and cream cheese in her hands. “
Buon giorno
,” Mom said, and they kissed once on each cheek. “You know I'm more of a Chinese take-out kind of cook, so I brought mimosas.”

“It's five o'clock in the world somewhere,” Lidia said. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes sparkly in the sunlight. “Thank you for coming.”

I leaned close to Lidia. “Our Italian friend hasn't left yet, has she?” Lidia shook her head. I nudged Mom. “I'll be back in a bit, okay?”

“Okay, sweetie.” She and Lidia walked back toward the crowd of people in the field. I spotted Alessia and Jenny, lounging on a blanket, calling out joking instructions to the guys working on the barn.

As I headed toward the pasture, Cal caught my eye. He gave one final pound to the nail he was hammering and grinned at me. I gave him a long once-over, fully appreciating the warmer weather that allowed him to wear tight T-shirts without anything over them. I pointed to the woods. He nodded once and picked up another nail.

I walked over the crest of the hill and to the edge of the forest. It was probably the last time I'd make this trip. I pressed the special rock in the stone wall, and the trapdoor opened.

“It's me,” I called out as I descended.

Nerina stood in the middle of the main room, her fleet of Louis Vuitton suitcases stacked beside her. The lair had been cleaned up since the Malandanti had destroyed it, the broken chairs replaced, the smashed espresso machine removed. Everything looked tidy. Too tidy.

I met Nerina's gaze. “You're never coming back here, are you?”

She shook her head and sank into the leather armchair, a sad smile on her face. “I hope I will never need to.”

Where my mother had bloomed in my father's absence, Nerina had shriveled in the wake of Heath's death. She was a smaller, paler, thinner version of herself. Though her face was still unlined and youthful, I could see the years in her eyes catching up to her. Creeping in.

“But the sites still need to be protected.”

“And that is why we have the Clans.” Nerina folded her hands in her lap. Her whole being had quieted, like someone had put her on mute. “Without the threat of the Malandanti, the
Concilio
won't need to be as involved anymore.”

I sat on the couch. “Are they
really
gone?” Part of me still didn't believe it. The part that still woke up in the middle of the night, cold and convinced that the Rabbit was hiding in my closet. But he wasn't. He and Pratt Webster were being held in a federal penitentiary without bail, considered dangerous flight risks. They were never getting out.

“Yes. For now.” Nerina stroked her cheek with her finger. Her nails were bare and clipped shorter than I'd ever seen them. “But remember . . . the Malandanti were born from the Benandanti. From those who wanted the power for themselves. That threat will never go away.”

“So we have to stay vigilant.”

“
Sí.
”

I sighed and leaned back into the couch. “Is that what you're going to do? Return to Italy and stay vigilant?”

“Oh . . .” Nerina looked at her suitcases. “I thought I would travel for a bit. I've never been to Hawaii.” She bit her lip. Tears gathered at the corner of her eyes and dropped onto her cheeks. “What am I going to do, Bree? How am I supposed to live forever without him?”

My throat closed tight. I got up from the couch and squeezed in next to her in the armchair. She bowed her forehead to my shoulder, her quiet sobbing very dignified and completely un-Italian. Which made it even sadder.

“I don't know, Nerina,” I said, because I really didn't. I couldn't imagine such an empty eternity stretching out before me. “I think, maybe, you just take it one day at a time.”

Nerina raised her head, her face streaked with tears. Somehow, she still looked like a Botticelli painting. I looked like a Picasso when I cried. “I have never lived one day at a time,” she said. “I've always lived for years or decades, always thinking ahead to the next century. Perhaps it is time to change that.” She squeezed my hand. “And there is something I want you to do for me.”

“What?” Great. What was she going to rope me into
now
?

“I want you to come to Italy for the summer.”

I pulled back a little. “Seriously?”

“
Sí,
yes, of course. You must come.” She shook me gently. “You still have so much to learn about the magic.”

“But with the Malandanti gone . . .”

“
You
still have your power. There is so much you can do with it, so much good you can bring to the world.” She took both my hands in hers. “Come. Spend the summer with me and Dario and the
Concilio
. Cal can come too. And Alessia told me she and Lidia are planning a trip to visit her grandparents again.” The dark irises of her eyes swam behind the tears that filled them. “It will give me something to look forward to. Something to live for.”

“Well, okay. When you put it like that.” A wide smile broke out across her face, and I answered her with one of my own. “I mean, I have to check with my mom, but I'm sure it will be okay.”

“Bring her. And Jonah.” She swallowed. “It would be good to be surrounded by family.”

We
were
family, weren't we? Funny how that had happened . . . My mind flashed back to the day we'd come to Twin Willows. I'd been so sure that we wouldn't be here long, that we'd leave this town in the dust like we'd left all the others. And now . . . I had roots here that I never wanted to pull up. I hugged Nerina hard. “Thanks, Nerina. For everything.”

Nerina kissed both my cheeks. “You have a great destiny ahead of you, Bree. I cannot wait to see what you do with it.”

I breathed in deep. I wasn't going to settle for great. I was going to make my destiny nothing less than freaking awesome.

The Promise Fulfilled

Alessia

The sun crested over the treetops, dappling the hillside green and gold. I leaned back on my elbows and imagined summer, the pasture covered with grazing goats, the pigs in their newly built pen, the hens squawking once again in their trailers.

My eye caught the little cabin on the edge of the farm, lonely and dark. I breathed in deep to keep the lump from closing my throat. I missed him every day. But I also knew I was sitting here now, watching our new barn rise up out of the ashes of the old one, because of him. He'd given me so many gifts, and I was going to spend the rest of my life celebrating them instead of feeling sad about it.

“Enjoying the view?”

I looked up.

Jonah loomed over me, his green eyes dancing. He peeled off his hoodie, revealing a form-fitting T-shirt beneath that, in fact, did fit his form very nicely.

I grinned. “I am now.”

He dropped onto the blanket I was sharing with Jenny and mopped his face with the discarded hoodie. The sunshine of recent days had colored his skin, deepening it from winter pale to a healthy spring tan. He grabbed the glass of lemonade nestled in the grass, downed it, and surveyed the four of us sitting there. “It doesn't really seem fair that the girls are all hanging out here while the boys are working our asses off.”

Jenny wiggled her fingers. “I just got a manicure.”

Carly held up her hands. “My parents told me to protect my precious piano-playing hands at all costs.” Her lips curved. “Which means if I break a finger, I'll get out of lessons.” She jumped up and bounced over to the barn, where Mr. Salter handed her a hammer.

Melissa tossed her hair. “Good. She can hold down the fort for a while. Or rather, hold up the barn,” she added with a chuckle while we all groaned at the lame joke.

I reached out and brushed Jonah's hair off his forehead. “And I think I deserve a break, don't you?”

Jonah snaked his arm around my waist and pressed his face into my neck. “Yes, you do,” he said, his voice muffled against my skin.

“Oh, God, you two, get a room.” Bree flopped down next to Jenny. “At least
you
get to deal with them next week.”

“Are you kidding? I am finding myself a hot Frenchman the minute we land, and I don't intend to come up for air the whole week.” Jenny shimmied her shoulders. “
Voulez vous coucher avec moi
, indeed.”

I laughed so hard a crick ached up my side. “Poor Carly,” I gasped out.

“Poor Carly?” Melissa pouted. “Poor
me
. I thought we were going to hang out all week together, Lessi.”

I leaned back into Jonah, felt his chin rest on top of my head. “Well, take it up with my mom. She's the one who changed her mind about me going.”

But it wasn't really Lidia. It was me, proving to her that I could live outside her shadow and take care of myself. Also me pointing out that after everything I'd been through, I deserved a trip to France.

Bree sat up and leaned across Jenny. “Hey, I'm around all week. We should do something.”

Melissa raised her eyebrows. “Won't you be with Cal?”

“Not every minute of every day.” Bree shrugged. “I do have my own life, you know.”

“Just like Gloria Steinem—and my mother—tell us we should,” Jenny said.

“Says the girl who's going to run off with a Frenchman,” Jonah muttered in my ear.

I elbowed him in the gut.

“Well, that would be nice.” Melissa rolled onto her stomach and kicked her feet up. “We could have a
Game of Thrones
marathon.”

“Yeah, we can fast-forward all the parts that don't involve Jon Snow,” Bree said as she twisted toward me and Jonah. “By the way,” she added quietly so Melissa couldn't hear, “it looks like we're all going to Italy this summer. Nerina could use the company.” She climbed over Jenny and settled next to Melissa so they could plan their spring break.

I nudged Jonah. “Hey, I'm going to pass out lemonade and then we should, you know, do the thing. Grab my backpack from the kitchen, will you?”

He nodded and unfolded himself to his feet, then reached down to help me up. I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him, as natural and easy as though we had never broken up, never been enemies on two sides of a deadly war. He was mine now, a Benandante for as long as he lived.

I gathered a tray of lemonade from the picnic table and passed it out around the barn. The framework was almost done, a strong set of bones that would stand on this farm for a long time to come. Even though they weren't here, I could feel Heath and my dad in every inch of it, their blessing hammered into the wood just like the nails. I handed Cal a cup of lemonade. “You know, it's okay to take a break and hang out with Bree for a while. You have my permission.”

“I will in a minute.” He ran his hand over the corner he'd just fitted together. “You know, it feels good to build something from scratch.” He leveled his gaze at me. “Especially something for a good friend.”

I patted his arm in answer, unable to voice just how deep my thanks were. I turned and wove my way through the workers, handing out drinks. I remembered what Heath had said, about how lucky I was to live here amongst people who loved me. This barn was a testament to that: it was filled with love that was seeping through the wood, spiraling up from its foundation like a vine.

There was one cup left on my tray. I held it out to Mr. Salter—Ed, as he now insisted I call him—who pushed his hard hat back off his sweaty forehead. “Thanks, Alessia.” He looked out over the length of the barn's framework. “It's coming along, isn't it?”

“It really is. I bet it'll be done by the time I get back from France.” I touched his arm. “Thank you.” I knew it had been him who'd organized this, put the word out through the town, and gathered everyone here.

His eyes softened. “Well, you know I would do anything for your mom.” We both looked across the lawn to where Lidia stood, chatting with Miriam Wolfe beneath the eaves of the house. She caught us watching her and waved at the same time she laughed at something Miriam said. Her laughter rang out over the yard, a soundtrack more joyous than the playlist blaring from the iPod dock on the picnic table.

She was happy.

I hugged Ed hard. “I know you would,” I whispered. “And I'm glad.”