Spring Rain (The Witchling #4)(10)

“Not that I was spying,” Biji added. “I was practicing listening from afar with my air magick.”

Feeling her concerned gaze, Beck forced a smile. “No worries. I won’t tell.”

“Did I upset you?”

“Nah.” Beck motioned to their surroundings. “So, this is home!”

“Yeah. Interesting.”

“Get comfortable. I’ve got some work to do before I can entertain.”

“Okay. I’ll be here.” Biji pulled out an iPad and sat between a stool and her sleeping bag.

Beck left his small home. He plucked his phone from his pocket and pulled up Decker’s contact, hesitating before he texted.

I hear someone found Dawn in Nevada. Decker would confront him while Beck usually tried to ask nicely. It was how they usually operated. Decker would understand Beck wasn’t happy about being lied to.

He tucked the phone in his pocket and went back to the edge of the Light source to work, sensing he was never quite going to be ready for the truth.





Hours later, before twilight, Beck stood, drained and body humming with warmth. He stretched before starting back towards the tree house. He normally worked until he fell asleep and awoke in the wee hours of the night, but with Biji there, he didn’t want her getting worried. He checked his phone as he went.

Biji or Summer? Decker had responded.

Beck smiled to himself. Biji, he typed back. Why didn’t you tell me????

Before he reached the tree, Decker had answered. Because I wanted to handle it.

“Not on your life, Decker.” Beck told him as much in response, not about to let his hot-headed, Darkness wielding brother swallow Dawn and the child she carried. They had agreed in December to deal with the situation together. If even Decker was avoiding him, the perception that he was broken must be greater than he imagined. Too great to be brushed off the way Beck had been doing. He didn’t feel remotely ready to leave the forest, but he couldn’t put off dealing with the rest of the world any longer.

Biji had managed to start the fire and rearranged the furniture, folded the blankets on the bed and cleaned up. Beck blinked as he entered, not realizing how messy it was until he saw everything uncluttered and clean.

She was reading a book. “How can you stay out here?” she complained and lowered the paperback. “My iPad ran out and there’s no running water.”

“That’s why it’s called roughing it,” he said with a smile and sat down on a stool. “Want me to walk you back?”

“No. I can make it one night.”

Amused by his companion, Beck pulled out a protein bar. “I keep some food in the fridge, too.”

She looked around.

He laughed. “In the snow bank behind the tree.”

“This is not cool.” Biji returned to her book.

Beck’s phone vibrated. You still coming home? Decker had asked.

Hell yes. Tomorrow. So we can talk about Dawn, Beck replied. He tucked his phone away.

Biji ended up being a good housemate. By the time they were ready for bed, she’d made him laugh several more times. Upbeat for the first time in too long, Beck settled into the sleeping bag she brought while she took his bed with all the blankets. The fire died down to glowing embers.

“Do you think about her?” Biji asked in the quiet.

“About who?”

“Morgan.”

“All the time,” he replied truthfully. “Do you think about Noah?”

“No. Maybe. It doesn’t make any sense that I do, Beck,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t even know him.”

“I barely know Morgan.”

“Same here. Noah, not Morgan.”

“I understood.” He smiled, gaze on the fire. “He risked his life to save you and Summer. He can’t be all-bad.”

“Yeah. It feels like something started and never had a chance to finish,” she murmured. “I want to know how it should’ve ended.”

“If it ended,” he corrected her. “There’s a chance it wouldn’t. At least, I felt that way with Morgan.”

“Everything ends, Beck.”

Except the pain. He said nothing.

“At least she didn’t have to see your beard.”

“Is it that bad?” Beck rubbed his furry jaw once more.

“Yeah.”

He chuckled. Biji was the most honest person he’d ever met. “You’re good people, Biji.”

“So are you, Beck. Thanks for letting me hang out.”

“No worries.”

Not long after, her breathing deepened as she slid into slumber. Beck listened, not feeling tired despite all the work he’d done with the Light this day.

His mind was on Dawn and the child she carried. He and Decker hadn’t known how to deal with her three months ago when they discovered she was possessed by Bartholomew, a Master of Dark who committed great atrocities in his time. As far as he knew, no one understood exactly how to deal with her now. Decker’s idea about the soul stone intrigued him. He returned to it again, wishing there were more details known about how Bartholomew’s sons had managed to trap his soul with the stone before sending it into the Darkness.

Dawn had to be handled somehow, before the damage she did became irreparable. Prone to her irrational emotions, she’d thus far been content to target people who pissed her off. She hadn’t yet gone after the Light or tried to help Bartholomew unleash the Dark across the world. It was only a matter of time before she was completely corrupted, Beck knew, and he was no closer to determining how to deal with her. At least, not without killing her child, too.