Chapter 21
Vivi had told herself that the inside of the cabin could not possibly be any creepier than the outside. It was probably going to be one of those things where all the creep was there on the outside, and inside, it would just be an empty, old house. Nothing all that sinister.
In the few moments she had before Rhys pushed open the front door, Vivi let herself really believe that.
And then they stepped into the front room, and—
“I grew up in an actual haunted house, and this is worse,” Rhys said.
“Way worse. I mean, I haven’t seen your house, but I believe it.”
The inside of the cabin had been wallpapered at one point in what had probably been a pretty charming damask, but now it was falling from the walls in sheets, revealing stained and warped boards beneath. Mildew and mold crept along the ceiling, and in the corner, there was a velvet settee that appeared to be rotting, one leg missing, a hole in the middle cushion.
The other furniture was in a similar state of disrepair, most of it covered in a thick coating of dust, but the floor was surprisingly clean, and Vivi glanced around, wondering if other people had been here before.
Rhys seemed to be noticing it, too, frowning as he looked around, shining his flashlight on a framed photograph tacked to the wall. Piper was in it with a couple of other teenagers, all rocking a very mid-nineties look, standing in front of one of the buildings at Penhaven College.
“Well, at least we know we’re in the right place,” he said, and then swung the beam around the room. “But why is the floor so clean?”
“Maybe she had a spell,” Vivi suggested. “Some kind of cleaning spell that sort of hung on after she died?”
Rhys shrugged. “Possible. Stranger things have happened.”
Avoiding glass from a broken window, Vivi moved farther into the room. One floorboard felt mushy as she stepped on it, creaking ominously.
“So,” she said, swallowing hard. “We just need to figure out where she had her altar, light the candle—”
“And get the fuck out of here. With alacrity,” Rhys finished, and Vivi nodded.
“Lots of alacrity, yes.”
Luckily, the cabin was small. There was just the front room with a tiny closet, a small room that had probably been Piper’s bedroom and a kitchen, the appliances old and rusting in places.
Vivi had thought the bedroom would be their best bet, but the room was completely empty and, unlike the front room, covered in dust. Plus there was no hint of lingering magic there, no ancient wax stains or soot-marked walls, all the things Vivi would’ve expected to find.
She checked the kitchen next, but like the bedroom, it was empty except for an ancient table and chairs that had half rotted, the chair little more than a pile of wood.
Rhys was still checking the living room, squatting down by the fireplace and shining his flashlight over the cracked brick. “I’m not feeling anything,” he said, and Vivi looked at him, his jeans taut over his thighs, his shoulders broad as he peered up into the chimney, the beam of her own flashlight highlighting the sharpness of his cheekbones, the line of his jaw.
“Um. Yeah. Me, neither,” she said, then turned away before he caught her basically ogling him.
She was here to catch a ghost, pretty much the least sexy thing on the planet.
Of course, library study rooms were supposed to be unsexy, too, and they’d certainly proven that wrong.
She and Rhys plus dimly lit small spaces clearly equaled Bad Choices, so the sooner she got this over with, the better. “There has to be something we’re missing,” she said. “Maybe—”
They heard it at the same time.
Footsteps.
Vivi’s mouth went dry, her knees suddenly feeling a little watery as her stomach pitched. Seeing a ghost in broad daylight in a building full of people had been terrifying enough. Having one appear here, in this, the setting for one of those cheesy ghost hunter shows Gwyn liked so much?
Vivi shuddered. No, thank you.
Rhys stood up, clicking his flashlight off, and Vivi did the same, also extinguishing her illumination spell, and they stood there in the dark room, only lit by the moon, listening.
The footsteps were closer, but now Vivi realized they were outside. She could hear the leaves and the pebbles crunching on the path outside, and as whoever it was moved closer, she heard the whispers of what sounded like more than one person.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Vivi looked over at Rhys. No ghost, she mouthed, and he nodded, but then gestured at the door.
But who is it? he mouthed back, and Vivi moved silently toward the cracked window, keeping in the shadows as she peered into the darkness.
There was just one flashlight, but it was clearly two people moving up to the house, leaning on each other, their heads close together. And then as the moon moved out from behind a cloud, Vivi got a good look at one of their faces.
You have got to be kidding me.
She whirled around, hurrying away from the window as fast and as quietly as she could.
“It’s one of my students,” she hissed at Rhys. “Hainsley. Who, by the way, is failing because he’s a cheater, and—”
“Maybe fill me in on the specifics later?” Rhys whispered back. He nodded at the front door. “That’s the only way out. How do you want to play this?”
“Play this?” Vivi repeated. She could hear Hainsley and the girl he was with getting closer now, the girl laughing, Hainsley’s voice a low murmur in response.
“Look, the clean floor makes sense now,” Rhys said, his voice barely audible. “This is obviously a hookup spot, so do you want to pretend that’s why we’re here, just brazen it out?”
Vivi blinked at him even as she heard the front gate creak open. “The idea of my students thinking of me as a sexual being is worse than them finding out I’m a witch.”
Rhys gave a firm nod. “Fine. Then we hide.”
With that, he grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the little closet off the front room, closing the door behind them just as they heard footsteps on the front steps.
Vivi’s heart was pounding hard, her hands shaking, and for a second, she was so busy focusing on the fact that they’d almost gotten caught skulking around a haunted cabin by Hainsley Barnes of all people that she didn’t realize just how tiny the closet was.
And how close Rhys was to her.
There was hardly room for the two of them, Vivi’s back against the wall, Rhys so close he’d had no choice but to put his hands on the wall behind her. It was either that or put them on her, and her own hands were pressed tight against her sides because she’d nearly grabbed his waist as the door closed behind him.
Rhys seemed to realize it at the same time. She could feel him suck in a breath, his body neatly pressed against hers, her breasts against his chest, their hips aligned, even their knees touching.
And his mouth . . .
Rhys turned his head, so close to her that Vivi’s lips nearly brushed his cheek, and then she could feel his lips, there, near her temple.
“Sorry,” he barely breathed, and she shook her head.
“It’s fine.” The words were little more than her mouth moving, but he seemed to get the message and relaxed a little, which somehow brought him even closer.
Even though Vivi couldn’t see anything inside the closet, she shut her eyes.
Okay. Okay, she could do this. Maybe they wouldn’t stay long. Maybe she wouldn’t be put through the living hell of hearing Hainsley Barnes have sex with someone.
The front door opened with a groan, and Vivi heard both Hainsley and the girl laugh, then shush one another, their feet loud on the hardwood floor.
“This place is certifiably gross,” the girl said.
So every sound from outside the closet was crystal clear.
Maybe the curse did work out here.
“If you think I’m getting naked in here, you’re insane,” the girl continued, and Vivi felt Rhys’s lips quirk against her temple.
Yes, Vivi thought. It’s so gross. Don’t get naked in here, please please please.
But then Hainsley said, “You don’t think it’s a little hot? Doing it in a haunted house?”
Rhys dropped his forehead to the wall behind Vivi with what she was pretty sure was a silent groan.
“No,” the girl said, but she was giggling again, and the silence that followed was thick.
When Hainsley spoke again, his voice was lower. “Come on, Sara. It’ll be a good time, promise.”
Vivi only barely managed to keep from snorting, and she could tell Rhys felt it because his smile against her temple widened.
“You promised that last time, and it lasted, like, two minutes,” Sara replied, and Rhys moved his hand from behind Vivi to briefly press it against his chest, miming a fatal shot.
Vivi bit her lip to keep from laughing even as she was suddenly very aware of the back of Rhys’s hand there between them, his knuckles brushing her collarbone. Even though she couldn’t see his hand, his fingers, she could picture them perfectly, the elegant bones of them.
You have musician hands, she’d said to him once. They’d been lying in the tiny bed in her dorm room, Rhys’s feet hanging off the end of the bed, the sheet sticking to their sweaty bodies. Vivi had been dreamy in her post-sex haze, playing with his fingers, tangling and untangling their fingers, scratching her nails along the back of his hand as he’d studied it in the candlelight.
Pardon you, madam, these are sorcerer’s hands, he’d replied. Can’t play a single note.
And then she’d taken that hand she’d been playing with and urged it under the sheet, between her legs, right where she’d wanted it, a move so bold it had made her blush, but she’d done it anyway.
In that case, she’d said, I know a spell you could cast.
He had. Over and over again.
For a hell of a lot longer than two minutes.
Hainsley and Sara were still talking, but Vivi wasn’t listening anymore, and even though Rhys had made it very clear that he couldn’t read her mind, she felt like he had to know what she was thinking about, what she was remembering. He’d gone so still against her, his breath slow and even, and when he ducked his head, just the slightest bit, his nose skimmed her jaw, making her shiver.
Just that. The littlest touch, and her nipples stiffened against his chest, her breath coming a little faster as every nerve in her body came to life.
Slowly, she let her hands unclench from her sides, resting them tentatively on his hips.
Rhys took it as the invitation she’d intended him to, pressing in even closer. No accident this time, no awkwardness. This was deliberate. He was hard against her, and she raised one foot off the floor, wrapping her calf around his, tilting her hips away from the wall as he lowered his head, lips drifting over the place where neck met shoulder and making her squeeze her eyes shut even tighter.
One hand was on her lower back, the other still flat against the wall next to her head, and they stayed that way for a long moment, the press of his lips not firm enough to be a kiss, and Vivi had to fight to keep from whimpering as his mouth slid up her neck, breath hot and damp.
Her hands had moved up from his hips to press against his back, the leather of his jacket cool against her palms, and his hand was cuffed around the back of her neck now, but he still hadn’t kissed her, and she wondered if he, like her, was telling himself that as long as it was just this, these touches, this bare hint of lips on skin, it wasn’t a mistake.
It was easy to think that in the darkness, not able to see him, not being able to speak. Easier to just touch and feel.
To want.
Then, from outside the closet, Vivi heard a thump.
She went still, felt Rhys lift his head from her neck as Hainsley said, “You’re right. This place probably is too freaky to get freaky in. Wanna at least explore it or something? See what other creepy stuff is here?”
Vivi could suddenly see Hainsley’s face as he threw open this closet door and found his history professor—the history professor whose class he was currently failing—wrapped around some random dude, her face flushed, her hair mussed.
No, that was not about to happen.
It was time for Hainsley and Sara to get out of here, and for her to get on with this ghost business.
Pushing at Rhys’s chest slightly, Vivi indicated that he should move back as much as he could, and she was glad he could somehow understand her without seeing her.
Lifting her hand, Vivi pressed her fingertips against the side of the closet, her lips moving with a very simple spell.
She really hoped Amanda had been right about them being far enough from the town for the cursed magic not to fuck everything up.
There was another thump from outside, but this one was louder, and Vivi heard Sara’s voice, sharp. “What was that?”
Still concentrating on the spell, Vivi envisioned that photograph on the wall, fixing her energy on it, and then she heard the crack of the frame hitting the floor, glass breaking, and Sara shrieked.
“I wanna go!” she cried, and Vivi prayed that Hainsley wasn’t the kind of asshole to tell her it was no big deal, or, worse, to want to prove his manhood against a ghost.
Just to be safe, she sent another wave of magic out to the front door and heard it snap back on its hinge, slamming against the outside wall.
This time, Sara wasn’t the only one who shrieked, and Vivi inwardly pumped her fist as she heard two sets of footsteps thundering out of the house and down the path back into the woods.
“Nicely done,” Rhys said, his voice still low, and Vivi smiled in the darkness.
“I have my moments.”
“You certainly do.”
They were alone in the house now. There was no reason for them to still be in this closet, close together in the darkness, but neither of them was moving.
“Vivienne,” Rhys said, and Vivi could feel him say her name, his breath moving over her lips. He was still so close. They were still so close.
Her other hand reached out for the opposite wall to steady herself a little as he lowered his head.
And then she yelped as her fingers tingled, almost like she’d touched a socket.
“What is it?” Rhys asked, immediately stepping back and turning on his flashlight, pointing it at the wall to their right.
“I think,” Vivi said as she looked at the markings painted there, “we’ve found Piper’s altar.”