Bound by Obsession (Shadowed Souls #2)

24. Chapter Twenty Four

S eeing Avery’s face light up far surpasses the new addition standing tall and proud in the center of the living area. A Christmas tree so wide, it almost touches the ceiling and is held in place by a thick metal stand. The pine needles are incredibly thick, dark green branches stretching wide and filling the room with the fresh scent of winter. I’m surprised they managed to get the monstrosity onto Huxley’s SUV and through the doorway, but if there’s one thing that can be said about Garrett’s plans, it’s that they usually work out.

“Where the hell…” Avery whispers, still standing in shock. Garrett rushes over, grabbing her waist and twirling Avery away from the bottom step - and me.

“Axel and I went out on a sneaky mission at dawn,” Garrett announces proudly. “Although given the scene I returned to, I wish I’d stayed behind instead.” A mischievous look is passed between them, Avery blushing furiously and Huxley choking on his slurp of coffee. I’ve definitely missed something.

“Would have been cheaper,” Axel chimes in with an eye roll. He gestures to the piles of food crates and wine boxes stacked high on the dining table, ready for a feast. Or perhaps those are just Garrett’s provisions.

“But how?” Avery asks, still dazed by the sight of the enormous tree. Axel’s face lights up then, clearly proud of himself. “That little town we passed through the other day - I spotted a Christmas tree farm on the way out.” He beams, smugger than I’ve ever seen him. “I’d barely finished telling Garrett about it, and he’d already hatched ‘ Operation Merry Mayhem .’”

“My best idea yet,” Garrett declares, refusing to set Avery back on her feet. He spins her one last time, her laughter ringing through the air before she lands with a soft thud on the hardwood floor. “Where’s Megera? We need everyone to join in!”

Avery shakes her head with a grin. “You won’t get Meg out of bed before lunchtime if it’s not for sports, and especially not if she hears you calling her Megera.”

Garrett’s eyes twinkle with mischief. “Challenge accepted.” He rushes up the stairs, providing us a moment of quiet without his boyish, boundless energy. Axel, Huxley and I all gravitate to Avery now standing in the center of the room. Her eyes sweep across the tree, to the boxes of decorations. These aren’t new, in fact they’re covered in thick layers of dust and cobwebs.

“Dax found them in the attic. We figured they were brought here and forgotten about.” Axel strokes his fingers down Avery’s arm, just as much for his benefit. Garlands of holly, strings of fairy lights and cozy blankets have been draped over the sofa. “We did talk about surprising you by decorating the room before you woke up, but Huxley thought you’d like to be a part of it.”

Avery turns then, allowing us all to see the unshed tears gathered in her eyes. A slither of worry blooms inside of my chest until her mouth breaks into a wide grin. My shoulders visibly relax. Huxley, who has been silently watching from the corner, steps forward, his expression as serious as it always is these days but there’s a touch of warmth in his chocolate eyes.

“It’s our first Christmas together. We wanted it to be special.” Avery’s face lights up even more, if that’s possible, and she pulls Huxley into a tight hug.

“It’s perfect,” she whispers, her voice cracking with emotion.

Suddenly there’s a scream piercing the upper levels of the house, quickly followed by a stampede of rushed footsteps. Garrett flies down the stairs, almost stumbling as he seeks refuge behind Avery’s back. Meg appears next, slower stomps juddering the banister. Her hair is wild, a brunette mess around her shoulders, her expression like that of a crazed lion and a shoe clutched in her hand.

“I just thought you might want to join us,” Garrett cries out defensively. Meg’s blue eyes zero in on the lingering silhouette of a six foot three inch man trying to crowd behind a lithe ballerina. Meg’s jaw clenches.

“You threw me off the mattress, squatted down and farted in my face!”

“Early Christmas present?” Garrett offers, barely holding back his own laughter.

“There are poo particles in my mouth!” Meg continues shrieking, scraping her tongue with her nails. Avery tuts and rolls her eyes.

“Sometimes I really don’t know why I’m attracted to you.” She steps aside, leaving Garrett in the firing line of Meg’s shoe. It hits him hard in the chest.

“I was just thinking the exact same thing,” Axel adds, already grabbing a box of ornaments. I chuckle as Garrett brushes himself down, bravely grabbing Meg around the neck and rubbing his knuckles over her scalp. He has a death wish. Huxley starts rummaging through the decorations, carefully removing baubles and placing them in piles depending on color. Avery moves to help and the rest of us follow suit, except for Meg. She’s been drawn in by the scent of Huxley’s coffee, heading off into the kitchen to wake up properly.

A short while later, everyone has been assigned jobs. Garrett is trying to untangle the endless mess of the fairy lights, Axel is decorating the fireplace and hanging the wreath. Huxley and I are Avery’s tall servants, hanging tinsels and baubles on the exact branches she points to. Once the tree is finished, minus the star, we shift it back into the corner and drop onto the sofa beside Avery to appreciate it. Axel lights the fire when he’s done, the warmth of the room enveloping us amongst the twinkling lights and sparkling ornaments.

“Okay, it actually looks so homely in here,” Meg returns, her mood seemingly shifted. She’s managed to tame her hair, while water droplets speckle her college sweatshirt. She hands us all a bottle of water in turn, marveling at the tree for a while longer. Having finished with the lights, Garrett joins us, a look of distant serenity on his face. It’s calm moments like this that remind me Garrett was robbed of a real childhood, left to fend for himself. I doubt he even knew when Christmas was as a child, each day blending into the next.

Unscrewing the cap of his water, he slings an arm around Meg’s shoulders to call a truce and takes a large swig. Suddenly spitting the water back out in a prolonged spray that covers us all, Garrett scrapes his tongue with his nails, choked gagging noises coming from his throat. “What the fuck is that?!” he croaks and retches. Meg loses herself to a fit of cackling hysterics, delivering back the knuckle polishing to Garrett’s head.

“Sea water,” she manages to rasp out. We all look at our own bottles, noticing that the safety caps are still attached and only crystal clear water sits inside. Huxley hides a rare smile behind his hand while Axel shakes his head, clearly amused by the scene unfolding before us. Avery’s laughter bursts out, a beautiful, melodious sound that fills the room and sends warmth spreading through my chest. It’s infectious. The joy in her eyes, the way she lights up at even the most chaotic moments—it’s why I love her more than anything in this world. My heart beats a little faster just watching her, completely captivated by the moment, and ignoring Garrett’s fit of cursing.

“You little-” he makes a grab for Meg and she manages to evade him. The pair tear through the kitchen, out the back door and onto the beach. We can’t see them, but we can hear the squeals and screams. I hope Meg likes the taste of sand.

Inside the house, we’re all falling over each other howling. A stitch pulls at my side, not having laughed this hard in so long. Beside me on the sofa, Avery turns to me, her eyes shining with happiness, and my heart skips a beat. She wraps her arms around my waist, her head on my chest. “This has turned out to be a great day,” she murmurs, her voice full of contentment.

I brush a kiss to the top of her head, holding her close as Axel also leans in, eager for Avery’s touch. Huxley cleans up, stacking the boxes on the stairs before he returns, handing Avery the star.

“Want to do the honors?” he asks. Taking the star from his hand, Avery stands for Huxley to lift her onto his good shoulder. She secures it in place and amongst the smiles, Axel’s fingers snake into my hand. I squeeze them, a silent agreement that we did it. We made her happy.

The rest of the day is filled with just as much laughter, the air thick with the scent of pine and cinnamon. The sun climbs higher in the sky, but none of us seem to notice. Axel had the good sense to pick up a few candles, which added to the lit fireplace creating the perfect backdrop of a glass of wine and well deserved rest. Every light, banister and spare surface has been adorned with tinsel and garlands. Nothing matches. It’s what I’d imagine the inside of Garrett’s brain looks like, all a mismatch of color and textures exploded over the room.

The man in question has had it out for Meg, and she gives as good as she gets. As Avery pulls out a deck of playing cards, I jerk my head discreetly to Axel and we slip upstairs.

“Did you get it?”

Axel nods, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth as we head into the quiet of his bedroom. “Of course I did,” he whispers, pulling a sleek, rectangular box wrapped in deep green paper and tied with a crimson ribbon out from beneath his pillow. “The jeweler was just opening the shop but he wasn’t going to turn down the cash we offered. Bank of Huxley,” Axel chuckles softly.

I’d only been filling my time exploring the house when I happened upon a thin stairway to the attic. Somewhere Huxley had apparently already found, because he’d stashed his cash-filled backpack there. Suddenly a few tattered boxes of decorations became the spark for a Christmas I thought we were going to pretend wasn’t happening - with Huxley’s permission, of course.

Axel flips open the velvet box to reveal a delicate bracelet, thin strands of silver woven together like vines, studded with tiny diamonds that catch the light. In the center sits a charm of a compass with intricately etched directions. “There wasn’t much choice but I thought this might be fitting. Like she can always find her way back to us. Think she’ll like it?”

“Are you kidding? It’s stunning. She’ll love it.” Axel’s hazel eyes sparkle, devotion rolling from him in waves. Finally, he’s found someone to love who will return his affections. Taking the bracelet in his large fingers, he carefully turns it over.

“And it turns out, the jeweler had an engraver on hand. I got him to add this.” On the back of the charm sits a tiny, dainty outline of a swan above the initials S.S. The Shadowed Souls.

“Oh, Axe.” I pat him on the back, overcome with emotion. “She’s going to cry, you know.” Hell, I think I’m going to cry just imagining her response.

“Yeah,” he says, grinning. “That’s the plan.” Tucking the bracelet back into the box, he slides it back beneath his pillow just as shouting sounds from downstairs. Not the kind of Garrett driving Meg crazy, but the panicked kind which drags my attention to the doorway. Rushing from the room, we take the stairs two at a time. Huxley is barking orders at Avery and Meg to go upstairs, leaving no room for argument. His tone is harsh, laced with concern and my own gut twists. The girl’s sulky faces push past me as I hop down from the bottom step. “What’s going on?” I ask no one in particular.

“A car has pulled up outside.” Garrett answers for me, everyone standing around the living room poised for some kind of attack. Sweat lines Huxley’s brow as he flexes his hands beneath the cuffs of his sweater. Axel and I are hanging back by the staircase, panic closing in. The weapons Huxley bought have been hidden all over the house and I’m already calculating which one is closest.

Shooting through the kitchen, a shadow on the other side of the blind follows me. My heart beats wildly, emotions I can’t pay attention to rising and guiding my actions. From the cupboard beneath the basin, my hand curls around the cold, metal handle of my chosen object.

Pausing with my palm hovering over the back-door’s handle, the figure steps in line with me, their face obscured by a black hood. Huxley shouts for me to get back but there’s only so many times I can hide behind his bravado. I love Avery just as much as anyone in this house, and I have to be prepared to protect her safety like any other. Grabbing the handle, I twist and throw the door open, holding a hammer high above my head. Green eyes widen at the sight, Wyatt’s eyebrows cocking in surprise.

“Hey Dax, nice to see you too.”