Somewhere New (Isle of Doughnut #1)

Chapter Twenty-Four

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CALLUM

W rong.

That was all I felt as I drove the quad bike up the mountains.

I’d checked on Aster before heading home. He was arguing with the council members Bonnie had gathered, his voice bubbling with barely contained excitement as he explained the benefits of caring for wild ecosystems. I’d smiled as his speech disappeared under the roar of the quad bike. I’d heard his lecture about how wild flowers were essential many times. I could probably give it myself at this point.

As I’d rumbled up the mountain, a cloying sense of wrongness fell over me.

I shook my head and revved hard up a steep section of road. I couldn’t be like this. Aster was often apart from me for whole days at a time. Him being down in the village was no different.

But the village was closer to the mainland. While we were holed up in the mountains, I could pretend he would be there forever .

Returning to my empty cabin felt hollow in a way it never had before.

‘Get a grip,’ I ordered myself as I carried sacks of rice and potatoes to the outside cold store.

Leaving Aster in the village might be unsettling, but I couldn’t let it overcome me. He would leave the island in a month’s time, and that would feel even more wrong. I couldn’t stop it happening though. Aster had been upfront that what was happening between us was time limited, and I’d heard him speak about his life in London. He wanted to go home. No matter how much he might enjoy being with me, I couldn’t compare to the whole life full of people who loved him there.

I cringed away from the idea that there was someone who loved him right here. It was ridiculous to suggest I might love Aster after two short months in his company.

Saying goodbye to Aster would be hard. This sense of wrongness would magnify. But I would get through it. I would learn to be alone again. The memories of our time together would have to be enough.

The supplies I’d picked up in the village packed away, I set out on a tour of the nearest goat huts. Something had been off kilter before I’d left Aster in the village. He’d lied when I’d asked if he needed anything. I couldn’t push for the truth, so had to accept Aster was allowed to have secrets, but the skip in his heartbeat and the flush to his skin niggled at me. I didn’t know what he would feel the need to hide.

I shook out my arms and broke into a run, reminding myself yet again that Aster wasn’t my long-term partner. In a month’s time, I would never see him again. We’d said we wouldn’t have sex with anyone else while he was on the island, but we hadn’t made any other promises to one another. He was free to have all the secrets he wanted.

The goats I passed as I ran from shelter to shelter bleated crossly, their newly birthed kids jumping and kicking in my wake. Almost all of the babies had been born now, and the few mothers still birthing did so quietly in the warming days. Apart from Tim’s mum and sibling, this had been an incident-free year.

I returned to the cabin as the sun set. Cocking my head to one side, I focused on Kit’s car whining. Errol and Bonnie had warned Kit that a Mini wasn’t the most practical vehicle when almost all of your journeys could be done on foot or were across rocky terrain, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded.

He and Aster were about an hour away. That gave me time to clean the cabin and shower before putting dinner in the oven. I tried not to listen in as Kit and Aster neared, but the growing sense of wrongness demanded I cling to any part of Aster I could reach.

‘Frank is so epic,’ Aster enthused, undeterred by how little response he got from Kit. ‘If I had ten years on this island, I don’t think I could learn half of what I want to from him.’

I frowned as I dipped my head under the shower, Aster’s words momentarily drowned out by the water rushing past my ears. I didn’t know Aster was meeting Frank. I generally avoided him. The pack’s witch wasn’t best pleased that one member had isolated himself so effectively. Whenever I accidentally bumped into him, he hinted how his spare room was always available. It seemed kinder to smile tightly than tell him it wasn’t only Bonnie being nearby that made his kind proposition unwelcome. I wouldn’t be able to stand living in a house coated in the dusty remnants of his magical experiments.

I wondered why Aster had talked to Frank. He didn’t give me any more clues as I stepped out of the shower and got dressed, his mainly one-sided conversation now focused on the hair products Kit used to tame his curls.

Frank wanting to meet Aster made sense. He was interested in all kinds of flowers, used them in his various poultices and the posies he forced into my hands each time we met.

My movements stuttered as the unimpressed whine of the Mini’s straining engine would have become noticeable to less sensitive ears. Abandoning the bag of hash browns on the kitchen side—which I’d bought despite the thought of having any kind of tradition with Aster making me feel weirdly weak—I walked over to the front door.

On the ledge above was the posy Aster made when he arrived. I took it down and sniffed at the dried flowers. I’d assumed Aster made it because he liked flowers and believed all the well-known lore about what different blooms promoted.

Now I wondered if there was more to it.

Aster had hidden his meeting with Frank today. He’d lied about needing something from the village. He’d made a posy to promote calm and comfort, especially if infused with magic, and then he’d tucked it away in a place where no normal human would have been able to sniff it out.

What if those little things added up to one bigger thing he was hiding?

I clenched my fists, my claws extending. I welcomed the bite of pain, let it ground me. My heart beat far too fast, my skin prickling with unease .

‘I know Aster,’ I pleaded with myself as the Mini came into view outside the cabin.

A larger, louder voice took over. A voice born of loss and fear. I did know Aster, but only to a certain extent. He’d lied to me today. He might be lying about something bigger.

It didn’t seem likely he’d lied to trick me, but then it wasn’t likely a girl I’d known from infancy would kill my whole family. I refused to be blindsided again.

Moving at inhuman speed while Aster climbed out of the Mini and said his goodbyes, I ran through to the bathroom. I retrieved the pot of black powder I’d stashed at the back of the cupboard under the sink. Frank gave it to me years ago. Sinking my fingers inside, I filled my palm with the fine powder.

My hand shaking, I balled my fist and held it behind my back. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need it. I would ask Aster a few simple questions and he would give simple answers and my panicked heart could go back to trusting the man opening the cabin’s front door.

‘Hey, Cal,’ he called. ‘You got hash browns. You are my tip-top favourite.’

I took a deep breath and walked through to the bedroom doorway. Aster’s scent hit me. Or didn’t. It was all wrong.

I’d expected him to smell strange after a day down in the village, had expected Bonnie to get her hands all over him and Kit to leave traces of himself. Being in Frank’s house would make my nose twitch.

This was something else.

The ever-shifting scent of fresh mornings and sun-warmed roses I could never get enough of was buried under too much wrongness. Spices and dried herbs, and underlying it all the pungent stink of ozone .

Aster had been lying to me from the start. He’d done magic today.

I needed to know why he hadn’t told me.

‘Stay there,’ I commanded, when Aster stepped out of his boots.

His joyous expression froze as he stopped walking forwards. ‘You okay, Cal?’

I tried not to feel a pang at being the reason the smile fell from his face. Aster had been lying to me. I needed to find out why before he could do any damage. I had so few people left that I loved. I couldn’t risk them.

‘I need you to tell me the truth,’ I said, my voice rough.

The concern on Aster’s face grew. ‘What’s happened? Did Bonnie say something?’

I gritted my teeth together to keep in the snarl that wanted to escape when Aster said my sister’s name. We’d allowed this man to ingratiate himself into our lives when we knew nothing about him. We should have remembered how dangerous that was.

‘What did you do in the village today?’ I clutched the powder in the hand tucked behind my back.

Aster’s frown deepened. ‘I think I told you? I met with Bonnie and her cronies for lunch. An epic lunch, by the way. Joshua outdid himself. I’ll gladly tell you more about it once I’m allowed to move freely around the cabin.’

His light teasing gave me a chance to admit how ridiculous all of this was. Only, it wouldn’t be ridiculous if I uncovered bad reasons for his lies.

‘What else did you do?’

‘I, um.’ A blush stole up his neck, rose to his cheeks. ‘I went to the pharmacy to pick up a few things.’

A tiny bit of tension left my shoulders. Aster hadn’t wanted me to pick up something medical for him. It was reasonable he’d kept that to himself. But that only explained one of his lies.

Willing him to tell the truth, I asked, ‘Then what did you do?’

‘I visited Frank.’

I stared at Aster. His heartbeat was steady and strong. ‘What did you do with him?’

‘We chatted about the island and my project.’ Aster tugged at his shirtsleeves, pulling them over his knuckles. ‘Have I passed your inspection yet?’

‘Did you talk to Frank about anything else? Anything in particular?’

Aster paused. Before he spoke, I knew the next words out of his mouth would be a lie. ‘Nothing important.’

I tightened my grip on the powder, swallowing away the lump in my throat. I couldn’t get emotional. I needed to be strong. I needed to protect the family I had left.

‘I think you’re lying,’ I whispered.

‘No, Cal.’ Aster finally broke my command and tripped a few steps towards me. ‘I promise I’m not.’

If I had fallen in love with this man, then the stutter in his heartbeat would have broken me. I couldn’t believe I’d done it again, had let someone close who would lie and take until I had nothing left.

‘Stop lying to me,’ I growled, and threw the powder at his face.