I wanted to stay and let him make that kind of love to me, but apparently I’m made of strong and sturdy stuff.
“I want that, too, Devin…so much, but you know I have to go back,” I said.
“Aye, so ye do,” he said sadly.
He took my hand and led me outside, but he didn’t race me back to the barrier between our worlds vampire style, no. We walked slowly, chatting about nothing and everything.
As we walked, I remembered Beyland and said, “I’m going to have to give the Dark Warlock something from your notes. Should I take them with me now?”
“Nae, ‘tis too soon. He would be suspicious if ye came up with something so quickly. He cannae know ye have brought m’notes here to me in Trinity, so ye must make him believe ye are searching all the nooks and crannies in the castle, and the castle has a great many hiding places, so it will be more believable if it takes ye some time.”
“Yes, true, but I am a witch, he knows I can find things far easier than humans. There is just so long I can stall him.”
“Still, ye need to stall him another day…and truthfully, I dinnae think he’ll even coom for the notes ‘til tomorrow. He would believe I have them well hidden. Right?”
I nodded.
“I would like to stall him ‘til ye find the spell to get me out of here so I can be at yer side the next time he cooms for a visit.”
“Devin, I don’t think of Beyland as an enemy. I am not worried. He wants the notes, and yes, we should stall, but I am not concerned that he means any of us harm. He isn’t a friend to Ramon like everyone believes, and he despises Allora. He wouldn’t trouble himself to help us, but I don’t believe he will trouble himself to hurt us…unless I betray him. So I do want to get those notes to him soon.”
“Ye make an interesting point,” Devin said, then touched my face.
It was time for me to open the portal and return to the castle. The hour was early, five in the morning, and we could see no one was up and about in the dimly lit castle. The sun would not come up for another hour or so.
Devin took me gently into his arms and bent to whisper in my ear, “Lass…I cannae bear a life without ye in it. Do ye ken?”
“I feel the same,” I said, and wondered how we came to this point in time. It had all happened so quickly.
“Then dinnae put yerself in danger, m’love…dinnae do that to me,” he said.
I smiled and scarcely whispered the word to open the portal, “Ramabien.”
I dove through the silver opening before he could stop me, before I could stop myself.
The truth was that I wanted to stay with him wherever he was…for always.
~ Nine ~
I WASN’T MY USUAL TALKATIVE self as Jeremy drove down the main pike. The truth was I was daydreaming about Devin, about us, about our night, our morning, our future.
My new plan was to find my grandmother’s Witching Wall.
Jeremy and I drove to where he believed my grandmother’s Witching Wall still stood.
“I can’t be 100% certain, Bobbie…but my sister used to speak of a Witching Wall in Oxly Corner, not far from here. She said both immortal and earthly witches would visit the wall, though she wasn’t sure why. I tried researching it, but all I could find was a reference to it that said it was rumored to have restorative powers for witches.”
“Why would a witch need restorative powers?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure, but even so, that explanation did make sense to me.”
He turned onto a country road past rolling fields of sheep grazing in groups, and charming farmhouses in the distance. It was all so beautiful and all I wanted was to free Devin and to be able to live with him. However, with Allora on the loose and the ancients looking to enslave humans, that wouldn’t be possible, not yet.
“How do you know where to go? It isn’t exactly on the map,” I asked.
“But it is. GPS is taking us there. It is a tourist site of sorts, and a great deal is made out of its ‘witchy powers’.”
All at once, he slowed the car, and I saw why. About one hundred yards in front of us stood a single figure of a man in a silver glittering scarf negligently thrown over one shoulder of his blue silk shirt. He wore fashionable jeans and sparkling heeled boots. Beyland.