And Keller would have told him how insane that was, except that it was just what she was feeling herself. It was as if she had just turned around and unexpectedly found herself facing a figure from one of her dreams. A person she knew instinctively, just as she knew her own mind.
I know you, too, Galen's voice in her head said. We're so much alike...
We're not, Keller thought. But the protest sounded feeble even to her. And trying to hang on to her anger and cynicism right now seemed silly- pointless. Like a kid insisting that nobody loved her and she was going to go play on the freeway.
We belong together, Galen said simply. Like this.
Warm tingles. Keller could feel the force of his love like a bright light shining at her. And she couldn't...resist... any longer...
Her arms came up to hold Galen back. Her face turned up slightly, but not much, because she was tall, and their lips were already only an inch apart.
The kiss was shivery, delightful, and very sweet.
After an endless time of floating in a golden haze, Keller shivered again.
There's something... something I have to remember...
I love you, Galen said back.
Yes, but there's something I've forgotten...
We're together, he said. I don't want to remember anything else.
And that was probably true. She couldn't really blame him. Who would want to disturb this warmth and closeness and quiet joy?
Still, they had been talking about something-a long time ago, when she had been alone. Something that had made her terribly unhappy.
I won't let you be unhappy. I won't let you be alone, either, he said.
He stroked her hair with his fingertips. That was all, but it almost short-circuited Keller's thought processes.
But not completely.
Alone... I remember.
Her mother's note.
You will always be alone.
Galen's arms tightened around her. Don't. Don't think about that. We're together. I love you... No. With a wrench, Keller pulled herself away. She found herself standing in the library on her own two feet, staring at Galen. He looked shocked and stricken, as if he'd just been slapped out of a dream. "Keller-"
"No!" she spat. "Don't touch me!" "I won't touch you. But I can't let you run away. And I can't pretend I don't love you."
"Love," Keller snarled, "is weakness." She saw her mother's note lying on the floor where he'd dropped it and snatched it up. "And nobody is making me sentimental and weak! Nobody!"
It wasn't until she was out the door that she remembered she had left out the strongest argument of all. He couldn't love her. It was impossible. He was destined to marry the Witch Child. The fate of the world depended on it.
Chapter 8
Keller was tempted to check the wards, but she knew it wouldn't do any good. She wasn't sensitive enough to the witch energies to gauge them. They'd been put up by Grandma Harman and checked by Winnie, and she would have to trust to that.
The wards were keyed so that only the Dominick family and ordinary humans could come inside. No Night Person could enter except Nissa, Winnie, Keller, and Galen. Which meant, Keller thought with a grim smile, that any lost witch relatives of Iliana's mother who came by were going to get quite a surprise. An invisible wall was going to be blocking them from crossing the threshold.
As long as nobody on the inside removed the wards, the house was safer than Fort Knox.
Grandma Harman had also taken the limo, Keller found. Sometime during the night, it had been replaced by an inconspicuous Ford sedan parked at the curb. The keys had been in a manila envelope dropped through the mail slot in the front door, along with a map of Lucy Lee Bethea High School.
Circle Daybreak was efficient. "I didn't finish my hair," Iliana complained as Nissa hustled her to the car. "It's only half done." "It looks terrific," Winnie said from behind her. And the thing was, it was true. There was nothing that could make that shimmering waterfall of silvery-gold look anything less than beautiful.
Whether it was up or down, braided or pinned or falling loose, it was glorious.
I don't even think the little nitwit has to brush it, Keller thought. It's so fine that she couldn't make two hairs tangle if she tried. "And I left my scarf"
"Here it is." Keller lassoed her. The scarf was ridiculous, crushed velvet in muted metallic colors, with a six-inch fringe. Purely decorative.
Iliana choked as Keller wound it around a few times and pulled it tight "A little aggressive, Boss?" Winfrith asked, extricating Iliana before she could turn blue. "Worried about being late," Keller said shortly. But she saw Nissa eyeing her, too.
Galen was the last to come out of the house. He was pale and serious-that much Keller saw before she shifted her eyes past him. Iliana's mother actually remained standing at the door with the baby in her arms.
"Say bye-bye to your sister's friends. Bye-bye." "Kee-kee," the baby said. "Kee-kee!"
"Wave to him," Winfrith stage-whispered.
Keller gritted her teeth. She half-waved, keeping her senses opened for any sound of an impending attack. The baby held out his arms toward her.
"Pui!"
"Let's get out of here." Keller almost shoved Iliana into the backseat.
Nissa took the wheel, and Galen sat up front with her. Winnie ran around to get in the back on the other side of Iliana.
As they pulled out, Keller saw the outside of the house for the first time. It was a nice house-white clapboard, two and a half stories, Colonial Revival. The street was nice, too, lined with dogwoods that would be a mass of white when they bloomed. The sort of street where people sat outside on their rockers in spring and somebody was bound to have a stand of bees in the side yard making sourwood honey.