Page 40 of A Lullaby for Witches

“You didn’t answer my texts,” he said again. “You don’t get to just toss me aside after five years and act like I don’t exist. You owe me better than that.”

For a moment, his words found their mark and she felt the familiar guilt. Maybe she did owe him a real discussion about where they stood. But then she thought of Leo and what he’d said in the car about feeling guilty, how she’d felt so light and happy just sitting beside him. “I couldn’t answer you. I didn’t want to give you false hope.”

He stared at her, his fair features darkening. “You’re such a phony, do you know that?”

“I am not,” she responded, instantly feeling like a little kid baited into an argument.

He moved closer and she automatically took a step back. “You act like a victim, but you’re the one who’s always running away and leaving a mess behind you.”

“Did you just come here to pick a fight?” There was something in his eyes, something about the way he was moving that wasn’t right. “Wait. Are you...are youdrunk?”

She had only ever seen Chris drunk once before, and it had been at some after-work event of his at a bar. He’d mostly complained and been a little surly when the bartender had cut him off. Aside from that, Augusta didn’t know what kind of drunk he was, and she certainly didn’t know what he would do in a tense situation such as this one. “I think you should leave,” she said before he had a chance to answer.

“I’m not drunk,” he said. His voice was so steady that she almost believed him, but the redness in his eyes and alcohol on his breath gave him away.

Suddenly, she felt warning bells going off in her head. “Chris, we can talk later over the phone, but I think you should go now.”

“We won’t talk later! You’re just saying that. You’re going to keep ignoring me like you always do.”

Why had it taken her so long to see how broken their relationship was? How had she let it get this far? Everything that was happening in that moment confirmed that she’d made the right choice in ending things.

“You made me think you loved me. Then you got this new job and made new friends and decided that I didn’t fit your new life, so you just threw me out like trash. You use people, Augusta.”

It wasn’t true, was it?Hadshe used him? He’d certainly been a comfort to her in the aftermath of her father’s death, and perhaps she owed him more than how they’d left things. “I’m sorry,” she forced herself to say. “It’s not you. I just don’t think I can be in a relationship right now. I just need some time to figure things out.”

“What things? Why do you need time all of a sudden?” He narrowed his eyes and a truly horrified look crossed his face. “You’re seeing someone else, aren’t you?”

“What? No, of course not.” Yet Augusta could feel her cheeks heating as she thought of Leo, and the way he made her feel when they were together.

“It’s that guy I saw you with that day, isn’t it?” he asked, as if he had been reading her mind.

“I work with him, that’s all.” She hadn’t done anything wrong, but her guilt only burned hotter. “He isn’t anybody. I’m not seeing anybody. I told you—I just need some time to myself.”

Chris took her by her shoulders, moving surprisingly quickly for someone who was drunk. “Look into my eyes and tell me that he doesn’t mean anything to you. I want to see if you’re lying.”

She shrunk from his touch. “I’m not lying!”

It happened fast, yet it felt like slow motion. Chris was pushing her up against the wall, something she never in a million years would have thought him capable of. Maybe that’s why she was so slow to react: she couldn’t believe it.

“Chris!” Her head banged against the wall from the force of his push. Stunned, she just stood there, afraid to so much as breathe. She had only narrowly missed hitting the painting of a clipper ship that hung above her.

The room was deadly silent, Chris’s breathing and her heart beating in her ears the only sounds. He still had his hands on her shoulders, but he was frozen, as if he couldn’t believe it either. Above her, the painting rattled in its frame. Was that it? Was he going to hit her? Slam her back into the wall again? The eyes that looked back at her were those of a stranger, and she had no idea what he was thinking or going to do next.

It couldn’t have been more than a second from when her body hit the wall, but it seemed to happen in one stretched-out moment that went on forever. Then, with the force of a boulder hurtling down a mountain, the painting came crashing down. It clipped Chris on the shoulder, sending him reeling backward. They both watched as it clattered to the ground, like a spinning top slowly coming to rest.

Augusta knew that she should have been scared for her life, but all she could think about was how much the painting was worth and how horrible it would be if it had been damaged because of her. Chris must have been thinking the same thing, because he took an unsteady step back and said, “I didn’t mean to do that. Is that worth a lot of money?”

“You’re more concerned for the painting than for me? Jesus, Chris, you could have killed me!”

For the first time since barging in, he looked genuinely stricken, as if just realizing what he’d done. “That’s not what I meant. I—”

“Just go.” She was shaking, and hardly registered the door shutting behind Chris as he slunk out. Slumping down on the floor, she pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes until her vision swam. What did she do now? Call the police? Jill? God, how would she explain this to Jill? Hefting herself up, she inspected the fallen painting. Though the painting and the frame were old, the mounting mechanisms were state-of-the-art, no doubt Reggie’s handiwork. She ran her finger over the back of the frame, then studied the corresponding mount on the wall. It was intact. Those mounts were designed to withstand earthquakes, yet had come off the wall with the barest of impact from her.

The air in the hall had gone stale, and for a moment she thought she might be on the edge of a hallucination again. Because nothing about what had just happened made sense.

The painting hadn’t fallen. It had flown.

23

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