Page 7 of Wild Ivy
“Nice timing,” I say, holding my hand up for a high five.
He slaps his palm against mine and recalls the demon dogs. “I’m not asking who that was, or why, or anything else.”
“Don’t. We don’t have all year. We need to talk. Where’s Josh?”
He frowns at me. “Who?”
“Josh. Your boyfriend.”
“What have you been smoking?” he asks with a slightly worried smile.
My heart plummets to my feet. “Oh, no, Rams.”
“What?”
“Fuck. Fuck!” It feels like my heart has been crushed. What did we do? How many lives did we mess with just to bring me back? Well, me and Tate back. Fuck. We were selfish arseholes, and now the people we care about are paying the price. Tears prick my eyes. “I’m sorry, Ramsey.”
“For what?”
I take a deep breath, trying to figure out how to explain this mess. “Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but just bear with me. I was lost in space, and Tate died. We did a ritual that reversed time, and it’s had some... unintended consequences, it seems.”
“Okay… I’m not really sure what to say.”
“Don’t say anything about that. I need to know if anything seems off with The Syndicate. Although now that I’m asking that, how would you even know?” I shove my hands into my hair in frustration. “This is a disaster.”
“What’s The Syndicate?” Ramsey asks, eyes narrowed.
I roll my eyes. “Okay, never mind. One day, hopefully, all this will be fixed. In the meantime, go about your life.”
He sighs. “I would ask, but I’m not sure I want to know.”
“You’re probably better off that way.”
We exchange an awkward smile, and we go our separate ways. I wish it weren’t like this, but it is, and we have to deal with what we’ve done. Somehow.
4
TORIN
I stare at my phone,thumb hovering over the screen. How the fuck am I supposed to text my dead dad? “Hey, heard you’re not dead anymore. What’s that like?”
Growling in frustration, I shove the phone back into my pocket. This is bullshit. I didn’t ask for him to come back. I didn’t want him back.
A chill runs down my spine, and I whirl around, fangs dropping instinctively. Something’s wrong. The air feels off. Charged with an unfamiliar energy that we definitely caused. This is a shitshow, but unlike other shitshows in the past, we have no idea how to fix this one. Unless somehow Bram can use that fancy new magick of his to move us back into the proper timeline. I don’t even know how that could happen, but we’ve seen a lot of crazy shit go down these last few weeks. So, who knows?
Crossing over the campus, I see Ivy crouched by a tree, looking a bit lost. I go to her and crouch next to her. “You okay?”
“We fucked up. I don’t know how we can fix it.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
Her blue eyes meet mine. “I’m sorry.”
Frowning at her, I place my hand on her knee. “You have nothing to be sorry for. We all did this, and we would do it again for the rest of eternity if we had to.”
She gives me a sad smile. “Thanks, Torin. But I feel responsible. I’m supposed to be Death now, maintaining the balance, and instead, I’ve thrown everything into chaos.”
I squeeze her knee gently. “We’ll figure it out.”
