Slightly Spellbound by Kimberly Frost Page B

step back like I’d struck him. “So you’re tied to that guy? Forever? When you mentioned the vow before, you made it sound so casual. I didn’t realize what it meant—”
    “I don’t have to sleep with him or marry him. I don’t even have to see him. But if he’s wounded or I am, it has consequences for both of us.”
    “So you have to protect each other. If someone comes to kill him, that’s your fight, too.”
    I nodded.
    “How could you do this?” he murmured. “This is worse than if you’d married him. At least then you could’ve divorced him. If this is something that can’t be undone—” He made a strangled sound. “Then he’s already won.” Zach covered his mouth against an anguished groan from deep in his chest.
    Tears welled in my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Zach,” I whispered. “I know it’s a shock, but—”
    Zach shook his head, his eyes unnaturally bright. He clenched his jaw and swallowed hard. “I love you,” he rasped. “I always will. But there’s no way—” He shook his head again and rubbed a hand down his face, sucking in a breath. “I can’t share you. One man. One woman. That’s what I believe in.”
    “We can be friends.”
    “No. We can’t,” he said.
    The weight of his words crushed me, and my knees threatened to buckle. “Okay,” I croaked.
    Zach grabbed my arms and pulled me to him. The hug was fierce and then we were both crying. After a few minutes, I started to have hope; he held me so tight.
    Then his grip slackened, and he kissed my temple. “All right,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “That’s the end of it. Go on home.”
    He let me go and turned, fresh tears still wet on his lashes. He strode out the kitchen door without looking back. I watched him reach the fence and go over it, watched him disappear into the woods where wind rustled lonely branches.
    It’s not right , I thought, holding out a hand to the empty yard. Last night . . . but now. The thoughts were as broken as my heart.
    All over? We’d never even talk? Like one of us was dead? How could I stand it?
    When I came back to myself, I found that I sat in a kitchen chair, all cried out and exhausted.
    I shook myself as though I could shake off the morning. I stood woodenly and walked stiffly into the bedroom. I changed into my own clothes and put Zach’s jersey in the clothes hamper. I couldn’t bring myself to strip the bed.
    Tears blurred my eyes as I swept the glass into a pile and put it in a trash bag. I used towels to mop up the water from the floor and retrieved the hose from the living room.
    I wiped the still-flowing tears from my face with my shirt as I left the house. I tossed the hose beside the house, turned off the water, and returned to the porch.
    I realized that Bryn stood in the street, leaning against his car, waiting. How long had it been? He was probably upset, too, and feeling betrayed. I’d made a mess of things, but I couldn’t handle a conversation about it yet. I’d just lost Zach for real and for good. I couldn’t think . . . Bryn would be okay. He always was. He could handle anything.
    “I can’t talk,” I said, my voice strangely flat. He started toward me, but I held out a hand to ward him off and shook my head.
    “Later, okay? I need a little time.”
    He clenched his teeth but got in his car.
    “I’m sorry,” I whispered, but I don’t think he heard me.
    I turned back to the house and stared into the living room that had once been mine. Slowly, I reached in and pulled the front door closed with me on the outside.

9
    FOR THE FIRST couple of hours after I got home, I was melancholy. I opened the windows, wrapped a blanket around me, and flipped through photo albums. I ignored the phone, the fridge, and the ringing bluebells.
    Merc came in and lay down with me on the couch. I hugged him to me and fell asleep, which was why I woke an hour later with a mouthful of fur.
    “Ugh,” I said, trying to blow the hair off my tongue.
    Edie sat on