What?
Blinking a thousand times in a second, Violet pressed the call button to dial Berkley back. He had known she wouldn’t really have service while she was gone, but he had been texting her a variety of things, although most seemed to be about how annoying Drake was, and left a few voicemails. How was she getting these notifications, unless—
“Vi, why are you calling me so early?” Berk asked, his voice sounding thick and foggy from the early morning time.
She smiled to herself as she pushed up from the ground, and started walking back into town. “I just got phone service. Figured I would call and say hi.”
“Meaning you missed me,” Berk teased, causing Violet to laugh.
“Meaning I didn’t want to wake anyone else up at this hour.”
Berkley laughed and she smiled as she continued her walk. It was early, and the wind was whipping around, practically shoving her back into town. Was this magic’s way of telling her that, just because things had changed, didn’t mean she could leave? She would take it.
“Well, we’re missing you here, Vi. Don’t stay gone forever.”
“I’ll stay gone as long as I need to be gone, but just know, I am eager to get back.”
The wind cut out all of a sudden, and Violet blinked. How had that... Was that... She turned, looking at the landscape, and at the town line. Had the magic heard her? She didn’t really mean it like that. She wanted to stay, but she also wanted to... do ink and tattoos. She could do both, right? Particularly if the town line stopped playing games with her.
“Vi? You there? Violet?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” she said, blinking back her confusion. “What was that?”
“I’ve been talking for like twenty minutes about Drake, and you’ve just been silent.”
“Yeah...” Twenty minutes? How had time just... gone like that? “Listen, I have to go, but I’ll call you back soon.”
“Well, don’t be a stranger, and maybe text Teddy back. He’s sensitive and is missing you a lot.”
“I’ll text him back,” she promised. Why did her footsteps finally feel heavier?
“Be good, Violet.”
“Never.”
Hanging up the phone, Violet realized she was standing in the middle of the town. She still had full bars, which meant her little spell had worked, whatever it was, but... something felt different. Off.
She rubbed at her arms and glanced around the town. Why did it smell smoky? Why did everything feel so heavy?
And why did she feel like everything was...loud...
She needed to get back to Ansa’s house, before Henrik got home. And whatever these weird sensations were, they would have to wait until later.
Chapter 21
“There’ssomethin’differentaboutyou,” Henrik commented as he tightened his arm around her middle. “Somethin’... good.”
“Is there?” Violet asked as she leaned her head back to look up at him. They were both fully clothed and sitting in front of the fireplace in Gran’s house. Ansa was with her sister, preparing Christmas dinner, which gave them a little bit of alone time... not that they were able to do much, but it was nice to just sit and hold one another, even if they were in layers.
“Yeah. I been seein’ it the past few days. You look more... sure of yourself. More confident.”
She pulled away from him as she shifted to turn her body, one brow raised as she stared into his eyes. “What does that mean, more confident? Was I lacking in confidence before?”
“In a way, yeah. You seem more self-assured. Like, you’re gettin’ up each day and know what you’re doin’ with it. The first day we were here, I thought you would keep yourself locked away, but now, you’re... I don’t know.”
She didn’t really know what to say to that.
She hadn’t told him much about what she was doing each day. It wasn’t that she was trying to keep things from him, but, he was spending most of his time working with Colburn or trying to embed himself back within the pack, while she had been left alone. She had worried, at first, that he was pulling away from her, but she also had a sneaking suspicion that he was trying to give her space.