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CIARA WOKE UP EARLY the next morning. The original plan for the weekend had been to stay at the Rosslers’ house, so she had only packed the necessary clothes. The rest of them were at Henry’s flat.
She emptied her bag on the bed—Liam’s old bed.
Staring at the pile of clothes, she kept thinking she had nothing to wear. Ciara went through the pile, and it took a while for her to find a decent pair of jeans. She threw them aside, deciding to wear them.
She only had three shirts to choose from, so she picked the cleanest one.
Looking at herself in the mirror on the wall, her gaze fell on the room around her rather than on her outfit. That room had a lot of memories.
***
“I LIKE THAT SHIRT ON you.”
“Of course you do,” Ciara said. “It’s a crop top.”
Liam laughed. “Fine. I admit I enjoy seeing your skin.” He drew a heart shape onto Ciara’s bare stomach with his finger. “But it just looks great on you.”
Ciara smiled at her boyfriend. “Smooth.”
Liam laughed.
She turned to her side to peck his lips. “I love you.”
“And I love you.”
Ciara noticed him gazing at her and eyed him suspiciously. “What are you thinking about?”
“How much I truly love you,” he murmured. He was gazing into her eyes as if she was the most wondrous thing in the world. For him, in that moment, she was.
Ciara blushed, unable to contain her smile. “You’re so cheesy.”
Liam shrugged and pulled Ciara into a hug. “Cheesy or not, I’m happy to be with you.”
***
THOSE MEMORIES SEEMED so distant Ciara could hardly believe they were real. Being back in England had brought back memories she had once buried. She didn’t fancy digging them up.
Theo had been the one to help her move on. He had been her anchor. Without him, diving so deep into her old life felt suffocating.
It didn’t bring back just the memories she had from England. Constant questions were continuously reminding her of Theo’s death, and it was driving her mad. She had revenged his death, but it brought her no joy.
***
“SO, WHEN ARE YOU LEAVING?” Henry asked.
He and Ciara were sitting in the living room. The teens were sleeping in. After all, it was a Saturday and their summer holiday.
Ciara checked the time. “In ten minutes.”
“Isn’t that five minutes early?”
“Rather early than late.”
Henry grinned. “For me, it’s better late than never.”
“Timing is crucial with my job, so I’d rather be early no matter the occasion.”
“It’s still odd to think you’re a hit witch. I mean, there’s nothing surprising about it. You’re a great dueller and a great spellcaster. I just don’t like the thought of you doing...what you do for a living.”
Ciara huffed. “I can handle myself.”
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t any risks.”
“Trust me, I know that.”
“I know you do.” He sighed. “Maybe you could have an entire year off?”
She couldn’t. She would fight whoever tried to keep her from work for any longer than necessary. Even if she had already dealt with the monsters who had taken Theo away from her, there were more of people like them out there. People who needed to be put behind bars as soon as possible. She’d even prefer them dead rather than out in the world, roaming free.
“It’s cute when you worry. But trust me. I’m more than capable of dealing with my job and whatever comes with it.”
“I can still worry.” Henry crossed his arms across his chest, leaning back into the sofa. “In fact, I will worry.”
“Try to worry less for your own sake. I won’t be working anytime soon.”
“Thank God for that!”
Ciara smiled. It was refreshening to be around people who genuinely cared about her.
She had been close with many of her colleagues, but they all knew the risks from the beginning—even when they first got to meet each other. They were ready to lose one another from the first meeting, so it was different.
Ciara also hadn’t seen Theo’s family much after his death. His mother called Ciara sometimes, but that was about it. She hadn’t stayed in contact with her and Theo’s mutual friends outside work. It was wrong for everyone, including herself, but seeing them had reminded her of him. It had been too much.
***
AT FIVE MINUTES TO eleven, Ciara knocked at the flat door. She spotted the surnames on the door, written in golden letters.
Lamont and Rossler.
Ciara didn’t have to wait for long until someone opened the door. Someone who wasn’t Iris.
Liam.
Seeing his stubble again was odd. Whenever she pictured him in her mind, she thought of the Liam she had dated. But he wasn’t that person anymore—not on the outside, and likely not on the inside either.
“Hi,” Ciara greeted him with a smile. “Is Iris ready?”
Liam blinked twice, as if surprised to see Ciara at his door. “She should be ready in a moment. You can come in and wait.”
“Thanks,” Ciara said, and Liam let her in.
Liam shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “So, uh, how’s England for you?”
He hadn’t been alone—yet alone spoken—with Ciara since their break-up. It had been over three years, but that didn’t make it any less awkward.
“It’s nice to be back,” Ciara said. “The weather isn’t that different from Seattle.”
In her mind, she dragged her hands down her face. She couldn’t believe she was talking about the weather.
Liam didn’t seem to mind. Or at least he was smiling. “It’s a surprisingly warm summer.”
Ciara nodded. “That’s true.”
“I’m so sorry for being late!” Iris’s arrival startled Ciara and Liam. They both snapped their heads to the side to look at her.
“You’re not late at all.” Ciara flashed a smile. “I’m just a bit early.”
Iris smiled back. “Oh, good.” She turned to her fiancé and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Ciara felt as though she shouldn’t have been looking.
“Take your time.” Liam smiled at Iris, gazing into her eyes like a lovesick puppy.
It was so intimate. It was as if Ciara was intruding on something sacred—as if she shouldn’t have been there.
She couldn’t help but smile, though. She could see the love. Iris’s eyes had that lovedrunk glow in them, and Liam’s gaze just softened—nearly melted—when he looked at Iris.
She had once had that with Theo, too.
***
“I SWEAR WOMEN HAVE to wait for men more than vice versa!” Ciara called, faking the annoyance in her voice.
“I’m coming!” Theo ran to the front door with a duffel bag hanging on his shoulder.
“About time.”
His expression turned into a grin, matching hers. “You know this takes time,” he said, gesturing to his body.
Ciara didn’t bother to hide how she checked out her boyfriend’s bare muscled arms. “I know, I know.”
Theo chuckled. “If you keep devouring me with your eyes like that, we’ll never get to work.”
Ciara shrugged. She tiptoed and pressed her lips on Theo’s. Pulling back, she grinned again. “Let’s go.”
“We could be five minutes late. They wouldn’t—”
“Theo.” She reached for the doorknob. “Let’s go.”
“Fine. But when we get back from this mission...”
“I know.”
***
CIARA LOOKED AWAY, the memories flashing through her mind were like a kick to her stomach. She didn’t have that anymore. Theo was gone.
Iris grinned at Liam. “Alright. We’ll be going now.” She grabbed Ciara by the arm. “Bye!”
“Bye,” Ciara said hurriedly, Iris pulling her out of the flat.
“Bye,” Liam managed to say just in time before Iris shut the door.
“It’s so wonderful you agreed to come with me!” Iris said when the two women walked down the stairs.
Ciara smiled. “Of course.”
“It’s also nice to see that you and Liam can be friends. Of course, I knew he no longer had romantic feelings for you. But what I mean is, I would hate to see you two hold a grudge or something. You know, arguing and fighting because of your history.”
Ciara couldn’t believe Iris was making sure she knew Liam was Iris’s. Of course she knew. They were engaged!
But Ciara just nodded, choosing her next words carefully. “I would hate that, too. But we were friends before we dated. It would be weird to be fighting over something that doesn’t matter.”
Iris had to realise Ciara had no interest in Liam anymore.
But Iris kept going. “Didn’t he have a crush on you for years before you two dated?”
Ciara shook her head and chuckled. “Trust me, he didn’t. I was dating another guy before him, and he had girlfriends before me.”
Iris nodded.
***
THE RESTAURANT WAS nice. Iris hadn’t been wrong about that. They got a table the moment they arrived, and they didn’t have to wait more than five minutes for their lunch.
It was a small, cosy restaurant. It wasn’t noisy, but the atmosphere wasn’t too intimate either. People were walking in and out, and the restaurant filled with mixed scents of spices from the kitchen. Black pepper and garlic were the dominant ones.
“Liam and I come here all the time,” Iris said, poking at the food on her plate.
“I can see why. This place is nice.”
“It is,” Iris agreed and took a sip of her water. “Liam took me here for dinner right before he proposed.”
Ciara smiled, turning her full attention on Iris. “How did he propose?”
Iris grinned, her white teeth showing. “You know that gigantic tree near the Rosslers’ house?”
Of course Ciara knew it, having spent so much time at the Rosslers’ place. So she nodded.
“We went for an evening walk, and that’s where he proposed,” Iris said.
“Did he go down on one knee and everything?”
A smile spread onto Iris’s face, and she nodded eagerly. “He did. It was super cute. And so charming! But that’s just how he is.”
It turned out all Iris wanted to talk about was Liam—or their engagement. Ciara wished she could have just told Iris there was nothing to worry about, but it would have been inappropriate.
Ciara had nothing against Iris. In fact, she felt bad for her ill thoughts about her. So far, she had been nothing but nice—except a little annoying.
The topic didn’t change even when Ciara tried to switch it. She wasn’t interested in hearing about Liam and how charming he was.
He could be charming, but she didn’t need to be told that.
“Oh! He just texted me!” Iris said, finishing talking about Liam’s job.
“Oh.” At that point Ciara didn’t know what else to say.
Iris stared at her phone screen, her expression turning serious. “We need to go to the Rosslers’.” Her voice was grim—as if something bad had happened.
“Is something wrong?”
“Not the way you think.”
Ciara didn’t know what that meant, but she figured she would find out. They paid for their lunch and left the restaurant.