Clearly, he was growing as a human being.
So he grabbed his coat, plugged the address Vivienne had given him into his phone and hoped his rental car would hold up this time.
It did, but when he came to a stop on a dirt road barred by a metal gate, he kind of wished he’d blown a tire near the house and had just called it a night, gone back to his original plans.
Vivienne was standing by the gate, dressed all in black, her hair pulled back in a tight French braid, and as Rhys stepped out of the car, he took in her outfit, complete with black leather gloves.
“Have you brought me out here to murder me?” he called. “Because that probably would solve your problems, but I have to say, I object on both moral and personal grounds.”
Shaking her head, she came closer, and Rhys caught another whiff of that damnable scent, sweet and heady against the crisp and smoky autumn evening. “We’re going on a kind of . . . quest.”
For the first time, Rhys noticed the satchel she had strapped across her chest, the torch—flashlight, he reminded himself—in her hand.
“A curse-breaking quest?” he asked, and she frowned.
“It’s curse-related.”
Well, that was promising at least.
Tapping the flashlight she held, Rhys asked, “Don’t trust your little illumination spell?”
The flashlight blinked on, and he could finally see her face clearly. Her pupils were huge in those hazel eyes, and she looked a little pale. Nervous, too.
“Didn’t think it was worth the risk.”
Reaching into her satchel, she pulled another flashlight out, handing it to him. “Come on.”
With that, she turned and headed back toward the gate, vaulting herself over with an ease that shouldn’t have turned him on nearly so much, but then, he was becoming used to finding literally everything Vivienne did erotic. Walking, jumping over fences, liking polka dots . . . all of it was immensely appealing, and if Rhys took a bit of satisfaction when he noticed her own eyes glaze over a little as he placed one hand on the gate and easily hopped it, well . . . he was only human.
Which also meant that the second his feet crunched on the dry leaves littering the road, a shiver of apprehension raced up his spine.
They were in the middle of nowhere, in a forest, at—he checked his watch—11:47 p.m. The night was so black it felt like it was pressing in on him, and he stopped, catching her elbow with one hand.
“All right, I pride myself on being the sort of bloke who rolls with the punches, but seriously. Where are we going?”
Vivienne nodded up the road. “There’s a house up there. Well, a cabin, really. Several of the witchy students at Penhaven have rented it in the past.”
Pausing, Vivienne fiddled with her flashlight, and Rhys prodded her foot gently with his toe. “Go on.”
She cleared her throat. “Including Piper McBride. The ghost we saw in the library, and now we have to catch her.”
Vivienne went to continue walking back up the road, and Rhys caught her elbow again.
“I’m sorry, did you say we’re going to catch a ghost?”
Blowing out a breath, Vivienne threw her hands up. “Not catch, exactly. We just have to—hold on.”
She fished in her satchel again, and Rhys wondered if it was some sort of Mary Poppins bag. What was she going to pull out of that thing next? Sword? Houseplant?
“We just have to light this,” she said, and Rhys squinted at the silver candle she held.
“A Eurydice Candle? Where did you even get that?” Rhys had only seen one once before, in a locked cabinet in his father’s library, and Rhys was pretty sure Simon had threatened him with bodily harm if he ever touched the thing. They were rare to come by, and the magic they used was powerful stuff.