𝔒𝔫𝔠𝔢 𝔘𝔭𝔬𝔫 𝔄 𝔇𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔪 | ♛

Part Nine

Someone shakes me gently and my eyes shoot open. I am momentarily defensive, but I relax when I see Caleb leaning over me.

"We're here," he says. "Everyone else's already gone in."

I sit up, rubbing my eyes. "We're here already?"

"You slept for most of the journey," he informs me, the corner of his lips twitching. "You mumble in your sleep."

I nod and stretch. "Mmm, I didn't say anything bad though, right?"

"You weren't talking clear enough," he shrugs. I think I hear him add the word 'unfortunately', but I can't be entirely sure.

I follow him out of the back of the van and we walk side-by-side down the busy street. At one point Caleb is completely separated from me, and when we find each other again he slips his hand into mine and holds tight. I turn my face away from him slightly to hide the heat blossoming on my cheeks.

The house looks the same as we left it; dark and foreboding on the outside and bright on the inside.

I can hear the others tearing around upstairs, but there are no reprimanding voices. My suspicions are confirmed when Caleb and I do a quick sweep of the house and garden: neither Gertie nor my mother are here right now.

There's a shout from upstairs and I startle, reflexively looking up at the ceiling. The glass chandelier swings as footsteps thunder above us, shouts and peals of laughter reaching my ears.

"We'd better tell them to pipe down," Caleb says with a rueful smile. "The neighbours will go nuts if they keep that noise up."

We climb the stairs together and tell the others to be quieter. Reed gives me a funny look as he sees Caleb take my hand again and lead me down the hall.

"We'd better stay in here in case we need to repeat ourselves," he explains, opening a door.

Inside is a small bedroom, simple in design. I immediately feel the gentle breeze that stirs up the white curtains that cover a large window. A desk sits underneath the window, and is cluttered with papers - the only thing that is organised are his pencils, lying side-by-side in a neat row. A chest of drawers sits beside it, and two shelves of films are fixed over the single bed.

He turns around in the middle of the room and gives me a sheepish smile. "So... This is home," he says, making a small, circular gesture.

I make a noise of assent, my eyes lingering on the paper on the desk.

"Before we're interrupted, I wanted to talk," I blurt.

His eyes dart over me and he nods for me to continue.

I swallow thickly. "Today... today has been amazing, beautiful, and fantastical. And terrifying. But I've had more fun than scares, and in the truck, I was thinking, you know, about... What happened before. And I-"

I break off as he hold up a hand to stop me. He doesn't say anything for a second; he just stares at me and bites his lip.

His hesitation breaks me. "I'm sorry, it's stu-"

He steps forward, until we're almost touching, and his hand cups my chin. My breath freezes in my lungs and my heart pauses before it starts to pound. I can feel the heat from his thumb burning a trail over my skin as it skims over my jaw.

"Don't say sorry, Princess," he teases. His brown eyes sparkle as he watches for my reaction, and the corner of my mouth twitches up.

"Sorry, Captain. " My voice wavers with my reply, exhilarated by the tension twanging between us. Any second, I think. Any second now, this could happen.