Three Heart Echo

Chapter Five - Iona

Sully bends over the stove, working carefully and with absolute focus. I'm not stupid, it's obvious he's doing it in order to ignore my presence. He takes his time browning the meat. Chopping the carrots and celery. He mixes in the stock, stirring all of the ingredients into one pot. At last he sets the lid on top and walks away.

I stand off to the side, absolutely awkward and unsure what to do with myself. I watch as he walks into the room with an empty bucket, and a few moments later he walks out with another that's completely filled with water. He opens the back door briefly and sloshes the water out and onto the deck.

I finally settle myself next to the fireplace, peeling off my coat, which is soaked through. I hang it over the back of a chair and stand on the hearth, the heat drying my backside first.

I should leave. I should return to my life in Ander. Go in to work tomorrow. Should call those friends who keep trying to get me to go out. Should call my sister back. There are a million things I should do instead of staying here in this abandoned township. Overnight. With a complete stranger who looks like a Viking ready to go out on a raid.

We miss you, the voices call from three months ago.

You never call anymore, Viola whispered to me as she glanced over my shoulder at him.

But I'm here because none of them understood. They'd never been lucky enough to find what I had. Had never found their perfect other half.

"Did you hear me?"

Sully's deep voice rips me from my thoughts and my head jerks back in the direction of the kitchen.

"What?" I ask, my heart suddenly racing.

"I asked if you were alright?" His accusing eyes bore into me, even as he moves about his business of making dinner.

"I'm fine," I say in a short clip. "Why?"

He doesn't respond right away, just continues studying me with those intense eyes for a few moments. Finally, he looks at the bowl and the ladle he uses to fill it. "You went away for a few minutes."

My lips part to defend myself, but only lies would have come out.

He's very observant.

I did go away for a little while.

He makes a grunting noise and nods his head for me to come into the kitchen. I shiver the moment I step away from the heat of the stove, but obediently sit at the rickety table pushed up against a wall.

Sully sets a cracked and chipped bowl in front of me, followed by a slice of what looks to be homemade bread. He sets his own food out before settling into a chair that groans under his weight.

I'd guess Sully must be around six and a half feet tall.

A Goliath to my five-foot-four frame.

He soaks a huge chunk of the bread in the soup before shoving it into his mouth.

"You don't say grace in the House of the Lord?" I question him, guilt riding up my spine quickly.

"No," he answers curtly without looking up from his food.

Swallowing down the unease climbing up my throat, I grab my spoon and take a few wary bites.

Silence reigns in the church, yet suddenly I'm hyper-aware of so many different sounds. The ticking of a clock somewhere. The pounding of rain on the roof. The drips in the next room over, splashing into a bucket. The light slurp of the soup before it goes into Sully's mouth.

But not a word from him.

And I'm too scared to speak. To demand he tell me how this works. To beg him to reach into the other side and find him for me.

In silence Sully finishes his meal. I take a few small bites here and there, pick at my bread more than eat it. My nerves are too high to consume much.

As soundless as ever, Sully cleans up from dinner, completely ignoring me when I offer to wash the dishes, placing them on a drying rack, while I silently sit at the table. He returns to the common room, where he stokes the fire. He locks the back door, and then the front. He blows out half the candles that are lit throughout the hall and room.

"Stay inside," he says without fully looking at me. "Don't go outside until...just don't go outside. The blankets are there," he points to a basket beside the couch. "Goodnight."

"Night," I mutter, though my mind is reeling, searching for a logical explanation as to why I shouldn't go outside.

I'm about to open my mouth and ask when Sully shuts a door at the end of the east wing. I hear a lock click into place.

And suddenly I'm terrified.