Fading Magic: Ink, #5

By Holly Hood

They say home is where the heart is…unless you're running away from something.

Hope is home, back where she belongs. All her familiar surroundings, all the parts of her life that made her who she was before she met Slade, but coming home is a battle in itself and Hope has a lot to fix and a lot of memories chasing after her.
As long as Hope and Slade are together they can fight through anything. They both want their happy ending, it's just a matter of grabbing it and holding on tight.
Fading Magic will bring you to your knees. It will give you all the answers you are looking for. Even the ones you don't want.

Just remember, everything fades away in the end…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Holly Hood
• Release date: Jul 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386063452

Holly Hood

Holly Hood writes books that mess with your mind. Stories that leave you wanting more. Endings that aren’t so pretty. Romance novels that don’t fit the mold. Books about families without white picket fences. A wife to a great man, a mother to five beautiful kids... and a buckeye fan! She has three dogs. A couple fish and an obsession for anything to do with crime and murder, Canada dry soda or Mad Men. Author of the Ink series, Wingless series and many other titles.

Book preview

For Anne

There probably will never be another person in my life like you. You showed me how to be a good person. You taught me how to be a good mother. Thank you for that.

1

Istand at the end of the table holding my drink in my hand and sigh. I don’t know if I can do this, if I can say what I am thinking or if I might explode from all the tensions buzzing around the room.

They all think I’m trashed and coming unglued.

To friends, the ones who fuck you over time and time again! I ignore Karsen’s glare as I swallow down the bitter taste of defeat and agony.

I need another, because this place pains me. The whole god damn place reminds me I am destroying myself little by little, that things are horrible and real and I can’t run away from them now.

This is Georgia.

I can’t believe I ever loved this place because as I look around at the trees and the familiar faces I don’t know what I hate more.

Or maybe I am drunk and being way too over dramatic.

Slade keeps me from tripping over my own feet as I attempt to climb up on the bar. I want to thrash. I want to shake all the stress and disappointment out of me or so help me I might do god knows what.

I shake his hand free from my arm and make it halfway before knocking over a bunch of drinks and a bowl of peanuts.

Everyone is telling me to get down because I am making a scene. But whipping my hair back and forth feels so much better than acting like some civilized human being.

Hope! Karsen yells at me. She’s an overbearing mother when she wants to be. I never said anything about her flashing her boobs all over Cherry. I let her nipples enjoy the wind and sucked it up for her sake.

I am going to kick your ass if you don’t get down right now. Slade tells me, steadying himself on one of the many barstools. He tries to grab me but I make a mad dash for the other end of the bar.

I giggle and rejoice, for once I am the winner of our power struggle and fall face first onto the bar floor. I don’t like their eyes on me. And I think I might have broken something on the way down.

Like I said, this is Georgia.

I’M NOT SURE IF THEY know I can hear them talking about me as they carry me out to the car but I can. And I know Karsen is worried about me and I know Slade is bordering on annoyed. But I don’t care and I keep telling myself when I wake up I won’t care either.

Slade sets me into the backseat of Karsen’s car and explains to everyone this is a temporary thing, that I am not losing it. If I could open my eyes and speak I would tell them all to fuck off because they don’t get it.

I roll over curling into a ball on the back seat. I can smell Karsen’s perfume. I am pretty sure my face is smashed against her thigh. Every bump her car rolls over makes me sicker and sicker. I am so close to puking and I don’t have the energy to get up and do anything about it.

Karsen screams. She’s throwing up!

The car brakes and I slip from my resting spot on the back seat onto the floor on top of a pile of laundry and old pop cans she is too lazy to throw away.

I can feel the cool air on my legs and I might have lost a shoe on the way out of the bar. I open my eyes when they pull me out of the car again and drop to my knees.

Kidd rubs my back while I throw up everything in my stomach. His homecoming was perfect, he put Karsen back together again.

Now I am crying.

What’s wrong? Slade asks.

Why can’t anybody put me back together? I sob pushing a hand through my hair and then I fall over, sprawling out right there on the stones and dirt.

If you let me get you home I promise I will try my best, he says.

I keep right on crying, and let him lift me up, carrying me in his arms like some savior. If only he could save me.

I’m afraid I am falling apart. You promise you will fix me? I press my face against his shoulder and wipe the snot from my nose.

You’re not broken, Slade informs me. You’re drunk.

He hushes me when I try to object to such a statement.

The car starts moving again and everyone is quiet. I press my face against the window and watch the cars passing by. I don’t have anything else to say, I just want to go home and crawl into my bed and sleep.

A bed I haven’t slept in for a long time now.

Karsen touches my head, rubbing circles into my forehead to calm me down. You can stay at my house again. My parents don’t mind at all.

I can’t avoid her for the rest of my life, I admit to them all. Sooner or later we have to talk.

Maybe not when you’re drunk, Kidd suggests.

I think you should go back to Karsen’s or the hotel for the night, Slade says throwing his advice in.

I rub my eyes and focus on the cars some more. They all think they have the answer.

2

I t’s the big blue house on the corner, right across the street from Karsen, I tell Slade for the third time. He knows and he grits his teeth to keep from biting my head off I’m sure.

And he does this because that’s just how great of a boyfriend he is. I realize it more and more every day.

Are you sure she’s home? Karsen whispers. She acts like we broke in. It’s my house I have every right to come back to it. Not to mention my father let me know as soon as I stepped foot in Georgia my mother was welcoming me with open arms if I would let her.

Slade opens my door and offers up his hand. I take it and fall into him holding on for dear life. My legs won’t work the way I want them to.

For the last time are you sure you don’t want to wait until tomorrow to come here? He scratches his head staring up at my old fashioned porch with the porch swing.

We could have sex on the porch swing, I inform him climbing the stairs. I fall back into Slade’s arm and grab hold of the railing trying my hardest to get up the steps again.

That’s not the kind of impression I am looking to set when I meet your mother for the first time.

I look around ignoring him, much of everything is the same as I remember. I drop to my knees and lift the tiny ceramic squirrel. The one I bought for my mother when I was young and stupid. It was still sitting on our porch in the same spot.

I let it go shattering it at my feet and go for the porch swing. Come sit with me.

Slade drops down and starts to pick up my mess. Why did you do that?

I shrug and push my feet against the railing to get the swing moving. Maybe I wanted it to break. I didn’t it fell out of my hands.

Didn’t you say your mom was dating the karate instructor?

Yes.

Well, what if he hears you down here and I have to kill him for attacking us? Slade grins when I do and settles in beside me. This would be a great place to have sex.

I nod. So what are we waiting for?

I’m not having sex with you right now. He playfully shoves me and stares off into the night. I’ve never seen you so wasted before.

Are you mad at me? I cross my arms waiting to hear the worst.

No, but I am worried about you, he says, he puts his arm around me and pulls me close.

I bite down on my lip thinking about what to say next. I am tired of reassuring everyone around me I am alright. I don’t know if I am or if I will be ever again. So much has changed it’s hard to swallow anymore.

I don’t know if I want to go in, I admit. Maybe we should just go over to Karsen’s house. I’m sure she’s up raiding the refrigerator.

Whatever you want to do, Slade tells me.

I close my eyes and get more comfortable under his arm. He’s all the warmth and safety I need. And before I know it I fall asleep.

3

My head is pounding when I wake up in the morning and I don’t know where I am for the first few minutes. All I hear is the ticking of a clock and an occasional rumbling engine speeding by.

I groan and sit up adjusting to the light coming through the windows of Karsen’s bedroom. How in the hell did I end up here?

I kick the blanket off of me and walk to the bathroom to freshen up before I think about going downstairs. I still am wearing the dress from the bar and I smell vomit, which is never a good sign.

I tap on the door before barging in and start the shower. I know Karsen has something I can wear so I shower before someone gets a whiff of the alcohol and puke infused perfume I am wearing.

The water is freaking amazing it soothes my headache and relaxes my anxiety riddled mind. To think I am so close to my mom and little brother it kills me. I never thought I would come back home. It wasn’t my idea to be here in the first place. I came because I wanted to be there for Karsen and because of the giant mess we left behind in Cherry. It was Georgia or being accused of murder.