AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But he shakes his head no. “You need to eat. I should have saved some of the meat for you. It’s unforgivable.”
Seeing the guilt on his face about eating all the meat, I give in. I know he’s especially stubborn about the fact that I continue eating while he’s around, and I can only imagine how much he needed the meat if he wolfed it all down like that this morning.
He heads to the pantry and starts opening cans, tipping the contents into his mouth and swallowing what’s inside, usually in one go. Green beans. Plums. Corn.
“Oh my god, do you even have a gag reflex?”
He looks my way, wipes his mouth with his forearm, and burps. “What’s that?”
I shake my head and laugh. “Never mind.”
I head to the big brick stove in the corner that’s used for both warming the cabin and cooking. Fresh logs are stacked up to one side, thanks to Layden’s morning efforts. The logs go in the bottom, and the burners for cooking are on the sides. Before this week, I hadn’t used one of these old village stoves in a long time. Well, I never used it, but I saw my mom use them sometimes when I was young.
Some of my best memories are from places like this, with just Mom, Dad and me hidden away in little cabins in nowhere nooks of the world. Hiding away where my Grandfather couldn’t find us. It even worked for a while, too.
“Phoenix?” Layden’s voice brings me back to the present, and my head jerks his way.
“What?”
“Where were you just then?”
I scowl and reach for the cast iron pan to cook the eggs I brought in earlier. “Nowhere.”
Wisely, he doesn’t keep asking.
I cook my eggs while Layden continues opening and downing cans from the cupboard. He finally stops and turns back to me right as I’m plating my eggs. “The couple whose cabin this was. You used your compulsion on them.”
I shrug. Duh. Obviously.
“What did you tell them?”’
“To leave immediately and go to a relative’s house for two months.”
His face brightens. “So we have two months?”
I drop the iron skillet hard back onto the brick stove and eat my eggs from the pan while standing. “You looked pretty bad, and I didn’t know how fast you’d magically mend. But I guess now that you’re better, you’re welcome to squat here until they get back.”
He squints at me. “And you? Will you leave now?”
My eyes drop to the smooth, packed earthen floor.
“Where would you go to?” he asks, voice softer. “Where are you from, wild Phoenix? Or did you just burst forth from the air? Maybe I’ve hallucinated all this,” he finishes, murmuring to himself. “Maybe this is what happens when I finally snap and lose my mind. Not an altogether unpleasant madness.” He looks around the cabin, his translucent gray eyes finally settling on me.
I roll mine. “I’m not a figment of your imagination.”
“I don’t know, dream girl,” he smiles softly. “I can’t imagine how you could possibly be real.”
His words and too-handsome face make something swoop in my belly. If anything, he’s the dream. I want to whisper it. I want to be a dumb, impulsive girl. This feels like something out of those novels Sabra’s always trying to get me to read.
But I know better. I know better than to believe in a dream. Dreams don’t come true for girls like me. Or maybe they do, but they’re double-edged and slice like a knife.
Layden suddenly stands up and comes toward me. “Who are you, Phoenix?”
I hold up a hand to stop him, and he does stop, but only when my outstretched hand is pushing against his chest.
“Where do you come from? Who are your people? Why were you alone in the forest the day we met?”
My mouth stays stubbornly shut. Finally, feeling his eyes bore into me, I answer. “You’ll never see me again, so none of that matters.”
