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I expected her to be something like that, but to hear it out loud made a chill work its way down my spine.
“It won’t be easy to kill her, but there are ways to kill her.”
I remembered the ash raining down on me while I was in my sleep state. The underbelly of a dragon above the Dark Woods. It was her.
“Like?” Kellan asked.
Ernest pursed his lips. “I don’t know yet, but I can find out. I think you all should stay the night. We’ll do research, eat, be jolly and figure out a game plan.”
Kellan didn’t look like he wanted to stay. Maybe because of whatever reason he had for suddenly hating me. He no longer found me attractive and regretted our kiss.
I wouldn’t lie and say I hated it, even if it hurt my pride. I loved it. I’d never had a kiss like that in my entire life. The size of his palms and the roughness of his skin against mine.
It fueled an invisible fire in my lower belly. It fed a deep, dark desire that I hid inside of me. One that my ex-boyfriend never fulfilled. Maybe true love’s kiss wasn’t too far off. However, I didn’t remember Sleeping Beauty having to beg for her hero’s affections.
Maybe it was a fluke. We got so far away that her spell wore off. Because, judging by Kellan’s intense look, I didn’t think he liked me.
Fern mentioned he was hurt. Maybe his hurt was blinding him—
“Stop it. Enough,” he hissed, glaring daggers at me. “Can you shut your thoughts off for one second, so I can think?”
I bit my bottom lip and felt embarrassment crawl up to flame my cheeks. “Why don’t you take a walk outside, find a stream and drown yourself in it?” I asked. “So, my thoughts won’t bother you anymore.”
Kellan laughed, and it flamed my skin. “I can’t die, Josephine. I would have offed myself decades before if I could. Trust me.” He walked out of the cabin and slammed the door, rattling the windows and Ernest’s belongings.
Fern placed her palm on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about him,” she whispered. “He’ll come around. Looks like he already has, but something is holding him back.”
I smiled at her, even though I wanted to track him down and deliver a throat punch to his jugular. “Thanks, Fern. I’m fine.”
I turned to look at Ernest, who stared blankly at me. “Are you feeling okay?” he asked.
I slid my palms down my body. “Yes, I feel great. I’m happy to be back in my body.”
He smiled and slapped the table. “Good. Would either of you like a shower? It’s not like what you have back home, but it’ll work to get that grime off you.”
“I would love that,” I said.
Ernest showed me around to the back of his house to a small exterior shower. He used some type of magic for the water to rain down on top of me, but I didn’t question it.
Ernest handed me a very small towel. “I’ll bring you a long t-shirt to change into.”
I grabbed the handle to the swinging door when he placed his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t give up on him,” he whispered into my ear. “Kellan is lost, but you’re his way home.”
A shiver raced down my spine.
Ernest left me at the door of the shower with confusion written over my face. Home and Kellan weren’t words that belonged in the same sentence to me. Kellan wanted to deliver me and be finished.
I felt it.
I know they saw it.
It wasn’t what I wanted. I felt something so deep between the two of us that I knew I wouldn’t be able to move on once he left me.
Staying in this realm for a while longer sounded better than going back and never seeing him again.
I know, pathetic.
I slid out of my grimy clothes and tossed them over the side of the makeshift shower. The humid air clung to my skin as I turned the knob, and cool water splashed over me.
