“That was fun,” I said excitedly around a mouthful of pancake as we walked along a pond. The ducks were long gone, only a few feathers here and there hinting at their previous occupancy. Grayson had offered me the last pancake and had left the plate on a picnic table. He was strolling alongside me,with his hands in his jean pockets, looking more like an angel than a devil. I swear his smile was crafted by the gods to melt women’s hearts.
Grayson pulled his hand from his pocket and peered down at a wooden something he had clasped in his fingers. He handed it to me. “For you.” I recognised the shape of it, though I hadn’t seen it up close before. It was the carving Grayson had done on the porch the day I escaped him. The little animal, but now I could see what it was. The details on it were impeccable.
“A honey badger?” I looked up at him questioningly.
“You know what a honey badger is,” he teased. “Then you’ll know that it’s deemed the bravest animal in the world.” He pushed me with his shoulder. “Like you.”
My cheeks heated for the millionth time since I met him. I wanted to tell him that I hadn’t been brave a day in my life. That I hid from the world. From my dreams. And played it safe my whole life. Always worrying about consequences.
Grayson must have seen the doubt on my face. He pulled me into him, making my whole body tingle. “Youarebrave. You love and give so freely. You forgive people who hurt you and you let them in like they were worthy of you all along. In a world like this, with people like me, it’s the bravest fucking thing I’ve witnessed in a while. Look at you,” he said with a grin,as he swept a thumb over my lips. “You’re in the jaws of a fucking viper, and the only thing in your eyes is acceptance and curiosity.” He chuckled into my hair. “Andyou’re afiercefighter, little badger. I have the scars to prove it.”
My eyes followed the lines of his scars. Gods, how things have changed. “If I could take it back, I would.” The scars and all the time I wasted hating him, fighting him, fearing him.
He shook his head. “Every time I look in the mirror I’m reminded of you.” He smiled warmly to himself. “The marks of a worthy opponent. A sorceress who disarmed me in ways Ineverexpected.”
“Stop.” I giggled at his cringey choice of words and half-heartedly tried to twist out of his hold.
“The only person to ever make me bleed and live to tell the story,” he continued with a grin, holding me tighter so I couldn’t escape.
I giggled harder, remembering his frustrated words in the tent, as I tried to push away from him and his cringy words. He might have said the last part as a joke, but I had a feeling it was anything but.
His eyes twinkled devilishly. “A clever, beautiful witch, who started out as my captive, but somehow ended up the master of my black heart.”
I stilled in his arms, meeting his eyes, the grin slipping from my face.
The master of his heart?
I swallowed against the emotions in my throat. Gently, I brushed the same fingers that made them, across the still pink scars over his eye.
“I like it. It suits me,” Grayson said softly at my touch, smiling down at me.
“It does, doesn’t it?” I mused, as my heart thundered beneath my ribs. It was a piece of me, that he accepted and…cherished. Grayson was willing to carry it with him for the rest of his life.
Or maybe I was projecting too much. Maybe he only meant that I made him look every bit as scary as he was. Because it did.
“Don’t you dare forget me, Grayson,” I whispered thickly.
“Never.”
Wemadeourwayback to the motel and after a quick shower to remove the colour from my hair, we packed up our things and left the busy little town. The next town over would be mine.
The car ride was mostly quiet. Grayson was lost in his thoughts again, and I let him be. I admired the frozen landscape around us, trying my best to ignore my own thoughts. No snow yet, but the clouds above were ominous and threatening. It was just a bluff, though. We won’t see snow for another few days.
There was a gnawing feeling in my stomach with each tree we passed. With each mile we drove. My time with Grayson was coming to an end. I had an overwhelming feeling that it was too soon. I had to keep reminding myself that I was headedtowardssomething, not away from something. That I was getting to see my family and friends again. My home. Something I’d been fighting for. It was all that kept me together. But I still couldn’t stop myself from reaching for Grayson and intertwining my fingers with his. He kissed the back of my hand and held on just as tightly as I did.
It was already dark when we reached a pretty bed and breakfast, about a mile off the main road. It was still surrounded by woods, although I knew we were right at the edge of Frostford Forest.
The car halted a few feet from the porch, the warm glow of the porchlight reaching into the car, inviting us in. Grayson came around and opened the door for me as a plump woman, with her grey hair in a messy bun, made her way onto the porch. She waved at us excitedly and yelled into the house.
“Festus, we have guests!”
A scrawny man, back bent by the years, with glasses almost bigger than his face, came peering out the door.
The woman waved us onto the porch and greeted us merrily. Her presence was warm and inviting, like a sunroom in the heart of winter.
I listened for the tell-tale noises of the night but wasn’t very surprised when I heard none. Most people preferred to live at the edge of the forest where it was safer. Where the things that lurked in the shadows were brushed off as a mere myth. Just tales told by folks who believed in other silly things like ghosts and werewolves. So no one spoke freely of their experiences in the deep woods, in fear of being thought of as ridiculous.
“Oh, my!” the woman leaned back slightly as we stepped onto the porch, clutching her pearls. “Ain’t these the faces of angels, Festus? My, how beautiful the two of you are.”
