“No.” He felt a wide grin spreading on his face, a welcome sense of joy at last alleviating the sorrow and strife of the last few days. “I found her in the woods one day and took her home. She told me her name and about this cottage—and about you, I realize now—but I didn’t know how to look for you.”
Rapt, Thorn gazed at him, her eyes dark with emotion. “I was always trying to think how to tell you I was here. And Esmerelda… maybe she tried, for me.”
“Well, she’s safe at Castle Vega. I even gave her a fancy hutch so the other chickens wouldn’t bother her.”
A laugh of delight burst out of Thorn. “How wonderful for her. Just like a princess, whisked off by the handsome and charming prince to live in his castle.”
Sebastien loved her laugh and loved that she called him handsome and charming. “I’m so happy I could give you good news about Esmerelda, but what an odd coincidence. Like you getting my belt buckle,” he added.
Thorn averted her gaze, touching a graceful finger to the point of one of the thorns. “A coincidence, yes.”
He drew nearer, fighting the compulsion of the wards to come close, to see her more clearly through the lace of thorns. “Or maybe something more.”
“Maybe so,” she agreed gravely, dark eyes wide.
He hesitated, on the precipice of saying more, of perhaps flinging his heart at her feet. He didn’t know what it meant, this sense of a circle clicking into place, of a key fitting into a lock, but more and more it seemed certain that Thorn was his destiny and he was hers. But Rose…
He needed to talk to Rose. “Let’s get you freed of this prison,”he said instead. Thorn smiled with tremulous joy, as if she’d heard and understood the declaration beneath his words.
Nessie gently butted Thorn’s hip, peering imperiously at Sebastien.Finalllly! Don’t just staaaannnd there sworrrrdboy. Get to worrrrk. Rescue ouurrr Thooorrn.
“Sebastien,” Thorn said, sobering and setting light fingertips on Nessie’s little head. “That might not be a good idea. I’m a danger to the world. You know that, better than anyone.” Her sorrowful gaze strayed to Nonna, napping with her belly up and paws curled.
“That was an accident,” he reassured her. “I understand that now.”
“An accident that could happen again,” she said solemnly. “I can’t risk it.”
“I can’t just leave you here,” he protested.
“You can.” She gazed at him with sober intensity. “I can endure a little while longer, because I know that someone in the world knows that I exist and cares.”
“I care.” He wanted to say so much more. He sagged, feeling the exhaustion now, and sat on the ground outside the fence, Nonna coming to lay her head in his lap. “Tell me your stories?”
She sat, too, just on the other side from him. “There are too many and you can’t stay out there all night.”
He rather thought he could, sleeping outside her gate in a lovelorn vigil. But the night, which finally felt a bit more like spring than winter, but not enough to be actually warm, was descending with damp chill and he felt sure that Thorn wouldn’t go inside while he was out here.
She makes a good point,Bunny observed.Also, I’m hungry. We’re totally out of snacks.
That reminded him. “I brought you something.”
Her face lit up. “You did? A present?”
“A present that is food,” he answered gravely.
She laughed with delight, clapping her hands together. “I love food.”
“I know.” He couldn’t help grinning back at her, though he soon scowled at the warded and evil-looking rose bramble. “But how…”
“Toss it over,” she suggested. “I think it’s just people who can’t go through.”
He took the cloth-wrapped bundle and hurled it over the hedge, glad he could defeat the barrier at least that much. She caught it deftly and unwrapped the package eagerly. “Oh, a lovely chocolate éclair!”
“You’ve had one before?” he asked, disappointed. He’d hoped to give her something new.
“I do a lot of baking,” she confided before taking a bite and closing her eyes in sensual bliss. “But never one I didn’t have to make and never one this good.”
“I’m glad you like it.” He was so glad, he wanted to give her something else.
