Page 69 of For the Ghastly and Beautiful

I stop before I pull the clean linen shirt over my head. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. I don’t know where to go to enjoy the rain.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. This woman tests the frayed strands of my patience on a daily basis. But she doesn’t annoy me, no matter how much I act like she does.

The fact that she knows she doesn’t annoy me, though… I find that irksome.

She pushes me unlike anyone else. The constant challenge has taken time to adjust to. Now, I find myself enthralled with her every word, much like I was when she first arrived. I’m still waiting for her mask to drop, only so I can glimpse who she will be, not who I thought she was.

I know where to take her.

“Come on,” I grouch, taking her hand as I tug her along behind me.

Ada is quiet until we’re outside the palace and moving away from the village.

“Where are we going?” she inquires. “This isn’t the way to the beach.”

“You’ll see,” is all I say.

The pale green of her bodice changes the color of her eyes, making them appear as though marsh trees dance in their depths. Stray beams of sunlight shine through the starbursts, illuminating the red flakes that speckle her irises.

The wind blows through the gossamer material of her skirt as we trek through the forest. It’s a new design that she’s shown my mother how to make, with high slits up the sides and attached pants without any length—Ada and Rin regularly tell me they’re called shorts. And while I agree they are short, I can’t help but think they need another name.

Her legs distract me in the best of ways.

Rain steadily drizzles across the land as the sun peeks around pregnant gray clouds hanging low in the sky. But she smiles like this is the most beautiful day she’s seen, and I instantly know this weather isn’t her doing.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

“You’re not leading me somewhere to cut out my kidney, are you? I’d rather you be a pervert leading me astray.”

I attempt to glare at her, but her amusement is palpable. “I’m leading you here.”

The river comes into view, a small wooden boat bobbing in the water where it’s tied to a pier. Her face lights up as I pull her to the edge.

Once she’s seated on the bench, I step into the boat and shove us away from the landing.

“Are there sharks here?”

“What’s a shark?”

She scrunches her face. “A really big fish with really sharp teeth?”

“I’ve never seen anything like that, but Jade has to eat something, so…”

“I’ve been so worried about sharks for fucking nothing,” she mumbles, leaving me confused as she shakes her head.

We paddle across the narrow waterway to a thin strip of land where wildflowers bloom all year round. The moment she spies them, her smile turns brilliant and blinding as she climbs out of the boat.

She twirls between the rainbow of blooms, uncaring of the mud beneath her feet. Strands of her soaked red hair stick to her glistening skin, and all I can do is study her in utter fascination.

Ada is beguiling. To be trapped in her current is unlike anything I’ve experienced. I feel as though I’ve taken my first breath of fresh air after drowning for years.

I don’t know that I’ll ever be truly deserving of Ada.

But I won’t let her go. I’m too selfish to be without her now.