AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded once. “You must go. Don’t come back. Stay hidden.”
But he still didn’t move.
I took the opportunity to desperately drink him in. I hadn’t truly taken in his new fae body that awful night, too frantic to make him believe me. Too overwhelmed with worry for him and fear that everything was falling apart around me
He’d always been beautiful, and he still was. He didn’t look all that different to me. His skin had already been tanned, but now it shimmered faintly gold. His features were sharper, his ears sweetly pointed. His eyes were bigger and brighter now, a deep green that shifted to gold in the weak moonlight reaching us from the tiny window in the bedroom. Just like the dagger he’d given me.
His hair had grown more in the weeks he’d been gone, but it was still a wild mop of curls that made my fingers flex with the aching desire to bury them in it, to feel its softness and hold him to me. His body was still perfect, tall and long-limbed beneath the simple clothes he wore.
If I thought it would do any good, I would have fallen to my knees and begged him once again to forgive me. I’d promise him anything. I’d do anything he wanted. I still would, even though I would remain a stranger to him for the rest of his life.
“Are you the one looking after the hens?” he suddenly blurted.
I froze in surprise, then slowly nodded.
His jaw ticked. “Keep doing it. Keep them alive. They don’t deserve to die just because I’m gone.”
“I will,” I said quickly. “I promise.”
That just made him narrow his eyes at me in suspicion, and then he was backing up towards the front door.
My chin trembled as I silently watched him leave. After standing in the empty cottage for a few seconds, struggling not to break down entirely, I padded to the door and eased it open. Then I shifted into the crow so I could follow him and make sure he made it back safely.
