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Declan used to be the other... Nope. Not going there.
The tower guard, Travis, stepped up to them, his pistol on his hip as he nodded in greeting before turning to Justin.
With dark-blond hair and gray eyes, Travis held a serious nature that balanced with Caden’s, his best friend. Even with his serious demeanor, she’d heard girls talk about how attractive he was, and it didn’t hurt he was the quickest draw in town, but sadly his pistol and rifle were most likely his only bed partners. She wondered some days what the haunted look in his eyes was from but wouldn’t force him to speak about something painful. Bryn understood having secrets.
She was all too aware of how difficult it was to hide the hurt from the ones you love. To never want to look weak even as your knees buckled, the pain as fresh as the day the emotional wound had been made.
“Bryn. Jace.” Travis nodded as he finished speaking to Justin while she was lost in her thoughts.
“Hey, Trav.” She smiled at him. With a tip of his hat, he turned to walk to his post at the guard station where he’d keep vigil until well into the morning.
“I’ll be doing the rounds since I am on duty tonight.” Justin tapped the sheriff’s badge pinned to his blue button-down shirt. “Need anything, you come get me.”
Looking at Bryn, he raised his eyebrows.
“Anyone or anything messes with you...” He let the words trail off, but she nodded, her fingers finding Finian’s fur again.
Jace grabbed her elbow and pulled her toward where Sage was speaking with a young couple due to have their first child any day.
Several instruments were being tuned nearby, the sounds out of sync, but that hardly bothered the people dancing without music, already well into the ambiance of the evening. With their drinks poured and the lanterns lit, the people of the town showed their human side for a small window of time once a year.
These people were not so different as their counterparts that roamed the night. They just thought they were.
“Go, Jace. I will stick to the shadows.”
She watched him hesitate, his loyalty to her at odds with his need to speak to Sage before another man asked her to dance.
“Go.” She smiled and pushed him toward her friend. He looked back once, before putting his hands in his pockets and walking painfully slow toward where Sage stood.
Careful to maneuver her way through the crowd without touching anyone, not wanting to take the chance someone was near death and she went into a fit on the street, Bryn turned to take in the whole of the celebration before her. A pinch to her arm through her shirt had her hissing, but it was hard to tell which of the people she’d passed had done it, and honestly, it wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to do anything about it.
Several people looked her up and down before speaking to their friends behind their hands, eyes on Bryn.
“Witch” carried on the breeze to her ears, and she tried to hold her head up high as she blinked away the tears. Why did she still cry when she heard the word?
Shouldn’t it lose its meaning after hearing it for so very long?
Bryn just hoped she could make it through the night without finding herself burning for her perceived sins.
Chapter 4
Bryntriedtomoveaway from the hateful stares and condemning voices. Her heart pounded as she felt like the whole of the town was coming down around her. The voices of the girls whispering about her loud enough for the whole of the town to hear, the chant of “witch” stuck like a bad tune in her mind, all told her very clearly she was nearing an emotional breakdown.
She needed to get somewhere safe before the town saw her tears and knew their cruel words had done the very damage they’d hoped for.
It was a horrible idea to come to the celebration.
A growl stopped Bryn in her tracks. The girls who had been talking and whispering about Bryn loud enough for her to hear quickly dispersed as Finian watched them with the eyes of a predator.
They scampered off, looking over their shoulders at Finian until they found the safety of their parents.
“Honestly, if you were human, I’d marry you.” She laughed as Finian started walking, looking back as he waited for her. Smiling as much as she could, she followed as she blinked away her tears.
A man walking past her used his elbow to knock her to the side, laughing with his friends when she almost fell into the horse trough. Heat flooded her cheeks, and Finian went on the defensive again.
“Damn dog.” The man kicked at Finian, but the hound bit into the top of the man’s boot, lips pulled back as he held on. The man, unable to hold steady, fell backward, his friends catching him as Finian released his bite and backed up to Bryn.
Turning away, Bryn wiped her eyes.
