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Fear had taken so much from her.
Let’s play a game,Addy signed. She practically bounced on her log.
“Let me guess, Addy, you already have one in mind,” Rikard said, signing the words as he shook his head.
Ana looked at Tyreste for an explanation, but he was laughing, signing, and speaking at the same time. “Finish the Story, right?”
Addy nodded exuberantly.
Rikard grumbled.
“Finish the Story?” Ana asked.
“Just watch.” Tyreste stood. “I’ll start. There was this cat, and he wasverycharming.” He winked at Ana as the others laughed and groaned. “He was named after a boy no one much liked but tolerated, for he occasionally did good work in between his favorite pastime, which was complaining about everything.”
Ana laughed into her mug as Rikard jumped to his feet. “You failed to mention howhandsomethe boy was, and charming to boot. The cat, however, was a proper asshole, and one day, when it was busy shaking its ugly tail for no apparent reason, the handsome lad scooped it into a bag—”
“Nope, my turn!” Agnes cried. “No bag could hold the champion mouser, and so it fled, taking a flap of cheek from the not-quite-handsome boy. He devoured it, thinking, if only I had more, it would make a right good stew.”
“Ass stew,” Stojan muttered, shaking his head at the dirt.
Rikard’s chest puffed. He turned his head right and left. “You b—”
“Not your turn anymore, darling,” Faustina said. She pecked him on the cheek and stood. “The cat was known for far more than its mousing. When no one was looking, it snuck up onto the shelves in the kitchens and learned to read from Tyreste’s stacks and stacks of translations. And not justanylanguage, but all of them. He didn’t even require a cipher! For mousers are particularly smart kitties. Smarter than handsome boys even, if you can believe it.”
“Lies,” Rikard groused.
Addy waved her hand, indicating she wanted to go next.But the cat, most of all, was loyal. He loved those who loved him. Particularly the one who had saved him, Tyreste, but there was another he loved even more.She smiled directly at Ana.For he saw through her hard outer shell, straight to the woman’s heart, and he knew there was so much goodness there.
Ana’s throat dried up. She reached for her mug, and Tyreste scooted it her way. But instead of taking a sip, she surprised herself by standing. “I’ll go, if that’s all right.”
“Your turn,” Olov said, grinning.
“The woman, she...” Ana looked down at Tyreste and immediately she wished she hadn’t. His gentle, patient expression ripped her heart out. “Well, she knew a proper mouser when she saw one. Just as she knew a proper man when she saw one. Like herself, he was tortured by a past that had wounded him beyond belief. But through him she saw there could be... could be another way. Far from the pain. The fear.” Ana ran her thumbs under her eyes. “But itreallycannot be overstated how smart this mouser is, and so the woman ran away with the cat and left the world behind.”
“What an ending!” Olov exclaimed. He clapped his hands. “Another round?”
“Yes!” Agnes and Faustina cried, at the same time Rikard pursed his mouth with a disgusted frown.
Ana set her mug aside and drew her knees up. Her eyes fluttered as she enjoyed the cross talk and banter, and when Tyreste looped his arm around her and pulled her close, she let it happen. When he kissed her head, pausing to trade barbs with his brother, and then gave her a gentle squeeze, instinctual and warm and perfect, she realized there could be nothing better in all the world than these moments she wished would last forever.
The games turned to conversation. Her inhibitions fell away, and she joined in as easily as if she’d been a part of their circle forever. They teased her like she was one of them. She moved to the cauldron and refilled their mugs, bouncing between logs as the night wore on. She laughed so hard with Agnes, her face ached. She cried with Fransiska, conversed with Olov, and sparred with Rikard. Reminisced with Stojan and Faustina, and swapped secrets with Addy.
But the best part of the night was how natural it felt to be a part of Tyreste’s life—to fall into his arms without looking over her shoulder.
“You’re fading,” he said, brushing her hair away from her eyes and kissing the spot where it had lain. “Shall I walk you home?”
Ana remembered the first time Tyreste had walked her home, after they’d shared a magical night under the stars. She hadn’t stopped buzzing until morning. There’d even been a moment when she’d thought perhaps happinesswasn’tout of her reach.
But tonight she didn’t want to go home.
“No,” she whispered, her voice husky with drink and brashness. “Take me home with you.”
The veins in his jaw flexed. “Is that really what you want?”
Ana nodded.
He pulled her to her feet amid whistles andoohs.Rikard made a snide comment about Tyreste going to bed alone. Noting the flush of embarrassment in his cheeks, she brazenly gathered her hands behind his head and kissed him deeply enough to warrant an apology to his parents later.
