Broderick stands in front of me now, his face stark. He’s moved as close as possible without taking me into his arms. Waiting for my permission. I make the final move, gathering him close, pressing my cheek against his bare chest, hard enough to hear his heartbeat. The scent of salt and warm herbs fills my nose. Broderick strokes my wet hair, and I feel the pressure of his lips on the top of my head.
“The man said if I went with him, he could take all the magic from me,” I whisper.
The stranger wasn’t lying.
“Your father agreed? To let him take you?” Broderick’s words are a rasp.
“If my father ever loved me, it was gone by then.” I see that now. “He saw me as a duty. A danger he had to protect the world from. Not his daughter.” I swallow hard. “So, I left. Happily. And the first night, the man who was supposed to be my savior hadme stand in the middle of a spell circle. And I did. As meek as the rabbit as he turned me into.”
The witch continues to pet my hair, which helps ease the edge of anxiety that squeezes my lungs.
“How long ago?” he asks.
I tighten my hold. “Three years. I was twenty-three when he came for me. A grown woman still living under the thumb of her father who hated her.”
I wasn’t brave. I was timid. Submissive. Letting his words and teachings become my truth.
Forgetting the stories the women of my family had taught me. The love I’d experienced in the first few years of my life became a hazy fiction.
And then I was an animal, only partly aware of the world around me, but sure I was more trapped than I had ever been. Weaker than I’d ever realized I could be.
When I came back to myself in that forest clearing under the full moon, my body naked and overheated from the suppressed magic within me, the first emotion I felt was fury.
And I knew I never wanted to feel so vulnerable again.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to live these past few months,” I confess. “Live as a firebird, but also as a human in the world. Even Folk Haven seems big to me, though I know it’s small compared to cities.”
“You’re doing amazing. Much better than I would have.” Broderick twines a strand of my hair around his finger. “I hate that you’ve been hurt so many times by people you trusted.”
When he puts it like that, maybe I should consider not trusting people anymore.
But with Broderick, it’s not even a conscious decision.
His hands cup my cheeks, tilting my face up so my eyes meet his concerned gaze. “I didn’t live a dream childhood either. Withloving, supportive parents. Mine were self-centered. Sometimes cruel, but they mostly forgot about us.”
His confession, painful though it must be, comforts me in a way. I don’t like that Broderick suffered, but I feel closer to him, knowing my experience isn’t unfathomable.
“Still, I had my brother and sisters.” His thumbs stroke the shape of my cheeks, the movement soothing. “You were alone. I wish I could have found you then.”
“You’re with me now.” I close my eyes and inhale salt and herbs.
“That’s all I want.” He murmurs the words so low that I almost don’t hear them. “For you to keep me close.”
9
OPHELIA
“I am soglad you decided to join us for dinner,” Georgiana gushes. “You’re always retreating into your room. I thought I’d have to grab a crowbar and pry you out of there.” The siren smiles at me over her shoulder from the front passenger seat of her husband’s car.
I don’t bristle at her words because I’ve started to realize that they’re true.
Despite coming out of my cursed form with a determination not to live under the control of someone else, I still fell into old habits. All through my childhood, my father had taught me that I needed to separate myself from society. Once Georgiana set me up with my own suite-style arrangement in her house and I got settled in with my job at Clean Haven, just leaving for work seemed like a grand adventure for me. An adventure that I felt I needed to earn by staying at home whenever I wasn’t on the clock.
But after going to happy hour and swim practice with Broderick, I understand now that any limits and restrictions inmy life are ones I’ve made up for myself. Either born from habit or fear.
That’s not how I plan to live anymore.
And in the same way that I started to repeat my past behavior, I might have projected some of my resentment for my father onto Georgiana. That I made her into a jailer she wasn’t.
