“…Yes.”
“Did you enjoy being a beaver?”
“Badger.”
“Whatever.”
“I remember some advantages…” He paused. “What do you remember?”
“Nothing.” She paused. “Is there something I should remember?”
“Not at all.”
They looked at each other.
The last of the road had spun out through the woods, and Ambrose felt an unfamiliar ache settling behind his ribs. This might be their last day and night. Before them, the road stretched out like a shining thread of hope.
Imelda gestured ahead. “Shall we? The rest of our lives awaits us.”
The rest of their lives.Strange, he thought as he gathered his things and fell into step beside Imelda.
When they’d started this journey, all he’d wanted was what he’d seen in that bite of fruit from the long-dead tree of Love’s Keep.
Place, power, certainty.
But then Imelda stole a glance at him beneath her lashes, and Ambrose felt that terrible gnaw starting at the base of his heart.
That wasn’t all he wanted anymore.
Chapter 14
IMELDA
Imelda had lied.
Not a huge lie…but not a little one either.
For the most part, when she’d been turned to stone, she couldsenselife around her, but she herself felt pleasantly weighed down, her soul tucked into the rock like a sleeping jewel. But as the magic had worn away, her senses had stumbled back to her little by little.
She sensed Ambrose first.
Her eyes were seamed shut, but shefelthim. The warmth of him, the distant pressure of his palms propping her up. She heard him speaking, but the words dragged in and out until one phrase gleamed bright as an anchor and she held it tight:
“I could fall in love with you again.”
When she shook off the dregs of the magic, Ambrose was fast asleep and scowling, and whatever else he might have said had long since dissolved into the night air.
“I could fall in love with you again.”
Those words terrified and thrilled her in equal measure.
Imelda was not as young as she used to be, and she no longer lied to herself. Something had changed over the past week. She knew she was not in love. But she also knew she was standing at the threshold of something she hadn’t felt before. Her heart peered over a chasm, not knowing whether there was light or darkness at the end of it all.
She thought this kind of feeling would be like shackles weighing her down with every step. But Ambrose made her feel weightless. He could be thoughtful and quiet, funny and sly. He listened to her in a way no one else ever had. And when he held her—whether it was jumping from a window or spinning into a dance—Imelda didn’t just feel free in his arms. She feltsafe.
Several times she’d caught herself turning to him as they walked in awkward silence down the enchanted road. Each time, she stopped herself from speaking. What would she say anyway?I heard you might want to love me again, and that seems like not so terrible a thing?Several times she’d worked up the courage to say just that, but a cold voice held her back.
And it was not her own.
