I don’t even feel slightly bad that Richard is overwhelmed and the store’s falling to shit. I’m done with his underpaid-overworked job. Keldarion sent Papa home with jewels, and he’s been driving to the city a few hours away to pawn them off at various shops.
Keldarion gave me something precious, too. The necklace I wore to the Winter Solstice Ball.
The necklace that belonged to Keldarion’s mother. I’ll never sell it.
My throat grows tight.They don’t want me in the Enchanted Vale. Fine. But I have to give that necklace back. And I have to tell them goodbye. On my own terms.
My father makes a clicking sound with his tongue. “The damned building looked better when it was closed up.”
I take a deep breath, not wanting to look, but also never able to look away. The abandoned building I used to stare into every day isn’t abandoned anymore. It’s been purchased by the Poussin family. They’re turning it into an Orca Cove gift shop for the summer tourists.
A huge red “GRAND OPENING NEXT MONTH” sign hangs on the door. Though the building is dark, I spot the merchandise: Orca Cove hoodies in every color, Poussin Hunting Lodge ball caps, and a creepy whale stuffie named Orky who will be the town’s mascot.
It’s fine. I could never have turned it into a library anyway. And besides, what library could compare to the one with bookcases so tall you needed a ladder? With maple trees growing among the stacks? With the golden-eyed man with the sweetest smile?
“Let’s go,” I whisper.
“Yes, let’s go—Oh shit!” Papa pushes me to the side of the building.
I recognize that tone of voice. I quickly press myself against the wall and try to appear as unnoticeable as possible.
Headlights on full brightness careen down the road, going too quickly for our quiet town. I know the rumble of that truck anywhere.
But to be sure, I peek around the corner. Lucas Poussin has his head out the window and looks right to left, his mouth in a scowl, red brows lowered.
I flatten myself back against the building and hold my breath, willing myself to be smaller, to be invisible.
When the roar of the truck ebbs away, Papa creeps out. “He’s gone.”
“Good spotting.” I pull my sweater tighter around myself. “I don’t have the energy to deal with him today.”
I didn’t really care when Lucas found out I was back in town and showed up at my door. I didn’t even care when he gaslit me about the goblins, saying we both must have fallen and hit our heads. Whatever—if that’s how he deals with the existence of fae and my father being right all these years, then good for him. I was even over the fact he’d left me for dead… Of which he also denied, saying he never would have left me, and how dare I think so little of him?
At that point, there was nothing left in me to give to Lucas at all. No hurt. No sadness. Just numbness.
But then he tried to shove the engagement ring on my finger.
A visceral thing, something like fear and disgust and rage all mixed together, burned in my chest. I snatched my hand away.
I can still hear the anger in his voice. The desperation to make sure he was still in control. “What are you doing, Pumpkin? Give me your hand.”
I wish I could say I threw the ring at his face. That he didn’t spend each night driving around town looking for me. That he feared me the way I feared him.
My right hand slowly drifts over my left wrist, feeling the raised scar where he once marked me. Then down to my sweater. The heavy engagement ring wears a hole in my pocket.
“I-I need more time. I’ll let you know. Soon.”
That’s all I could manage. And what I’ve said every time he finds me walking down the street or in my yard. Papa does a good job of putting him off, but there’s nothing Lucas loves more than the hunt.
I can practically imagine my head on his wall beside all the deer and elk and wolves, my eyes as glassy and dead as theirs.
I take a minute to shake off the memory, willing my heart to calm. I want to get out of here. Our cottage is on the horizon, small and dark. A little den for a prey animal to scuttle away into. A perfect place for me.
When I finally look up, I see my reflection in the dusty window.
Who am I?
Dark shadows creep under my eyes. My skin is pallid, hair limp. It’s not the person I remember who lived at Castletree. The woman who made a bargain with the High Prince of Winter without fear. The woman who stood up to the most powerful fae in all the Enchanted Vale.
