The snuffling above me was concerning, for sure, but I peeked up and some curiosity had returned to the creature's eyes.
With a healthy dose of please-let-me-keep-my-hand, I broke off a piece of cake and held it up to him. A massivetongue engulfed my entire arm and I did my best not to pull away when my fingers touched teeth. Not that I was sure he would even feel it, since every taste bud on his tongue was the size of a rock. With a precision that belied his size, he tore off the arm of my coat, licking the length of my arm again to get to the last bits of cake. Well, that's what I assumed anyway until he hummed in my mind.
Apples and cinnamon.
He licked all over my skin. I just hoped that I wasn't delicious enough to eat.
“I have some more if you can shift and sit next to me.”
His mouth retreated. He pulled back completely, half in the forest, his wary blue eyes stripped of all softness.I am darkness. I am the night. My pain shakes mountains and it will only hurt more when you leave again.
Everyone might have taken this for Declan at his strongest, but I saw his greatest fear. “I didn’t have my priorities straight. I’m sorry.”
It means nothing to me now.
My heart stuttered. The sheer enormity of how much I needed him hit me all at once. Who was going to nudge me into taking a break when work consumed me? Who would I ever trust to go through all those romance novels with me? Why hadn’t this hit before I left?
I failed you if I scared you enough to leave and I won’t be the wrong kind of mate for you.
My fear of opening up had really twisted up a man who would take on the problems of the world. Ionly added to that with my blindness. “I’m sorry about that, Dec. You didn’t have to go complete monster of the wood over me. I’m not worth it.”
You are worth my everything. Turning into this thing is better than holding you back, Honey. If it lets you be free, I can be alone.
“Iamfree with you, Dec. I’m so used to being afraid all the time I didn't understand how not to be. All my lists and planning just don’t cover this.”
You should go back to Evie.His growl shook the surrounding trees.
I wasn’t winning this with words. I gathered all of my magic and tried again. Braised beef cheek, but the size of a Bakh Bull. Slow-roasted in a moment, stewed with all the love I had a hard time saying. The scent of grilled bread filled the clearing. A paw hit my arm, but luckily it was a normal-sized one. I barely restrained an overeager Ned.
“He can’t have tomatoes, right?”
I sighed when Declan didn’t answer. More of him retreated into the mist and the forest. I gave Ned a whole loaf of bread instead and he happily laid down to pull it apart with his tiny front teeth before chomping on it. The snuffling next to my meat was too loud to be Ned. I let Declan drag a bit of it away and waited as the slurping sent waves of chills over me. I was pretty used to all sorts of table manners, but what had to be an Ajak-Declan made me fear I had lost him forever.
More.He grumbled.
I pooled greater magic than I ever had before. It was all or nothing to draw him back to me. Even if I burned myself out. Ward wasn’t going to fix this. Neither was Anise. As much as I loved them, Evie and Maggie weren’t here for me to hide behind. My whole body heated with the effort of drawing more power.
“I will make you as much as you want, Declan. Because I love you.”
That spread a stillness over the clearing that made Ned twitch.
Declan edged more of himself out of the forest.
Do you?
I bit my lip to contain the pain from using my magic and that question. Declan had every right to ask me that and every right to send me to the seven hells. I might as well have been dead if I lost him. Sweat slicked my palms as I made another cake, a bigger Locot. My hands shook as I pulled more magic, more love into the cake. I made him like this. I needed to fix it.
“Declan Thelonus Stormclaw. I love you more than cooking itself. You’re at the top of every one of my stupid lists because I’m ready to put you there.”
I held out the treat like it was an offering to a Godd, because maybe it was. The ground shook as he stepped closer. He looked down at his massive hands that could crush a dragon.
A bit of his old voice crept back in.I like your lists. It means I always know what you’re thinkingabout.
The creature above me shifted on its colossal paws, moving fully out of the forest. Muscle-bound arms came around the rock I was sitting on and a giant muzzle tipped up on the edge of the stone so I stared down at luminous blue eyes the size of the distant moon. My hand met his wet nose and he inhaled a gust.
“I thought you were the darkness and the night?”
Half the cake left my hands while I ignored the blood I was going to think of as tomatoes still coating his teeth.
