Grayson had always seemed larger than life to me, but this? I had no idea of the sheer gravity of the man I had let hold me in that tent, in Frostford Forest.
Maybe it was best if wedidback off. Was getting him behind bars more important than the lives of my team? My revenge didn’t seem worth it anymore.
Ava
Owenflungashoeat the floor as I entered the living room. He cursed as it missed the spider and lifted another shoe above his head.
“Owen!” I rushed forward, pushing him away from the spider. “You promised!”
He sighed and dropped the shoe. “Ava,” he groaned. “Just let me killsomething.”
I glared at him, then dropped to my knees. A beautiful jumping spider was hiding behind the leg of the coffee table. The poor little thing pulled its legs tightly against her body, trying to make herself as small as possible.
Slowly, I lowered my hand to her, resting it palm open before her. “Oh, little one. This house is not safe for you. A brute liveshere.” I gave Owen another glare. “Come now. Let me get a safer place for you.”
The spider only watched me. She did not move.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now. I swear on our Great Mother. You can trust me.”
The little jumping spider scurried forward onto my fingers. I held her up closer to see her beautiful colours. She wiggled a front leg at me, trying to communicate something I didn’t quite understand.
The hole in my chest felt a little wider, as my disconnection from nature haunted me. That ever-present feeling of something that was missing. Something more than my soul. Like a piece of me—a limb that had been severed. And I had been the one who’d done the severing.
With my soul snatched away, I had let the rest of me wither and die, rebelling against life. It had been months since I’d felt in tune with nature, months of resisting the ebb and flow of her rhythms. And it had been months since my being had been stirred by the presence of the gods. I had forsaken them. Raged at them. Had they forsaken me too? It felt like it.
“You’re so creepy, do you know that, A?”
I rolled my eyes at Owen, pushing past him to the front door.
“Tell it to not come here again!” Owen commanded from behind me. “And let him warn his friends too!”
I whirled on him. “It’s ashe. And she will not be threatened like that. Shame on you!” I scolded.
I found a nice little crack between the bricks of the outside wall. “Will this do?” I asked the spider.
She jumped onto the wall, inspected the crack, then reversed into it.
Owen was waiting at the door, watching me. When I made it back up the steps, he brushed a finger across my cheek. “I’m sorry. We had a deal. No spider killing. And I broke it. Almost.”
“And I’m sorry for yelling at you.”
He smiled and pulled me against him. “Look at us. A bunch of sour grapes.”
I sighed and leaned my forehead against Owen’s shoulder. “It was a rough couple of days.” Being utterly outwitted by the Apparitions to the point of humiliation had done a number on our moods. The whole team had been at each other’s throats until Director Devereux stepped in, making us work in shifts for the following two days. Everyone was fed-up and distrusting ever since Liam’s betrayal. This blow was just as hard. Hopelessness had invaded our hearts, making us bitter and angry. There was fear too. No one would admit it, but they were having second thoughts about being on this team.
Owen tightened his hold on me, kissing my hair.
His muscles were as stiff as mine. We needed to breathe. We needed to unwind.
I loosened myself from his grip. “We should get drunk. As drunk as skunks. And when we can’t remember all this shit anymore, we dance. Gods, I wannadance.”
Owen’s body shook mine as he laughed. “That sounds fan-fucking-tastic.” He twirled me a few times, then pushed me through the door. “Go get ready. Wear a sexy dress, will you?”
A few hours later, I laughed with all my belly as Owen inconspicuously tripped a drunk man who was weaving through the dancefloor crowd to get to me.
Never missing a beat, Owen danced towards me again. I felt light and giddy as I swayed to the beat of the bass under the strobe lights, Owen’s body moving with me. I threw my arms around his neck, wanting to give him a quick kiss. But my lips lingered against his as my attention was captured by what his hand was doing. His fingers slowly trailed up the back of my thigh, pushing the hem of my tight emerald dress a little higher. He caressed the exposed skin, just under my ass, using the swayof my hips to slip his fingers deeper between my thighs. His fingers were so close, yet too far away to ease the ache he was creating.
I deepened our kiss, and opened my legs a fraction wider, hoping to feel his finger brush against my soaking underwear, just once.
