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Trystan was watching her closely, his hands shoved into his jacket pockets, while his breath clouded the air in front of him.
“You used Luna’s tag to get inside, right?” he asked, and the question startled her. They hadn’t talked about that night at all before now.
“Yes. She scared the bejesus out of me,” Iris admitted with another laugh. This one was edged with remembered fear. “She approached from over there”—she pointed toward the far end of the garden—“And I took a step back, but my wet shoe skidded on some moss, I think, and I went down. Landed on my back. It’s a miracle I didn’t hit my head. And she came to stand right above me.”
This time the sound that emerged from her throat—while still attempting to be a laugh—was choked.
“I was so certain I was going to die… Foolish, I know,” she tried to lighten her tone and failed dismally. “Who could be scared of such a sweetheart, right? But it was pitch black and she was huge and I was terrified. But then she licked me.”
This time her laugh was genuine and filled with warmth.
“I was screaming, and—grossly—got some dog tongue in my mouth. That shut me up really quickly. Luna and I became pals after that. And when it started raining, she led me inside.”
He hadn’t moved throughout her retelling, standing about a meter and a half away from her, hands still in his pockets, legs braced apart, eyes intent on her face. It was unnerving being pinned beneath that silvery gaze, especially when his expression remained stark and enigmatic.
“All that for a story.” His voice lacked inflection but Iris couldn’t help but bristle defensively at the comment.
“At that point the story was the last thing on my mind. I was cold and exhausted, confused by your lack of welcome, and terrified I’d be forced to try and find my way back to the car in the dark. I didn’t even know which direction I’d have to go to get there.
“I didn’t care about the story,” she repeated, her voice small and getting that annoying telltale squeak it did when she was on the verge of tears. Worse, she felt her nose and the back of her throat start to burn as her eyes went blurry. “I was just really scared. And desperately wished I were back home.”
Iris turned away from him, focusing her attention on Luna who was sniffing around the courtyard. She quickly pressed her burning eyes with the heels of her hands, willing the tears away while she tried to regain her composure.
Showing a great deal more tact and consideration than she’d come to expect from him, Trystan remained silent, but Iris was hyperaware of his presence just behind her.
“Do you—” His dark velvet voice sounded rough with gravel, and he paused to clear his throat before continuing. “Do you want to see the car?”
Once she was certain she had herself back under control, Iris turned to face him.
“Yes. I’d like to see it, and to see if the walk there is less harrowing by daylight. I kept expecting to plummet off a cliff, or something.”
“No cliffs around here,” he promised her gravely. “You were in more danger from the trees.”
“I know that now.”
“It’s this way,” he said, and turned to lead her out of the courtyard. Luna happily darted ahead, stopping to sniff at practically every shrub and tree en route.
There were smaller broken branches and even more enormous limbs littering the long, muddy drive leading up to the house, and Iris stared in horror at every progressively larger one they passed.
The road back to the car was a lot shorter than she remembered. Only about ten minutes. But in the dark, with the wind and low light, and so many ways for her to have wandered off the path and become lost, Iris was genuinely amazed that she’d made it to the house at all that night.
She grew quieter and quieter as their walk continued and when she reached the car, she stared—feeling lightheaded, and faintly nauseous—at the flattened piece of scrap metal with the gigantic dead oak tree sprawled across it.
“Whoa,” Trystan exclaimed when she swayed slightly and—forgetting himself—he took her elbow to steady her. “You okay?”
“No. Part of me thought you were lying or exaggerating, but this is… I so very nearly chose to stay in the car that night.”
“But you didn’t,” he told her in a fierce undertone. “You didn’t, Iris. You bravely chose to head out in terrible weather, armed only with your phone’s flashlight, and you made it to what should have been a safe haven. You’re alive and well because you had the courage to do that. I don’t know what I would have done. Stayed in the car probably. But you didn’t. You got out and you walked, while lugging that ridiculous pink case behind you. You confronted a beast, and despite how frightening and confusing that must have been, you still cleverly managed to find your way into a sheltered space.”
“Luna’s not a beast,” she defended the dog fondly.
She was shocked when he responded with a quiet, “I wasn’t referring to Luna.”
“Oh.”
For the first time since they’d arrived at the car she looked at him, and it was to find him staring down at her with fierce eyes. His face was grim, but those eyes, they were ablaze with a naked emotion that Iris was unable to decipher.
Instead, in her confusion, she latched onto the most minor detail among the many bewildering things he’d just said.
