Page 115 of When Ashes Fall

Dark shadows still rimmed her eyes, but she had more color in her cheeks than the last time I saw her. Her crisp, clean aroma permeated the air; she’d piled her still-damp and freshly washed hair on her head.

She’d rolled her too-long, black pants at the bottom, and bunched the sleeves of her red shirt up. It slid down to expose the creamy curve of her delicate shoulder. The beast roared when my gaze fastened on the scars from the bite I’d left on her.

That wasn’t the beast’s mark, and it was determined to brand her as its own. It screeched like a wild animal in a cage while battering my insides.

I worked to maintain my control over it as I drank her in. If she saw how frantic and hungry the beast was for her, she’d run… and I’d hunt her.

She was achingly beautiful, but the flatness in her eyes was a stark reminder of my failures with her. Even when she was mad at me, there was still some warmth in her gaze; there was none now.

“I’m sorry to have entered your apartment without permission,” she said. “When I knocked on the door, it swung open.”

In my exhausted haze, I must have forgotten to shut it.

“You’re welcome to enter at any time,” I assured her.

Her mouth pursed. “Am I now?”

I would have preferred hostility rather than the cool indifference of her tone, but I could also play that game.

“What can I do for you, Briar?” I inquired, matching my tone to hers.

This wasn’t the way I’d planned for our reunion to go, but I’d fucking burn before I begged anyone for forgiveness.

“I saw you ride into the castle and wanted to know how everything went,” she stated.

“It went well.”

I released my towel and strode over to my bed. I’d done it to unsettle her and succeeded as she tilted her head to gaze at the ceiling while I sat on my mattress.

“We spread your potion all around Wildwood,” I said.

“You kept it in a continuous circle with no breaks at all?”

“We did.”

“Good. It will keep any more gorman from entering the kingdom.”

I stretched my legs out before me and leaned back to place my hands on the bed. “Has everything been taken care of here?”

“Yes. We’ve tended to all the plants and hunted most of the gorman. There might be a few stragglers, but they won’t live much longer. Once they die, Wildwood will be safe from them. We’ve replenished most of the herbs we harvested and found some more willowcaps and earth moss to harvest so we don’t run out. The plants we’ve used for this will have a chance to regrow.”

Her gaze drifted past me to the night pressing against the windows. Some of my annoyance with her subsided. “You’ve done a lot.”

“I wasn’t able to save them all,” she murmured.

“You figured it out in time to save most of them; that’s what matters.”

“You can thank Zephyr for that. He’s the one who hated spiders enough to squish a silkfang… impersonator. I never would have known otherwise.”

The mention of the sprite caused me to stiffen. “And he’s also the one you trust enough to give your potion to.”

Our gazes clashed, but she didn’t speak.

“You won’t escape me, Briar. It’s impossible. If you try, I’ll hunt you down before you can ever get free of Wildwood. And if, by some miracle, you do get away from me, I will find you.”

Her face remained stony and her eyes emotionless. The beast smashed against the sides of its cage as it howled; she wouldn’t lie to me, which meant she wouldn’t deny that she’d been planning to run.

“Whatever your plans were, they’re over now,” I told her. “Do you understand?”