Page 24 of A Castle of Broken Memories

I snapped back to reality, the sound of my name in that voice clicking something into place deep inside me. Motor skills reinstated, I finally turned my head—and found myself freezing up all over again.

Gone was the wild mountain man in tattered clothes from before, replaced by the Jack I remembered. Only older and more ruggedly built. Deliciously rugged, really. And with strong, capable-looking hands. A whisper of heat danced between my legs while I envisioned those calloused fingers slipping inside and…

“Nice haircut.” Tenebris’s voice cut off my daydream as effectively as an ice bath. “And are you wearing different clothes? Those actually seem kind of nice.”

Jack ran a hand down the front of his dark green vest, tugging at the lapel. “Ah, yeah. A friend helped me resize some of the giants’ clothing.” His gaze strayed to Tenebris’s hand, his eyes narrowing on the red sock he still wore like a fucking mitten. My fingers twitched with the memory of knitting them, Lyall’s ever-patient voice guiding me through the steps while I awkwardly worked the needles.

Tenebris gulped and silently slipped the sock off, shoving it back inside the chest, closing the lid, and sliding the entire thing under the bed.

“A friend?” Calum asked. “Are you saying there are still giants living inside the castle?”

Jack gave Tenebris a last, lingering glare. “No giants. Just Harp, and she can’t really go anywhere seeing as she’s an enchanted instrument.” He shook his head. “We can discuss her later. Right now, we should probably talk about what happened ten years ago seeing as Noah was… less than honest about everything.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” I grumbled, the overload of nostalgia holding my brain cells captive melting away as anger flared hot inside my chest. I was seriously going to strangle that asshole if—no, when—we ever got back.

“See, that’s what I don’t get,” Tenebris interjected. “Why would he lie about that? Even going so far as to create a ruse about you leaving the forest.” He gasped, eyes widening dramatically. “Unless… did he trap you in here on purpose? Had that been his plan all along?”

“I doubt he could have known this place was cursed,” I pointed out, glancing over at Jack. “But you’d know best. What exactly did happen that night?”

Jack sighed, scrubbing the back of his head. “Noah and I were drinking at The Bloody Belle. The rest of our party had either gone home or were passed out at the table when I told him about the ‘magic bean’ Granddad had given me as a bonding present. I hadn’t believed it was actually magical, but Noah practically fell out of his chair in excitement. Said he’d read stories of your grandmother’s infamous beans, but he’d thought they’d all been used up. When he told me they were supposed to be strong enough to cut through the cloud barrier at the top of the beanstalk, I had the drunkenly brilliant idea to do just that.” He grimaced. “Not one of my better plans.”

Tenebris snorted. “No shit.”

“Shut it, Tentacles,” Jack countered.

“It’s Tenebris and you know it.”

“Do I?”

“So you got drunk and climbed the beanstalk, dragging Noah along with you, and miraculously made it through the lethal barrier with the help of a magic bean,” I summed up, cutting the two idiots off before they digressed any further.

“When you put it like that, it sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it?” Jack admitted.

I arched a brow. “Little bit, yeah.”

Tenebris leaned toward me, whispering in the loudest fucking voice possible, “Isn’t that pretty much the same thing you did? Only swap booze for the gut-wrenching fear of Abuela’s retribution and me and Calum for Noah.”

Gods, I wanted to smack his beautiful face right now. Ignoring my idiot friend, I frowned. “But what about the wards surrounding the base of the stalk? How’d you get past those?”

“Noah.” Jack grimaced, as if tasting something gross. “He’s part witch, you know. And apparently a pretty good one at that. He had those wards down in a blink.”

“Damn.” Clearly I hadn’t known my former-friend-turned-number-one-enemy well at all. “Okay. So, what happened when you reached the top? And how is it you ended up stuck in here while Noah is living life to its fullest down in Mondue?”

“Fucking Noah,” he growled, leaning back against the cabin wall. “He was already an anxiety-ridden mess from the climb, and by the time we reached the front door, he looked like he might retch at any moment. I told him to wait and let me scout ahead, but mostly I didn’t want to be too close when he inevitably yakked. I lent him one of my daggers, and he stayed in the doorway while I headed inside. Which is when we saw Gregar, the shadow monstrosity, rise up from the middle of the freaking floor.”

“Gregar?” Tenebris interrupted with a snort. “Did you come up with that yourself?”

“You try living with something like that for ten years and not naming it,” Jack snapped.

“Focus, please,” I sighed.

Jack’s cheeks tinged pink. “Right. So, there we were, me facing down a fifty-foot giant made of solidified shadows and fucking Noah shitting his pants in the doorway. Then Gregar let out this ear-splitting whine and lunged forward. Noah and I both turned to run, only problem was—Noah got out first, and the door swung shut behind him. When I tried to pull on it, it wouldn’t budge. I yelled for him to open it from the other side, but the door remained closed, and I ran out of time to wait. I made for the first door I could reach and thanked the goddess when Gregar didn’t turn back into shadows and slip through after me.”

“And we’re definitely sure he can’t do that?” Tenebris shot an uneasy glance toward the cabin door.

“We’re safe,” Jack assured us. “Seems he can’t leave the foyer. Although, fair warning, he’s not the only shadow beastie roaming the castle. The others just wait until dark to come out. Speaking of which”—he cracked the door open and peeked outside, revealing a sliver of pink sky—“I should probably get the fire going before the night wings come out. The smoke from the chimney helps keep them off the roof.”

“Night wings?” Tenebris squeaked, visibly paling.