Page 47 of Heartsong
And like the coward she was, she hustled into the bathroom to wash the day off and hopefully all the foolish little hopes that’d managed to sink their hooks into her heart.
Frey listened as the water of the shower ran, his heart heavy. He somehow felt further away from Anna, just a door away, than he had when she hadn’t been in the apartment earlier that evening.
He stood vigil over the dwelling, uninterested in finding a video to watch or setting up a one-person card game. Nothing held interest for him after the disaster of the night.
Frustration rode him hard, sinking its teeth into him, but he wouldn’t voice it. His Anna was already skittish, had retreated just as he’d hoped to avoid, and now he’d spend another night alone. He didn’t know what else to say to her, how else to prove the truth of his words.
There were secrets in Anna, scars on her heart. The pain in her eyes was more apparent at times than others, but it always lingered. He wished he understood her troubles, what it was that held her back from him.
He’d entered this battle blindly and despite fighting valiantly, he was no closer to victory.
Frey had no intention of quitting the field, though.
Oh, no.
His mother had not raised a male who quit easily. He hadn’t become his clan’s strongest, fiercest fighter by giving in. His sister’s mate had been ill-prepared and ill-suited for being a mate—Frey wouldn’t make his mistakes.
If his Anna thought he would demur and let this distance between them stand, she was sorely mistaken.
A smart warrior knew when to change strategy.
She had enjoyed the meal, and Frey held onto the vision of her face lighting up at seeing such a small gesture. So this he would do, again and again, and whatever else he could think of.
He would woo her in every way possible, with every skill he had, and learn new ones, too. He would overwhelm her hesitance, breach her defenses.
And then, finally, Anna would know what it was to behis.
14
Anna was grateful for a busy day at the museum, leading two different school trip tours and fielding enough visitor questions at the desk that she barely had time to take a sip of coffee or water, let alone think too much about her conversation with Frey the night before.
Still, busy as it was, she couldn’t shake a despondent sort of listlessness that filled her. Like she was…sad about the whole thing.
Whenever she had a free moment, her mind invariably strayed back to their conversation and how she’d just…left it. Not her finest moment.
But what he’s saying is crazy.
And yeah, she understood that in the scheme of things—fae, curses, magick,gargoyles—being someone’s soulmate wasn’t really even in the top three strangest things about all this. But there was still…she still had to wonder…
Why me?
Why now, why her, why Frey?
The questions spun uselessly in her mind, making her grateful for work to give her brain a break.
It was in the last hour of her shift, when the museum was mostly empty of guests but full of the vivid yellows and greens of late afternoon, that June Parkhurst arrived for her first official session with the statues.
Anna greeted her at the desk, nerves tangling in her chest as she gave June her museum credentials and fob to the employee side door. June watched on quietly, her beautiful face pensive. She’d pulled her red hair, haloed in gold in the afternoon light, into a loose chignon, pearl earrings dangling from her ears. With her brown cashmere turtleneck and tweed blazer, she oozed chic academic, and Anna, when she wasn’t letting those wheels spin in her mind, practically drooled.
If she hadn’t been so worried over what June may or may not have seen that night, Anna might’ve had a girl-crush on her. Or at least her wardrobe.
“It’s nice to see you again,” Anna said, leading the way deeper into the museum.
Before Frey, she might’ve been a smidge grumpy about having to stay a little late to babysit an academic, but today, Anna had her notebook ready to jot down any tidbit June said that could be useful. Or incriminating.
They made their way uninterrupted into the main gallery.
Even though Anna had made the trek a hundred times in the past few days, seeing the two new statues replacing Frey and the stolen gargoyle still made her heart jump. The place where Frey stood washisplace, and it felt wrong to see another statue there. Searching for him was like muscle memory, and she was almost disappointed whenever she didn’t find him there.
