Page 57 of Once Charmed, Twice Cursed
The necessary layers separate us, but he’s so near, this bulwark of grit and security. His hair curves down over his forehead, as pale as spun gold in the moonlight. As I gaze up, he tugs off his mask and tosses it into the grass, then sets a gloved hand against my cheek. “I’ve never wanted to kiss you more than I do right now.”
Goddess, I wish he could. But I know he can’t, and I’m so drained that I just lie in his arms, soaking up the promise of his embrace.
His eyes never leave mine. “Do you have any idea what you mean to me?”
“No,” I whisper. “Tell me.”
He sucks in a raggedy breath. “Do you remember the day we met?”
“Of course.” I could never forget. “I was in the library. Reading.”
“Yes.” He forces a grim smile, and I crush the urge to reach for him. I have to be content with this, with being held like this. I promised him.
“You were in the armchair,” he says, “with a book. Sitting sideways, with your feet kicked over the arm. No shoes. It was the chair in front of the window, I think, because sunlight was pouring in, collecting in this pool around you. It was like the world was sending me a message. Lighting you up. Demanding I pay attention.”
I search his face. I don’t remember that. The day we met was gray and rainy, I’m sure of it. I’d only taken refuge in the library because my usual reading spot, the one out on the back terrace, was too waterlogged and drippy to use.
“The funny thing is,” Weston continues, “I walked into that room hating you.”
He must feel me stiffen, because he makes a soothing sound. “I know, I know, but hear me out. I walked into that room hating you, because Brendan had warned me in advance that he had a Charm for a sister. And I figured I knew you. The whole time he and I were walking out to your house, I couldn’t stop thinking about how easy you’d had it. How life was just one big party for you, while I was stuck with the bits no one wanted. You were about to be the only Charm I’d ever met, and I felt like you’d stolen something from me, on some personal level. Like Fortuna had taken my luck and given it to you, before we were even born.”
A squeak emerges, the front end of a protest, but Weston shushes me. “I know. I was an idiot. Because when I walked into that library and saw you, my whole world came undone. You probably don’t remember, but you swung your feet down onto the carpet and sat up straight and looked at me. And I’d worn my collar open that day. I’d made sure to, because I wanted you to know, right away. I wanted you to look at my Mark and see how dangerous I was and hate me the same way I hated you. Only it didn’t happen like that. You looked at my triquetra, and then at my face, and you...smiled. This big, open thing. And...” Feeling chokes his voice. “Fortuna’s curses, no one had ever done that before. Smiled at me like that. It was as if you were glad to see me. Like you’d beenwaiting, only nobody had ever waited for me, not with joy. Not with welcome. I didn’t even know what that felt like until you smiled and some side of myself I’d never even touched before just...burst into existence. And that was it. I was yours. I fell in love with you in less time than it took you to blink. Even though I knew from that first moment that I could never have you.”
A fresh volley of tears pricks at my eyes, even though I’ve cried them all out. The smile I gave him, I do remember, because Ihadbeen waiting. I just hadn’t known it until I laid eyes on him and a jolt of recognition ran through every cell. I’d glimpsed my future in the starkly beautiful lines of that face, and even his Mark had made perfect sense to me. Because of course Fortuna would send me someone who would grant my deepest, most private wish. It would be just my luck.
Only later had I realized it wouldn’t be that easy.
“The point is,” he says, “I would’ve done anything for you right then, and it’s still true now. And...I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t get to you sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t stop you from getting taken in the first place.”
Air carves deep into my lungs. I want to tell him none of this is his fault, but I know he won’t believe me, and I don’t have it in me to argue right now. So I just stare up, waiting for whatever comes next.
“He’ll come after you again, won’t he?” he says quietly.
“Alverton?”
“Yes. No matter where I take you.”
A despairing sound rises in my chest, but I shove it back down. “Yes. He had a Charm. A man he hired to find me. Someone whose luck outmatches mine. It might take a day or two, but he’ll track me down again.”
His jaw hardens. “Then I’ll marry you. Right now. Tonight. Alverton’ll have no choice but to give up his claim.”
I grimace. “He won’t, though. He said he’d come for me regardless. That I was bought and paid for. Because it’s my Mark he wants, really. Not a wife.”
Weston goes quiet, his eyes slicing shut, his whole bodyquivering with some repressed emotion. When he looks at me again, he’s calculating. I can sense his accountant’s mind juggling probabilities, slotting them into place, coming up with some answer only he can see.
“Then I’m taking you home,” he says.
“What? To Pine’s End? Brendan will only?—”
“No.” The word is final. Steel-cut. “Home. Our home. The cabin.”
Wonder wakens somewhere inside me.Our home. “But the duke.”
“It’s all right. It’s going to be all right. I’llmakeit all right.”
I don’t dare ask what he means. I just breathe, strength seeping into me as the water in my belly finds its way into my desiccated limbs. “Okay,” I whisper.
In another moment, he’s gathering me up. I tuck my head against his shirtfront, breathing him in as he carries me back to the horse, which stands tall and patient in the moonlight.
