Page 86 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood
“My shadows.”
“There are monsters in the shadows?” The voices continue, whispering, their words chilling me to the bone.
“The shadowsaremonsters.” Harrow’s breath is warm against my neck.
A shiver dances atop my skin. “They’re alive?”
The sounds shift and moist air dews around me. We must have left the cottage.
“Not alive. They are death. As I am.”
The veil finally drops. My eyes adjust, my field of vision filling with the familiar black trees of the dark forest. Glancingup, I find Harrow’s angelic face peering down at me. How I missed that face. Those cold silver eyes are salvation embodied. Lacing my fingers behind his head, I drag him down, pressing a kiss to the lips I dream about.
He returns my kiss with equal eagerness. Desperation and relief manifest in the way his fingers dig into my flesh. I’ve never felt so safe. My arms squeeze and he pulls me tighter against him. His mouth moves against mine, speaking to me without words. I can feel his aching loneliness in the way his lips meet mine.
“I’m sorry,” I breathe against him. “I should never have sent you away.”
The sound of wood groaning has me breaking our kiss to glance back at the cottage. The shadows have spilled out through the window and doorway. They wrap around the house, ensconcing it in darkness. Wood cracks, walls fall as the pitch black consumes the cottage and its occupants. Within seconds, the area has flattened. When the shadows recede, there’s nothing but a scorched patch of earth where the cottage once stood.
They devoured it whole.
“Are you injured?” Harrow’s voice is laced with worry. He sets me on my feet with such gentleness, lifting my arms and turning me around as he searches for wounds.
I stop him, turning to look into his eyes. “I called for you before.” His face falls and I know he can see the question in my eyes.Why didn’t you answer when I needed you?
“I am sorry. Had I known you were here, I would have come right away. I was unable to hear you in this realm.”
“The dark forest is its own realm?”
I expected some kind of unusual magic to surround the dark forest. Another realm entirely? I’ve never heard of such a thing.
Harrow’s eyes search mine. “You are not in the dark forest.”
I do a quick visual sweep of my surroundings. Yep, definitely still in the dark forest. Maybe in his haste to rescue me, he missed the ominous trees and plethora of monsters. “I am. Catreena poisoned me. I had to run to the dark forest to escape the guards.”
Harrow takes a deep breath, as if summoning the power to speak his next words. “She did poison you. But you never left the castle.”
Harrow
Those precious few moments between hearing Lenore’s scream and finding her location will remain carved into my chest forever. I have never felt such frantic panic. Control is key when you rule the Underworld. Panic, even in minute amounts, can be catastrophic in my line of work. Being around Lenore has brought about all manner of new feelings and sensations.
I do not ever wish to relive that feeling of helplessness, of not knowing if I was going to be too late. Which means my little raven will leave my sight nevermore.
Lenore’s pale, gore-smattered face stares back at me in confusion. “Where am I then? How do you explain all of this?”
She gestures to the nightmare landscape. I’ll admit it’s very convincing. I’ve never set foot inside the dark forest but I’d venture to guess it looks as black and ominous as Lenore’s mind has made it.
“What do you remember before coming here?”
“Catreena gifted me one of my mother’s apples. Only it wasn’t hers. It was poison. I spit it out as quickly as I could,blacked out, and when I awoke, she sent the guards after me. That’s when I ran into the dark forest.”
“You did bite the apple and black out. The poison dropped you into a sleep like death. When youawoke, you were actually entering the in-between. The moment you blacked out, you stayed asleep. Your body is inside the castle as we speak.”
Lenore stares at me. “This isn’t real?”
“It’s very real. But it’s not the real dark forest.”
Lenore scrunches her face. “There’s a dark forest in the in-between?”
