Page 3 of Snag
He blinks at me, slightly taken aback.
“Aunt Disa banned you from the property,” I say, clarifying.
“I tried to protect you,” he whispers. “I failed. I was … some of it is still hazy for me. I think I blacked out a few times. I didn’t have my beast then.”
“You saw me die.”
“Heard it … felt it …” His chest heaves under my hand. “Wished I’d gone with you when I woke up in the hospital a week later.”
I take a shuddering breath, still not processing things at the same pace they’re being revealed. Rought takes a deep breath as well, his chest expanding under my hand.
“I was banished too, I think,” I say. “But I didn’t know it.”
He nods his head reluctantly, thoughtfully. “Maybe this is too much right now … trying to figure that part out right now.”
“The part where I died?” Anger flushes through me, making me even more shaky and a little lightheaded. “Then my aunt, my mentor, my protector, did … what? Did she just decide I would never cross paths with my soul-bound mates again? Why? Why would she …”
I shake my head. My chest hurts from all the emotion I’m trying to navigate, to contain, to process.
“Yeah,” Rought says, offering me a completely inappropriate grin. As if he finds my anger delightful. Though maybe anger is better than the numbness I’ve likely been radiating. “Maybe we figure that part out later.”
I laugh involuntarily. It’s a harsh, ragged sound full of disbelief. But it is a laugh. “You want to just be here in thenow?”
He tilts his head in that shifter way, lots of eagle in the mannerism, grin widening. “With you, yes.”
“I’m good in the now,” I say agreeably, mostly to myself. “I exist in the now. The Conduit always exists in thenow.”
“All right.” Rought gently runs his free hand down my arm, capturing my fingers lightly with his. A gentle, almost meditative energy stirs between us everywhere we touch. “Then I’ll exist here in the now with you. And when you’re ready for tomorrow, we’ll figure that out as well.”
I blink at him again. It can’t … it can’t be that easy. There are ramifications extending from what has been done to us. Plus, everything is different now that I’m the Conduit. The Conduit doesn’t get to have —
Rought places my hand on his waist. I instantly fist the fabric of his T-shirt, gazing up at him. I settle my left hand flat across his heart again. He pins it in place with his right. Not that I’m going anywhere.
“These threads you want to see … need to see … between us.” His voice is low and intimate. “Tell me how we … spin them.”
He hesitates over the analogy, just a little.
It’s enough to make me smile, just a little.
“Can we start over?” he asks.
I think about that for a moment. Just think about that one thing instead of trying to understand and then solve everything else all at once. How would that work? He has years of memories of me, and I have none.
“The pictures.”
Rought smiles. “Yeah. Seems like you were meant to find them, hey?”
“You think Mack left them here for me to find?”
“Did he know you were coming home?”
I slowly scan the room around Rought’s wide shoulders, once more taking in the photos lining the walls. All black and white, all the same size, all framed in the same black metal with a thick-edged mat.
“There was a letter for me …” I whisper. “From my aunt. And an ice-cream maker.”
Rought nods. “So they knew you were coming.”
“Maybe. I thought it might have been a part of aknowing, from Disa to me, but …” I continue to scan the photographs. “All these dates. There aren’t any photos from before I came to live here.”
