Page 26 of These Eternal Bones
“Why do I get the feeling you’ve just lied to me?”
“Kashikoi koibito.”
I frown at him. “You’re not playing fair.”
“I called youclever, syringa.”
“And before?”
He laughs, and suddenly the castle I’m being led through pales. I barely notice it at all, in fact. That anger in my chest quickly loses steam. How can such a simple touch in an innocuous place feel like so much more?
How mad must I be to have butterflies?
13
The Lords Day
Elric
Utsukushi.
Beautiful.
The word itself feels lacking as I drag lungfuls of her scent through my chest, lilac mixed with the sweetened jam she spreads over bread. Her long hair falls down her back in a thick braid, tendrils of strands dusting her cheekbones. She eyes the chocolate again, something I ensure she receives with every meal. The sound she made the first time she ate it in the cottage was nearly my undoing. I sent for a shipment of it immediately. The glass domed walls reflect the colored crystal charms that have hung in this room for over a hundred years, splattering her in a prism of light. She’d gasped seeing them for the first time as they reflected off the plants, the lights twinkling. The thickvines that covered the outside of the room would soon wither from the cold.
She’d touched one, a sudden frown marring her face before she wiped it away. In every agonizing cycle, I wait forsomethingin moments like this, a sign, yet none comes. Yesterday was a misstep, one that could’ve jeopardized precious time. Yet I know she would have come back eventually; it is in her nature. Worked into her very being to return to me. I am grateful my syringa is resilient.
“He is not dead.”
Her eyes meet mine, the relief there making me clench my fist under the table. “Truly?”
“He is a denizen of the forest. He simply comes back. Every time”
“And the others, do they come back too?”
She’d all but hidden behind me, making my chest swell with pleasure as she walked the halls past the volley of beings. I truly am a wretched creature to relish in her fear, only for the way she gripped my vest. The way her heat pressed into my chilled flesh, sensation after so many years frozen. “No. Most of them are easy to kill.”
Her eyes widen as she takes a bite, chewing thoughtfully. “The fox, does he live here too?”
“No,” I growl, forcing a calming breath. She’s naturally curious. That’s normal. It has nothing to do with him. I do not calm. Not even remotely.
“Why not?”
Maddening woman.
“Because I cannot kill him,permanently,should the desire arise.”Because he’s the only one who can hurt me. Because he has always coveted things that do not belong to him. Because my days would become quite unproductive if I had to kill him every time we passed in the halls.
Her rosy lips form a tiny o, her eyes slamming back down to the table. Irritation pricks my chest. I decide then that I will kill the fox again. Slower this time. Perhaps I will seek out the spot I left him and wait in the forest to give him back. What a lovely surprise that would be. The beast of the creature was right. He’d known the perfect way to throw a wrench in my plans. He wished to scare her away from me, to provoke me when I was at my most…provokable, with the thing I desire most.
But here she sits.
“Do you do that often… kill?”
“Yes,” I answer honestly. Watching as she gnaws on her inner cheek, making me want to smooth my thumb over the dimple it creates there. “Does it upset you?”
Her green eyes turn toward me, weighing her answer before she speaks. “I suppose it would be quite silly to be upset with a predator for simply doing what is in its nature.”
I’m not sure what I had expected for her response, but it wasn’tthat.I school my features, hiding my surprise from her attentive eyes. Always seeing so much, yet never enough. I long to know what expression she would make if I slipped from my chair, ducking underneath the table to lap at her cunt. Would she be able to finish her meal? “Indeed. I apologize, Molly, for yesterday. I was not feeling myself.”
