Page 34 of Happily Ever Witch
Esmeralda took a deep breath and rose above his provocations. “Look, until I can believe in you, everything between us is empty. You have no idea how to be the True Love I want.”
“So teach me.”
Her eyebrows compressed at that surprising reply. “Teach you?” He’d been serious about that before?
“Yes. Teach me what you want. I’m willing to learn. Then, we can move past this nonsense and have sex.”
Esmeralda snorted at the idea he could learn anything. He was smart enough, sure. But he didn’t want to change a single molecule of his awfulness. “As far as I know, you’ve yet to tell me one true thing. So I’m not going to sleep with you, no matter how pretty you are. The end.”
“My birthday is in May.”
The non sequitur had her blinking. “Huh?”
“That’s something true about me. Something you canbelieve in. My birthday is May 4th, and my favorite color is green, and your skin drives me crazy. I want to touch every inch of it.” He paused. “Do you believe me?”
She was intrigued enough to sit up slightly, careful to keep her eyes on his face. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s a start on the trust building, isn’t it?” He tilted his head. “Your turn. Tell me something true, Ez.”
She studied his eyes for a long moment, wondering if he was worth the effort.
Trevelyan arched a brow. “Pretend I play the guitar, if it helps.”
It didn’t. But, Esmeralda had to give him a chance. She’d waited too long for him to just give up without a fight. “I have no idea when my birthday is.” She said at length.
“No?” He busied himself with taking off his pants.
“No. I was raised in an orphanage.” Esmeralda kept her eyes above his waist. “Auntie Hazel’s Home for Young Witches. No one ever told me my birthday.”
Trevelyan’s gaze slashed up to meet hers.
“No one hurt me there, but no one ever loved me, either.” The words were simple and bare, because Trevelyan needed simple, bare words to understand anything important. “I stayed there for seventeen years, six months and a day. The other girls all got adopted over the years, but no one ever chose me.”
His jaw tightened.
“Parents would show up with ideas of their perfect child and I guess I didn’t make the grade.” Her magic had always been frightening. She shrugged. “It got to the point where I stopped even going downstairs to meet the prospective adopters, because I knew they wouldn’t want me. Theyneverwanted me. I started daydreaming about my True Love, instead. About what he’d be like, and what we’d do together, and how great our happily ever after would be. Because, I wanted someone I belonged to.”
Trevelyan stared at her, not saying a word.
“Do you believe me?” She asked.
“Yes.” He said softly.
“So then don’t screw this up.” She flopped her head back down. “Your turn. Tell me something true, Trev.”
He remained silent for a beat. “I’m not sure when my full magic will come back.” He finally told her. It seemed like this honest exchange had changed something for both of them, because he wasn’t taunting, for once. “I assume it will be a matter of days. But, it could be weeks. Months. No dragon has ever been under a sleeping spell for two years. Maybe it will never fully return.”
Esmeralda shook her head. “It’ll come back soon.” She could feel the latent magic of the man from across the room. All the power was still within him.
“Without magic, I can’t be a true villain. I can’t beme.”
The man was a deranged maniac, whether or not he was casting horrible spells. No one who met him could think different. “You’re still plenty evil.” She assured him. “Just give it time and your magic will heal.”
“We don’t have time. When the Queen of Clubs comes for us, I can’t be sure I’ll be recovered enough to defeat her. I have no idea how strong she is, but I’m… weakened.” The word must have tasted terrible on his tongue, because his whole face compressed in revulsion. “When she sends people here, we may have to fight them together.”
“I’m not going to be much help.”
“You’ll have totry. If she went through this much trouble to get me here, she is dangerous to us both. You might not trust me, but you can trust my instinct for survival. We have tofight. Always.” He hesitated. “Do you believe me?”
