Page 21 of Consumed
“Eoin,” I whispered. His sniffling went silent when I offered my open hand—a tiny opalescent gemstone awaited in the pit of my palm. “It’s time. You need not be alone. Don’t suffer this anguish any longer.”
I awaited the satisfaction of watching relief flood his face—that I would graciously allow him back into my life after he betrayed me so cruelly. But the hesitancy in his expression quickly gave way to a flicker of fear—and then, a hardness that rivaled a wildfire.
Face contorting, he struck upward, seizing me by the throat. The gemstone flew from my hand as he launched to his feet and loomed against me, pressing me against the tree. A small, curved blade was at my throat, ripped from his belt. The sting of cold metal sent a jolt of shock racing through my entire body.
“It wasyou,” he said in a guttural voice. “I know it was—don’t you dare lie to me.”
His eyes were bloodshot, still flayed with fresh tears. I wanted to trace the path of each drop that streaked across his sun-kissed skin with my tongue.
“Let me go,” I gasped.You’re breaking my heart.
Eoin bared his teeth, pressing the dagger closer. The blade did not hold pure iron—just enough to convince him it would make a difference.
“Some thought it was a wind-illness,” he gritted out. “Others say she angered the gods. I don’t know how—howit was that you did it, but…I know it was you. I should have been wed today, but instead I walked my love to her tomb.”
“Grief has clouded your senses,” I said with what little breath I could draw.
I struggled for leeway to buck him off me, but Eoin’s taller frame easily corralled me back into place against the unforgiving bark. I could feel the hard-earned strength from his years laboring as a craftsman, the way he could easily throw me about if I allowed him. There was a new gleam surfacing in his eyes, as though he was just realizing this, too.
Unbidden memories of running, sobbing,hidingcut across my mind—the girl I had once been. I clenched my jaw and silenced the mourning that threatened to unravel me.
“No—I’ve never been more clear of mind.” Eoin sneered as though seeing something hideous instead of my perfected, ethereal beauty. “The Wild Hunt is fast approaching.”
My eyes widened, and I stopped struggling. His wordssank in slowly, painfully.
“You…you brought hunters here?”
The blaze of satisfaction in his eyes was answer enough. “They’re close now. I saw them coming. They know precisely what to do with the likes of you. Amonster.” He leaned forward, the last words brushing against my cheek.
Enough.
Something severed in me, something hungry and animal and terrified to die a second time. I could no longer afford to be gentle.
I slammed both my palms against the tree at my back. The oak’s roots burst from the ground, writhing at unnatural angles like starving serpents. Despite the winter, the clearing erupted with feverish green. Vines, coarse and covered in thorns, sprouted from the many chasms now littering the soil, twisting around Eoin’s ankles.
Blood,the forest roared to him.There will be blood.
He shouted, jumping away from me. He slashed at the vines with that pathetic little blade of his, and I winced as he successfully severed a pair of vines. I narrowed my eyes, honing my target. The roots slithered fast, faster than Eoin could react. They knocked him to the ground, winding over his arms and legs as he gasped for air. The dagger was lost, devoured by the mess of vines along the ground, along with the light from the lantern.
When Eoin was barely able to struggle against the earthen bindings,I approached him slowly, cloaked in shadows. Tree limbs parted,allowing only enough moonlight for him to see me—a beautiful, bloodthirsty creature of the forest with jagged branches haloing me overhead. Tears coursed freely down my cheeks, thudding gently onto the forest floor as gemstones.
“I am not a monster,” I said, my voice returning to its quiet strength. “You see, I understand what I am now.”
The vines parted for my every step to offer a cushion of the moss that lay beneath. I knelt over him, smiling gently even though a terrified sweat glistened on his brow and turned his gaze wild. A single lock of his hair was strewn across his forehead. I tucked it back into place, unflinching when he growled in his throat, trying to lean away from me.
“My life was taken here, on the very ground you lie upon,” I explained. “The forest took me in, gave me a new life. A lonely life—one without passion andtruepurpose… Until you found me. Until you bled upon the ground where I died. You made me remember what it was like tofeel.”
I smiled widely at him, breathless. Finally, I could tell him everything. Even speaking of it, I felt every emotion with keen, intoxicating fervor.
“You made me know desire again. Joy, lust, and heartache. You had no idea the gift and curse you set upon me.” My gaze briefly lost focus as I considered the soil beneath our bodies—and who lay beneath it. “But other things came with it. Memories. Terrible fragments ofanother life. What it felt like to perish, to claw for survival while my soul is ripped away.”
“Róisín,” Eoin rasped in a thready semblance of a command. “Release me.Now.”
I cupped his face between my hands, even as he gritted his teeth and tried to pull away. I held him steady, forcing his eyes to me.
“Don’t you see? We are two souls entwined by the thread of destiny. The forest delivered you to me as a gift after all these years. A chance for me to love again—forbothof us.”
Eoin spat, catching me full on the cheek. I brushed it away, my gaze shuttering.
