Page 55 of A Curse On Black Lake
“I have a bad habit of making it worse. I play into what they think of me. But since Grams died, I don’t have the energy.”
“You deserve to have someone protect you, Eliana.”
She looks away, and a tear slips from the corner of her eye. I thumb it away and slip the digit between my lips, tasting her sadness. Her gaze follows the movement, and my heart picks up its pace.
“Do I? When I make it worse? I would think I deserve it then,” she says.
“Well, maybe you should stop doing that. Stop hiding behind what people assume about you because it’s all wrong, and, no, you don’t deserve it.”
The corner of her mouth tips up as her thumb rubs a circle over my neck, brushing my beard, and my heart picks up.
“Well, even if I wanted to, I think that ship has sailed because Wyatt thinks we’re a thing, and those women do too. The town thinks you’re a murderer; only I’ll be the witch that helped you.”
Dammit, she’s right.“Shit, I’m sorry, I—”
She shakes her head rapidly. “I knew what I was doing. Sticks and stones, and all that. You and I have something much larger than ourselves to focus on right now instead of those sad women.”
“It doesn’t make it right,” I mutter.
She puffs out a breath and rubs her chest. “No, it doesn’t, but that wasn’t the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”
“It sure as hell will be the last,” I tell her sternly.
An eyebrow ticks up. “And how is that?”
“I’m here, that’s how,” I tell her, resolute. I’ll be her bodyguard if I have to.
A small smile grows on her face, but it doesn’t reach her eyes as she drags a hand through my hair. “They were right about you,” she whispers.
“Right about what?” I ask her.
“They said you would protect me. I thought it was from the man I in my dream. But I think it’s from … everything,” she says.
“No one deserves to be treated like that, Eliana, no one. So yes, I will protect you. But do me a favor?”
She hums, and her fingers keep skimming through my hair, and it’s taking everything in me not to crash my mouth to hers. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the need to. “Stop giving them fuel to the fire they are burning for you because I’m afraid they’re going to find a way to put you on a stake in the middle of it.”
“Witch trials have never been a thing in Black Lake,” she says.
“No, so don’t give any of them a reason for that to change.”
She sighs. “Yeah, I know. You’re right. It’s how I keep myself separated from them. It’s how I justify it. If they attack me for the person I’ve convinced them I am, then I can separate myself because I know it’s not me.”
“I can understand that.”
“Is that why you’re always so grumpy?” she asks.
I lift a shoulder. “I’ve struggled for so long after Dad died. I don’t know how to be any other way, and I never found my way out of it.”
“There are no rules for grieving, Killian.”
“If there were I probably would have broken them,” I tell her.
She smiles. “Same here,” she says like it’s a secret.
I grin, and this time her smile reaches her eyes, and every atom in my body buzzes with hunger. I’m dying to kiss her. But I can’t because I’m not sure she’s ready, but most of all I’m not sure I’m ready to feel something for someone knowing the risks.
Her lips part, and I think she’s going to cross that line with me, and my mouth moves before I can tell myself to shut up andlet her. “Dad had been sick for a while. I was trying to balance taking care of him and doing my job. It didn’t work, if you were wondering.” I glance at her, and she cocks her head, listening.
