Page 63 of Myths and Manuscripts
“Mmmm...”
His arms wrapped around me, making me even more comfortable as he kissed my temple softly. We sat there for a little while enjoying the moment until he shifted, swinging his legs off the side of the bed. “Let’s get you back to your room.”
But his bed was so comfortable and the walk all the way back to my room felt like it would take forever.
“Or I could just stay here?” I covered another yawn and laid down, but when he didn’t respond, I cracked an eye open. He was hovering between getting up and sitting back down, like hecouldn’t decide what to do.
“I don’t bite,” I said with a laugh. “You can read the book while I get some rest.”
“Okay, if you think you can sleep like that.” The bed shifted again as he reached over me to grab the manuscript, but there was a devious smile on his lips as he looked down at me. “I know I’d have other things on my mind if I was the one trying to sleep with you here.”
Heat washed over me. I suddenly felt far more awake than I had a few moments ago. My heartbeat raced as I propped myself up on my elbows, my lips so close to his that I could practically taste him.
He leaned down, trailing kisses across my cheek until he whispered in my ear. “Sorry, but I’ve got a really good book to read.”
“You’re horrible.” I fell back onto the bed with a sigh. “Maybe you really are a villain.”
“Only for you.” He laughed, settling down next to me and pulling me close to him. “Sleep now. We can pick that back up in the morning if you want.”
Mmmm...I definitely wanted, but he was right. Every bone in my body felt tired now that I’d let myself close my eyes for that long. If I was going to be intimate with Thorne, I wanted to be fully awake for it. I snuggled up against his side and closed my eyes, listening to his deep, even breathing and the soft turning of pages.
When I was just about to drift off, his arm tightened around me. I frowned as the page flips grew louder, like he was snapping the pages. I rubbed my eyes, blinking against the light of his fireplace.
“Is something wrong?” I struggled to sit up, my body yelling at me for ignoring sleep yet again, but something about Thorne seemed off. His eyebrows knit together, staring at mymanuscript like it was written in a foreign language. “What’s going on?”
“You had me kill the King? You really think I’d do that?”
A sinking feeling swept over me as I realized he’d skipped right to the end instead of reading the entire book I’d worked so hard on. “If you read the rest, you’ll see why I did that.”
“But I’m not the villain, remember?” His voice was rough as he sat up straighter.
The bed didn’t feel nearly as comfortable with all this new tension in the air between us. I stared at the mattress, not wanting to see that strange look in his eye anymore. Like he blamed me for writing it wrong.
“I thought we decided you were a morally gray anti-hero type character.” I gestured at the pages in his hands. “This is exactly what that kind of character would do.”
“Well then I’m not that.” He shoved the manuscript back at me. “I just don’t think I’d kill somebody, not if I didn’t have to.”
“But this is what you asked for.” The weight of the pages in my hands felt like a rock as I stared at them. Did he really not see how amazing this ending was? “You said you wanted to go out with a bang and to be remembered by everyone for doing something amazing. Killing the King did that! I didn’t even need to kill you off either. I thought you’d appreciate that.”
My heartbeat echoed in my ears, and my face grew hot. I thought I’d done such a good job, given him everything he asked for, but it still wasn’t enough. Just like at the Tales and Tomes Festival. What was the point in writing a book if nobody liked it? Maybe if I’d finished it like I’d planned, if I’d waited until it was perfect before letting him see it, then he’d have understood.
But no, I’d been so excited to see him that I let my emotions get the better of me and had let him read it before it was ready.
Now his silence could only mean one thing: he hated it.
“I never should have let you read it before it was done,” Iwhispered. “I just really wanted to share it with you tonight, but an incomplete story won’t impress anyone.” I swallowed the lump in my throat as I moved off the bed. “Just forget about it.”
“Wait!” Thorne reached out to me, but I pulled away. His expression turned pained as he dropped his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t think that’s me, but that’s not your fault. I didn’t realize it myself until I read that chapter and felt weird. You couldn’t have known that.”
That’s right, I couldn’t have knownthat, but I had known all along that I was too inexperienced to write this book. No matter how amazing my ideas might be, my writing wasn’t good enough to hold up. I was just an apothecary stuck in a fantasy world with dreams of being a famous writer.
I clutched my hand to my chest. This series was so much bigger than me, and I had no right to try and finish it. Even Grandpa would have told me it was too much for me to handle right now. He might have been a dreamer, but he always knew where the line was between optimism and foolishness. I, apparently, did not. But there was still time to fix that. I just had to stop fooling myself.
“It’s fine, Thorne.” I took a deep breath and moved off the bed. “Since you don’t like it, I won’t submit it. I won’t write another word in fact. I never wanted to be a writer anyway.”
“Wait, no, that’s not what I meant.” He jumped up. “I still think you’re an amazing writer, so I’m sure if we just tweak some things, it’ll work. We can lock the King up or something like that.”
“Really?” I shook my head. He’d read so many books, but somehow still didn’t understand the fans of his series at all. “The readers wouldn’t be happy with a blah ending like that. They’re looking for something big and memorable. You were too when we first started this.”
