Page 34 of The Shadow Prince's Ruin
But this human I only met yesterday, a human who allegedly killed people in the past, is there for me, even at the cost of familial bonds.
“Look, we wanted to make this easy on you,” Hawk’s mother says, but he doesn’t acknowledge her in any way and carries me toward the open door. A moth flies in, as we exit, drawn to the very light we leave behind. I shut my eyes when I spot Wolf watching us from the balustrade he’s sitting on with the shotgun resting in his lap.
“Respond to your mother,” Hawk’s father demands, but his words are also left unanswered as my promised carries me away from the duplicitous people who tried to force us apart.
Too choked up to speak, I squeeze Hawk’s shoulder when he fastens my seat belt in the new car he swapped out for the stolen one.
He smiles and gives me a tender kiss on the lips.
“Where are you going?” his mother walks closer to the car and doesn’t even spare me a glance.
Hawk’s fingers twitch on my shoulder, and he snaps back, “To the fucking Nightmare Realm. The cops definitely won’t find me there. And you won’t either, so don’t even try,” he says and slams my door before walking around the car to slide into the driver’s seat.
Wolf shows him the middle finger from the porch, which I’ve learned is a very rude gesture in the human world. Hawk doesn’t waste a second to respond in kind. He starts the car with a rumble of the engine, and I can just about see the sky turning a bit orange above the trees.
“I’m so sorry, Hawk,” I whisper when he drives off fast enough for the dirt to rise behind us.
“No.I’msorry. I swear I didn’t think they would do something like that,” Hawk says through clenched teeth as we dive between the trees.
I look down to the bandage around my leg, struck that I’d gladly be hurt again if it meant getting to feel Hawk’s caring arms around me and receiving tender kisses while he assures me I will be ‘okay’.
I slide my hand to his on the wheel. “But you were there for me. You believed I wouldn’t leave you.”
He glances my way for only a moment, switching on the headlights to illuminate an overgrown track with branchlets smacking the vehicle from both sides as we pass through. The golden glow only reveals what’s close, but I’m not scared of the shadows and brush my thumb across his palm.
Hawk clears his throat. “Of course not. You need me to get you to Boston.”
“No. I needyou. For reasons both selfish and tender.” My heart beats a little faster at that confession. From the moment I met him, I’ve been thrown into deep and treacherous waters, but I’m learning to keep my head above the surface, and I haven’t drowned yet, so that has to count for something. And maybe… I’m actually enjoying this swim.
His mouth quirks, and he takes one hand off the steering wheel to place it on my shoulder. “You’re surprisingly forgiving. Most people in your situation would have asked me to leave them in the nearest town,” he says, but the sentence feels unfinished, almost as if he wants to ask,Do you want that?
“You might think a prince like me must be refined and sheltered, but I’m no stranger to violence. Do I tremble too much when I shouldn’t? Yes, but I know I need to be tough if I am to survive back at the Nocturne Court. You are my promised and I will see to it that you become my Dark Companion. I’mwilling to forgive a lot, though I would appreciate you not taking advantage of that.”
“Only in the ways you’ll enjoy,” Hawk tells me with the flash of a smile. “Don’t worry, babe, I’ve got you.”
My insides flutter with glee, despite the pain in my leg and the stench of alcohol. I’m glad I’m not the driver, because I would have crashed the vehicle into a tree, too absorbed with the spark in his green eyes.
“Hawk? Would it be too much to ask for you to share more with me about this ‘Kevin’? Why were your parents so wary of me?”
The temperature in the vehicle drops, as if I’ve climbed into the massive freezer at the back of Best Burger Bonanza and laid down on a bed of beef patties. But if we are to be life partners and succeed at returning to the Nocturne Court, we need to trust one another, so I stay firm and keep looking at him.
He tries to wait me out, but when that doesn’t happen, air leaves his lungs in a loud puff. “I… didn’t really want to talk about it. You’ll think I’m a naive cock-whipped idiot.”
I don’t always understand all the wording humans use, but I get the gist of what he means. “Oh? I will not judge you.” When he gives me a skeptical glance, I decide I need to give as much as I intend to take. “When I was not even twenty, I was assigned a guard who made my heart race a little too much. I would often find excuses for outings just to spend more time with him. I thought I was finally doing something of my own, unbound by my family’s wishes. Maybe even going against them. I allowed him to lead the way to a tavern known for its disrepute, because I thought something might happen between us.
“When he led me to a private room, promising sweet little nothings, my mother was waiting for us. I was being tested and failed. She planned the whole thing just to show me I cannot trust men based on my heart’s fancy. I know what it’s like to beproven naive.” It’s been years, yet my cheeks burn when I recall this story.
“What the fuck?” Hawk growls, squeezing my shoulder. “Can’t believe I’m saying that after what just happened, but your family might be even more messed up than mine!”
I sigh. “That might be a fair assessment,” I say and focus my eyes on his face. I have humiliated myself in front of him. It is now his turn.
“Fine,” he mutters and stares ahead as we pass through the woodland, in the dark silence of the upcoming dawn. “So my parents were wary of you, because they know what kind of guy I like, and I’ve done some real stupid shit for boys much less pretty than you. Like Kevin,” he says and hits the brakes as we face a barrier of wood and steel, mostly overgrown by vines.
Hawk opens the door and leaves the vehicle without a word. I watch him open the obscured gate, then drive the car past it, and then close it again while I wait, stewing in never-ending anticipation. I hate Kevin already.
The sky’s pink now, and we both look at it as my promised joins me in the car. I worry I might have to force him to go back to the previous topic, but as we start rolling along a gravel-covered road, he speaks.
“You know I’m on the run, right? Well, I ended up in prison because Kevin kept telling me his father and uncle were treating him horribly and he had the bruises to prove it. Every time he’d come to me crying I felt this savage, unstoppable rage. I offered we could move in together, but nothing was ever good enough. He feared them and said he’d never feel safe until they were gone. So I… made them go away.”
