Page 73 of Crown of Thorns
“You’re crazy,” I pant, breathless with more than just the run.
“You like it.”
I do.
And I hate that I do. The heat of his body above mine, the weight of him pressing me into the earth, the way we both pretend we aren’t shaking from more than adrenaline. I don’t want to want this. But I do.
“Tell me why you’re here at seven in the morning?” I ask.
“Because you’d left the bed,"he pouts, pressing our foreheads together. “And I didn’t want to miss this.”
“Miss what?”
“You. Here. Where you always come when you need to think. I know this place matters to you.”
I blink. “You’ve known?”
He shrugs, a half-smile playing on his lips. “You talk in your sleep sometimes, Professor. Sometimes I’m not sure if you’re kidding or not. And you always smell like soil after your Sunday mornings. I wanted to see it for myself.”
I roll my eyes.“You’re unbelievable.”
He smirks, voice low and amused. “No,you're unbelievable, Professor.”
I groan and shove him. He laughs, rolling to the side and pulling me down beside him.
“Careful, now, or I’d say you’ve got the hots for me.”
I don’t answer, but the grin won’t leave my face. The flush burns too close to pleasure, too soft to show. I scramble up and take off through the trees like a dare. If he sees the smile, he’ll know I love it. And I don’t want to love it.
“Noah!” he yells, laughing, chasing after me.
We tear through the woods again, shoulder to shoulder, dodging roots and branches. This isn’t a path I’ve taken before—at least, not like this. We’re veering off anything familiar, chasing a feeling more than a direction. No path, just instinct and the reckless rhythm of our breath. The forest doesn’t just grow, it guards. Like it remembers something, bleeding to keep it buried.
Then Louis stops.
Dead still. Breathing hard. Eyes wide.
Like he’s seen something impossible.
I skid to a halt beside him, panting, and my mouth falls open.
He stares, wide-eyed. “Holy. Fucking.Shit.What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know,” I breathe, the hair rising on the back of my neck. There’s awe in my voice, but something else too, something crawling under my skin. Not fear. Not quite. More like the dizzy excitement of stepping too close to the edge of a rooftop, unsure if you’ll jump or be pulled.
We step closer in tandem, breath catching in our throats. I’ve been through these woods a hundred times, but never this far. Never like this. Maybe I was never meant to find it alone.
A monstrous plant twice our height looms ahead, tangled with brutal thorns that glint crimson in the morning light. Its stems bulge and twist like something born of a fever dream, all serrated edges and veins like splashes of blood.
“Is it…bleeding?”
“No. I think that’s just the way it grows.”
I let out a low whistle. “That thing looks like it eats people.”
“Imagine this in the dark.”
“No, thank you.”
