Page 16 of Saved By the Headless Horseman
“My sun.”She breaks their kiss and rubs her forehead against his pink shoulder.“Seems as if you got too much of it today.”
Her lips find his birthmark and place a kiss atop it.It was the last sunny day I can recall Broken Cliff having.Since Krane was killed, we have lived in darkness.The sky blighted us in punishment for killing someone so wonderful.
While the love in her eyes is real, there is a trepidation in her movements.Her smile is brittle as she stares up at him, and I know all too well what’s plaguing her.My father had come to me shortly before I left to find Krane in the barn.I was a fool to think that making it to twenty-five unmarried was a good sign.
He had caught the two of us together less than a month before this.I was not ignorant of the rumors swirling around Krane and me.We were not nearly as discreet as we should’ve been.However, whispers and rumors were one thing, and my father discovering us with his own eyes was quite another.I had foolishly hoped that he ignored the gossip because he believed in our love.How wrong I had been.
I shouldn’t have said anything, I will past me not to speak.To keep this news to herself and leave with Krane this instant.
I am powerless to do anything but watch the end of us unfold.
“Krane,” past me whispers.“There is something I have to tell you.”
I grip the bars, and bile swims up my throat as I watch her relay the news to him.I lived it, and yet somehow seeing it from this angle is worse.I hear her say that she is engaged to Earl Bram.My father was forcing the match, and in one month, the two of them would be married.
“No,” Krane snarls.The impressive muscles of his abdomen tighten as he sits up.“That cannot be.”
Past me rises beside him, gripping his arm and pleading with her eyes.
“I refused my father, Krane.Told him I would rather die than marry the earl.”She laughs without humor.“He cared little for my opinion on the matter.The price they’re willing to pay for me is too high.”
“You cannot marry him.You are already married to me, Scarlett.”
My heart trips over itself.The memory of our small ceremony comes rushing back.The two of us had snuck away into theWhispering Woodswith a ribbon and a knife.Our palms had bled, and our fates were sealed in the old way.Our vows of forever were shared during each fevered kiss and teeth-chattering moan.
The cut on my palm was barely a scar anymore, but it had meant everything.It still does.
“Our handfasting will not sway my father.He will take it as the slight it is.”
Krane drags a hand through his red hair, muscles tensing.
“Then leave with me.Now.”
He grips her face in his hands.She cradles his hands, her smile turning sad.
“And go where?”
“Anywhere.”Desperation laces each of his words.
“Go with him,” I whisper between the bars.“Be free.”
Krane presses on, my words swallowed up by the fog.I cannot change what is about to come.
“I have money.As long as we are together, it doesn’t matter.”
Tears fall heavily down her cheeks.
“Life would be difficult.Not to mention the duke would come after us.Probably enlist some of the king’s guards to help.”
Krane kisses her fiercely.I still feel the searing press of his lips.The last ones we’d ever shared.I will my past self to savor it.
“Let them come,” he says.“I’d rather die than be without you.”
A smile twists the lips of me from a month ago.
“Now who’s the dramatic one?”
He kisses her again, nipping at her lower lip.
