Page 13 of Good Golly Miss Molly

She looks confused.

“You’re just a muse, Molly.Mymuse. And as ridiculous as it sounds in the context of human experience, I think I may just love you, because I don’t know what else would make me feel like this. So I’ll ask you again. Do you love me?”

She nods enthusiastically.

“So then what’s stopping us from enjoying a life together? A potentially very, very long one…”

“A very happy one?”

“Most certainly.”

I pull her against me and wrap her in my arms.

“Let me show you just how happy…”

“Logan?”

“Hmm?” I’m still dozing after makingloveto my muse…

“We’ve forgotten something very important…”

“No… I used a condom, remember?”

She smacks my shoulder.

“I’m serious!”

“So am I. I don’t want to get you pregnant on what is technically still our first date.”

“Unlikely. Especially if I’m dead.”

I sit bold upright.

“Sorry — I didn’t realize that you meant life-or-death serious.” I brush her hair away from her eyes, which are concerned, verging on fearful. “What did we forget?”

“If I can’t feed off of you, I’m still going to die. I won’t take another human lover, nor any other lover at all.”

“I’m glad to hear that — the last part. But there’s got to be some way around this.”

“Rónan had hoped that the charm in my necklace would not only help prevent me from feeding, but might also reduce or eliminate the need for it.”

“And the charm broke.”

“As did yours.”

She’s right. I don’t mind it so much now that she’s made it clear to me that I am just as she would have me, scars and all. But how am I going to explain to everyone how I suddenly look different to their eyes? Will we have to leave? Go somewhere where no one knows us? Give up the shop?

“We need new charms.”

She nods in agreement.

“Mine was put on me when I was 17. That’s more than a decade ago. I have no idea who the smith was who did the work for Rónan. He never introduced him to me.

“The smith who did mine not that long ago was a woman — barely more than a girl. I was surprised when Rónan brought her to me. But she was god-touched. All you had to do to see it was look at her…”

“With your unfettered sidhe eyes…”

“Which work quite well for such things when they’re not being obfuscated by a spell.”

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