Page 89 of This Witch Is Not Wicked

She let out a quiet laugh, eyes crinkling at the corners.

“That should be boring. But somehow it isn’t. Not with you. Best of all, you’ve given me the courage to finally stand up for myself. I’m going to quit. I’m telling Cillian tomorrow that I’ll help train a new healer, but I am going to open my own apothecary shop. I’m going to follow my dreams, and the thing is . . . I want to do it with you by my side.”

She began to back farther away. “Nevan, whatever you’re about to say, you need to stop.”

“No.” A stubbornness took over. I wouldn’t back down from this. I was sick of backing down from things, of not being honest about how I really felt. I was sick of pretending.

Her breathing grew heavy and her hand flew to her throat as she took gasping breaths.

“Enid?” I reached for her. “Are you okay⁠—”

Before I could finish my sentence, she turned and ran. So I did the only thing I could do. I took off after her.

CHAPTER 35

Enid

Iran as fast as my legs could carry me. I had no destination in mind. I just knew that I needed to get as far away from Nevan as possible before he said something he couldn’t take back. Because if I was right and he was about to profess his love for me, I wouldn’t survive it.

I’d crumble and sink into that love, even though it could only ever end in heartbreak. I wasn’t destined to be loved by anyone. The only man who knew my true identity had spent years sleeping with me, but he didn’t love me. I wasn’t even sure Ambrose liked me. He liked my body.

Nevan might have thought he loved me, but you couldn’t love someone you didn’t truly know, and Nevan definitely didn’t know me. That was what made this all so painful. I couldn’t even tell him the truth of why I was rejecting him, why I was ending things.

I hadn’t planned that outburst tonight, but his family had made me so angry. Couldn’t they see how they were suffocating him? Couldn’t they see all he’d sacrificed for them? They took him for granted, and I couldn’t stand it. But when I was saying all those words, giving my impassioned speech, Nevan’s mother had been staring at me with this soft look on her face I hadn’t expected.

Not anger or judgment . . . but approval. I hadn’t realized how much I’d wanted that approval until I had it—and then I knew.

I loved him. Of course I did. How could I not love a man so kind, so brilliant, so stunning? And it broke my heart. This was never supposed to happen, so I needed to end it.

I’d hoped he wouldn’t chase after me, but I knew in my heart that he loved me too. The thought made my bones turn leaden.

“Enid!” Nevan called from behind me. “Please wait!”

I ran faster, boots sinking into the wet land and slowing me. I yanked my foot up when it plunged into a deep muddy spot, then glanced behind me, not seeing Nevan anywhere.

I stopped, straightening as dread curled around my spine. He’d disappeared into thin air.

My body went cold. “Nevan?” I called.

No response.

“Nevan if you’re out there, say something, please,” I said, hearing the panic in my voice.

Nothing.

Nevan wouldn’t trick me. He’d never play games and pretend to be hurt just to lure me back to him, which meant something must have happened to him.

A thought struck me: maybe those damn humans were back again and had hurt him or taken him for some reason, thinking he was connected to me.

I walked back toward where I last saw him, then broke into a run, panic filling me.

“Nevan!” I yelled again and heard the faintest rustling sound.

I stopped and whipped around to face the direction the sound had come from. It was silent again, the only noise crickets and the faint swish of cattails and reeds in the breeze.

A strangled gurgle came from somewhere in front of me. I lurched forward, panic now completely seizing me.

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.