Page 62 of Stolen Threadwitch Bride
Flecks of darkness burst into being around me, accompanied by the sweet darkness of starlight and rhubarb. By the time I blinked, Ly blocked my path, face pale, brows drawn together.
His arms came around me and his hand slid against my bare back, blazing hot compared to the chill that had engulfed me since seeing the changeling.
Then we were nothing more than shadows fragmenting on the breeze.
Starry Night
Sharp and sweet, starlight and night, for a moment that was all I knew. Then there was breath and warmth, arms around me. Solidity. Comfort. A familiarity I’d grown used to, and clung to with shaking hands.
Not just familiarity,safety. I leant into him, face buried against his heaving chest, breathing him in as the taste of his magic faded.
He squeezed me against him, though whether he was reassuring me or himself, I couldn’t say.
I forced in one long breath and held it for a second. I counted, one, two, three as I blew it all out, even though my lungs fluttered and twitched and screamed at me that I needed to breathe in, in, in.
But that way lay the horrible airless feeling I knew too well.
Another breath. Another.
The tingling faded, that desperate tightness in my chest with it.
“Ari?” Ly rasped, craning back until I met his gaze. I could barely make out the whites of his eyes, the flash of his teeth as he spoke. He didn’t release me from his hold. “Are you—?”
“I’m… fine.” A shaky breath came out, almost a laugh, almost a sob. I was wobbly, yes, but uninjured. That was some stroke of ridiculous luck.
I’d seen the Wild Hunt. I’d heard their hounds. I’d—
“Fluffy?” I jolted. She’d run out in front of them. “We need to go and—”
“She’s safe. She only showed herself, and once we shadowstepped away, she ran. She’s faster than the lot of them.” A low hum rumbled in his chest and through me. “I think they were confused to see another hellhound.”
I sagged against him, the trembling easing every second.
We were… somewhere dark… somewhere that smelled green and woody. A sour note coated my tongue.
“I can’t see a thing. Where are we?”
He huffed, blasting my face. “I’m more concerned with what happened.” The hand on the small of my back tightened as he pushed hair from my face. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I… I am.” Somehow. “Thanks to you and Fluffy.” I grimaced as the sour taste grew stronger. “Wait, are weinsidethe yew?”
That rumble again. “It was the safest place I could think of. We can stay, but I suspect you dislike the magic here as much as I do.”
My stomach knotted, both at the reminder of the yew’s sickness, and… “I don’t think I can go out there… face… people.”
His touch traced my temple, my cheek, the angle of my jaw, easing the tightness in my chest. “You don’t have to. Would you prefer indoors or out?”
The cool air, fresh and soothing—yes, I wanted that. “Out.”
“Alone or with me?” The tone of his voice stayed neutral like he wasn’t trying to lead me one way or the other.
“With you.”
In the shadows, he shifted closer, lifting my chin. I tiptoed to him.
“As you wish,” he whispered against my lips, before kissing me as the world fell into deeper darkness.
Floating on the breeze, I was nothing. When I gathered into my body, still in his arms, that sensation was strangely calming, as though being nothing for a few seconds was a much-needed break from constant thought and worry and fear.
