Black Moon Draw(18)

I felt like everyone hated me, even my dad when he left.

To escape my life, I used to climb the tree in my front yard and sit with a book until it was too dark to read. I could pretend my world was better, different, happier, when I was in my tree.

I really need that safe, secure escape from reality now.

I throw myself into the task of climbing the tree with relish, anxious to get away from my pursuer and the gruesome battlefield.

He snags one leg. I smash my other heel into his face and he lets go. Maybe I should feel bad, but I’m envisioning him being Tracey Smith, the leader of the girls who used to torment me until I graduated high school.

Or maybe, I’m envisioning Jason, who I wanted so badly to punch, except he broke up with me over the phone, so I couldn’t.

I really hate my life. Not only did I get stuck in a book, I didn’t even get to change who I am. My hips aren’t thinner and my bad luck is fully intact.

I blink back the angry, hurt tears blurring my vision and focus on climbing and reaching the safety of my tree.

I climb until the trunk starts to slim down too much to support me, a sign I’m as far up as I can go.

Hugging the tree, I find a somewhat comfortable perch to hold me and rest my forehead against the bark.

“Please let me go home, LF. This isn’t cool.”

Nothing happens.

“If this is because I made fun of your typos, I’m sorry.”

I steady my breathing and wipe my face. A glance at the battle below is enough to tell me it’s almost over. A ring of Black Moon Draw men five deep are around the tree, looking up in what I’m guessing is confusion. I huddle next to the trunk, not caring that the ants living in the bark are crawling all over my arms.

I’m emotionally exhausted. After meeting Disney Princess, I feel a little rawer, reminded once again why I never stacked up to what Jason thought I should be. She is perfect in every way. Me?

Not so much. Even in fiction, I can’t get a reprieve. If I were average in real life, I’m below average here.

While I’m safe up here, I’m also reminded of all the other times I climbed a tree to escape my feelings and hurt. It’s so fitting that I’m in a tree after Jason dumped me and I was dropped into a magical world. It’s also so telling, I’m embarrassed.

My life really hasn’t changed much. I hid as a kid. I hide as an adult, afraid of rejection and putting myself out there for fear of being hurt.

Maybe that’s what being an adult is: quiet misery. Maybe I should stay in my tree forever, or at least until LF lets me return to my disappointing life.

“Witch!” The Shadow Knight bellows from the base of the tree. “Come down!”

“No!” I shout back. “I’m staying here!”

“You are a battle-witch, not a tree-witch!”

Does he really think I know what a tree-witch is, let alone think I am one? “I’m not a witch at all!”

“You did not learn your lesson.” He sounds disgruntled.

“The one where you cut off my hand? Who does that?” I look at my newly grown hand, a little weirded out by it.

“You need another lesson.”

“I don’t – what’re you doing?”

He pushes the trunk of the tree, testing it, and then strips off his weapons, depositing them into a heap beside him. His massive boar’s head looks up at me for a split second before he does something I don’t expect.

He takes the animal head off to reveal a normal human head.

I stare, stunned. Never did it cross my mind that they wore the heads of animals like most men wear hats. Here I thought they were half-man, half-beast creatures.

“Nice, LF. I did not see that coming,” I murmur. I raise my voice to address the destroyer of kingdoms. “Leave me alone!”

He ignores me and begins climbing the tree with inhuman ability. Any idea I have of him being normal is dispelled by the way he moves, with agility that shouldn’t be possible for a man his size, and strength that far exceeds any human I’ve seen in superhero movies with all the special effects.

I watch him in alarmed fascination, my gaze falling again to the exposed, muscular upper body. I’ve forgotten the most intriguing part of him until he’s almost close enough to touch me.

God, I love brownies. I breathe in his scent, momentarily transfixed by the scent of sweet, dark chocolate.

“Come down, witch,” he orders me. His pace slows and he grows more cautious as the thinner trunk of the treetop starts to bend beneath our combined weight.

“Leave me alone and find a new witch,” I say firmly. “I’m going home.” I scoot over to keep from touching his body, his scent and strength something I’m not prepared to handle, even on our second meeting.

“This is your home now.” He draws his head abreast of mine and pauses. “I do not know what they tell you when you leave the edge of the world, but you will stay with me in Black Moon Draw.”

The tree creaks in warning, but his eyes have me riveted in place.

Wow.

Large and deep set, they’re flickering between foggy gray and the entrancing color of the depths of the ocean, a mix of blue, with splashes of green and purple, depending on how the light hits them. His jaw is heavy and forehead broad, his dark hair mussed from the animal-head, flat cheeks and gold-bronze skin.