Savage Beauty(68)

“Luna!” I called out.

She heard me. I knew she did. But Luna never looked back.



LUNA

“Ankou….” I cooed.

The shape-shifting devil appeared before me at the bottom of a cliff. “What do you want, witch?”

I smiled. “I’m so glad you asked.”

With my wind, I pinned him against the rock wall. And then I took my time driving long spikes into his limbs to hold him there. “Now, you know where you belong. It is not anywhere near my cottage, my palace, Virosa land, or the dark forest. If I catch you there again, or sniffing anywhere near Phillip, I will end you. Consider this a warning and a testament to the fact that I can show mercy.”

He howled in agony as I nailed his neck to the rock.

When I let him go, he began muttering and thrashing to get free. The iron was burning his rotten flesh. He’d eventually free himself, but not without learning exactly where he was and wasn’t welcome.

And I hope he told the entire forest what would happen to anyone who so much as glanced the wrong way at the Prince of Grithim, or who stepped foot onto my land regardless of what enticed them there.

If I couldn’t be with Phillip, I would make sure he was safe from my kind.

And I hadn’t gotten a reputation for being a dark witch by being nice.





chapter twenty-eight




LUNA

Three weeks later…

I’d made several trips to Malex’s cave and back to the cottage over the past few weeks, deciding that Ember and I were more comfortable in the woods for now. The palace was enormous and empty, and though it was filled with fine things, they weren’t what I needed or wanted.

Instead, I plundered my father’s spell books and belongings. It was my inheritance, I reasoned. Lugging another heavy bag of books over my shoulder and into the cottage, I looked around for Ember and found her sitting in Phillip’s lap.

Phillip was in my chair—in his chair—by the hearth, petting my familiar.

“What are you doing here?” I asked breathlessly.

“Are you going to choke me this time?” he teased.

“Not this time,” I said, sitting the heavy bag on the floor.

He sat Ember on the floor and stood up, striding toward me.

“Why are you here?”

He smiled. “Because there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

Even while my heart leaped toward him, I knew I had to be cautious. “Phillip, do your parents know you left?”

“Of course.”

“They can’t be happy about that,” I said as he reached out and clasped my hands in his.

“They aren’t.”

“They won’t approve of you visiting me.”

“This isn’t a visit, Luna.” His dark eyes bore into mine.

“What is it, then?”

“I can’t stand being away from you.”

“Phillip,” I said, treading lightly. “Your feelings for me were clouded. Aura influenced them. She heightened your emotions, and what you felt might not have been real.”

“That’s why I’m here. I wanted to find out if any of it was. And do you know what I’ve learned, just by seeing you?”

“What’s that?” I asked, swallowing thickly.

“She didn’t influence very much at all. Seeing you walk through that door, I thought my heart would burst.”

“I’m immortal, Phillip, and you aren’t. How could this possibly work?” I choked, excitement and grief mingling as one.

“One day at a time, lovely Luna,” he answered simply. “Maybe Malex was right about fae blood. Maybe one day, if you decide you want me to stay with you forever, you’ll let me taste yours, but for now, why don’t we just—”

“Start over?” I offered.

“Not at the beginning. I think we’ve been through too much to start all over again. And besides,” he stepped close, his warm breath fanning against my lips, “I like to kiss you too much to start anywhere before that.”

The wings of a thousand bats fluttered in my belly. I brushed my knuckles over the scruff on his jaw and smiled. “Then do it already.”

His warm lips met mine, and the most delicious rumble sounded in his chest as he pulled me tightly against him.

I pushed him away for a moment. Goddess, he’s handsome, and I missed him so much, but this is crazy! What do his parents think? Did he give up the crown for me?

He groaned. “You’re thinking. I hate it when you think.”

He claimed my lips again and I melted into him, pulling away only to issue a single warning. “We’re talking about this later.”

Phillip shook his head, but agreed to my terms with a wide smile that vanished when I ran away. He chased me to the bedroom where we collapsed onto the bed in a fit of laughter, and there we kissed for hours, making up for so much lost time. But to our hearts, no time had passed at all, and I wondered if he might have really loved me all along. Maybe Aura didn’t influence him much, after all.

Only time would tell.

Our story began in the strangest way imaginable, but on the day he came back to me, our ending looked bright and beautiful.

Hope blossomed in my chest. With every kiss, every touch, every sound we made together, my heart sang out that this was what she’d wanted and needed for so long.