Girl of the Night Garden

I start to deny that Clara and I are anything more than friends, but Adrina cuts me off with a laugh. “Please, don’t even try. I’m not blind. You adore her, and she feels the same. At least for now.” Adrina nods toward the hill, her grin stretching wider. “So, go. Kiss and make up, and then we’ll have lunch and give you a proper tour of the place. There are all sorts of hidden rooms to explore.”

“But you can’t steal any treasures we find, except the spear tips,” Timon says, making me jump as he suddenly appears beside me. “Those are safe. But if you touch anything else, you’ll be cursed.”

“Good to know,” I say, but I can’t force a smile, no matter how hard I try.

I’m already cursed.

No matter what decision I make today, I know it will haunt me forever.

Chapter Fifteen

Foxglove

I can feel him coming, sense him like a storm blowing in.

He’s so different today—quiet and solemn, his eyes looking in instead of out—but the same, too. Still kind. Still thoughtful and careful with every new person he meets. Still the best boy I’ve ever met.

The best I’ll ever meet.

I don’t need to know all the boys of the world to know that.

When I turn, the sea air whipping my hair into my face as I watch him close the distance to join me on the grassy cliff, I feel a click inside like a key turning in a lock, opening the door to a world I didn’t understand until I met him.

There’s so much I still don’t grasp, and so little time to learn what I’m desperate to know. But before the end, I’ll make things right with Declan.

“Tell me,” I whisper as he stops beside me, his gray eyes full of clouds that churn and flash.

“Tell you what?” he asks. But he’s a bad liar. It’s one of the things I like about him.

“I don’t know.” I tilt my head, pushing the hair from my eyes. “Why are you angry with me?”

His throat works as he swallows, and his tongue slips out to dampen his lips, but in the end, he only shakes his head and drops his gaze to the grass at our feet.

Chest squeezing, I step closer. “Please. You’re…” I curl my fingers into fists and then uncurl them. Words are so much harder in the human world. “You’re my friend. If I’ve done something to upset you, I want to know. I wasn’t raised the way you were. I think sometimes I make mistakes without knowing it.”

His eyes snap back to mine, connecting with a force that makes me take an instinctive step away. His hand darts out, snatching my wrist and pulling me closer. “Careful. You’re near the edge.”

I tilt my head back, holding his gaze as my pulse speeds faster. “B-but you don’t sound scared. You would usually sound scared.”

His jaw tightens, the muscle there curling into a stubborn knot. “I don’t want to hurt you. I really don’t, but…”

Dread drags at my belly as I whisper, “But what? Declan, what’s wrong? What’s happened to you?”

“Nothing’s happened to me,” he snaps, releasing my wrist and reeling away. He paces across the grass, pushing a rough hand through his hair before he spins back to face me. “I followed you. Last night. I heard you talking to your creatures.”

My dread-filled belly turns to stone.

He knows.

He knows what I am. And what I’ve done.

Tears sting into my eyes and the back of my nose burns like salt in a wound. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know, Declan. I swear I didn’t. Mother told me I was doing something good for mankind. Keeping women safe, protected. I had no idea—”

“And who’s fault is that?” he cuts in, pain in his voice that matches the agony worming away inside me. “What kind of person casts spell after spell without sticking around to see what it does to people? You didn’t want to know. That’s the truth. You didn’t know because you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

My brows crash together in anger. “That’s not true. I’ve cared nothing for myself! Before my time on your island, I hadn’t slept in a bed more than three or four times in my entire life. I slept in abandoned buildings and on the stone floors of caves. I knew nothing of softness or kindness or food prepared by people who cared for me. Wig and Poke and I scavenged for scraps, sometimes finding barely enough to keep us flying another night.”

“But you kept at it.” His eyes narrow. “You never missed a night of ripping men’s minds away, did you?”

“I didn’t have a choice.” The words claw from my throat. “I still don’t. When the new moon rises, the magic will call me again. I can’t decide not to answer. When it summons me, I must rise and spell or…” I trail off, my arms trembling at my sides.