Page 50 of Puck & Her Blades

Have I ever felt like that?

Yet I’ve been silenced by this costume, and at home, Cygnus is permanently silenced.

I only realized today just how much he’s hiding and risking every moment of his life.

How courageous he is.

This morning, while I was munching on a slice of toast and sweet raspberry jam for my breakfast, sprawled contentedly on the floor in front of the fire for warmth, there was a quiet rap on the Omega Cottage’s door.

I stiffened, and my heart sped up.

I glanced hurriedly at the laptop that was next to me, open at the Pucked Off Snow Bunny Blog.

Earlier, I posted a short entry.

It was the first one since the accident.

At least then I wouldn’t risk Gives No Pucks, my stalker, hunting me down to check why I’d vanished.

That kind of thing was only hot in problematic romance novels.

“Come in,” I called.

Cygnus clattered into the room, brushing the snow out of his hair and shaking it off his boots. “It’s getting heavy out there. Are you warm enough?”

I nodded. “My ankle is feeling much better too. How about you? How’s the fever?”

“Gone.” Cygnus was clasping a book under his arm as he strolled to the bed and pulled off the blanket. He dropped to sit next to me cross-legged, so close that our knees were touching; his touch was electric. He pulled the blanket around my shoulders. “There, that’s better.”

“Thanks.”

No one had ever cared for me like that before.

I craved to care for Cygnus in exactly the same way and not just some of the time, every minute of every fucking day.

I held out my toast to him, and he took a bite, licking the jam off his lips.

“Here, I’ve got something for you.” He slid something out of his coat pocket.

My eyes lit up. “Another present?”

After so long in the Institute, when being smuggled a piece of chocolate by the kind nurse who worked the night shift was the big thing to look forward to, this was all overwhelming.

“It’s something that Zev thought you may like to put up on the wall by the bed.” Cygnus suddenly looked unsure. “It’s okay if you don’t. When I told him that you don’t have any family photos or personal stuff, however, he said he knows what that feels like. So, he wanted you to know that you have us now. Jackson made Zev feel like that, when he first joined the team. He wants to pass it along.”

He handed me a photograph.

Carefully, I held it in my shaky hands.

“He’s thoughtful.” Could Cygnus hear the waver in my voice?

My throat was thick with tears.

“Don’t tell him that. He likes to pretend that he’s edgy.”

“His bad boy rep, right.”

“Uh-huh.”

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