Page 32 of A Forest Witch

And then we’d come inside and…

And…

“Finn,” I blurted out as my eyes snapped open.

I frantically searched the room for him to make sure he wasn’t simply a figment of my imagination.

It had been years since I’d seen him last and it was like I had mentally blocked him out from my mind. I was good at blocking things out for my own sanity.

He looked the same now, only older. The years he’d been away had been kind to him, if looks were anything to go by.

But that hadn’t been what shocked me about seeing him sitting there. “They said you were dead. That you tried to run away and didn’t survive your punishment.” I shook my head to clear it. I was looking at a ghost right now and it was doing a number on me. “You were used as an example to control the little one’s since then… what are you doing here now, Finn? Where’ve you been and how do you know these people?”

I had so many questions but that was all I seemed capable of getting out at the moment.

Finn stood up and held his arms out to me as tears streamed down his cheeks. “Autumn. You’re alive. Come here, beautiful girl.”

I had no idea what he thought was going on here but I certainly wasn’t about to get up and run into his arms so I could embrace him. I had never hugged him before in my life. I wasn’t about to start now.

“Sit down, Finn,” A man with long red hair murmured as he wrapped an arm around Finn’s waist and dragged him back down to the couch. “The girl just fainted, she’s not gonna wake up and run into your arms like some fucking scene from a movie. Besides, I don’t think it’s a good idea to be touching her or getting up close to her with all those warnings on her face. Nobody should be touching her.”

I wanted to cry. People didn’t usually try to touch me or try to get close to me with all of the tattoos on my body. Finn had always been one of the few who’d never been afraid of me in any kind of way. And here I was and I wouldn’t even give him a hug when he wanted one from me.

I felt absolutely horrible.

“It’s not a good idea,” I croaked out in a voice thick with emotion.

“Don’t say that, Autumn,” Finn rushed out in a heated voice. “Don’t let what those monsters tried to force feed us get into your head like that. There’s nothing wrong with you and your tattoos are beautiful. They’ve always been beautiful. If someone means you no harm then they shouldn’t have anything to worry about. And I’d never do you any harm. Ever. I hope you know that.”

I did know that. Finn had always been a rule breaker and he could be downright cruel and mean at times. But he had never been anything but kind and sweet to me. He’d always looked out for me and never treated me like an outcast the way everyone else had.

It was mostly everyone else that he’d been horrible to. And I really couldn’t even blame him for it.

“Autumn. I thought you were dead like everyone else. Like… Plume,” he choked out.

Dead? Like Plume and everyone else?

What the hell was he talking about?

I looked up at Liam questioningly. He’d been so sweet to me and I was still leaning into the warmth of his body.

I never leaned on anyone. No one ever dared get close enough to touch me.

He swallowed roughly as he reached up and trailed his fingers along the tattoos that ran down the side of my face.

“We went back to the camp tonight to talk to your people,” he said in a thick, rough voice. “And they were all dead. We were trying to figure out a way to tell you and we didn’t want it to come out like this. I’m so sorry, Autumn.”

Dead?

Did he just say that they were all dead?

I swayed on my feet and he tightened his arm around me.

“What are you talking about?”

He couldn’t be telling the truth, right? My people weren’t all dead.

“Maybe we should sit down.”

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