Page 21 of To Hunt a Ruby Remedy

“With Grandmother back, we now have four people and only three bedrooms.”

I blinked. “You are kidding, right?”

He scowled. “I will not assume that you are comfortable with me sharing your room, and I’m certainly not sharing with Gideon.”

I pressed my lips together to hide a smile as I imagined how Ranulf would react if someone told him he had to share a room with the hunter. “You’d probably kill him.”

Ranulf crossed his arms. “No. I refuse to let him turn me into a murderer. I’d transform him into a frog.”

I blinked. He sounded serious. “Can you do that?”

I supposed it wasn’t so far-fetched, considering he turned into a dragon.

“Theoretically.” He shrugged and uncrossed his arms. “It is much harder to affect a different person than yourself. That’s why it takes so much effort for a mage to heal somebody, yet their own body will heal at an unnatural rate even if they are unconscious. With the node, I have enough power to shrink a human down to frog size, but I don’t have the knowledge to perform the transformation successfully.”

He paused. “Actually, I can only shift myself between human and dragon forms. I should be able to do more, but I developed a mental block as a child.” Ranulf frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

I let the smile I had tried to hold in stretch across my face. “You are talking to me.”

“I don’t understand.”

“A few days ago, I could barely get you to answer a question with yes or no. Now you are volunteering information.” Whatever had changed between us, it was more than physical attraction. There was more between us.

Ranulf shrugged, but despite his show of nonchalance, I knew he was embarrassed. “You already know my biggest secret. It isn’t like anything else I tell you can top that.”

“That’s not the point.” I stood up and rounded the table. Ranulf shifted in his seat, turning as best he could to face me when I stopped at his side. I leaned down and kissed him, a fleeting press of my lips against his, then straightened. “I need to check on the pie.”

I felt his eyes on me as I moved to the fireplace. He didn’t say anything, but it was no longer because he didn’t want to. No, Ranulf didn’t know what to say to me. I pulled the pie from the oven and set it in the kitchen to cool.

Ranulf jerked to his feet. “I should work on your charm.”

He settled into a chair in the front of the cottage, and I let him be. I wanted to tease him more, but the mention of the charm reminded me why I was here. I had to remember that I only had a few more days with Ranulf. I shouldn’t push for more than was already between us. The result would only be pain.

Ten

Ranulf

Scarlette, Grandmother, and I enjoyed a peaceful supper without the huntsman. Then Scarlette set out about cleaning and Grandmother pulled me aside to hear exactly what had been going on while she was away.

By the time Gideon returned to the cottage, twilight had descended, and the dark of night in the forest was almost complete. He stomped into the cottage, gave Grandmother a sharp look, and helped himself to the remaining soup without a word.

“Don’t worry,” Scarlette whispered. She had pulled a chair from the table over next to me after she finished cleaning, and started talking about all the healing tinctures and salves stored in the guest room with Grandmother. “I put the leftover pie in the chill box. He doesn’t have a reason to check it, so he won’t know there is any.”

“Good,” I whispered back.

Grandmother smiled at us and stood. “I’m off to bed. We’ll go foraging tomorrow, Scarlette, and I can show you the plants you are unfamiliar with.”

“I look forward to it.”

Scarlette fit in at the cottage. She and Grandmother had taken to each other immediately. It felt like she had always been here. I wanted her to always be here, and that worried me. I knew better than to expect anything and had thought—maybe—I could give into my attraction so long as I remembered her stay was temporary. Looking down at her when we stood in the river, seeing the way her lips had parted, I hadn’t been able to think about anything other than kissing her. Then, as I made my way home alone, I had convinced myself I could maintain a wall between the physical and the emotional.

Scarlette had her own life, far from Drakona Forest. Even if she didn’t have her mother to think about, she deserved more than a life of isolation in the middle of the forest. I couldn’t expect her to stay here forever.

I’d just keep reminding myself of that fact.

She must have sensed my shift in mood, because her smile dimmed. “Are you alright?”

“Fine. Just tired after waking so early this morning.”

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