Page 18 of My Hexed Honeymoon

A small spring gurgles down the other side, happily carrying water in a wandering path to the valley below.

“It’s beautiful,” she says. Then, without looking at me. “And I’m just talking aloud, not talking to you, so don’t go thinking we’re fine.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I grouse. I bite back a retort about keeping her thoughts inside her head if she doesn’t want me to hear them, but it’s counterproductive to our mission. If I want this over and done with—and I do—it’s best to just help her navigate the Hollow and get on with my life.

Which was always going to beourlife, and I’ll likely have to work out my anger issues about that in the training field. Conall and I had trained hard when we formed the community, using broken-down vehicles to pull and tractor tires to flip. Whether war was coming or I just needed to let off steam, pushing my body to the very brink is definitely calling my name.

“Okay, so…?” Natalia glances at me, questions swimming in her big doe eyes.

“You talking to me this time?” I ask.

Lifting her nose in the air, she strides away from me, picking her way across stones to reach the edge of the spring. She squats and runs her fingers through the water, ripples spreading over the surface.

Too bad, so sad if she thinks she’s going to get quiet reflection time. That’s not what we’re here for, and we don’t have time for me to constantly tiptoe around her feelings. “Pick up anything? With your…life force shit?”

“Yes,” she says. “A school of brook trout, a few bluegill fish, snails, a pair of newts, and a whole mess of water fleas.”

For a moment I just blinked at her, not sure what it all meant. “Okay, so that tells us what?”

“That you’ve brought me to a mountain spring.”

Jutting my jaw, I peer down at her, fighting my urge to shake information from her like a coconut from a tree. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

“Wrong.” Shaking droplets of water from her fingers, Natalia pushes to her feet. “This mission is going to be the hard way, whether it involves getting in and out of the Hollow, or dealing with you and your sour temper. If you’re set on making it more miserable, though, go ahead. As I’m quickly learning, it doesn’t get much worse than being married off to a werewolf.”

I reach out and catch her chin in my hand, not bothering to be as gentle as I normally am with her. “Trust me, it can get much worse. And if any of my people die because the princess was too afraid to break a nail rather than dig in and get it done, I’ll ensure it does.”

“Listen, my mom tried to beat magic out of me—or into me, as it were—and it didn’t work. All it’s ever done is bottle up my powers and put me into a state of permanent freeze.” She jerks her chin out away from me and inches it higher, a furious storm raging in her elfin features. “So you can huff and puff and try to blow my house down, but at the end of the day, all you’ll have is your own hot air.”

My fists tighten one finger at a time, and I don’t have a clever quip or comeback to being called the big bad wolf. If anything, I’m upset with myself that I’m not quite there on his same level.

This is what I get for being so judgmental that Conall couldn’t keep his human veterinarian in line.

I’ve heard marriage involves compromise, so I take a stab at it. “Okay, so threats aren’t helping.”

“I’d actually use the worddetrimental.”

I simply glare. So much for compromise. Wasn’t she supposed to give a little too? “I’m as unhappy as you are that we’ve been tied together, but I’m trying here.”

“Are you?” There’s a war in her eyes—fear and defiance, strength and vulnerability. She advances a step, until the toes of her sneakers bump mine. “Because you tell me you’re not going to abuse me like my mother did, then you threaten me every step of the way. Is that supposed to make me feel safe?”

She has a point, but she can’t make me say it. When the silence stretches past the uncomfortable point, I settle for a grunt. There. Look at me being all considerate and accommodating.

With a long-suffering sigh and a shake of her head, Natalia’s entire posture deflates. “Y’all want me to abandon my body here in this realm and navigate one known only in twisted fairytales and nightmares.”

She jabs a finger to my chest, that fire within her flaring hotter and higher. “My magic requires leaving my body behind, while the entire time, my survival instincts scream I’m in danger. How the hell am I supposed to concentrate with all of that going on?” Another jab of her finger. “Huh?”

I’m fairly sure she’s not actually asking.

Guilt seeps in, weighing down my limbs and feet.

“Have you ever been so afraid that your entire body just freezes?” she asks with a slight crack in her voice. “So afraid that your breath and your thoughts abandon you, to the point you begin to question your will to live?”

Unfortunately, I do. My throat tightens with the memory, those same screams I heard before. Only this time, Natalia seems to want an answer, so I go ahead and give it to her. “Yes.”

Her delicate eyebrows scrunch together, the answer clearly not one she expected.

“It’s been a long time, but yes, when I was a boy.” I don’t elaborate. I won’t, not ever.

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