Page 41 of Forgotten Monsters
Flynn raises a brow.
“It’s therapeutic,” I say.
“Here, let me try it.” He kicks the bottom with all his strength, and what’s left of the headstone topples over.
Marble pieces pepper the ground after we’re done.
I sit down in the grass to catch my breath. “Who’s in that grave?”
“Beats me, but it wasn’t a cheap spell or trick. It was you, down to the last beauty mark. It even smelled like you. I held your lifeless hand, I—” He sits next to me. “When the living copy of you came…I so badly wanted it to be you. I wasn’t careful. She—it—whatever—was Unseelie. Cole saw through the lie in minutes, but she almost gutted him.”
A sickening shudder trembles down my spine. “She pretended to be me to get to Cole?”
Flynn buries both hands inside his thick jacket. “It was the worst kept secret at court that Cole’s grief was messing with his mind. One look at you now, and I feel like an idiot for thinking she was you.”
I rub his shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have known.”
The warmth of his skin melts the chill of the night. “I should have known. It didn’t have your spark, your passion, your fire.” He tucks a loose curl behind my ear, his sadness thick between us, taking a life of its own.
“I lost him, Flynn. He’s not the same. He’s…darker. Did you guys fall out over the doppelgänger thing, or was there something more?” I ask, thinking Cole could hardly hold that against Flynn for a decade.
His head hangs low between his shoulders. “It’s not anyone’s fault, really. We grieved differently. Cole threw his mind, body, and soul into the business of being King, and I did the opposite…we just couldn’t find a way tofunctionwith you gone.”
“What’sthe oppositeof being king?” I ask.
His gaze falls to his lap. “I abused the bottle, and meaningless sex…”
“Imagine that.” I ignore the sting in my chest and force a small smile on my lips, not wanting Flynn to feel ashamed for telling me the truth.
A quick chuckle lights his face, but he sobers up quickly. “Don’t tease. Things got pretty dark for a while.”
I wrap him up in my arms and place an apologetic kiss on his cheek. “I’m sorry.”
He leans into my embrace. “Who knows, maybe his soul can heal now that you’re back.”
I swallow hard. “Did Cole remarry?”
Flynn shakes his head, and a hot sense of relief washes through me.
“What about Brie?” I breathe.
“If he had married Brie, he wouldn’t have kept it a secret. The people have clamored for a queen since he became king. If you’re asking if they’re together…it’s not the kind of thing I’d know anymore.”
“And where is Erron?” I ask.
“Dead.”
“Oh.” My heart beats in my throat. Cole has lost his father and his uncle and Gods-know who else… “I guess we start in Dark Falls and figure the rest out from there.”
Get back home. Expose Oz and Darkwood. Fix Dark Falls. Heal Cole. The list only adds up, more and more impossible tasks stacking on top of one another. The weight of it all threatens to floor me.
Flynn links our fingers. “You don’t have to do it all yourself, you know?”
I stare at our joined hands.
For me, it’s only been weeks since we slept together and I realized how deeply he cared for me. It doesn’t seem like the time apart eroded his feelings but only made them stronger.
Salty tears mix on our tongues as we kiss. It’s desperate and rash, full of regrets and fears.
