Page 93 of Cherish

As he does, I wrap my arms around his neck, hold him close, and steal a few more kisses. Not enough to have either one of us eyeing the bed in the corner—the same bed we shared for our entire time in the Shadow Realm—but definitely enough to muddle my thoughts and chase away the chill that slithers through me when I think of everything we have waiting for us on the other side of the barrier.

“I love you,” I whisper against his lips, relishing the way his mouth instantly curves into a smile.

“I love you more,” he answers before slowly, reluctantly pulling away. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“What question is that?” I’m not prevaricating. I really don’t remember what he asked me. It’s not the first time I’ve had that problem when Hudson is touching me, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be my last.

“What were you thinking about a minute ago? You looked…”

“Serious?” I fill in the blank for him.

He shakes his head, those blue eyes watchful as all hell now. “Scared, actually. You looked scared. I just wish I knew why.”

51

Sugar and Spice

and Everything Ice

“I’m not scared,” I tell him, and it’s true. Or at least I want it to be true, and that’s pretty much the same thing, isn’t it? “I’m just nervous about whether or not we’re going to find a smuggler to help us get back to our realm. If we don’t, then our entire plan is ruined before we even really get started.”

“We’ll find one,” Hudson says confidently.

I bite my lip. “There’s something else I’ve been worrying about,” I say.

Hudson reaches up to smooth a curl behind my ear and asks, “And what’s that?”

“If smugglers reallycanget contraband in and out of a prison, then why didn’t the mayor use one to leave? He stayed here for athousand years, Hudson. While Lorelei was out there suffering without him.” I can’t keep the plaintive tone from my voice.

But Hudson just gives me a soft smile. “You just answered the why, Grace. He lived here for athousand years…and didn’t age, which we found out was because he had absorbed that first dragon’s time magic.” He shifts his hand down to hold mine. “Jikan said this prison is unstable, held together by his time dragons. I think that means time magic is literally the steel cage keeping everyone trapped inside—wraiths, umbras, and time dragons.”

I take in this explanation, chew on it for a second before working up the courage to ask, “Do you think that means I can’t leave?”

His eyebrows shoot up. “Why would the mayor being trapped here by absorbing time mag—” He shakes his head, squeezing my hand. “Because the arrow of time entered you, right?”

“Well, yeah,” I say and thump my chest for effect. “Threetime dragons’ worth of magic slammed into me, Hudson. And I can assure you, I would have no idea what was still bouncing around inside me—it’s a mess in there.”

He chuckles, as I knew he would, before saying, “Well, I know what’s in there, and it’s all beautiful. I also think that magic is what took your memories and reset your timeline.” He gestures over my shoulder to the town square outside our window. “Just look at the effects. No one remembers you. That must have taken a lot of time magic to reset all of these people’s memories, don’t you think?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” I say, but I can’t keep the skepticism from my voice. “And we still need to talk to Nyaz.”

“He said I should stop by later, when he’s working. He has some errands to run right now, but he’ll be back tonight.”

“I’ll come with you,” I tell him as I pull him down for one last kiss before heading to the bathroom to wash my face and try to tame my hair into some semblance of order.

Hudson, in the meantime, pulls a blanket and pillow out of the closet and arranges them into a comfortable-looking bed under the window. Then he coaxes the now exhausted Baby Smokey out of his backpack and onto the bed.

“She wore herself out.” I cross to my backpack and pull out the glittery silver ribbon we bought at the drugstore. “Here, give her this.”

“You should give it to her,” he says, stepping back so I can get to her.

I roll my eyes. “One sparkly ribbon isn’t going to make her like me.”

“No, but it may make herdislikeyou less,” he answers with a self-satisfied grin that makes me want to strangle him with the ribbon in question.

I settle for sticking out my tongue at him instead. Which makes the very tired Smokey yowl at me in reprimand even as she snatches the ribbon from my hands and wraps it around herself.

“Seriously?” I say, looking between her and Hudson. “You can’t take the ribbon from me and be mean to me at the exact same time.”

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