Page 106 of Emma & Edmund

The path's entrance was exactly where she remembered it to be, although now blocked by a boulder she knew wasn't there before. A feeble attempt to hide it, no doubt, but it hardly stopped Emma from clamoring over, not even caring when her dress caught on a sharp ridge, tearing it.

Picking up her skirts, Emma flew down the path with more speed and determination than she even knew she had. Her jaw was set tight as her eyes scanned the branches and bushes. It was always further back than she expected it to be, but even still, it felt like she had been running for far too long.

It was silly to think, but she momentarily considered they had torn it to the ground just to deter her.

She could have cried when, rising from the ground as if it had been there since the dawn of time, the cottage stood in its small clearing. There was even smoke billowing from the chimney.

Emma wanted to drop to her knees and praise God, but there was still no sight of him. Only then could her journey be complete.

"Edmund," his name slipped past her lips, hardly even a whisper, rushing to the door. Throwing it open, it felt as if no time had passed at all since she was last within, everything still perfectly in its place. There was even a steaming kettle on the table.

But no Edmund.

For what felt like hours, Emma stood in the doorway. He had been here, she knew it, and he would return. She just had to be patient.

As the sun began to dip below the highest trees, the crunch of a twig snapped her attention to the woods.

In the next breath, before she could prepare her heart, there he was. Hauling a bundle of wood over his shoulder, Edmund broke through the tree line.

Like the otherworldly being he truly was, his bulking emerald form glistened with a sheen of sweat, betraying the effort he had exerted with the axe clutched in his fist. His open-neck shirt fluttered in the light breeze, taking the wispy ends of hair that escaped from the knot at his neck with it.

He was more handsome than any man in London. Stronger than any man in England. Her heart lurched at the sight of his broad face, a lower part of her mirroring the feeling as the muscle in his arm rippled under the weight he carried.

She truly was a fool for ever leaving his side, and she couldn't stop the "Edmund” that fell from her lips again.

Chopped logs clattered against one another as they hit the ground, the rope holding them together spiraling on top of the pile.

For all the hope and want that filled Emma since arriving at the cabin, the same could not be said for the look of disgust plastered plainly over Edmund's face.

"What are you doing here?" Not moving a muscle, his voice was as stony as his body. The coldness of it hit her like a slap to the face. Never before could she have imagined what an angry Edmund Lockhart looked like, but now the knitted brow and glare thrown at her from eyes that only had held such compassion and understanding would never leave her memory.

"I came back." Was all she could squeak out of her tightened throat.

"Why?"

The single harsh word cut through to her core worse than any whispering in the city.

"I came back for-"

"Because she had nowhere else to go. No one else to love her. And no hope of salvaging any shred of an existence."

"Shut your mouth, demon!" Emma hissed up at the tree branch Molek's voice had sounded from, earning a tisk from the creature.

"After all we've been through..."

"So that's where he's been," Edmund interjected, turning from them both to regather his load, slinging the chopped wood over his shoulder. "And just when I've gotten used to the quiet again."

"Look!" Molek called down, a shadow of an arm swinging in a wide arc. "I have brought your bride back to you!"

"She is no bride of mine."

Still watching Molek's form in his branch, Emma saw him go still before Edmund's words filtered through her brain, delaying the choking sting they brought by only a moment.

And she had no one to blame but herself. She had denied herself the spot, despite hoping now to reclaim it. He only spoke truth. But she could not accept it remaining so.

"I know I faltered," she croaked around the sob caught in her throat she refused to release. "My life has been nothing but misery since I left your side. I've returned to the last place I knew happiness."

Edmund's lip curled into nearly a snarl, looking down his nose at her as he passed on the path.

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