IT DISTURBED SKYE HOW MUCH SHE WANTED TO TWINE HERSELF AROUND GRADY, AND DRAG HIM TO HER ROOM OR the couch or, better yet, some bed of moss deep in the woods. It was the magic at work; she felt that clearly enough.
She retained enough of her un-ensorcelled logic to recognize she would have liked him anyway. A date with him under normal circumstances might have gone smashingly well. But she’d never know, because normal circumstances were far from her reach.
She tried to meet his efforts halfway, or at least quarter-way. After their lunch of breakfast burritos, she helped him put away the leftovers. Then they sat across the small kitchen table from each other, knees almost touching, texting each other questions and answers. She could say more that way, and Grady told her with his cute grin that it made him feel less like he was babbling.
He told her he was twenty-one. She answered she was twenty-three. Their eyes met a moment over the table. A certain humility now mingled with the desire she saw there. Totally endearing. She returned her attention to the phone and thumbed in a question about his cousin.
She learned Grady often came to Bellwater for a few days in summer, to stay with Kit. He and Kit got along well, he said, though Grady didn’t exactly feel like he knew Kit inside and out.
She told him she’d grown up mostly without a father, since the divorce had happened when she was so little, and he had moved so far away. He lived in New York now, and they were hardly in touch; just occasional awkward emails a few times a year.
Grady told her he came from a big and affectionate family; he was the third of five siblings. His dad was a contractor, his mom a substitute teacher. Though she didn’t cook professionally, she was awesome at it, and Grady had originally learned to cook from her.
Skye told him how she had been trying to get graphic design work last fall. Then, she texted, and her thumbs froze. It was all she could do to press send, and throw him that unfinished thought.
Their gazes lifted from their phones, and met over the table again. “Then?” he asked.
She made the same despairing gesture she had made to Livy on the front porch yesterday: the sweep up her whole body, ending with a toss of her hand in the direction of the woods. Frustration tightened her face.
“Then you started feeling like this,” he said softly.
She made one of her side-tilted half-nods. True but not the whole story. He’d learn the whole story before long.
His blue eyes held hers, intent. “Was there something that happened to you?”
Livy had asked, of course. Her therapist Morgan had asked. Everyone had asked. Every time, she was unable to nod or to shake her head. Maddening for all involved.
She held his gaze, begging him to read her mind, if by chance the magic went that far.
“Can you show me, if you can’t tell me?” His words were quiet, treading delicately.
She stood and reached for his hand.
They put on coats and shoes. She led him into the woods.
But you couldn’t summon goblins unless you came alone, and couldn’t do it in the daytime. Nor did she exactly want to. Still, she brought him to the spot on the trail where the magical path had opened up to her—which in turn wasn’t far from where she had met Grady a few days back.
She stopped there, let go of his hand and crossed her arms, and looked off into the trees in frustration.
Grady glanced around too, his breath clouding in the chilly air. “Something happened here?”
Again, she couldn’t nod or shake her head.
“If someone attacked you, if there was anything illegal—look, you’ve got to tell someone. You’ve got to find a way.”
Now she shook her head, irritated. Illegal? The law didn’t even address what had happened to her. Or rather, it had happened under a different set of laws, and it was legal under those. Her own stupid fault for calling out to them, and for accepting their invitation.
“I’m sorry.” He sounded crestfallen. “I don’t understand. I want to help, but—”
She stepped forward and grasped his fleece coat, leaning up to his face.
His eyes locked onto her. He fell silent. Their breath mingled in misty white clouds. The mate-magic was stronger out here; he must have felt it too, though probably not as strongly as she did.
He gave in with a whimper, took hold of her shoulders, and kissed her.
She clung to him, drinking in the kiss. His lips were so soft, balanced by the scratchy little points of stubble surrounding them, which scraped pleasurably at her face as she nipped his lower lip and trailed kisses up his cheek. He was breathing fast, his eyes heavy-lidded, dark lashes veiling the blue as he watched her. She curled a hand up around his ear, and would have smiled in fondness at the way those ears stuck out a bit, if she could smile.
Grady ducked his head and began kissing her neck. “What is it about you?” he murmured. “Why am I so obsessed?”
Skye clung tighter to him, closing her eyes in pain. Because I’m destroying you with magic. But the pain was mingled with sweetness. She felt terrible for it, but she did still prefer to be linked with mate-magic to him than to any of the goblins.
They kissed on the path for several minutes, draped in wet, cold, fir-scented air, arms wrapped around one another. It took all her restraint not to pull him deeper into the woods and become his proper “mate” on top of one of these fallen logs. Just as well that an elderly couple appeared, out on a walk along the path.
Skye and Grady disentangled, and Grady smiled at the couple. “Afternoon.”
They said hello, beaming as if they knew perfectly well what they’d interrupted.
After they passed, Grady sent a sheepish glance down at Skye, then squinted up into the trees. “It’s weird. I almost do understand why you brought me out here. How it’s…something to do with the forest.” His words became thoughtfully indistinct. “Or at least I will understand. Same way it feels right with you.” Then he gave her a brighter, clearer smile. “Now I’m the one not making sense. What time is it?” He checked his phone. “Crap. Almost two. Didn’t you say you had to work at two?”
She nodded and laced her fingers into his, turning back toward town.