Page 50 of How to Woo the Undead

“If that’s what it takes!” she roared back.

“No!” Austin barked and she wavered, dropping a foot out of the air. Her eyes snapped to the dead man on the stairs. His face was twisted up in a fury she’d never seen from him. “They don’t get to kill you just because their righteous god told them so!”

“What?” Hyacinth floated back down till her toes scraped across the fibers of the carpet.

“They do not wish to stop Sabine, Little One,” Sebastian sighed as he reached two hands out to her, gripping her fingers in his. She landed, her feet pressed flat to the floor. Sebastian continued, “Aravis may want justice, but he is not the only one out there. They intend to see you burned. They will hunt you down and turn you into an example—what has happened to your fingernails?”

“Oh,” she exhaled, tugging her hands free and immediately hiding them behind herself. “I scratched them off against the door.

Sebastian let out an even heavier, more dramatic sigh as Austin stopped at the bottom step. Motioning at Hyacinth, her maker shook his head. “Austin, please take her to the lab and replace her fingernails. I need to research…this.”

Hyacinth opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but Austin curled an arm around her. He tugged her awayand she hated the nagging feeling in her belly. Especially as she saw Dahlia and Agatha stare after her, both disappointed and concerned.

I’m the problem. I am dangerous. I am…going to get someone hurt.

Chapter Twenty-Four:

Austin

Austinappliedtheadhesiveto her last pinkie and blew on it to make it tacky. Hyacinth giggled, trying not to wiggle but she’d already told him it was ticklish. While he was trying very hard to be in the moment…To smile with her, laugh as she blabbered about her dream or about Aravis, about Snuffles, but his mind kept replaying that moment on the stairs. The pure panic in his veins when he didn’t find her in his arms. The anger that overwhelmed him when she all but agreed to let them have her!No! You are mine!

He glanced up at her, finding her watching his meticulous application of fingernails to her tips, and couldn’t help the thought.You’re mine now. And I won’t let them take you. You don’t get to leave me after you took ahold of my heart. I’ll protect you to the end, with every stitch and breath in my body, I’ll keep you safe.Even if it was from herself.

“You areupset…” she finally spoke softly, gaze falling to her lap.

“No,” he lied with a shake of his head.

Hyacinth snorted, “Now, that for sure, was sarcasm.”

“It was not.” Austin’s lips cracked a smile involuntarily. “It was a lie, however.”

Hyacinth beamed, poking him on the tip of his nose with one of her finished fingers. “See! I knew it. Youareupset.”

Austin didn’t know how to answer her. Instead, he continued to press a new pinkie nail to her finger, counting down under his breath as the adhesive attached. It was strong enough to keep them over her nailbeds. But it would be easily convinced to pop off if her real nails regrew. Not all undead could regrow pieces of their anatomy like they would if they were alive. Some Dragos, once turned undead, could no longer regenerate a tail once their old one fell off. Teeth and nails were the hardest to replace. Austin wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t grow them back unless she replaced the hand or fingers themselves.

“What did I say that upset you? I understand you’re angry with me, but I am unsure of what I did to cause that. And I like you too much to linger in this, Austin.” Her words were soft, curling around his ears. It didn’t help that she took up his chin in her other hand and hoisted his attention to her face. “Please.”

Austin sat on one of the many work stools in the lab, leaning over her lap. She was perched on a slab, legs swinging on the outsides of his chest. Melting forward into her touch, his gaze roamed her pretty face. Lavender eyes memorized every inch of him with worry.

“You would just give yourself to them?” he croaked, eyebrows furrowed.

“If it meant stopping her…Austin, you didn’t see the carnage I did. You’re not the one whose been killing people in her sleep.” Hyacinth dropped his chin to pluck at her chemise sheepishly.

“But you don’t know that!” Austin didn’t mean to yell, but the words boomed out of his chest.

“Isawher do it! With my body!” Hyacinth yelled back, flapping her hands up and down in front of herself as if to accentuate her point.

“Hyacinth—”

“You don’t get it because you’re a person. You think of yourself as a person! You do not think of yourself as a spirit controlling a-a-a meat puppet! I am but a soul possessing this flesh! I amnota person!” Her hair stood on edge, including the patches of it that ran down her arms. Austin froze, staring up into her wide eyes welling up with tears. She looked everywhere but him as the words tumbled out of her mouth. “I want to be a person.So.Bad. I want to be friends with Melody and a part of this family. I want to learn to knit with Agatha. And I want so desperately to explore this desire in my body for you. To see where it leads, to feel your body against mine. I want all of that, because I want to be a people. But I am not…so long as she also has claim to-to-to…me. To my body.”

Austin straightened, giving her the space to get it out of her lungs. She swayed on the slab, tears trickling down her cheeks. He knew he should focus on the part where she was sad. Desperate for ownership of her own body and mind, that’s the thing heshouldhave been worried about. Then his cheeks warmed and his collar stung, skin itchy and uncomfortable as he replayed her words.I want so desperately to explore this desire. To feel your body against mine.

His heart thump-thump-thumped in his chest like a massive, wet fish flopping against a dry dock helplessly. He was breathless and clammy at the palms. Austin glanced down to his lap where he saw the outline of his cock in his pants.This is NOT the time. No! Bad cock!

But then his gaze followed movement out of the corner of his eye. Fingers curled under his chin and pulled his attention up the rest of the way. She stared at him with determined eyes.

“Maybe if I stuff this corpse full of something else, I can shove her out?” she breathed, arching a brow. Despite the tracks of tears down her cheeks, his focus was on those plush lips she kept tugging on with her teeth. The way they curled up on her face when she caught him doing it. He wheeled his stool closer, a moth to her flame, as she led him back to her. “You think it’ll work?”