Page 70 of How to Woo the Undead

Austintookabreathfor the first time in two weeks on one of the medical slabs in the laboratory. It was deep and filled his lungs with dusty oxygen. Butdragons above,didn’t it feel good to breathe again. He blinked his eyes rapidly, letting his head lull to the side. It was his turn to be laid out on the metal table while Hyacinth sat on a stool beside him. She was focused like a laser beam on his fingers. Austin managed to lift his head to see her painting his fingernails.

“You like the color?” she croaked, peaking up from her artwork. “Havershum showed me how to use the small brushes. I’m not Melody but…I can do flowers. I’m really good at flowers.”

Austin smiled weakly, shifting his hand to see his nails. Everything was stiff.Well, I did kind of get burned at the stake.He stared at five fingers with green lacquer as a background. Little pink, blue, and purple flowers were dotted across them like a field of wildflowers.She is good.He flopped his cheek against the side of the slab, letting her return to his fingers.

“I love the color.” Was all he could manage after spending, what was probably a week and four days, in the regeneration chamber. He could taste the liquid on his tongue from where it’d grown back. Newts tongue had a specific flavor.Not a fan, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

“Good.” She swallowed hard. Her eyes didn’t meet his in the slightest. In fact, she hunched further, like she was doing her best to focus on anything but his hopeful face.

“Hyacinth...” he croaked.

“I’mquiteupset with you, you know,” she whimpered, dotting his fingers. The pout plastered to her lips quivered harshly.

“Why?” He laughed only to cough and wince at the pain that shot up from his insides. Regeneration was not ideal for anything minor because it was alongprocess. It grew back body parts as they were, so he was still the Austin he remembered, he could feel the crackle of magic under his body. He’d still be recovering for a few more days, until it soaked all the way in. However, he was well enough to be stitched back together andreignited, or whatever term Sebastian used to restart the heart.

“You weren’t awake when I awoke,” she murmured as she wheeled her stool away from the slab. He watched her bring her paint pallet and brushes to another worktable. She cleaned off her fingers, then tried to hide her dabbing her eyes with the back of her hands. Austin took it easy sitting up on the slab. He didn’t want to smear the paint, but more so, he didn’t want to scare her. She trembled a little as she wheeled herself back to his side.

There was a vial of clear liquid in her hands. Austin motioned for it, but she held it to her chest.

“Why would you let him take you?” she grumbled,finallyglaring at him.I miss those purple gems.

“Because that’smy purpose.” He motioned for the squonk tears again.

Hyacinth scoffed, rolling both her eyes and her head slightly. He could see she was still stiff like him. He wasn’t sure how damaged she got, but as she was only sporting anew hand, he imagined she was kept in a tank with him. “But I thought you said we were ignoring purposes? Huh? I thought, you said, you didn’t want to be burdened by why you were made?” She scowled harder.

Which means Lord Rosemont was on double duty for a long time. He’s probably exhausted.

“No, I didn’t wantyouto be burdened by that,” he sighed, the weight of his lungs surprising him for once.

“Well…” Her eyes floated away from him as she pouted. When she jerked her gaze back to him, her eyes glowed but there weren’t any more tears. “I don’t want you burdened with it either. So, youshouldn’thave thrown yourself at him like that.”

“Hyacinth,” was the only word he managed to say as he worried about just breathing in and out.

“No! Don’tHyacinthme all sweet and loving, I’mquiteupset with you Austin because…I thought…” she trailed off and she didn’t have to finish it.

He thought the same thing.

Austin thought he had lost her.

“I know.” He licked his lips.

Hyacinth climbed to her feet. She jutted the vial into his hands with a huff. “I need you to put drops in my eyes becauseI can’t do it.And I very much would like to cry right now!’

Austin chuckled weakly as he uncapped the dropper from the vial. Then with a tender palm to the back of her head, he brought her flush against the worktable, between his knees. Her body sank into the touch, already lying her head back into his palm. He let loose two drops into each eye and watched her eyes flutter rapidly. But as she laid there in his hand, he stopped to study her again.

Her left palm reached up to brush aside tears that dripped off her chin. He stared at the distinctly different hand sewn onto her wrist. Having noticed it immediately upon waking, but only then able to see it clearly. Her nails were natural, not press ons, and they weren’t painted. Plus, the fingers were a little longer, a little thinner than her others. Yet, it didn’t take away from how breathtakingly perfect she was. The springy curl of snow-white hair that dangled by her face stood out from her nest of auburn waves. Her round face was still sweeter than any flower, her lips still full. There was still a giant scar just below her collar, where her heart was ripped apart then a new one sewn in.

And he loved every inch of her. Her lilac eyes flashed open and she stole his breath away. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she reached up to cup his arm with her hands.

“My flower,” he blurted out, taking both her cheeks in his hands and stroking them with the pads of his thumbs.

“I’m upset at you,” she whined through the tears, a smile still cracking her face in face. “Because just as I was feeling like a person, you went and got yourself burned at the stake.”

He let out a startled laugh. “You do?”

She bounced on her toes excitedly. “I do! I feel like a person. Like this is me. I am Hyacinth, I am a person and not just a floating soul trapped in a body—” She stopped in the middle with a yelp as he scooped her up into his arms. She threw hers around him and wrapped her legs around his waist. Continuing in his ears, she sighed dreamily, “And there’s no Hyacinth without Austin.”

“Oh, my flower, that’s not true.” He tightened his grasp around her, despite how lethargic his body was or how sluggish his reactions were. She was here. In his arms. Safe.