Page 81 of How to Woo the Undead

“Hyacinth Rosemont,” Austin murmured against her lips.

She whispered back hoarsely, “I love the sound of it.”

“You should, you picked it out,” Smith snorted, dusting off his palms. “Now, let’s get you both inside and washed off before anyone else gets dirt on my suit.”

“Think fast!” Kevin chucked a ball of mud at Smith, who simply blinked out of existence. He reformed at the door with an irritated grumble. Kevin pouted, “Aw man, I thought I was really gonna get him that time.”

“Smith’s too slick for that,” Austin shrugged, propping Hyacinth on a hip and wrapping her dirty feet around his waist. “If you really want to get him, you’ve got to get Melody to—”

“Ehh!” Smith made that sharp sound one does to a dog to keep it from eating something, waggling a long finger at the three of them. “Inside! Now!”

Kevin threw up his muddy hands in defeat and stomped inside. Austin passed Smith, who held the door open for all of them. As he turned in the doorway to tease Smith more, he wasunceremoniously shooedfor being filthy. He would have accused Smith of being Agatha, if the banshee didn’t drop out of the ceiling at that moment to shriek about mud on her clean carpets. Austin threw back his head, laughing so hard it ached. A delightful, delicious ache that caused him not to even glance in the direction of the hallway mirror.

In fact…no one looked at the mirror. And no one saw the shadow slink out of sight.

Chapter Forty-One:

Hyacinth

Hyacinthlayinherbed and didn’t fear dreaming for once. Instead, she welcomed it. Clean of all the soil, hair freshly washed, wings dried, and a kiss to her forehead from Austin. She sank into the bed happily. Cuddled up against herhunkwith a snoozing rabbit at her feet, sheshouldbe able to sleep. However, she lay there, wide awake and staring across the room at the mirror. She dared it to change. Dared Sabine to show her face and prove Hyacinth’s intuition wrong. Yet, it never shifted. No shadows darted across it. Ghosts did wander in and out of their room, but she met their eyes and they lingered as curious things. More akin to cats, slithering up to her side to inspect her with their hollowed expressions and gnarled fingers. When she smiled and touched one of her fingertips to one of theirs, they grinned with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and skittered away. A soft hiss filling the air, an excited ghost off to tell the others in the house it touched her.

No Sabine.

Was that it? Was the tree all I had to do?She squeezed her arm around Austin. Nuzzling her face against his chest.Come on, sleep. Let me sleep this time.She craved sleep for once to be the escape everyone said it was. Only, she continued to count sheep. Thenher breathing. Then Austin’s. She even shifted so she could watch Snuffles as he chased something in his sleep.

No Sabine.

Maybe I just don’t know how to be without this other presence in my mind.She’d lived for so long with Sabine taking up room in her body, in her mind, that she almost felt lonely. She didn’t know how to get comfortable in her own bed, with only her thoughts to keep her company. No more dreams of murdering people in a city she’d only been to in her sleep. No more waking up in places she hadn’t fallen asleep in. And no more Sabine.

She repeated that over and over and over until she finally yawned. Sleep took her, begrudgingly. Hyacinth yawned one last time before she dropped into a dark abyss.

When she opened her eyes, she stared at the streets of King’s Fall. Dim streetlights hummed over her head as she walked down a sidewalk. It felt eerie, like her first nightmare. And when she glanced down, she realized she was drenched in blood again. Sinew was woven through her fingers. Panic spiked in her veins as she pulled it off her. With each tug, she quickened her pace till she was running. Her wings flailed helplessly behind her as she raced to the edge of town. The sky went red and she heard the alarms. Boots hit the ground and tears welled in her eyes. She was inches from the tree line when she heard them call her name.

“Sabine!Freeze! Stop right there!”

A spell hit her back, throwing her into the forrest. Branch after branch pulled her through the woods, hot potato, being passed around until she was thrown outside the protective shield of King’s Fall. She dropped into the dirt. Blood caked to every inch of her, even with hot tears rolling down her cheek, she needed to get clean.

They’ll find me like this.

Hyacinth gasped, sitting up from the bed, heart racing.

Not again.She glanced around, checking the mirror, and finding it empty. The windows were pitch black, night having settled in. They’d gone to bed almost immediately after their bath. She wasn’t surprised to see a starry night through the crystal panes. She was, however, happy to find not a cloud in sight.

A hand to her chest, she gulped down air.

“Bad dream?” Austin murmured, rubbing his face.

“Very,” she muttered, unable to even detangle her thoughts. Ruffling her hair, she broke her wild mane free from the tangled knot it was in. Austin rubbed her back, easing her tight muscles till she relaxed into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed like a well needed vice grip. She was forced to melt by the pressure of his muscles. It pushed a meager giggle from her. Then he kissed her forehead again. Which earned him a hum of happiness. His lips traveled down the bridge of her nose till she kissed him firmly.

At first, it was sweet. A gentle press of their lips together, their hands tangled in each other. The lovely scent of clean linen mixed with soap on their skin filled her nose. She had to push the werewolf teddy bear aside in order to get up next to him. Only Austin twisted her and she suddenly straddled his chest. Their kiss stopped being sweet and gentle when she raked her fingernails across his skin.

“Hyacinth,” he groaned into their kiss. She didn’t need him to tell her with words that he wanted to be claimed. Much like her grove, Austin needed to be communed with, claimed, and his roots pushed up inside her.Starting with that tongue.

She grinned as she gave both his tusks a gentle kiss. “Austin, I wantyou to taste me.”

“Gladly,” he rumbled, starting to roll as if to plant her against the bed. Only he stopped when two vines crept down from the canopy of the bed and pinned his wrists out to his side. His eyes widened at first, then darkened with hunger as she pulled her nightgown up and over her head.

“But I want you to do it from there.”