Page 119 of This Witch Is Not Wicked

“No,” he said, then frowned. “Well, yes. But also, don’t ever try to leave me again.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Unless that’s what you really want. I’d never stop you if you wanted to go, but⁠—”

“Godwitches, he’s so bad at this,” Cillian said from next to us, and Ceri elbowed him. “How did you ever manage to charm her?”

I just laughed, staring into Nevan’s eyes. “No, I don’t ever want to leave you, you stupid man.” He took the necklace off and looped it around my neck.

“We’re really glad to see you,” Niamh said, and Ceri and Harriet nodded.

“Fiona is worried,” Harriet added.

I sighed, and Nevan wound his arm around my back. “Let’s go home.”

Home. It sounded perfect.

CHAPTER 48

Enid

Strong arms wrapped around my waist and tugged me back into bed. I fell into the mattress, and Nevan hovered over me, leaning down for a kiss.

“Are you ever going to let me out of this bed?” I asked with a laugh. “I’m starting to think it’s your intention to keep me here forever.”

“After that stunt you pulled last week, it might be,” he said.

“We’ve spent a week here. You’ve only left to tend to emergencies. We need to emerge at some point, or everyone is going to think we’re dead.”

Nevan waggled his eyebrows. “I’m pretty sure everyone knows exactly what we’re doing.”

I shifted so my back was flat against the mattress, Nevan’s chest pressing into mine, my amulet between us.

“Do you think you’re ever going to want to go back to the Otherworld?” Worry lined the creases of his forehead, which I traced with my finger.

“I never wanted to go in the first place,” I said. “I just didn’t know what else to do to save Fairwitch Isle.”

“You don’t miss them at all?” He kissed my nose. “You don’t miss being around deities who know what it’s like to wield magic? You don’t want to be around your own people?”

He searched my face for answers, and like always, I found myself wanting to give them because I knew Nevan wouldn’t judge me either way.

Finally, I shook my head. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. They were never my people, Nevan. They never accepted me or my magic. No one has. Until you.”

He swallowed thickly, Adam’s apple bobbing.

I traced his jaw with my nail, and he shuddered. “Everyone in my life has left me. Until you.” I leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I’ve never felt at home anywhere. Until you.”

This time, I pressed my lips to his, and he groaned into my mouth. I arched my pelvis up, wanting some kind of friction between my legs, but Nevan broke the kiss and shifted his weight off me.

“Before I ravish you again, I just have to say one thing.” He was sitting up now, sheet pulled around his waist, hair mussed and perfect. “I am so sorry that everyone in your life failed you so spectacularly. But I can’t ever be completely sorry, because a selfish part of me knows that’s what led you to me.”

This man and his words were always making me tear up. “Stop being so sweet all the time,” I said. “Also, that was not just one thing. That was about five things.”

He rolled his eyes. “You just can’t help yourself.”

I shoved him, and he made a whining noise as I got up and shrugged on my robe.

“You’re wearing far too many clothes right now,” he said.

“I’m hungry.”

He waggled his eyebrows. “So am I.”