Page 77 of Escape from the Green

I had snuck a lot of it into the bag I had convinced Smoky to take with her, knowing she would be too proud to take it otherwise, but also that she was desperately in need of the sustenance.

"As soon as you ward off that chill, we will take you into the bedroom so you can wash up. We'll lend you some warmer clothes too," Aya told me, in full mom-mode toward me even as she couldn't take her eyes off her son who was standing near the wall, talking in low tones with his father, both of their faces a bit grim, making me long to know what they were talking about, but reminding myself that Drake needed his privacy with his family.

"You really saved him?" Rayna asked, dropping down beside me at the dining room table.

"My family had been the ones to chain him up," I told her, uncomfortable with the look of gratitude in her eyes. "I don't know if setting him free qualifies as saving him in this situation."

"Don't be ridiculous," Nesta demanded, rolling her eyes as she pushed back her shoulder-length brown hair. "Of course it qualifies. If you didn't take him with you, he'd still be there now, wouldn't he?"

"Yes."

"Then you saved him," she told me, tone brooking no argument. "Accept our gratitude, Amethyst. You deserve it. We were close to giving up hope."

The door might as well have revolved over the next few hours as distant family members, old friends, nosy neighbors all showed up to see Drake, to dote on him, to offer him any help he might need in getting back on his feet.

At some point, I was ushered, as promised, into a bedroom that had once belonged to Nesta and Rayna, given warm water, told to help myself, and left alone.

There were remnants of adolescence all around - old toys stuffed in corners beside dried flower crowns, clothes they had likely grown out of, little drawings on the wall, and even a little heart carved into the wall by one of the beds.

Nesta loves Gray.

I wondered a bit fleetingly if that was her husband or mate or whatever it was called, or just some silly girlish crush.

Finding fresh clothing, I stripped out of my old, dirty ones, washing with the water scented with lavender sprigs brought to life again with the moisture.

I maybe lavished in it a bit, thankful for clean after sweating and laying on dirty floors.

I changed into clothes that smelled of cedar, a familiar scent, all my clothes having the oil clinging to the fabrics each season when they were brought out of storage.

Then, a bit uncomfortable intruding on his long overdue homecoming, I stayed there, sitting down on Rayna's old bed, then lying down, pulling the covers up.

And, without realizing it, falling to sleep.

I woke up to something touching my cheek.

"Sh, sorry, honey. Didn't mean to wake you," Drake's quiet voice called. I looked up, finding him similarly cleaned and changed, his eyes a bit swollen with tiredness. "I hadn't seen you for a while. Just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Scooting back a bit, my hand patted on the mattress, inviting him down.

He sank in, making the somewhat thin mattress - likely stuffed with leaves, cotton, and hay, bend inward, forcing my body to slip against his. I didn't bother moving away.

"I didn't want to infringe," I told him, shrugging it off.

"You weren't infringing. Honestly, it was nice to see a face that wasn't looking at me like some ghost come back to life."

"They love you so much," I told him, feeling a bit of a selfish sinking in my belly at realizing it wasn't something I had ever known, could ever know.

"They do," he agreed, giving me a slightly sad smile, like he was thinking the same thing I had been.

"Your mother is, ah... she's a mom, y'know?" I asked, rolling my eyes at my crummy conversational skills. "I've never really known anything like that. She's so warm."

"Yeah, she is. She thinks you're the greatest thing since the veil," he told me, sincerity in his words. "She wanted me to tell you that you are welcome here as long as you need a place to stay," he added, reaching down to close his hand around my wrist. "I plan to make you your own place. Soon. So you can start your life here. But until then, I figure we can stay here."

We.

I mean, he didn't mean it like that, but my heart couldn't help but skitter around a bit at the idea that he might. That maybe someday he could.

Maybe it was too soon for thoughts like that. Maybe it was silly and girlish of me.