“No,”she said after a long moment. “I will be here for a while, I think.”
“Take all the time you need.” I bent down and kissed her forehead. “You know where to find me if you change your mind.”
A nod was her answer as she turned and disappeared into the foliage with the sword held in her jaws.
Within minutes, Josie began to stir, her eyes alight with verdant magic. “How did I do?”
“You did great.” I rushed over and clasped hands with her, pulling her into a seated position. “It’s a thing of beauty.” I drank in her proud smile and kicked myself for ever making her doubt the value of her help. “Do you think you can stand?”
“I can doanything.” She stood on shaking legs. “I feelamazing.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“The earth responded to her need,”Anunit mused from some distance away.“It fed her too much energy too fast.”
“So, she’s drunk on power.”I looped an arm around her waist.“I’m sure that will end well.”
Helping her balance, I walked her past the threshold and right into Carter’s chest.
“Oh.” Josie looped her arms around Carter’s neck. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“That’s it.” Carter gripped Josie’s hips, leaving orange fingerprints behind. “I give up. You win.”
A low groan tore out of Harrow, and he tried to catch Carter’s eye while shaking his head firmly.
Still buzzing, Josie nuzzled the redcap’s throat. “What’s my prize?”
“Me.”
Harrow dropped his head into his hands, leading me to believe he had known this was coming and tried to either coach her in what to say or talk her out of it before she dug a hole too deep to climb out of unless someone threw her down a rope.
Knees buckling, Josie would have hit the dirt if Carter hadn’t been holding on so tight. “You?”
“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” Carter held her stare. “You’ve been chasing after me all this time, and I’m done running.” Her mouth pinched. “I’m terrified of you, and I respect that about you. You’ve given me fifty heart attacks since we met, and only maybe half those were jump scares while I was in the shower or on the toilet. The rest were exactly this. You rushing off into danger, me unable to reach you, and?—”
“You’re done running,” Josie echoed, sobering too quickly for Carter to notice the danger she was in.
“This is not going to end well,” Matty stage-whispered to me, hiding behind me.
“Yeah.” She bobbed a shoulder. “I am.”
“This is your idea of a grand romantic gesture?” Josie shook Carter off her. “Giving up?”
Wariness trickled into Carter’s expression. “I didn’t mean it like?—”
“Look, I appreciate the offer, but I want a partner who wants to be with me. Not one who thinks she’s doing me a favor being with me.” She wiped under her eyes. “You told me, and I didn’t listen. I should have, and I’m sorry. You don’t do relationships, and I wanted to be the exception. I see now that wasn’t fair to you.” She tacked on a brittle smile. “I’ll pack up and be out of your place by morning. You deserve to be comfortable in your own space, and I don’t think you can be with me there.”
“Josie…”
“I’m going to stretch my legs.” Josie blinked to clear her vision. “I won’t go far.”
“I…” Carter stood there, looking for all the world like she had no clue how she ended up here. “She…”
“I want to feel sorry for you. That was a fumble of epic proportions. It makes me want to buy you a beer and get you drunk enough you forget everything that just happened.” Mattyscratched his jaw. “Except for the part where you broke our sister’s heart right in front of us. That was not cool.”
“Broke her heart?” Carter stared after Josie, dumbstruck. “How do I fix this?”
“You decide here and now if you want a relationship with Josie.” As much as I hurt for Josie, coming so close to what she thought she wanted, I sympathized with Carter too. She didn’t have the words or the moves Josie was used to with her usual suitors. “If the answer is no, then you just did her a favor. If the answer is yes, then you better beat her home before she turns your house into a forbidden temple with every poisonous plant and vine she can summon on short notice.”
