By Any Other Name by Kayti McGee & M. Pierce

Author:Kayti McGee & M. Pierce [McGee, Kayti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Love & Guts Publishing
Published: 2019-10-29T18:30:00+00:00

Thirteen

Thorn

The night folded like great wings around Juniper Hollow and it was so thick and complete that I could have reached out and touched it. Nobody stirred in the town. Too late, too cold, too dark. I stopped on Main Street and let my car idle.

Three paths branched before me: To Rune, to Marion, and to the tomblike emptiness of my home. Because I was naïve, each path seemed open. I did not know how late the hour was for Rune, how cold Marion’s heart had become, and how dark the night.

I wasted time staring through the windshield, contemplating my options. If I went to Rune and harmed him, Rose would come running and I would be expected to murder her. If I spared them, Marion would surely find out and my family would turn against me.

I could plead my case to the Maven, I could explain that Rose was untaught and harmless, but doing so might expose my sympathies for the girl. That would only cast me into suspicion and further endanger Rose.

So I turned toward home. As far as I could see, which wasn’t far at all, I needed time to form a plan to secret Rune out of town. Time to let Rose get as much distance from Juniper Hollow as possible. For her, the valley was a curse. She should never have come. I should never have met her.

Again, but more viscerally, I felt the meaninglessness of our encounter. My front door slammed shut behind me. Bitterness rumbled through me. I didn’t hate my predicament; I didn’t hate the net that fate had cast. I didn’t even hate Marion for making me choose between my family and the girl. I hated Rose for leaving. Twice she had run when I’d told her to run, first in the forest where I cloaked her, then again after we kissed in the café, and both times I had foolishly wanted her to stay. Hadn’t I shown her my beauty and my darkness? Hadn’t I opened the book of wonder for her?

I drove my palm into the wall, fissuring the paint and plaster. An answering jag of thunder cracked the sky. If Rose didn’t want me now then she never would, but the same was not true for me. I wanted her desperately. At last, I admitted it to myself. I looked into the mirror of my desire and saw her face reflected there, and I saw my yawning hunger and boredom. Fate was cruel. Rose was not the lioness I had envisioned; she was the shrew, shrinking from danger. She should have stood at my side. She should have cast with me. Instead, I had seen real terror in her eyes after our first kiss at Toil and Trouble.

I laughed and shook out my hair. “Damn you,” I whispered, but I couldn’t bring myself to curse her. She had gotten the better of me and I was not a graceful loser. It would have served her right if I had gone to Rune’s house that evening and strung him up by his scalp.

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