There's A Monster In The Woods (Spooky Boys 0.5) by Fae Quin

Author:Fae Quin [Quin, Fae]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Styx tugged me away from my empty tomato plants, his face shrouded in shadow, his fingers surprisingly gentle as I followed along obediently, helpless to deny him. There was something about the wilderness inside him that called to me.

We echoed each other, like two halves of a whole. Crying out from either end of a cavern through the damp dark of reality.

He was pieced together by magic, and I was a man in search of enchantment.

Our footsteps were quiet in the night-damp dirt as he led me towards my barren pumpkin patch, and my brow furrowed in confusion. Styx’s other hand still gripped the loaf of bread I’d gifted him that day, gentle as ever, despite the way I knew his claws could sever and maim as easily as they caressed and cradled it.

When we reached the empty patch, confusion hit me like a smack to the face. Because it wasn’t empty at all.

There were pumpkins.

Four of them.

They were still in their green stage, fat and round, their vines plump and glistening in the starlight. I blinked, scrubbing a hand over my eyes to see if I could clear the hallucination. I hadn’t planted pumpkins.

Had I?

No.

No.

I’d been preparing for the following year, not…not this. Had Farmer Jones come over after all? Had he planted them here? But why? Pumpkins were his prize-winning crop, the only one he grew that I didn’t. He’d been winning with his pumpkins at the Fall Festival for years, always leaping for the sizable reward that accompanied the prestige that came with being chosen as Sacrifice.

There was already so much competition, the idea of him voluntarily planting pumpkins for me was laughable at best.

It didn’t make sense.

Why would he do this?

And then…it occurred to me.

Styx made a quiet grumbly sound beside me and my head whipped toward him as I scanned his face for answers, my heart in my throat.

“You planted me pumpkins,” I said softly, voice nothing but honey as my toes curled in the cool dirt and I imagined the way vines might one day sprout from this very spot. I swallowed. “Did you…but—” I shook my head. “But how? I mean…they take months to grow.”

Styx cocked his head at me and I frowned, trying to decipher what he was trying to say as my heart raced and my belly flipped.

“Are they…a gift?” I asked.

He nodded.

Elation buzzed bright inside my chest and I laughed, a soft incredulous sound, unthinkingly swinging an arm around his neck and pulling him in for a tight squeeze. I’d never been a particularly physical person, though I found in most situations when I lacked the words to explain what I was feeling, touch often could answer for me.

“Thank you,” I breathed, my lips brushing the cool sweat gathering at the base of his throat. Styx made a noise, a helpless little sigh, his fingers tightening around my wrist as he reached around me in an awkward, but eager way. He clutched me tighter against his chest and I listened to the way his breath wooshed in and out, like a waterfall, or the wind through tall grass.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.