Moontangled by Stephanie Burgis

Author:Stephanie Burgis [Burgis, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Five Fathoms Press

As branches rustled tauntingly around her, Juliana’s ribs became a burning cage, pressing inexorably inwards to squeeze her lungs shut.

What if she couldn’t—

But if she couldn’t—!

“There’s no rush,” Caroline said cheerfully. “We have until dawn, after all, so you should take all the time you need to prepare yourself. I know you won’t need that long for the spell.”

“How could you be so foolish?” Fury burst open the bars of her cage, and Juliana yanked her head up to glare at her erstwhile fiancée. “What were you thinking, promising your life away to her so recklessly? You can’t—”

“I just did, actually.” That unshakably stubborn tilt of Caroline’s jaw had been familiar for years, but it had never before felt so infuriating. “We could spend this evening arguing over tiny details if that’s what you choose, or instead, you could simply appreciate the fact that—”

“Appreciate?” Juliana stared at her in disbelief. “I stepped off the path tonight to rescue you. Why would I appreciate you throwing your life away now?”

“I was trying to protect you. Which I did!” Caroline glared directly back at her, breathing hard—which made her glorious bosom rise and fall exactly at the level of Juliana’s eyes, cupped with loving closeness by her rich pink bodice.

Argh! Juliana forced her gaze away. She didn’t have the right to ogle Caroline’s bosom anymore. That privilege had been withdrawn scarcely an hour ago.

They were supposed to have spent this evening enjoying a glorious reunion. She wasn’t supposed to be standing in the middle of the woods right now shrieking at her lost love like an emotional, irrational gentleman on a tirade. None of this was supposed to have happened at all…

But yet again, she hadn’t been enough to prevent any of it.

“You don’t have to mask your true feelings anymore.” She dropped heavily down to her knees and lowered her head to investigate the pile of stacked journals. “I promise we don’t need to argue more tonight.”

What was the point? None of the furious reproaches that she’d been planning to spill over her jilting would do either of them any good at this point. Caroline was clearly already wracked with guilt. Why else would she have bargained away her own life to keep Juliana safe?

Juliana had never received such a poisonous gift.

Her spellcast ball of light hovered just above them, leaving her face safely shadowed as she let out a long sigh. “I just…can’t bear to hear you say that you did this to protect me.”

Silence hung over them for a long moment, broken only by the whisper of a breeze through the nearby branches.

The journal at the top of the pile was full of cramped, antique handwriting in a faded copper ink. It took real concentration to piece out the words in the top page.

I walked with my beloved in the woods today, spinning dreams that glittered like spidersilk in sunshine…

“Juliana…” Caroline’s voice sounded wary. As it should. “Why else do you think I would have done it?”

“I’m not so helpless as you apparently think.

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