talk to you” was what I ended up saying, making her laugh.
“Yeah, I got that much. Any hints about what you need to talk to me for, or should I start guessing?” Her reply was laced with sarcasm, but I was too stressed to grin or chuckle at her. She leaned over the blankets, reaching for my arm, lightly touching my forearm as she said, “You don’t seem like yourself, Trey.”
Her hand on my arm made all sorts of thoughts race through my head, and I managed to bite out the words, “For the first time in a while, I feel like I know what I want.” I was slow in turning my head towards her, meeting her eyes.
She hated them, I knew, their amber color. In the shadows of the tent, they appeared almost brown, but I knew how they sparkled in the sunlight, how warm and inviting those eyes could be when she was smiling.
They were beautiful. Thana might not know it, but they were.
Before she could ask me what I wanted, even though it should’ve been obvious, I said, “You. I want you. I want you, Thana, and I don’t care if I have to go against Nigel to have you. Whatever pain he sends my way will be worth it, more than worth it, if I get to have you, even just for one night.”
One night was the very least of what I wanted from her. I wanted her for eternity. I wanted her every night and each day in between, all of her smiles and her laughs, all of it. But, of course, that was a little much, a little too fast, especially for a human girl who’d just been torn from her old life.
Baby steps.
“Oh,” she said, and maybe, if things would’ve been different, Thana would’ve blushed right then. “Wow. I… I don’t know what to say.” As she stared at me, searching for the right words to speak, my heart thumped in my chest, threatening to burst out and run away while the animal inside fought to unleash itself, to claim her as mine for once and for all.
“I want you,” I went on, stumbling over my words, being anything but cool, “my tiger wants you. I know I hurt you, I know I helped Nigel corner you—I’m basically the reason you’re here—but I can’t help the way I feel. I need you. I need you like the air I breathe.”
Thana watched me, listening to everything I had to say, her hand slow to slip off my forearm. “You know, I hated you, at first. I hated you for what you did, and I was a little scared, but if I’ve learned anything here, it’s that this world is so much bigger than I ever could’ve imagined. Magic is real. People who can turn into animals are real.” She sounded amazed, and I couldn’t blame her. When I’d first discovered my ability to shift after dying, I was thrilled.
I mean, who could turn into a freaking tiger at will? That was movie-level shit.
Of course, then I learned there were others like me here, though I’d never met anyone of the same, uh, species as me.
A scream rang out in the distance, and it made Thana pause for a moment. “I still don’t understand the fascination with blood and death, but it’s not so bad here, with you guys.” She bit her lower lip, looking extra shy and timid as she said, “I don’t know why you’d ever want me so bad, though.”
I lifted a hand, setting it over my heart, which still beat quite rapidly in my chest. “I know it here,” I told her, hearing her breath catch. “I know it in every part of me. Maybe because I’m some kind of shifter, but it doesn’t matter why I know it—I just do. I know I want you, Thana. Being away from you is the worst kind of torture.” I found myself leaning in towards her, lowering my voice as I added, “I would rather spend one night with you than spend the rest of eternity in this circus without you.”
I laid on the sap like no one else, like I’d never done before, but that was because everything I said I meant. I meant it with my whole heart, as lovesick and mushy-gushy as it was.
Thana brought her hand to my chest, and I moved my own hand, allowing her to lay her palm flat upon the same area that I’d