The Glass Queen (The Forest of Good and Evil #2) - Gena Showalter Page 0,106

time, I rushed over to carry anything I considered too heavy for her. So, everything. All the while, she sang under her breath, and it wasn’t long before I was grinning wide, unable to stop. The girl couldn’t hold a tune, but she evinced such joy, I wanted to listen to her forever.

“I think the babies will be happy with their new home,” she told me with a satisfied nod.

“I will guard their happiness with my life,” I vowed, and everything about her softened.

After the first couple hours of cleaning, Ashleigh grew fatigued, sweat beading on her brow. Never once did she complain.

I took the canteen of water to her, unfastening the lid along the way.

“A little more,” I urged as she drank.

When she finished, I splashed some of the drops on my fingers and pressed them to her nape. She closed her eyes, a soft smile hovering at the edge of her mouth.

“Thank you.” She met my gaze before rising on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek.

As she bounded off, refreshed, I marveled. For each of my lives, I’d considered strength to be a test of physical fortitude. It had been an inexcusable mistake on my part. Ashleigh continued to prove herself more mentally and emotionally resilient than anyone I’d ever known. Including myself.

There wasn’t a man alive who was worthy of her.

We slipped into comfortable silence as we continued our work. When she hauled a wheelbarrow of old, moldy hay around the corner, disappearing from view, I approached a stalk of ivy growing over the wall to whisper, “I know you can hear me, Everly. Do me a favor and put one of your mirror gateways in the secret passage for my bedroom, and a mirror gateway to the secret passage in the stable. One needs to lead to the other.” Best to be clear with these apple babies. “I need this now. Pay the witch to position the mirrors, if you must, and I will reimburse you double.” I didn’t wish to waste time with negotiations on price. “Remind her I am given the friends and family discount.”

“Um, to whom are you talking?”

Well. I turned. Ashleigh stood in the stall door, her brow furrowed.

When she glimpsed the plant, she smiled. “Oh, one of your foliage friends,” she said. “Hello, Ivy. I’m Ashleigh.”

She thought I was embarrassed to be caught talking to a plant, and hoped to put me at ease, didn’t she?

This girl... I grabbed the bag we’d brought, emptied it of everything but our clean clothes, then fit the strap across her chest and drew her against me. “You worked so hard, you earned a reward.”

A dirt-smeared hand fluttered to her chest. “A reward? For me?”

My voice deepened as I told her, “Yes. You. So wrap your arms around me.”

19

There’s nothing sweeter than true love’s kiss.

Except a reunion with the one you miss.

Ashleigh

What an amazing day. I’d gone from the lowest of lows, when Leonora had so easily subdued me and stolen my first kiss, to the highest of highs, when Saxon made me the recipient of his deepest affections. He didn’t see me as Leonora anymore. Even without knowing I was possessed by a phantom, he saw me as Ashleigh. Just Ashleigh. And now he wanted to give me a gift, as if he hadn’t already given me the world?

“I had fun today,” I told him, wrapping my arms around him as requested. “I’ve never cleaned anything with the help of another. I don’t need another reward. But I want it, so gimme.”

A hungry glint lit his whiskey-dark eyes, sending shivers down my spine. “I have a feeling I’ll be giving you anything you ask for.”

Mind-bending words. Deliciously husky tone.

More shivers.

He flicked his gaze to my lips, a frisson of heat passing between us. Would he kiss me?

Did I want him to?

More than anything.

But he shook his head, as if he wished to scatter his thoughts, and placed one hand on the back of my head. He pressed the other against my lower back and spread his wings.

A blink, and we were in the air. He flew me over the treetops, calling, “Pagan. Pyre. Follow us.”

As we soared through the sky, the dragons gave chase, and an unexpected laugh escaped me. For so long I’d toiled daily, doing my best to find the joy in my circumstances. Had I known this awaited me, I never would have stopped smiling.

“You have an infectious laugh,” Saxon said.

I do? “Thank you. And thank you for my gift. I