CAGED (#3, of Crows and Thorns)

Chapter 70

While I stood within the threshold, Sage left my side to pad across the room to the balcony.

The tower was quiet but for the distant sound of my wraith-wolf lapping at his water bowl. Finally, I dragged myself inside, moving past the wall of linen cupboards. The mess of this morning when Graysen and I had tangled together, fighting and kissing, had been tidied away. Moonlight streamed through the cut windows of the tower and dappled the carpet and furniture, and what little was left of Graysen's clothes hanging on the makeshift wardrobe.

A whitish glow came from a lamp set on a bedside table, more aesthetic than any practical use. Graysen didn't need light to read in the dark with his night vision. He was sitting on his bed reading, his back cushioned by pillows, and the curves of lacquered wood arching above. Strange furs from otherworldly beasts he'd hunted, swirling tawny grays and blacks, lay beneath his reposed figure, his long legs stretched before him and crossed at the ankle. Smoke curled from a blunt resting in an ashtray, and amber sparkled in a tumbler of whiskey on the bedside table.

Graysen glanced up as I walked closer. His black eyes gleamed with a silver sheen like a nocturnal animal as he took me in, scanning my wretched expression. He quickly shut the book he was reading. I had no doubt that he'd feel what was going on inside me. How I'd fractured and broken, the heaviness weighing my soul.

He swung his long legs over the side of the bed, ducking beneath the birdcage slats, rising to stand before me.

We stared at one another across the space that divided us.

He seemed almost sweet with his wide-eyed awkwardness, his hands anxiously flexing the novel, as if he was unsure of what to do or say, how he should act around me.

What was I going to do?

Was there anything else I could do to save myself?

Was there any point?

My gaze dipped to his blunt-tipped fingers kneading the paperback, curling the papered edge of it back and forth.

The answer came as swift as a bolt of lightning.

There was one option left to me, one that sent an electric thrill zinging down my spine and my toes curling into the loops of wool as my gaze slipped over his figure, the broad shoulders and powerful arms, the black t-shirt clinging to a muscled chest and lean hips. One option I hadn't wanted to take advantage of until now. Desperation I expect. One last chance at saving myself, and perhaps the easiest one to try. But as to what would happen afterward, I didn't know. I'd have to flee fast and think even faster on my feet.

Hope expanded inside my chest.

Graysen's eyes sharpened on mine as if he felt the change in me too.

I straightened to my full height as I explored the option from all angles.

I could... I could try it...

If he allowed me to.

I approached, my bare feet wisping over the soft carpet, and came to a standstill a few feet away from him. Graysen blinked warily, unsure of my intentions as I stared up at him. For a long while silence reigned between us while I studied his face, carved in shadow and uncertainty.