Chapter 51: The Morning After

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: The Morning After

Cassian woke slowly.

For several moments he didn’t move.

The shelter was quiet.

The fire had burned low during the night.

Only a handful of glowing embers remained.

Soft morning light filtered through the gaps in the wooden walls.

And Marian was asleep on him.

Wonderful.

Absolutely wonderful.

Cassian closed his eyes briefly.

Not because he was tired.

Because he had immediately become aware of several problems.

One of them was entirely normal.

Entirely predictable.

Entirely inconvenient.

The other was Marian.

Unfortunately, Marian was considerably more complicated.

Sometime during the night, the careful distance they had maintained had vanished completely.

At some point they had both shifted in their sleep.

Drawn toward warmth.

Toward comfort.

Toward disaster.

Marian was curled against his side.

One arm resting lightly across his chest.

Her head tucked beneath his shoulder, nestled against him as though she belonged there.

As though this were the most natural thing in the world.

The blanket covered both of them.

The remaining warmth trapped beneath it.

And judging by how peacefully she was sleeping, Marian had absolutely no intention of moving anytime soon.

Cassian stared at the ceiling.

Because looking anywhere else seemed unwise.

Extremely unwise.

Slowly, inevitably, his gaze lowered.

Toward her face.

Morning light spilled across loose strands of hair.

Soft gold where the sunlight touched them.

Her face was relaxed in sleep.

Free from the expressions he knew so well.

No irritation.

No stubbornness.

No dramatic declarations about cloaks or pastries.

Just Marian.

Peaceful.

Trusting.

Real.

Beautiful.

The word arrived immediately.

Effortlessly.

Because denying it would have been ridiculous.

Everyone knew Marian was beautiful.

Court knew it.

The kingdom knew it.

That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that he now knew the woman beneath the beauty.

The woman who wanted a life of uninterrupted delight.

The woman who mourned ribbons.

The woman who laughed with her entire heart when she forgot to be careful.

And somehow that made looking at her infinitely more dangerous.

Cassian exhaled slowly.

He should move.

Immediately.

He should wake her.

Immediately.

He should put several feet of distance between them.

Immediately.

Instead he remained exactly where he was.

Listening to her quiet breathing.

Feeling the steady weight of her hand against his chest.

Watching sunlight creep slowly across her hair.

And thinking one profoundly unhelpful thought.

I could get used to this.

The realization struck harder than it should have.

Because that was the one thought he absolutely should not be having.

Not here.

Not with her.

Not ever.

--

Unfortunately, Marian woke up happy.

This immediately told her something was wrong.

Because people lost in forests should not wake up happy.

They should wake up cold.

Hungry.

Miserable.

Possibly attacked by wildlife.

Happy was deeply suspicious.

For several moments she remained half-asleep.

Warm.

Comfortable.

Strangely content.

A pleasant heaviness surrounded her.

The sort that made moving feel unnecessary.

The sort that made opening one’s eyes seem like an unreasonable demand.

Then she became aware of something.

A steady rhythm beneath her cheek.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Marian frowned.

That seemed unusual.

The rhythm continued.

Strong.

Steady.

Suspiciously similar to—

Her eyes opened.

Immediately.

The realization struck with horrifying clarity.

That wasn’t a pillow.

That wasn’t a blanket.

That wasn’t even the floor.

It was Cassian.

Marian froze.

Completely.

Utterly.

Catastrophically.

For one terrible second, her mind simply stopped functioning.

Then everything returned at once.

The shelter.

The blanket.

The cold.

The previous evening.

And most importantly—

the fact that she was practically draped across Cassian Ashbourne.

Wonderful.

Absolutely wonderful.

Marian closed her eyes again.

Not because she was tired.

Because perhaps if she pretended hard enough, reality would become embarrassed and leave.

Unfortunately, reality remained.

The traitor.

Slowly, very slowly, she opened one eye.

Cassian appeared to be asleep.

Or at least she hoped he was.

Because if he was awake, she would need to throw herself directly into the nearest river.

A solution she was beginning to find increasingly attractive.

Carefully she assessed the damage.

One arm lay across his chest.

Her head rested beneath his shoulder.

One leg had somehow become tangled with the blanket.

The entire situation suggested a level of familiarity that should not exist.

Marian immediately blamed the weather.

Then the blanket.

Then the shelter.

Then the forest.

Anything except herself.

Because that would be inconvenient.

Very inconvenient.

Slowly she attempted to retreat.

A tactical withdrawal.

Nothing dramatic.

Just enough to restore dignity.

Unfortunately, the moment she moved, Cassian’s eyes opened.

Marian froze.

Again.

This was becoming a pattern.

For a long second neither spoke.

Neither moved.

Neither seemed entirely certain how to proceed.

Then Cassian looked down.

At her.

Then at the arm stretched across his chest.

Then back at her.

The silence became unbearable.

Marian considered death.

Briefly.

"Good morning."

The words escaped before she could stop them.

They were possibly the worst words ever spoken.

Cassian stared.

Then something dangerous happened.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

The traitor was amused.

"The morning appears to be going well."

Marian wanted to throw something at him.

Unfortunately she was currently lying on him.

Which limited her options considerably.

"This is not my fault."

Cassian’s eyebrow lifted.

"Interesting."

"It isn’t."

"You appear very certain."

"I am."

Cassian looked down at her arm again.

The evidence disagreed.

Strongly.

Marian hated him.

A great deal.

Several seconds passed.

Then she finally managed to untangle herself.

The retreat was rapid.

Dignified.

Mostly.

At least in her memory.

Reality was considerably less charitable.

The moment she reached the opposite side of the shelter, she wrapped herself in her blanket like armor.

Cassian sat up.

Far more composed than any reasonable person should have been.

The unfairness of this irritated her.

Deeply.

Outside, morning sunlight filtered through the trees.

The forest appeared peaceful.

As though it had not spent two days actively ruining their lives.

The audacity.

For several moments neither spoke.

Then:

"I move in my sleep."

Marian immediately regretted saying it.

Because she sounded defensive.

Which she was.

But still.

Cassian looked thoughtful.

"Clearly."

The nerve.

"I was cold."

"A compelling argument."

"It is."

"I see."

"You are impossible."

"So I’ve been told."

The conversation should have ended there.

Instead, to Marian’s immense frustration, she began laughing.

A small laugh at first.

Then a real one.

Because the situation was ridiculous.

Completely ridiculous.

And somehow Cassian started laughing too.

The sound filled the shelter.

Warm.

Easy.

Dangerous.

For a moment neither thought about Adrian.

Or the kingdom.

Or obligations.

Or consequences.

Just two people laughing in the middle of a forest.

And somehow that felt more intimate than it should have.

Much more intimate.

The realization arrived simultaneously.

The laughter faded.

The silence returned.

This one different.

Heavier.

More aware.

Neither seemed eager to examine it.

Which was probably wise.

Because the truth waiting beneath it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Hours later they resumed walking.

The forest stretched endlessly ahead.

The path, if it could be called a path, wound through dense trees and rocky ground.

For a while neither spoke much.

Not because they had nothing to say.

Because both seemed oddly aware of the morning.

The blanket.

The warmth.

The comfort.

The memory lingered.

Uninvited.

Persistent.

Dangerous.

Then around midday they reached a ridge.

The trees thinned.

The land dropped away.

And for the first time in days, they saw something other than forest.

Smoke.

Far in the distance.

A thin gray line rising toward the sky.

Both stopped.

Neither spoke.

Hope arrived instantly.

Civilization.

People.

Home.

Rescue.

Everything they had wanted.

Everything they had been searching for.

Marian should have felt relieved.

Instead something tightened unexpectedly inside her chest.

A strange sadness.

Small.

Sharp.

Gone almost immediately.

She hated that it existed at all.

Beside her, Cassian was staring at the distant smoke.

His expression unreadable.

The silence stretched.

Then Marian said softly:

"We might be rescued tomorrow."

Cassian nodded.

"Probably."

Neither sounded particularly happy about it.

Which was its own problem.

And perhaps the most dangerous one yet.

Because for the first time, both of them realized something neither wanted to admit.

The forest was ending.

And neither of them was ready.