Huntsman by Cambria Hebert
47
Virginia
A slim crackof light shone through the heavy curtains, stretching across the floor and snaking across the bed. The rest of the room was dim, but that thin line was persistently bright and only stopped when it touched Earth.
I lay on my side, Earth spooned against my back. I’d fallen asleep on his chest, so at some point, he’d shifted us like this. I smiled into the pillow at the way he’d kept his promise to adjust me in the night.
I’m never sleeping without you again.
Memories of last night washed over me, making me tingle and my chest expand with awe. I’d been half a girl for a long time, told I might never be whole again.
But I wasn’t half a girl. I never was. I’d always been whole, capable of feeling everything that mattered. I’d just been afraid. Trapped in a tower but not the one I lived in, the one where I’d placed my heart.
Afraid of love. Afraid of losing. Afraid of trying and proving all my fears wrong.
It took a villain to give me courage. A villain to reach into my darkness and only see the light. If Earth hadn’t shown up to drive me to an appointment, none of this would have happened.
Maybe I wouldn’t have found the courage to tell Neo my dreams.
Yeah, Earth took lives. But he saved some too.
Mine being one of them. Perhaps every villain has a little hero in them. Maybe that’s what makes them so good at being bad.
Hero. Villain. It didn’t matter. Earth was Earth. The man I loved.
As if on cue, he made a deep sound, and his hand dragged across my waist, settling in the dip in my side. “I like waking up to you.” His voice was sleepy in my ear.
“Me too.”
He kissed my cheek and then my ear before slipping out of bed.
“Hey! Where are you going?” I scowled.
He padded around the bed to pull open the curtains. “Opening these so you can look out.”
“You’re naked!” I gasped as he stood in front of the glass.
He grinned lazily. “You don’t even need a window to have a view.”
I giggled. “Come back to bed.”
He stepped forward, and I noted the tattoo on his hip.
“Come here,” I murmured, holding out a hand.
He did, and I dragged my fingers down the black rose inked into his skin. “I didn’t even notice this last night.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
I smiled. “You should.” Focusing back on the art, I said, “So this is your family’s symbol?”
“It’s more like a gang symbol.” His voice was tight.
Letting my fingers fall away from the rose, I glanced up, catching his black eyes. “You did well, sweetheart,” I told him, using the endearment I loved him to use. “You endured them well, surviving until you could get away.”
Emotion filled his expression, and he looked away. He started to retreat, but I caught his hand, tucking mine inside, warmth blooming in my chest when his fingers curled around mine, clutching tight.
“I know you think you’re like them, but you aren’t. You’re so much better. And yes, you’ve done bad things I don’t like, but I love you. All of you. Always. Unconditionally. We all do.”
He made a sound and crawled back onto the mattress and over my body to curl his around mine. I could feel the heavy pounding of his heart against my back and how he buried his face in my hair.
Maybe he hadn’t needed to hear that, but when I finally felt like I was enough for him—just as I was—something inside me settled. I wanted him to have that too. Or, at the very least, to know that I wasn’t secretly judging him for the path he took that led him here.
He clung to me, saying nothing, but we didn’t have to speak for him to know I was here.
“Thank you,” he whispered after a long while, breath ruffling my hair.
I smiled.