20
The loft was warm and dry and lined with soft grasses that made the place both welcoming and safe. Melody rested while her heartbeat returned to normal. She was half worried about Lucus and half fascinated that the man actually lived this way.
There was a small table up there, as well as a single candle in a pewter holder. Spread out over the sleeping area was a large blanket that was surprisingly supple.
She flinched at the sound of the doors being slid on their tracks again. Glancing down she was relieved to see Lucus maneuvering them closed. He barred them with a large, heavy-looking beam that made her feel even more secure once it locked in place.
At the base of the ladder, Lucus took his shirt off. It was covered in blood anyway. Rather than put a new one on, he climbed the ladder and pulled himself into the loft alongside her.
“I don’t think I even thanked you,” she said as he plopped down next to her. “So… thanks.”
Lucus smirked more than grinned. It was a boyish look, and softened his normally hard features.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“And I’m just glad you’re an Olympic-level pitchfork thrower,” she chuckled.
He looked back at her strangely at the comment. Melody couldn’t help but notice his big chest, heaving with the exertion of all the work he’d just done. His skin was bronzed by the sun, his arms thick yet well-defined. And his shoulders…
She decided to be bold. Being meek had gotten her nowhere so far. In fact, it had only gotten her locked away in her room.
Melody reached out and took his chin in her hand. The stubble tickled the tips of her fingers as she tilted him up to face her.
“Lucus,” she said, almost in a whisper. “Please… tell me what’s going on here.”
His eyes dropped. Where there was fire and life only moments ago, they now looked… troubled.
“Lucus please,” said Melody. “I need to know.”
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing and rising. There was longing his eyes, but also torment. Indecision. Regret…
“Tell me.”
She squeezed his hands, and his eyes shifted upward to meet her own. All at once he leaned in and kissed her, his full lips pressing softly against her own.
Melody’s mouth opened, suddenly hungry for him. She found herself kissing him back, wanting him, needing him more than she’d ever even realized. It was like kissing an old lover; someone familiar, someone long-wanted, long-missed… but somehow forbidden.
Some of it was need. The rest was passion. Lucus’s hands went into her hair, sifting it between his fingers as his mouth churned against hers. He pulled her against him. Crushed her against his beautifully bare chest…
They kissed for several minutes, slowly, leisurely, forgetting all else. His mouth found her neck and Melody shivered with the contact. He tugged on her dress and she raised her arms overhead, allowing him to pull it free of her body and toss it away.
“It’s covered in blood,” said Lucus, kissing her some more. “I’ll get you another.”
They sat cross-legged, face to face, kissing and hugging and holding each other while half-dressed. Melody’s lips brushed the skin of his shoulder as she admired his body. She kissed a scar there, then dragged her mouth lovingly down one of his big arms. When she reached his wrist he folded that arm around her, bringing her in to him. Making her safe.
“I’ll tell you what I can,” he said, with the sigh of having finally decided. His lips brushed hers again and their eyes locked. “I’ll tell you what I remember…”
They sat at the other end of the loft, staring out at the Evermoore’s plantation fields through the square-framed loading window. Logan’s bare chest felt incredible pressed up against Melody’s naked back. His strong arms, his thick legs, all wrapped around her from behind.
“Look out there,” he said, pointing. “What do you see?”
Melody peered into the vast, moonlit glade. The manor house sat off to one side, dark and sentinel. Beyond it, the old sugarcane fields, stretching out in every direction. And beyond that, ringing the property…
“I see the mist,” she said. “That weird grey fog.”
It was closer now, closer than ever before. More than half the property was gone. She squinted and could see that it was still moving, still churning. Crawling its way inward…
“When do you think you are,” Lucus asked abruptly.
“What do you mean?”
He brushed a lock of hair gently away from her shoulder. Lowering his mouth, he kissed her bare skin there.
“Exactly what I said,” he told her. “When do you think you are…”
“In the present?” she laughed. “Here. With you.”
Lucus shook his head. The stubble of his chin brushed against her skin.
“You’re back,” he told her. “Lost. With us. With Evermoore.”
“Lost?”
“For now,” he said. “Not forever.” His hands slipped around her, beneath her breasts. “Because of this.”
One palm moved upward, grasping the amethyst pendant that rested against her chest. The heart of Isolomara glimmered as he manipulated it.
“I— I don’t understand.”
“Look at the mist,” said Lucus. “See how close it gets? See how it creeps toward us, toward the manor?”
Melody nodded mechanically.
“It comes,” he said. “It always comes. Every time. It’s always the same.”
“Why?”
“Because it has to,” Lucus said. “Like everything else it has no choice. It happened before like this. Everything has to happen the way it always has.”
Melody stared out into the mist. She watched it churn, ripple, move.
“What happens when the mist reaches the house?” she asked.
“Then it ends,” said Lucus ominously. “And it starts over again… with or without you.”
He was fingering her pendant.
Never take it off…
Running his thumb over it, the way Eric had done.
While a guest of the Evermoore you will wear this… always.
“W—What’s with this?” she asked, closing her own hand over the big amethyst. “What does my pendant have to do with anything?”
Lucus slid out from behind her and stood up. Right away her body missed his warmth.
“Let me show you something.”
He crossed the loft and bent to swipe at a pile of stray and hay. When he returned, he was carrying a small wooden lockbox with iron hinges.
“Go on,” he said, holding it out to her. “Open it.”
Melody took it from him and placed it in her lap. Gingerly she opened it. As the lid came up she took one look inside and gasped.
“Exactly,” said Lucus, kneeling reverently beside her. “Now you know.”