Hearts of Stone

15. The Curse and the Cure

Light slipped through the tall painted window and across Kat's face, making her eyelids flutter. With a groan, she twisted and almost fell off the armchair. She managed to stick out her foot and prop it against the floor. Pins and needles climbed up her leg, making her wince. She needed a few more seconds to focus her vision and remember just why she wasn't in her bed.

She'd curled up like a cat in the armchair the previous night, ready for a silent vigil. Instead, she'd forgotten all about her quest and fallen asleep. She stretched, trying to loosen her aching bones.

As her body unwinded, so did her mind, and everything hurtled back in an avalanche of fear and confusion. The rose, the statues, the wolves. Cage.

She straightened into a sitting position, her eyes taking in the room until they stopped on him. He was still there, on the sofa, on his back, just like she'd left him. The portrait of Joey was empty. The fire no longer burned, dying embers filling the hearth, and the room was chilly.

With careful movements as not to make noise or fall over, she stood and stepped towards the sleeping form of her captor. Except he wasn't her captor anymore. He'd let her go, sent her away. It had been her choice to return, not to let him die in the forest. She could walk out right now.

Except she couldn't. Not after everything that had happened. The memory of his hands behind her knees had heat rising to her cheeks again. The way he'd looked at her and spoken to her last night...

Irrelevant. She had to make sure he was well. Once she reached him, she gasped.

The cuts on his chest... She could still see their traces, but unlike the bloody gashes they'd been the previous night, only thin white lines remained there, like fading scars. He'd somehow healed overnight.

Hope nestling inside her heart, she untied the bandage over his shoulder. Fear returned when she noticed that the bitemark on his shoulder was still a green and purple lump with fangmarks in it. This one obviously hadn't healed much and she wondered if she should apply more potion.

Since Joey wasn't there to confirm this, she didn't dare. She also didn't want to wake him up.

Not yet, because she wasn't done looking at him in the daylight. At his hair, so black it seemed to have blue highlights, at the lines of his face, the way the short stubble covered his jaw making him even more attractive. And now that she knew his eyes were blue, she could almost see their color everywhere.

This was unusual. She was not and had never been a shallow person. Had he been a stranger on the street, one not hiding behind a wolf mask, she'd have looked once, appreciated the beauty, and walked away. Never looking back, never giving him a second thought.

But now... She knew he was intelligent, well-read, kind, even if he tried so much to hide it, brave, very good with swords and so... Charming. And he cared for her, even if he never fully said it because he thought her hatred would save her life.

He'd locked her in a place the beast inside him couldn't reach. He encouraged her curiosity and intelligence. He made her better even if he tried to hide it behind snark and bad manners.

She stepped closer, watching his peaceful face. He must have been freezing. So she took his cloak off her shoulders and draped it over him. For a few more seconds, she just watched him, her heart thumping loudly. Fluttering. And yet, she was not a stone statue and it didn't make any sense.

The answer could be found somewhere inside that very castle.

Her mind made up, Kat exited the study and glanced at the portraits across the hall. Most of the inhabitants were gone, the frames showing the clumsy paintings. Joey's frame was empty.