Enchantra (Wicked Games, #2)

by Kaylie Smith

“Rowin?” “Yes?” “Thank you for waiting for me,”

And I fear that even winning the Hunt and freeing him will not be enough to keep him. His guilt will always chain him to this place. As mine chains me to Grimm Manor.

“But you and I have made our own choices. No matter what they’re saying, or wagering on, or voting on, we have chosen our path here. I cannot imagine how hard this has been for you. How exhausting it probably is thinking you finally have a handle on your emotions, only for the game to turn everything on its head an hour later. And I know a lot of that is my fault. But you’re not alone.”

I don’t know who told you that you weren’t good enough, but they were fucking wrong. You’re more than good enough. Your heart is more than good enough. No matter how many times it has been burned. How many scars it might have.

“Yes, trouble?” “I’ll race you,”

“Touch her. I dare you,” Rowin snarled.

“Of course we have fans. Look at us.” “Well, yes,”

He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against her knuckles.

“Genevieve found another immunity token. And she’s my wife,” Rowin told him. “Where I go, she goes.”

“You got me a gift?” He held it out to her in offering. “Happy birthday, trouble.”

“And that’s exactly the problem,” he said, tone gruff. “I do care for you, Genevieve.”

“I turned him down, Genevieve,” he murmured. “I would never… I could never…”

“Then maybe I was made for you

“How else have you managed to get so deep under my skin in such a short amount of time? Why is it that every time I try to imagine what it would be like to sever our vows, I feel like the Hunting Blade is piercing my heart? Fifteen years I’ve lived for everyone else around me. I’ve withered away in this damned place. Until you showed up and you made me laugh. You gave me hope.”

“Shadows can only be seen in the presence of light,” he told her, the words agonized. “I worry when you leave, there will be no one left to see me.”

“You’re my favorite fucking flavor,”

“Hell, I could stay here forever.”

“Ride me.”

“You’re the most stunning person I’ve ever seen.” The only thing she could think to say was, “Obviously.”

“How long have you had it? Am I the first one who’s…” “Seen it? Licked it?” Rowin murmured. “Yes.”

“I already told you once, Grave, she’s mine. You are not going to take her from me.”

She’s mine. She’s mine. She’s mine.

Hell was made of swirling darkness and secrets just like the man in front of her.

“You love me,” he started.

“You are mine.”

Genevieve had gone to Enchantra looking for the reason that she felt she had never belonged in her family. And she had found him. Someone who made her a part of his own family. Whether she had been ready or not.

“I am yours,” she vowed. “Take good care of my soul, alright?”

I’ve got you, he whispered.

Rowin. Rowin. Row… Ro

“I will suffer a million times over if it makes your sister happy. Which means I will eat a million pieces of this Hellish candy.”

It is a cruel thing. To be looked on as a stranger by the one who knows you best. It is cruel that I was given a taste of what my eternity could have been filled with—your smile, your pleasure, your humor—only to have it ripped away from me in seconds. It is cruel that if your memories never come back that it would only be fair to let you go. The problem is, Genevieve, that I can’t. That I never will.

And I know your memories have not come back even with these letters, and that means they likely never will. But I will never stop searching for a way to get them back for you. I will search for the rest of my eternity if I must, because it belongs to you already. I pledge it to you in my vows. I understand if you do not feel the same. If you need to move on with your life. Our vows may have said “eternally,” but as I told you then, nothing is ever truly eternal. Except my longing for you.

“Lingering in the shadows until you found me.”

“That’s not true,” she swore. “Even without any of my memories, I felt drawn to you. We could be enemies, or husband and wife, or just fucking, but never nothing, Rowington Silver.”

“Before you, I was going to spend my eternity alone, in the darkest parts of Hell. I’d much rather spend a single lifetime in your light. Or, at least, for however long you’ll have me.”

“I want you to know, I really would have waited for you, right here, forever if that’s what it would have taken. I would have stood in this spot until I could no longer distinguish my own soul ...

“Does that mean… does that mean there are strings now?” “As many as you want, Mrs. Silver. And tie them down as t...

As he scooped her up into his arms and headed for the stairs, she laughed. Grateful to herself for clawing her way through the darkness, and the light that followed them everywhere now.