Tabitha bent down, picked up the thermos and unscrewed its cap to pour a stream of black coffee into the travel cup, and passed it to me. Splendid heat warmed my cold fingers. I moaned again at the rich smell wafting in thin wisps from the cup. I swallowed down a mouthful and the hot bitter notes comforted my throat and belly.

Finishing the coffee, I handed back the cup to her, letting my fingers brush against hers and enjoying that zing once more as it arrowed down my spine. Enjoying it even more when her pupils dilated the moment we'd touched.

"What are you doing out here?" I glanced around at the thicket enclosing us, and at the sinister shadows beyond, and frowned. "You're further in the forest than you should be."

She casually shrugged, her braid swaying, as if to dismiss what I'd just said. "I've gone deeper and this far in isn't dangerous. Besides, out here I can find the best mushrooms," she answered while fitting the travel cup back on the thermos.

"Mushrooms?"

She gestured to a small pile of fawn-colored fungi beside her open rucksack. "Mr. Chen stews them in cream with shallots and rosemary and has them for breakfast on toast. I thought I'd take them back to him. He's not doing so well after..." she blinked rapidly and the words trailed away.

"After?" I softly urged. Wiping droplets of water from my face I slowly moved further under the shelter of the oak. Ruthless ivy strangling its branches and provided additional cover from the chilly rain.

Tabitha's lips curled downward along with her gaze to the thermos in her hands as sorrow deepened the lines around her mouth. Her gumboots crushed blades of grass as she nervously shifted her weight. She angled her head and looked back up at me. "Jurgana... His brother died."

Oh...

"That's really thoughtful." Sweet. Adorable. Kind-hearted. Even more so because of the way she'd said it gently, worried that it would stir up my own grief over my brother's death.

"It's the least I can do." She stared up at the boughs above with their dying leaves and released a soft sigh. "It's so weird, you know, that life carries on in small everyday ways after something so tragic and wrong."

It was the same after Gratian. I thought the world should have ended. For months afterward it had been hard to suck in a single breath of air without it hurting.

And then small things needed to be dealt with. Decisions had to be made on behalf of my mother, then our House, and leading the warband against the crime syndicates revolting against our reign forced me back to the living once more. Not fully, my guilt wouldn't allow it.

However, the past week and my encounters with Tabitha and her craziness had awoken me from a slumber I hadn't realized I'd been in. I felt like the forest on mornings such as this one, the shower of rainfall spilling through boughs and along leaves, soaking into the earth to bring life to sleepy seeds; crisp icy air licking my skin and suffusing my lungs to jolt me awake and bring me to life.

Freezing water sluiced through my fingers as I raked my hand through my hair, pushing it from my forehead and startled, caught off guard by how short it was. It took a moment to remember that Rosa had cut it all off yesterday. Beneath all that shaggy facial hair I'd hidden behind for far too long was a face I knew was good-looking and like a sad fucking sap, I'd done it in the hopes I'd impress Tabitha.

Afterward, as I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I looked the same but it wasn't me. Not the guy I remembered. How I'd failed Gratian had changed me fundamentally. Though the custom suit fitted perfectly it felt different, I felt different. Vibrant color saturated the world around me. And the reason for it all was standing before me—a girl with sunshine smiles and a wicked sense of humor—flicking the tartan rug to shake off dry bark and wet leaves sticking to the material, folding it up neatly, and tucking it into the canvas bag.

I scooped up the book that had fallen on the ground and wiped the cold beads of moisture from its tattered cover. "What are you doing out here reading, anyway?" It seemed like a miserable place to read. On a day like today, sitting by the fireside seemed a cozier way to enjoy a good book.

Tabitha surprised me once again when she answered. "I like being in nature. It's invigorating." She drew in a deep breath as she turned to face the clearing, her gaze flitting about the trees with their vivid and glistening greens and dark stained trunks. "Smell that? Rain brings the forest to life."

I almost outwardly startled at how she'd seemed to have read my earlier thoughts.

She looked my way, and astonishment, I suppose, at my open and awestruck expression, had her eyes flaring wide. Big white teeth bit down on her bottom lip as she tried to dampen her smile. In the end, it matched mine—broad and beaming. With one last swift glance at me beneath her lashes she twisted away to collect the mushrooms, quickly bundling them up in a muslin cloth and placing them carefully on top of the rug.

I looked down at the book in my hands. It was clearly a romance, thankfully Fabio wasn't on the cover, but it still had some dark-haired broody guy, all bare-chested and brawny. I raised an eyebrow at Tabitha's profile. "Do you like brawny guys, Miss Cat?"

Her wide-eyed gaze sliced to mine and to the book. Her posture slouched as she tipped her head back and made an ugh sound at being caught out.

"Are brawny guys your thing?"

Her mouth twitched with a smile. "On occasion."

"Because I'm all brawny," I purred with a cocky wink, tugging at my sweat and rain-soaked t-shirt. "Anytime you want me out of this, let me know."

She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to squeezing the thermos into an outside pocket of her bag.

Then I really took in the book cover. "What the hells kind of book is this?"

Tabitha pursed her mouth and her nose scrunched as she made a thoughtful humming noise as she came closer to peer at the cover as if she'd never seen it before. "Well, hmmm...it's the third book in a series of Princesses trying their hands at a new career?"

The Princess and the Mechanic—literary, it was not.

"She's barely wearing anything."

Tabitha scoffed. "She's got a t-shirt on."

A really tiny t-shirt that barely conceals anything.

"And his hand is right there," I pointed out to her.

Right between her legs.

"Is this an erotica, Miss Catt?"

"Nooooo," she said, shaking her head slowly from side to side. But I caught her crossing her fingers as she tucked a hand behind her back.

I squinted and waved the book cover in front of her face. "Is she having an orgasm, Miss Catt?"

"More than freaking one," I heard her mutter quietly as she snatched the book off me and quickly shoved it inside the rucksack. She hissed over her shoulder, "There's a,"—she paused—"good story amongst all that heat."

My gaze slid sideways. "I'm sure."

Then I noticed something that had fluttered free from the book and was almost hidden amongst fern fronds growing between the gnarled roots of the oak tree. I bent down to pick it up. It seemed to be a piece of paper, folded over so that it resembled a bookmark and I could see an imprint of writing on the inside. It looked well used, much like the book. I didn't think much about it until Tabitha reacted, swiveling around with a strangled shriek, lurching forward and trying to snatch it off me.

I jerked back, confused and curious at her sudden burst of panic, and held the paper out of reach. She jumped up trying to grab it from me, but I was way too tall for her to be able to do that. I tsked her. "Well, well, well...what do we have here?"

Embarrassment flamed her cheeks a bright red. "Nothing," she cried, absolutely mortified. "Please, don't," she begged. But I'd already half-twisted away, unfolding the paper to have a look.

It was a list.

A long fucking list.

"Holy hells," I gasped. My eyes grew wider and wider at what was written. "Holy shit, holy shit..."

I glanced over my shoulder at Tabitha who patted her fire-red cheeks and explained weakly, "It's just things I came across that sounded...interesting."

Spanking and tying her up with lace to my bed was tame compared to some of the more interesting acts on her list.

My bottom lip jutted forward. "What is this Pop Rock thing?"

She tugged the front of her hat lower and her fretful gaze played peekaboo beneath the fluffy edge. "Please don't make me explain that," she groaned.

A low whistle left my lips as I continued skimming the list. "Glad to see orgasms in glassware cupboards are on here too."

She barked a laugh, dropping her hands to her middle. "You know it isn't."

"Well, maybe we should add it and then tick it off."

Her red cheeks died to their natural skin-kissed hue as she slowly relaxed, shaking her head at herself. "No one was ever supposed to find that list," she said miserably, twining her fingers together. "That's why I read those books out here, so I won't be caught out."

There were a few things on here I was intrigued about too, but a few things I sure as hells wasn't comfortable with her experimenting with. The list made a slapping sound when I struck it against my palm, advancing on her.

Suddenly uneasy, she backed up until her spine hit the oak tree. The fissured bark grazed my palm when I rested a hand on the gnarled trunk behind her. "Ménage à trois?"

She rallied her confidence and attitude. Bracing a hand on her hip, she cocked an eyebrow, leaning her upper body forward, and challenged me right back. "What girl hasn't thought of being with two guys?"

I bowed my head and snarled, "I don't share."

Her eyelashes fluttered wide. Then she scoffed at me, presuming she knew differently. "Come on, what guy hasn't thought of being with two girls?"

I got right in her face. I was so close I could claim those lips, and I really wanted to kiss her, but she needed to hear this first. "There's only one girl I want to fuck and that's you."

She didn't voice it aloud but I saw her lips purse in an Oh, as a pleased feeling made her cheeks a little rosier and eyes a little brighter. "That's weirdly sweet. And also the most feral thing I've ever heard," she breathed slowly.

Her gaze slowly dipped to my mouth. A tingling electric sensation followed the path her hungry caress swept across my lips. And fucked if my godsdamned blood didn't blaze through my veins as hot as wildfyre in response.

Hellsgate.

It blurted out of me. "Go out with me."

She sucked in a sharp gasp. "Go out with you? Like on a date?"

I nodded because I didn't trust myself to be able to speak properly. There were silvery threads stuck to her pompom, a few more tangled on her braid and dusting the shoulders of her raincoat. The tacky threads stuck to my fingers as I pulled the spider web from her hair, but I was more spellbound with Tabitha and those vibrant eyes of hers staring back at me, the golden flecks sparkling with wonder. The richness of their color much as I remembered from when we were kids, a brilliant ocean green, their depth endless.

She melted against the tree, closed her eyes, and said softly, "Ask me again."

There were very few times in my life I'd been nervous and this was one of them. "Tabitha Catt, would you like to go out on a date with me?"

Her teeth dragged against her dusky-rose lips before her mouth curved into a glorious smile, and it was like the rising sun and its heat kissing my face and warming my body all the way to my bones. And that sweet cheek of hers dimpled.

Fuck.

I waited with my heart drumming a staccato beat in my chest and blood rushing in my ears.

She expelled the word on her breath. "No."

Shock barrelled through me. I jerked back at the same time her eyes flashed open. "No?"

"It's a lovely offer. Truly. Thank you, but no," she replied, gently but firmly. Plucking her list from my lax grip she ducked under my arm and hastily trampled over to the broken tree trunk. I spun around following her movement. Grabbing her bag, she slung it over a shoulder. Her words were rushed. "I'm actually super busy at present and I have no time for dating."

What the hells?

Frankly, I was dumbfounded. "Busy with what?"

Tabitha started walking backward, green blades of wild grass sweeping against her gumboots. "Work, life, the usual things," she said vaguely, rainfall sparkling on her pink hat and dampening her raincoat.

I took a step out from beneath the oak's shelter toward her. "Bullshit."

She startled and stilled. Then her features grew sharper, the cute freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks contrasted against her complexion paling with her spiked ire. Exasperation tainted her tone. "How do you think all this would end between us? We go out for a few dates, secretly, because no one could ever know that we were seeing one another. I don't want my first date ever in my entire life to be skulking around in the shadows. Never being able to talk to my aunt about it and share with her in the excitement."

I tried desperately to think of something to say, to convince her otherwise, but she carried on talking, her voice rising to a shrill note as she flung a hand wide. "You know what we are, what that means."

"I like you."—I really fucking like you—"I want to get to know you better."

She took a step back, and then another, the leafy shrubs curling around her as she stepped into their embrace. The sigh she heaved was pained. She glanced upward, her lips quivering before she brought her gaze back to mine. Silver shimmered in her eyes, the corners glistening with tears. "I like you too. But I need to look after this," she said, the rain almost drowning out her words as she placed a hand over her heart.

And then she was gone.

It was deafening inside my head. In the background came faint distant slaps and snaps of the forest's understory as Tabitha shoved through, the soft whisper of rain, but it was nothing to the loud vicious pain cracking apart my chest.

What about my heart?

A rumble of thunder rippled across the black sky above and I stood in the open while the storm clouds unleashed icy droplets that splattered over my body, plastering my hair and clothes to my skin. Misery and despair sank through me as frigid water ran in rivulets down my soaking figure.

Tabitha had a point, a very valid and real one. I was an heir and she was a servant.

Hardly anyone had bucked the tradition of our world and the unions between Upper Ranks, we were one of the few who had and we'd lost our seat as Great House because of it.

Yet...

Yet Tabitha and I might not be able to have a relationship out in the open, but we could still have something.

At my sides, my numbing fingers clenched as iron resolve straightened my spine.

Crowthers didn't back down, nor did they give up. Hells, centuries ago my family had been on the brink of extinction and we'd survived, rising through the ranks to raise our House from the nobodies to a Lower one with the sole intention of reclaiming our position as Great House.

I sure as fuck wasn't going to give up on Tabitha Catt.

The weight of wretchedness dissolved from my shoulders and hope was a ray of summer sunshine. I'd pushed into motion, wading through the ferns and grasses determined to catch up with her, when a strange tacky feeling had me lifting my hand and frowning.

It was a struggle to pull apart my fingers from the silvery threads, not quite binding them together, but not too far off it either. Anyone else would have needed help to free themselves.

My footsteps faltered.

Shock infused with dread chilled my bones.

Fear had my gaze shooting to the point in the murky forest where Tabitha had disappeared and my stomach went into freefall as an alarming and grim sensation slithered beneath my skin.

Because these weren't ordinary spider webs, they were krekenn webs.