Chapter 54
Aric
POPPY LOOKS . . . INCREDIBLE. STUNNING. HER hair hangs in loose waves around her warm brown cheeks, and her eyes shine in the candlelight as she leads me down a corridor just outside the ballroom.
I’ve never been in Ravenscroft Castle before, and I expected to be more curious about it—about the waitstaff, the soaring walls and windows, the suits of armor and artwork displayed in gilded frames—but Poppy is all I see.
The dress she wears hugs her delicate frame, and the long skirt whispers across the polished marble floor as I follow her down the corridor. Like on Samhain, enchanted candles float through the air, and I have to brush one out of my path, sending it drifting off in another direction.
Poppy leads us to a set of doors, where guards are posted on either side.
At first, I wonder if we’re not supposed to be in this part of the castle, but then they open the doors, and Poppy thanks them in her small voice before stepping through.
I follow her lead, passing the armored knights and moving into the room on the other side.
It’s a solarium, and the glass walls and ceiling let in silver moonlight. The blue moon rises above us against a black sky glittering with stars.
The doors to the solarium close with a gentle click, and then it’s just us—me and Poppy, alone under the moonlight, with only the burbling of fountains to break the silence between us.
She doesn’t face me at first. Instead, she stands there in the silver moonbeams, surrounded by plants and water features and couches tucked into quaint little nooks. Her shoulders, which are bare but for the two tiny straps of her dress, rise and fall with a heavy sigh. Then she turns to face me.
And when her eyes meet mine, I finally realize why she looks so different.
She doesn’t have her glasses on tonight. I can see her lavender eyes without any glass to break my view.
And I can see the moment her eyes start to grow moist with tears.
“Poppy—” I start forward, but she holds up a hand to stop me.
“I’m sorry, Aric.” Her voice is gentle, so quiet that it almost gets lost in the sound of the water burbling nearby.
My shoes fall still on the floor. “For what?”
She draws another breath, seeming to steel herself. “For not fighting for you. For being dishonest. And for walking away . . . when it was the last thing I wanted to do.”
A pang of hope and pain shoots through my chest.
“I kept having these bad dreams,” she continues, her voice trembling but her gaze holding steady on me.
“When you said you didn’t need tutoring anymore and started missing our plans, I convinced myself that you were pulling away.
That you’d realized I wasn’t . . . enough.
That maybe we didn’t make sense together.
” She wraps her arms around herself, and I have to clench my fists to keep from reaching for her and pulling her into an embrace.
“And then in the library, when you said we should take a break, I just . . . fell apart. I said things I didn’t mean. ”
A tear slips down her cheek, catching the light from the blue moon. Again, I have to keep myself from reaching out to brush it away.
“But I didn’t mean any of it. I was just trying to protect myself from getting hurt, but instead, I hurt you. And I’m so, so sorry.”
Her voice breaks on the last word, and watching her cry, seeing the pain written across her face, makes my throat go tight. I want to tell her it’s okay, that I forgive her, that none of this was her fault. But she speaks before I can.
“I’ve spent the last week being miserable,” she whispers, “regretting every word I said to you. I wanted to take it all back, but I thought I’d already ruined everything.” She looks up at me, lavender eyes swimming with tears. “But I can’t keep running from this. From you.”
“Poppy—” I try again, my voice rough.
“I love you,” she says.
The words hit me like a physical blow, taking the breath from my lungs.
“I love you so much, and I should have said it weeks ago. I should have been brave enough to tell you instead of running away.”
My chest feels too tight, like my heart might burst right through my ribs.
Slowly, I close the distance between us, stopping just close enough that I could reach out and touch her if I wanted to. And goddess, I want to.
“I’m sorry too,” I say. “For all of it. When I told you I didn’t need tutoring anymore, I thought I was being considerate, giving you your time back, but it came out all wrong.
Like you didn’t matter. Like what we had was just .
. . convenient.” I curl my fingers into tight fists at my sides.
“I was drowning in exam prep and worrying about everything going wrong, and I didn’t communicate that to you.
I just disappeared and left you wondering what you’d done wrong. ”
“Aric—”
“And then I told you we should take a break.” I have to fight to keep my voice steady.
“Like you were just another stress I couldn’t handle instead of the person who made everything bearable.
The person who made me believe I could actually succeed.
” I take a shaky breath. “You asked me in the library if I’d already moved on to Faunwood without you, but, Poppy .
. . I can’t imagine anything without you. ”
My voice cracks, and I have to pause, blinking hard against the burning in my eyes, trying not to cry. But when I look at Poppy—at this brilliant, beautiful girl who just told me she loves me—my vision blurs anyway.
“You made me feel smart. Not just capable of passing classes, but actually intelligent. Like my thoughts mattered.” My hands are shaking now, and I shove them into my pockets to hide it. “And I threw it away because I was a coward.”
“You’re not a coward,” she whispers.
“I am.” I let out a humorless laugh. “I’ve been miserable without you too. And I’m so sorry it took so long for me to finally get my head out of my ass and realize I need to fight for this. For us.”
I take another step closer. Close enough now that I can see the tracks of tears on her cheeks, the way her lips are parted slightly, the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
“I love you too,” I say, and saying it out loud feels like stepping off a cliff.
It’s terrifying and exhilarating all at once.
“I love you, Poppy Waverly. I love your brilliant mind and your smile and the way you look at me like I’m capable of anything.
I love that you see past all the surface stuff to the person underneath. ”
“Aric,” she breathes, and then she’s closing the distance between us, her hands coming up to grip the lapels of my jacket.
I cup her face in my hands, my thumbs brushing away the tears on her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Brains.”
“I’m sorry too,” she whispers, and then she rises up onto her toes and kisses me.
The world narrows to this—her lips on mine, soft and desperate and perfect. I pull her closer, one hand sliding into her hair while the other wraps around her waist, and she makes a small sound against my mouth that sends heat racing through my veins.
This is what I’ve been missing. It’s a feeling of coming home.
I deepen our kiss, and she moves her hands to my neck, draping her arms around me and pulling me close. Gone is the hesitation she had the first few times we kissed. Now she feels sure, like she knows exactly what she wants.
And I must be the luckiest man in the world, because I think what she wants is me.
We break apart only when we need to breathe, but I don’t let her go far. I rest my forehead against hers, both of us breathing hard, and for a moment, we just stand there under the moonlight, holding each other like we’re afraid the other might disappear.
“I missed you,” she whispers.
“I missed you too.” I press a kiss to her forehead, then her temple, then the corner of her mouth. “So much. And I have something for you,” I murmur against her skin.
She pulls back slightly, confusion and curiosity mixing in her expression. “What?”
I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out the small velvet box I’ve been carrying with me since this afternoon, my heart suddenly hammering again.
“I bought this for you. In Wysteria.” I open the box to reveal the silver hairpin shaped like a crescent moon, the gemstone in its center winking in the light.
“I saw you looking at it that day we walked through town together. And I wanted you to have it.”
Her eyes go wide, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. “Aric,” she whispers. “That’s—you really didn’t have to—”
“I wanted to.” I lift the hairpin in careful fingers, then slip the empty box back into my pocket. “Can I . . . ?”
She nods, turning slightly so I can reach her hair.
My hands shake a bit as I gather a section of her silky lavender hair, carefully sliding the hairpin into place.
When I’m done, I turn her back to face me, and her expression makes my heart catch.
“Gorgeous,” I murmur.
“The hairpin?” she asks with a small smile.
“You.”
Her gaze flicks up to meet mine. “You’re gorgeous too,” she whispers, making my cheeks heat.
Then she kisses me again, and this time there’s more heat to it.
Her fingers slide up into my hair, loosening my topknot, and I groan against her mouth as her nails scrape lightly against my scalp.
My hands drift down either side of her waist to rest on her hips, and for a moment, I wonder if I could tear this dress off her, if I could take her right here.
Then I remind myself that we’re in the castle and two armored knights are standing on the other side of that door. That realization tempers me, just slightly.
When we finally break apart, Poppy’s brown cheeks are flushed, and we’re both breathing hard.
“We should . . .” She pauses, biting her lip. “We should probably get back to the ball. Before someone wonders where we are.”
“One more kiss?” I ask, my hands still resting on her hips, thumbs brushing along the silken fabric. “Then we’ll go.”
“Just one?”
“Well, maybe two.”
“Three,” she counters, her eyes sparkling.
“Deal.”
I kiss her once, twice, three times, each one slower and sweeter than the last. And when I finally, reluctantly step back, I take her hand in mine and lace our fingers together.
“Ready?” I ask.
She looks at our joined hands, then up at me, and the smile she gives me is worth every terrible moment of the last week, even if I wish I could erase all that pain from her memory. I’d bear it all if I could.
“Ready.”
Hand in hand, we walk toward the doors of the solarium, then back down the hallway to the ballroom, back to the music and the dancing and the beginning of something new—a second chance after everything we almost lost.