Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hyacinth
Hyacinth lied about the dream. In fact, there were no dreams. She was stuck in a nightmare.
Another instance of watching Sabine hurt someone, but the image was interrupted by a pair of bunny teeth.
They sank into her toes, and she woke with a yelp.
She’d almost kicked Snuffles if she hadn’t been so thankful for being interrupted.
Then she realized she was at the bedroom door, trying and failing to open it.
Someone’s locked it. She slumped back to bed more irritated than anything.
But the sky was a deep orange and the trees around Rosemont Manor left shadows everywhere.
She didn’t want to look at anything in fear Sabine would show up again.
So, she crawled under the blankets and curled up against Austin.
He snored so sweetly, it was comforting.
She didn’t mean to wake him. Keeping her mind busy with digesting the words Greggory spoke by drawing swirls into Austin’s chest seemed like the wisest course of action.
Pfft, as if I decided this. Her hands kept wandering of their own free will.
From his neck to his arms, to the stitches on his hip.
That’s when she saw his cock jump in his pants and she got..
well, distracted. Her intentions changed immediately.
I think I should feel guilty…but I don’t.
Not at all. Especially after, while she sat in Austin’s lap in her bathtub.
Somehow, during the night, her bathtub was made three times the size it was before.
It basically became a hot tub, no longer a claw footed porcelain contraption.
It was built into an ash wood frame, a long, squash shaped basin that fit both of them and then some comfortably.
“Austin,” she whispered, realizing the funny feeling she had was simply because she lied. She shifted to look up at him. “I might have lied about the dream.”
“What do you mean?” He furrowed his brow.
“I didn’t dream about us having sex. I just, was lying there and was touching you…then I just sort of felt like it.”
His head fell back as a full-bellied laugh filled the bathroom. She would have shrank if he didn’t immediately wrap his big arms around her and hug her tight. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“It didn’t sound as appealing in the moment,” she confessed with a non-committal shrug. “The ache between my legs was because of you, it was just sort of random. And I really wanted you to fuck me.”
Austin snorted. “You honestly could have just said that, and I would have.”
Hyacinth tried to hold off the smile, but then he kissed the side of her head, and it grew on her lips.
He hugged her tighter while peppering her hair with more kisses.
All until she sighed dreamily, leaning her head back against his shoulder.
He cupped her cheek, turning her face till he could leave a soft, tender kiss against her lips.
They sat in the steaming bath, quiet for a long time.
Soaking in the minty healing salts that eased the sting between her legs.
If she were being honest, she considered asking him for more.
There was a hunger deep in her belly that craved more.
Yet, she couldn’t bring herself the speak the desire into existence.
She needed answers.
“Austin,” she broke the comfortable silence finally, reaching for the loofa covered in soap. She started with her toes and shins, filling the bath with foamy bubbles. “Will you tell me what I was made for?”
He sighed, “It won’t make you feel better.”
“Why do you get to decide how it makes me feel?” she asked, twisting to look over her shoulder.
Austin stared at her, glowing red orbs studying her face. With another sigh of defeat, he glanced down to the water. “I do not wish to put pressure on you. I never wanted you to feel obligated.”
“Why would I feel pressure?” She stopped cleaning her thighs to turn to him more.
“Because you were made to make me happy,” he confessed, unable to look her in the eye.
Hyacinth stopped completely. Time stood still.
She stared at the man incredulously. I was made…
for Austin? She blinked. And blinked. And blinked through her dry eyes before the giggles bubbled up through her chest. Austin jerked, gaze darting up to her face in befuddlement.
She sputtered before deep belly laughter spilled out of her. She lost grip on the loofa.
“Hyacinth?” He grimaced, studying her as she laughed harder. That’s it? That’s all it was? Why would that—
“That’s it? I was just made to make you happy?” She gasped for air.
“Well, I was really sad there for a while and Lord Rosemont was worried about me. I just didn’t want you to think you had to make me happy.
” He flapped his arms about, avoiding her gaze once more.
If he could blush, really blush, she could just imagine pink coloring his cheeks and tinting the tips of his ears.
“But that’s what I was made for!” She cackled harder.
“Yeah, what if you didn’t like me?” he huffed.
“I do like you.” She arched a brow back at him.
“What if you didn’t want to be with me.”
“I do want to be with you.”
“Well, I didn’t want you to feel like you had to. If you were going to like me. If you were going to be one of us, I didn’t want you to feel…burdened by it.”
Hyacinth frowned, twisting more till she was straddling his lap once more. Arms dangling over his shoulder, she forced him to fully look her in the eye. “Austin, the only burden here is me.”
“What!” he squawked. “You’re not a burden.”
She tilted her head an inch to the right and speared him with an incredulous look. “I’m possessed by a ghost who wants to kill people.”
“Everyone has quirks.” Austin shrugged. “Kevin eats brains! And we don’t judge him for that.”
She squinted at him. You know that’s not the same.
Austin sat back against the back of the tub for a long time.
Hyacinth still felt like a burden. Dangerous.
But, seeing him smile, his hands finding her sides in the warm water just to hold her close?
That made it easier. Seeing his face brighten as he tugged?
Like it were a suggestion that she could kiss him and he’d like nothing more?
She melted against his lips. Their kiss made all her muscles dissolve into mush and her bones disintegrate.
She leaned all her weight against him. His hands roamed her back.
One tangled in her knotted hair, the other flat against her spine.
Maybe she’s not as much of a burden as she thought…not if he kissed her like that.
She broke the kiss to rasp against his lips, “If I was made for you, why did you avoid me at first?”
He wheezed, “Because the first thing you saw when you woke was me and you screamed in terror.”
Hyacinth straightened, glaring down at him. “What?”
“You opened your eyes, saw me, and screamed.” he repeated, eyebrows knitted down on his face in confusion.
“I didn’t see you. I mean, I kind of did…but Austin, that’s not why I screamed. Is that why you didn’t want me to see you? You thought I was scared of you?” She felt a lick of fury climb up her chest as she stared at him.
“Why would you scream if you weren’t scared?” he huffed right back at her.
“I. Like. Screaming!” she snapped, pushing off his chest to sit back on her calves. “I constantly want to scream but everyone’s always scared of screaming. What is so wrong with wanting to scream? It’s never screaming time and I’m really kind of tired of not being able to just scream!”
When she stopped, she found Austin studying her. After a moment, he pulled up the loofa and applied more soap to it. “I’ll see what I can do about more screaming time.”
She groaned, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand. They’re so itchy. “Thank you, Austin, but you don’t—”
Austin pulled her fists from her eyes, kissing her knuckles.
Then he put the loofa back in her hand and nodded at her body.
“Scrub up; it’s dinner time and I can hear Agatha in the bedroom.
We can’t do any screaming time inside the house.
It’ll scare the ghouls and Moonpie, but…
I’ll see what I can do. Plus, I gotta get some squonk tears for you. ”
Austin pulled her face close to kiss her forehead before he fished himself out of the bath. She followed him with her gaze as he pulled a large towel around him.
Did you really think I was scared of you that whole time?
Silly boy. She couldn’t help another bubble of laughter floating up through her chest as he returned to the side of the tub.
He left another kiss to her brow before rushing out of the room.
I love the way you smile. She leaned against the edge of the tub dreamily.
Agatha floated down into the doorway, grinning like a cat with a mouse in her paw.
“What’s screaming time?” Agatha wiggled her eyebrows at Hyacinth.
“Time for screaming.” Hyacinth shrugged, returning to scrubbing off her body.
“I really should have seen that coming,” Agatha snickered, floating further into the bathroom. “You ready to dance?”
“Dance?”
“Oh…oh, you’re in for a wonderful surprise!”
Hyacinth squealed as Austin twirled her for the fourth time.
Her feet were tangled up like willow branches in a rainstorm.
Then Lord Rosemont cut in as he had before, spinning her around in a circle, the pair laughing as she stepped up onto his shoes to keep from tripping over him.
As they turned around another bend, she took a hold of Smith by the arms. His gloves pressed into the sides of her dress as he tugged her into another turn.
Panting for air, she let the slender lead, much as she had everyone else.
It was a ballroom of swirling fabric and clicking shoes.
There was music somewhere but all she could hear was the sound of everyone having a good time.
Smith hoisted her up for one of the lifts and she shrieked in delight once more.
The second her shoes touched the floor again, she wheezed, “I need water.”
“Allow me.” Austin reappeared at her side, trading Agatha for Hyacinth.
She twisted into his arms and let him spin her out of the dancing crowd.
A dizzy giggle floated out of her as she stumbled backward to the large table at the edge of the ballroom.
Austin put a hand at the small over back, holding her up as he grabbed one of the many cups they pre-poured with water.
Moonpie was banished to her own table where Dahlia gave the undead feline a flight of wine glasses full of water to ensure she didn’t put her fuzzy muzzle in everyone else’s.
Carl slept under the table full of food, keeping it warm with his dancing flames.
The only animal not designated a space was Snuffles.
He sat under Moonpie’s table, watching as the cat knocked over the glasses only to have them magically righted.
Havershum refused to let the bunny be loose in the house, so to ease his worries, they brought him in to dance. Not that I mind having my buddy nearby.
Hyacinth found her footing once more as she took up a cool glass of water and tossed it back.
She took a moment to straighten out her skirt.
Agatha told her that Austin made it for her.
It was a soft lavender-colored satin, that flowed out from her hips.
The ruffled sleeve chemise under the corset made her think of flowers.
It was puffy and drapey over her arm, little ribbons dripped with hyacinth flowers around her arms. She felt like a fairy in it, the kind Greggory showed her yesterday in the books. The ones from old tales.
She still hadn’t wrapped her head around Old Fae.
Was she a monster? Or was she just a person that others were scared of…
if Sabine wasn’t in the picture, she’d think they were all being ridiculous.
Hyacinth wasn’t any of those things, she was just Hyacinth.
And every day she learned more about what that entailed but for what all she knew, she wasn’t scary.
It was the world that was scary.
“This is so fun!” She panted for air. “Why do we not dance every day?”
“We would get nothing done,” Austin chuckled, sipping his water slowly. “You are okay? The heels do not hurt your feet.”
“If they did, you and I don’t feel pain like that,” she retorted.
Austin stared at her blankly before humming, “You’ve got a point.”
Hyacinth stared at him, breathless and woozy but upright.
He set her back against the wall then leaned his arm against the space over her head.
There was a strange tingling on her scalp.
It continued down her back and into her calves.
Her wings fluttered sheepishly behind her and smacked against the wall until she forced them to stop.
“I know it’s not morning,” she murmured. “But can I kiss your cheek.”
“Hyacinth, you can kiss me any—” She didn’t let him finish, bursting up two inches off the floor to kiss his cheek. Then, with all the brazen confidence of a fairy in love, she stole a kiss from his lips. Austin sighed, dreamily as she floated back down. “—time.”
“I’m having a good time. And I know you’re worried I’m saying that because my purpose is to make you happy. But I’m not, I’m having a good time because you made me a pretty dress and swung me around and made my brain go all tingly and this was really fun.”
Austin ducked his head, scratching at the back of it. “You mean it?”
“Of course I mean it,” she teased, grabbing him by the vest to tug him closer. He stumbled into the second kiss. Her left leg popped up behind her, the heel flat against the wall and wings fluttering against his arm. But despite all that…it was perfect.
Hyacinth hadn’t been alive very long, but she couldn’t imagine a better moment. His arm slipping down to curl around her, the gentle feel of his kiss, the sound of their family dancing around in circles behind them.
It was…a dream.
A dream that was quickly disrupted as Snuffles decided he’d had enough. He bound up from the floor, nipping Moonpie’s tail. Who, in retaliation, howled and ran away, causing Carl to wake up, bark, and chase the other two through the ballroom. Havershum yelled, “See! I told you that bunny was evil!”
“Don’t touch Snuffles! He’s just a rabbit!” Hyacinth bellowed as she raced across the room to stop the wraith, Austin hot on her heels.