Vivienne Von Vexx's Arc

Chapter 16 of 21

After sunset, Vivienne saw a small fire burning across the black river. She pressed her hand to her pocket, where the silver ring sat warm against her palm. Its tiny carved flowers caught the moonlight when she drew it out. She slipped from the castle without a sound. Alastair and Montague were far across the grove, kneeling over a wounded deer that had stumbled bleeding through the hedges. The animal would keep them busy until dawn. She crossed the bridge and followed the smell of smoke. A tent stood on the far bank, neat and small, with a journal open by the fire and pressed leaves drying on a stone. The hunter sat inside, curly hair bright against the canvas. He looked up and stood at once. He said he had tried to stay away. He said he could not. He had come back as a man who studied plants and creatures, and no one would question that. He had come back because he loved her. Vivienne held out the silver ring on her open palm. She had not taken it off. The little flowers shone between them like a promise kept across two lifetimes. He closed her fingers around it and did not let go of her hand. She could not bring him into the castle. Her brothers would tear him apart before he spoke a word. But here, on this side of the river, with a journal and a tent and a careful mortal story, he had given them both an answer. She would come to him. The fire would be their meeting place. For the first time, the face she had carried in her pocket had a fire of its own to walk toward.