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EXCLUSIVE SCENE ~ THE LAKE

~Poppy~

“You’re going to get us into so much trouble.” In the dappled silver light of the moon, Tawny’s cloaked figure dipped beneath a low-hanging branch. Even though no one entered this part of the Grove, neither of us removed our hoods yet out of caution. “You know that, right?”

“This was your idea,” I reminded her. “I was about to go to bed when you came to my chamber with this grand plan.”

Her cloaked head turned toward me. I couldn’t see her face, but I could hear the smile in her voice. “How dare you accuse me of such tomfoolery?”

“Tomfoolery?” I wrinkled my nose. “That is such a silly word.”

“A silly word for silly behaviors,” she remarked. “I heard Rylan saying it the other day. He told Vikter that he suspected you were up to some tomfoolery when you were supposed to be in your chambers.”

Rylan was likely correct. I grinned as I stepped around a large boulder tangled in some exposed roots. Tawny and I had walked this path so many times at night. The scant moonlight breaking up the shadows was no hindrance. “If I was, I was likely doing something else you suggested we do.”

Tawny’s quiet giggle reached me. “Just so we’re clear, tonight may have been my idea, but you started it.”

“And how did I start this?”

“Was it not originally your idea?” She walked under a pine that must’ve fallen against another during one of the late-summer storms. Its fallen, dried-out branches crunched with her footsteps. “To go swimming in the lake?”

“Possibly.” Truth be told, I couldn’t remember who’d suggested the first late-night swim.

I glanced behind me, unable to see anything more than the dark outline of the sweeping pines. We were far enough inside the Grove that no one could see us. Anyone within the large swath of woods that separated the haves from the have-nots of Masadonia wouldn’t be able to see the inner walls around the castle, either—even in broad daylight. We also weren’t near the section they’d cleared to use as a park of sorts.

“Are you worried someone will discover us?”

“Not at all.” Tawny’s steps slowed. “No one but fools like us travels this deep into the Grove. I’m just being overly dramatic so I won’t be able to hear a spirit if one is following us.”

My grin turned wry. “As often as I’ve walked the Grove, I’ve yet to see a single ghost.”

She snorted. “You sound disappointed.”

“I kind of am.”

“Well, there’s always a first time,” she remarked. “I’m not sure what would be more frightening, though. The spirit of a guard? Or an animal, like a wolf.”

My brows knitted. “I’d have to go with the spirit of a guard. But I thought the ghosts here were those who died within the Grove.”

“Who knows? Honestly, a rabbit’s spirit might be the scariest thing.”

“What?” I laughed. “I cannot wait to hear the justification for that.”

“There’s nothing more frightening than something cute and fluffy that happens to be dead and reanimated.”

“Oh, my gods.” I shook my head. “I don’t think spirits are the dead reanimated, Tawny.”

“How would you know?”

“Because I’ve seen the Craven,” I said, the smile fading from my lips. I’d seen cursed mortals die and then come back. I knew what the reanimated dead looked like.

“True,” Tawny murmured, stopping as the tang of sorrow reached me. She waited until I was beside her and then folded her arm around mine. “By the way, do you know what I’ve heard?” She lowered her voice, even though the only other things in the Grove besides us were likely small, fluffy critters and large birds. Well, the only living things, I supposed. “About the new guard?

“The new guard?” I questioned, even though I knew exactly who she spoke of. Only one name was on everyone’s lips these last several weeks. Hawke Flynn. My stomach dipped, tangling much like the bare roots around that bolder earlier. There was so much wrong with that, I wasn’t even sure where to begin.

“Yes, the new, extraordinarily handsome guard you seem to have completely forgotten about,” she replied dryly. “Despite the fact that you’ve spent quite a few mornings of late engrossed in the guards’ daily training.”