Chapter 6 The Road Back to Rowan Hollow

Elspeth regretted agreeing to go into town almost immediately. The feeling began sometime shortly after dawn while she stood in her bedroom staring blankly at her wardrobe with the exhausted resentment of someone whose life had become unmanageable in under two days. More specifically, it had become unmanageable because there was currently a demon in her kitchen making tea like he lived there.The soft clink of ceramic drifted down the hallway. Elspeth closed her eyes.

“This is not happening,” she muttered to herself.

From the kitchen, Ash called, “It is absolutely happening.” The tether, apparently, worked both ways.

She hated that.After several long moments of internal suffering, Elspeth finally yanked open her bedroom door and stalked toward the kitchen, already irritated enough to qualify as dangerous. Ash looked up from the stove as she entered. The sight that greeted her was deeply unfair.

Sometime during the night—or perhaps simply during existence itself—Ash had perfected the art of looking effortlessly devastating while doing mundane tasks. Morning light spilled pale and silver through the kitchen windows, catching against the sharp line of his horns and the dark waves of hair falling loosely around his face. He had rolled his sleeves higher today, exposing strong forearms marked with those strange shifting black patterns beneath his skin.

Worst of all, he looked comfortable.In her cottage.Using her kettle.

“Are you stealing my tea?” she demanded.Ash handed her a mug.

“You own terrible tea,” he said.Elspeth accepted it automatically before realizing what she had done.

“You cannot just start acting domesticated.”

“I’m making a beverage, not proposing marriage.”

Her face heated instantly.Ash noticed.Of course he noticed.Something smug flickered briefly across his expression before he mercifully turned back toward the stove.The tether pulsed warmly with amusement.Elspeth considered throwing the mug at him.Instead, she sat heavily at the tiny kitchen table, staring into the steam curling from her tea while dread settled slowly deeper into her stomach.Rowan Hollow.She had spent years perfecting avoidance. Quick market visits during quieter hours. Minimal conversation. Head lowered. Leave before the whispers started.

Now she would be arriving with a demon. Wonderful.

“You’re thinking loudly again,” Ash observed.

“I am deciding whether to fake my death instead.”

“Tempting strategy. Unfortunately, I suspect the bond would make that inconvenient for both of us.”

Elspeth glared over the rim of her mug. “You are enjoying this far too much.”

“No,” Ash said honestly. “I’m fascinated.”

“That is worse.”

“It probably is.”

The honesty disarmed her enough that she looked away first.Annoying.Silence settled briefly between them, softer than before. Not comfortable exactly, but no longer sharp enough to cut. Ash leaned against the counter watching rainwater slide down the kitchen windows while Elspeth tried not to think about how naturally he occupied space despite supposedly being an ancient creature of darkness.

“You really believe it will go badly?” he asked after a while.

Elspeth laughed once under her breath.

“You have horns.”

“Yes. Beautiful ones.”

She ignored that. “The magical folk in Rowan Hollow do not like unpredictability. Or things they can’t categorize.” Her fingers tightened around the mug. “And they already think I’m one bad day away from becoming a curse on the landscape.”

Ash’s gaze shifted toward her slowly.

“Do you know what I think is interesting?” he asked.

“No.”

“You keep describing yourself through other people’s fear.”

The words landed harder than she wanted them to.

Elspeth stared at the tea in her hands instead of answering.

Because the terrible thing was—

He wasn’t entirely wrong.

She had spent so long being treated as something unsettling that she had started arranging herself around the discomfort of others. Smaller. Quieter. Easier to ignore.Ash made her feel visible in ways that left her deeply off-balance.

The tether stirred faintly again, not amusement this time but something quieter. Awareness. Attention.

Elspeth stood abruptly.

“We should leave before I change my mind.”

Ash glanced toward the storm-dark windows. “You already want to.”

“Yes, well, now I want to while moving.”

“You are remarkably committed to misery.”

“And you are remarkably committed to staying alive despite being deeply aggravating.”

Ash smiled slowly at that, warm enough to make her immediately suspicious.Twenty minutes later, they stepped onto the forest road together.The rain had eased into a cold mist drifting low through the trees, turning the woods silver-gray beneath the morning light. Wet leaves clung to Elspeth’s boots as she walked, cloak pulled tightly around herself.

Beside her, Ash looked entirely too noticeable.The glamour they had settled on was minimal at best. Elspeth had managed to dull the sharper impression of his horns and dim the unnatural glow of his eyes slightly, but strong magic resisted concealment.Unfortunately, Ash himself resisted instruction.

“You could at least attempt to look less intimidating,” Elspeth muttered.

“I am attempting.”

“You look like a cursed prince who murders people poetically.”

Ash looked pleased by that description.“That feels flattering.”

“It was not intended to be.”

They walked in silence for several moments after that, the forest thick around them. Elspeth could feel the moment Rowan Hollow’s outer wards brushed against her skin—a subtle pressure in the air, familiar and unpleasant.

Ash felt it too.

His posture shifted almost imperceptibly beside her.

“Interesting,” he murmured.

“What?”

“Your town reeks of fear.”

Elspeth’s stomach tightened.

Ahead, through the trees, lanternlight began to glow faintly through the mist.

Rowan Hollow.

Even now it looked beautiful in the terrible way dangerous things often did. Narrow crooked streets lined with moss-covered stone. Warm lights glowing behind colored glass windows. Charm-ribbons fluttering beneath rooftops to ward off wandering spirits. Magic threaded everywhere through the town like veins beneath skin.

And every inch of it had once made Elspeth feel unwanted.

The tether pulled sharply then.Not physically.Emotionally.Ash had noticed her hesitation.

“You can still turn around,” he said quietly.

Elspeth almost laughed at that.

Because the awful thing was

Part of her wanted to.

Not because she feared Rowan Hollow. But because for the first time in years, she feared what it might feel like to have someone stand beside her while the town looked at her with disgust.Alone was easier.Alone hurt less.

Ash studied her face for one long moment before sighing softly.Then, before she could ask what he was doing, he stepped closer.Not touching.Just near enough that warmth brushed against her through layers of fabric and mist.The gesture was small.Casual, almost.But the tether surged violently in response, flooding her chest with the unbearable awareness that he had moved beside her deliberately.As though to make something clear.Elspeth’s breath caught.Ash looked toward the town ahead, voice dry once more.

“Well,” he said. “Let’s go upset the locals.”