Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
SHE'S RUNNING AS FAST AS HER FEET CAN CARRY HER but it still doesn't feel fast enough.
She can briefly hear Nott calling out for her as she passes by him on his way out from Honey Dukes, but she ignores him. She doesn't know exactly where she's running to but no place on this godforsaken Earth would be far enough.
She stops, the bottom of her dress is ripped and muddied, her hair has come out of the intricate clasps she's put it in, but she doesn't care about her appearance as she enters the Hog's Head Inn. The place is nearly empty, but she didn't enter the establishment because she's looking for company. When she spots the bar, she practically marches right up to it.
"Firewhiskey, please."
The barkeep looks at her with wide eyes and raises his bushy eyebrow. "You old enough, love?"
She simply stares at him. There must be something about her disheveled appearance, or maybe it's the urgency in her eyes, but he relents with a shrug and pours her a drink.
She downs it in one swig, ignoring the terrible burning in her throat. She knows what her father would say. He would completely tear into her about using alcohol as an excuse to drown away her worries, and he would speak from experience.
But she needs something to take away the memory of what she Saw.
With Tom's lips so close to hers, her back pressed against that tree, his fingers working devilish patterns on her body, she didn't see the man that would eventually lead her to her death. She didn't see violence, death, war-
No, all she Saw was Tom.
It was Tom, working his fingers through her hair, growling against her mouth. It was Tom, hitching her leg around his waist and digging his erection into her hips. It was Tom, biting into the flesh of her shoulder with a grunt.
And the worst part-
She was loving absolutely every minute of it.
It was them, pressed against an unknown wall, their heartbeats in synch as the sun shone down on them, illuminating the glorious picture of them simply devouring each other.
The sheer thought disgusts her. That man is everything she needs to avoid. She needs to stay away from him, needs to stay away from the future he would bring her, but she just can't.
She can't deny the way it felt to have his hands on her. The electricity that shot through her body when he wrapped his hand around her throat should make her feel ashamed, but it doesn't.
She is terrified of what he is, not only because he wants to know her secret, but also because just a few more touches would have been able to coax it out of her.
