HAVEN ✓

Twenty-Seven

His lips are mere millimeters from mine, and it's hard to focus on anything but his proximity.

I take a breath. Lift the blanket, inviting him to slide in next to me. Luke hesitates for only a fraction of a second before stretching out next to me. Gently, he slips an arm beneath my head and I rest against it.

"I've never used another human as a pillow before," I giggle.

Luke's eyes glimmer. "I am glad to be the first." With that, he pulls the blanket around us, encasing me in utter warmth. Even my toes are toasty. Shifting to gaze upon my face, he uses his free hand to cup my cheek, caressing me ever so tenderly.

"I am so captivated by you, Sophie," he murmurs, and I blink up at him, flushed. "And those eyes. Those stunning blue eyes." He brings his face closer to mine, really peering into my soul. I find it a bit difficult to breathe. "No, those eyes are as fair as violets." 

Violets. I smile, charmed, aching to close the distance between us. As much as I adore the words leaving his lips, I want to feel them on mine. I want him to speak words into my skin, to trace letters onto my lips. I want him to kiss me again.

He wraps his free arm around me, but has trouble settling. At first, his hand lights on my stomach, then my hip, then it hovers for a moment before I slip my hand into his and rest it along my waist.

We lay there for some time, my body along his, cocooned in the security that comes with opening your heart to someone, and trusting them to care for it.

And I trust Luke more than most.

Absentmindedly, I trace the calluses on his hands lightly, running my fingertips over his palm. I feel him shiver next to me, and I know it's not because of the temperature. Then he presses his lips to my hair, and for the moment, we are the only people in the world.

Something in the way his skin rubs against my skin, the softness of the cotton blanket, and the warmth of Luke beside me lulls me into a blissful slumber.

I have never slept so well in my life.

That is, until a screeching sound jolts me awake, and I scramble out of Luke's arms.

The fire has burnt out, but the moonlight reveals that Luke is up too, a knife glinting in his grip. It's dark, but I can tell he's fumbling around in the dark to find his bow.

"What is it?" I whisper. I am trembling, adrenaline siphoning through my veins at breakneck speeds. I feel as though I can run from here all the way back to Herald.

Luke doesn't answer, but instead digs through my pack and pulls out the wrapped bundle of cloth Sol had given me. Thrusting it into my hands, I realize the binding conceals a long, sharp dagger as long as my forearm. My blood turns cold. 

Then, Luke kicks up the embers in the fire pit, breathing a couple flames back to life. It produces just enough light for him to find his bow and quiver, but by the time he procures them it is too late.

A pale shadow comes crashing out of the woods, alerted by the light and lumbering wildly toward it. Toward us. With it, another ear-piercing screech erupts goosebumps along my spine. It is a keening sound that I've heard before.

Skinwalker!

Luke dives, knocking me behind him. This seems to make the monster angry, as it lurches forward to swipe at us with unnaturally long fingers.

The sound of tearing cloth fills my ears as the creature's claws rip into the front of Luke's shirt. Instead of backing off, Luke takes the opportunity to thrust his knife into the beast's flesh as it recovers from the swing.