The Moonlit Curse

Ch 23: Illusions of Trust

Give me a chance.

By the goddess, there was so much left unsaid behind those words.

That was the real reason Kiya had asked August to give her some space because it was impossible to think about anything except his voice. His touch. The way his whole body covered hers when he pinned her to the bed, and how easily he was able to control himself so not to hurt her. How easy it would be to use that control for something more intimate.

She'd spent the rest of the morning and whole afternoon in the kitchen baking, desperately trying to get those words out of her head and to shake off the tingling his hands left on her skin. Never in her entire life had she ever been so wound up. She could only support herself by leaning her whole weight against the worktable, and her hands shook any time she wasn't mixing ingredients or kneading dough. Any time August had to go into the kitchen, though he kept his word by saying nothing and didn't linger, she was hyper aware of his presence.

At dinner, if she ever looked in his direction, she would catch him looking away quickly. Knowing that he was watching her, looking out for her, or even—dare she consider—admiring her, kept pulling a small smile to her face. Which would be promptly ruined by Red's scowl and a new attempt to pull her attention back to him or someone else on the team. That, along with almost refusing to let her be alone until she went to bed, had her adding yet another thought plaguing her. What the hell was his problem?

Scout snorted and stomped on the other side of the paddock, pulling Kiya from her thoughts and tempting her to throw a snowball at the mare. "Go suck on a fence, you useless pack mule," she spat bitterly.

"Talking to yourself again?"

Kiya jumped and turned to see Red trudging through the snow towards her. Any other time, she would have been happy to see him. But she had come out here to get away from everyone and focus on anything other than August or Red or the curse. As her best friend drew ever closer, the dread and fear grew heavier and heavier.

Still, she forced a laugh and tried to ignore how hard it was to smile. "Well, Scout's not adding much to the conversation, so I have to make up for both sides."

Red laughed too, though his was far more genuine, and joined Kiya leaning against the fence to stare out at Scout. "Is she still giving you a hard time?" he asked.

"Yeah. I almost lost some fingers getting her out here. I have no idea what's gotten into her.

Lie. The first of many. She knew exactly what was wrong now. Scout was picking up on the curse in ways that the team couldn't.

All at once, a sad realization struck her hard in the chest. When the time finally came that she resigned from the Monster Hunters, she would have to leave Scout behind as well. While Kiya had been given the responsibility to raise her from a filly, socialize her, break her in, and train her to be the war horse she was today, Scout wasn't actually Kiya's horse. She belonged to the Hunters, as did her entire breeding line. Trying to regain her trust at this point didn't matter.

"Horses tend to follow the lead of their masters," Red mused, glancing sideways down at her.

"Subtle as a clap of thunder, Kean. Just way what's on your mind."

"It's a bit hard to be open with you right now, Kiya. Every time I've tried talking to you lately, you start trying to bite my head off."

"We talked yesterday, and we were fine."

"Goddess, fine!" Red threw his hands up. "Forget about it, then! I'll stop fucking trying if that's what you want. Sorry for giving a shit."

"Red, wait," Kiya groaned, and he stopped. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not an easy person to be around right now. I just... I'm sorry."