Extraits

I let go of the rope when a sharp ‘cluck, cluck, cluck’ of a raven turned my head up. Coal hung from my window, bare-chested and frowning. The frown slowly turned up, and I knew him well enough to know he was about to be a jerk. “You need help, Lark. Like serious therapy. Maybe you should see one of the human shrinks, let them examine your head and prescribe you some really, really good drugs.”

My back stiffened and I glared up at him and his smirking face, as three ladies in my planting group came around the corner and started to titter. Well, if they wanted to laugh, I’d better give them something to laugh about.

“You know, that sounds like good a plan, Coal. Maybe I can get something for you too. Something to help you in the stamina department. You and I both know it isn’t normal to last only two minutes.”

His jaw dropped, and I blew him a kiss before I turned my back on him. “Hello, girls.”

“Larkspur, nice to see you,” the oldest of the three, Persimmon, Simmy to her friends, patted me on the shoulder. “I see you are on the outs with young Coal again.”

I shrugged. “Nothing new.” The other two gals hurried ahead of us and Simmy hooked her arm through mine, slowing my walk.

“That boy, he needs a firm hand. If you want to see it through with him, you can never be a doormat. He won’t respect you, Princess.”

A dream, just a dream was what a piece of my mind told me, but the terror and pain ‘just a dream’ evoked seemed no small thing. Yet, I couldn’t escape it.