Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24325 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24325 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
“Thank you,” I whisper, and close my eyes, unshed tears spilling. Relief spreads through me although a part of me will not trust her until we are gone.
Hansel holds me tighter. I inhale, trying not to cry, and when I exhale, the heat of the witch’s hand is gone.
I open my eyes.
The witch is gone, too. The cottage is quiet around us apart from the cracking of the fire, and remains transformed. It’s bright and clean with a basket of apples on the table and a pastry cooling in a dish near the sink.
But it’s the glass jar on the windowsill that catches my eye. The firelight reflects off of it, and inside—
“Hansel,” I manage to say. “Look.”
“What is it?” he says into my hair.
I turn both of us so he can look without letting go of me. Hansel’s eyes move over the room and all the transformations the witch made in the blink of an eye.
He takes a quick breath when he sees the jar and guides me closer, one hand steady on my waist, the other reaching out for the jar. His hand trembles as he lifts the lid and sets it carefully aside, then reaches in.
He plucks one of the pieces from the jar, folds it in his fingers, and smiles down at it.
Then he holds it in front of me and opens his hand.
There, in his palm, is a perfect twist of pure white wax paper, wrapped lovingly around a piece of orange-and-yellow taffy.
It’s the color of the sunrise. It’s the color of a brand-new day.
“I need you Gretel,” Hansel whispers. “Please stay with me forever.”
Lifting my chin I look deep into his eyes, “I’ll never leave you ever again. I love you.”
As he kisses me, I hold him like he’s mine forevermore. Because he is.
He was always the love of my life.
He breaks the kiss and breathes deeply, repeating over and over, “I love you.”