“I’m not allergic,” Malachi grumbles, then grumbles again when he finds Quinn standing on the dirt road mere feet away, hair glinting gold in the afternoon sunlight.
Although she’s looking at all of us, her eyes keep returning to Reeve.
“Tarian?” Mom says. “Tell us when.”
“Now.”
My parents shove Gael’s body as though he were a golf ball on a putting green. He drops.
A shrill scream rises from the mine, followed by the acrid tang of burning flesh. Even though my face is turned away, I seal my lids.
Large callused hands pull me into a thundering chest, before gliding around me and wrapping me up.
I bury my face against Reeve, only peaking once Tarian declares, “It’s done. Let’s go.”
And just like that, a man was unmade and another…made.
Chapter 66
Electra
Reeve sits on the edge of the bed in the guest cottage my parents put at our disposal, his elbows planted on his spread thighs, one hand cupping the other. He studies his new inscription like he can’t believe it’s real.
In truth,Ican’t believe it’s real.
Still brushing through my damp hair, I stroll out of the bathroom toward him. “Did I ever tell you the story of when I first saw my runes?”
He looks up, then reaches out, catches my hip, and eases me onto one of his thighs. “You did not.”
I toss my hairbrush on the striped bed cover. “I was ten. It was right after Malachi found me.”
Reeve frowns. “You never spotted your runes until you were ten? They do appear at birth, don’t they?”
“Yes. The reason I didn’t see them until I was ten was that we didn’t have any mirrors growing up. My mother was very woo-woo. And more often than not, stoned, though I didn’t understand that until later on. Anyway, she convinced me that mirrors absorbed people’s good energy, slowly but surely draining it until they perished.”
Reeve pulls me closer, his arm tightening around my waist as though to keep me safe from the woman who birthed me.
“I obviously believed her. The same way I believed her reasons for siphoning the blood from my veins was to rid me of a rare blood disease.”
“I almost regret that Malachi already killed her,” he says flatly.
I press my cheek to the top of his head and sigh. “We lived on the outskirts of a tiny town, in complete isolation. Since I didn’t attend school or leave my house because of mysickness”—I add air quotes—“or have access to any electronics, I only discovered my runes the day I discovered my face, at ten. I had no idea what I looked like until then, or that my eyes were two different colors.”
He hugs me harder.
“Even though my first decade in this world was depressing, the next decade was—” I swallow the lump of emotion that perpetually crops up when I think of all the affection and patience my parents and brother gave me. “Beautiful. Healing. For years after Mal found me, I shunned humans and all forms of physical contact. But my family put up with me and never stopped pouring love my way. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I was finally brave enough to open my heart to them.”
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers.
I stroke the hair at his nape, curling a strand around my finger. “Until last year, I shunned humans too. Callie was my first friend. Fiona and Lisa, my second and third. Can you imagine? It took me nineteen years to forge friendships.”
“Those three women are incredible.” Remorse tinges his pitch. “How much do they hate me for what I did to you?”
“Fiona suggested I go Lorena Bobbitt on you so…let’s just say it’s a good thing Gaea kitted you out with a shield rune.”
He fans his fingers over my waist, stroking softly. “Sounds like I’m in for a lot of groveling.”
“Babe, what you’re in for is a lot of free dance lessons. Probably a lifetime’s worth. As for Lisa, she loves cooking. You love cooking…” I stamp a kiss on the top of his head as he chews on my suggestions. “They’ll forgive you. As long as you don’t hurt me, or anyone close to us?—”
