“Can I… take you near the water?” I ask.
She nods, though tears well up in her eyes.
I stand there, frozen as I don’t want to make everything worse.
She bites her lip. “Please. Just—don’t put me inside.”
I nod and take a fewmore steps.
Tears slip down her cheeks. The hot water warms a few smooth stones, and she fits neatly atop one.
“Don’t worry, my star.” I brush away her tears.
There is a towel nearby. I pick it up and dip it in the pool. Then I take one of her hands, pushing up the long cloth of my dirty shirt, and expose her wrist. I brush the water over one finger and she trembles.
“What else have they done to you?” I ask, not allowing the rage under my skin to boil up for fear of scaring her.
“First, they would come into my room. They left it cold and half-freezing most of the time. One of their snakes would bite me.” She takes a slow breath and pulls up her cloak to reveal healing bites all over her ankles and calves.
I count the pairs. There are eleven.
“They did this more than once some days?” I ask.
She nods with glistening cheeks. “The bite had some sort of paralytic effect. They would lift me off the ground with their magic so that my legs were slightly above my head.
“All the blood would rush to my brain, making it hard to hear and think. It wasn’t painful at first, but the sensation of feeling like I would fall was…” She squeezes her eyes, and I take her hand.
As we sit there, connected, she opens her mind to me.
Words no longer serve her, and they need not. I feel her shaking increase as the witches’ eyes watch her memories.
I recognize the hollow ghosts of each image.
I see the night we made love in the royal pools, the time we kissed, and when I carried her. The memory of us dancing flits in.
The human witches violated them all with their profane eyes, and then they cut them to ribbons, replacing them with gore and pain.
Then, just as Estela woke, they drowned her. A punishment,I am sure, that came from Rholker for knowing what we did in the water. I see his cruel face sneering.
My eyes flutter open in time with hers, and I study her hallow, quivering mouth.
“How can you stand to touch me?” I ask.
She presses a hand to the Fuegorra.
“Because we are mates. And because of this magic. Even though those memories are mostly… gone. I know you.” She lets out a sob. “I know what you are. I am safe with you.”
I shake my head and cup her soft skin, brushing away each tear as it falls.
“I will make sure I continue to be your safety. Would you like to see our memories again?”
Her eyes go wide as if she hadn’t considered that.
“Yes,” she breathes, grasping my hands and begging me. “Give me them back.”
Her eagerness nearly knocks me over.
“Careful,” I murmur. “We will start with one. I don’t want to hurt you worse than you are.”
