‘Over my dead body. He doesn’t like you; I can smell the hatred.’I hoped that wasn’t true, that he was smelling Ariyon’s hatred for him, but I wouldn’t blame the prince if that was the case.
‘Fly to the corner of the room or I’ll lock you in a drawer,’I warned, knowing it wouldn’t hold him but hoping he took the hint.
‘If he hurts you, I’m taking his ear.’
Okay, that was graphic. My little bird was definitely living up to the House of Ash and Shadow name.
Yanric flew across the room to a bookcase and perched on the top, watching us like a guard dog.
“He’s protective.” I tried to stick up for Yanric but then regretted it, knowing what happened to his father.
Ariyon said nothing, just stepped closer to me, at the same time a jolt of pain hit me and I hissed.
“Ah yes. The curse is looping. I can see it now, it’s completely intertwined into your life force energy.” Ariyon breathed as his gaze ran the length of my body and the marks on his hands began to swirl.
My heart picked up speed at that, I’d never thought it possible to heal what I had. My father said he’d tried before with a healer, but maybe with a Maven Healer, maybe with Ariyon…
“Can you heal it? My curse?”
Ariyon met my gaze with compassion. “I can take the pain, not the curse. The curse is who you are, you were born of it, like skin and blood, it’s…a part of you.”
I had to swallow a sob at his assessment of the curse I carried. I’d allowed myself to hope for a split second that he could help me and now I felt empty and hallow.
I shook again with another painful jolt, this one less so, and Ariyon reached out slowly with his bare fingers and hovered over my chest, near my throat.
Our eyes locked, and my heart raced as the healing marks on his hands lit up, filtering a subtle moonlight glow over his face.
“Can I touch you, Fallon?” he whispered and my breath stuttered. If anyone else asked that, it would be a visceral no, but for him, it would always be a yes. It was like he and I both wanted to know, in that moment, if that day at my house in Isa and the next morning was a fluke.
I nodded once and the tip of his finger pressed at the base of my throat.
Warm, tingly healing, like a balm, rushed over my skin and my mouth popped open as I gave a little gasp of surprise. Ariyon was watching me for any signs of distress while I processed the fact that it didn’t hurt. My chest heaved as he trailed his finger up my neck, then to my earlobe, pressing on it gently. I didn’t know if these were healing pressure points or something, but I didn’t care. It felt so good, I felt so alive in that moment. My eyes fluttered closed as his finger trailed across my cheek and over my lips slowly.
A zing of heat traveled down from my chest and into my stomach as he touched my other ear, tracing back down my neck to my collarbone before stopping at my throat.
I felt his breath splash over my face and my eyes flew open. He was inches from me, wetting his lips with his tongue, and I stopped breathing.
‘This just got interesting,’Yanric commented, but I ignored the bird.
Was he going to kiss me? I wondered.
‘I feel like I should leave but I also want to know what happens,’Yanric said.
Ariyon shook himself, yanking his hand back like he’d been burned. “Pain gone?” he asked, taking two, very large steps back.
I could only nod. Whatever he’d done felt like I had taken a cool bath in aloe. My skin felt nourished instead of raw.
“Thank you,” I croaked.
The healing symbols on his palms stopped moving and then he opened the door. “Later,” he growled and left in a hurry.
I, however, savored this moment, pulling my finger to my lips to trace the spot he’d just touched.
It was official, it was no one-time fluke. Icouldbe touched without pain and I wanted to see if it was just Ariyon or all healer fae.
* * *
I barely paidattention in Fae History. Blair and Eden were both in the class, as we were all first year Academy students, but Ariyon and Ayden were second years, so they were absent. And right now Ariyon was all I thought about. Ariyon touching my lips, getting close enough for me to feel his breath. Was he going to kiss me or did I imagine that?
