‘He was going to kiss you,’Yanric offered.
‘Private thoughts!’I screamed into his mind and he flinched from his place on my shoulder.
“So our next section of history will be on the founding of the three fae houses,” the teacher said, pulling me from my thoughts.
“I will present the information on all three houses to you over the next several weeks, and then I want a four-page midterm paper on the history of whatever house you are from.”
I squirmed in my seat at that. A four-page paper on the house of Ash and Shadow, aka House of Nightlings and Blood Feeders.
Awesome. Couldn’t wait.
TEN
“Are you sure? This feels so wrong.” Hayes gave me a worried look. It was the weekend and Eden had convinced him to meet us at the Fae Lane Park on the East Side so that he could touch me with his healing hands and see what happened.
I gave him an encouraging smile. “Just a small brush of your fingers and it will hurt, but I won’t be in pain all day.”
I hoped.
“She needs to know if healers can touch her without pain. She’s never met one in Isa and the idea seems plausible,” Eden told him. As far as I knew, only Ariyon, my father, Eden, and myself knew that Ariyon could touch me without pain. I wasn’t even sure he’d told his twin brother and the fact that he kicked them out of the storage closet before he healed me made me think he hadn’t.
Hayes chewed his lip and then nodded. We were standing by a large oak tree, with some children playing off in the distance. I’d removed one of my gloves and now Hayes scanned my body with his gaze, as Ariyon once had. “Wow, it’s crazy. I can see the curse. It’s like a spider web, all tangled into your energy.”
I frowned—that didn’t sound good.
“Maybe you have to be, like, in healer mode for it not to hurt?” Eden suggested.
He nodded, and then the silver markings atop his hands began to spin. I braced myself, praying to the Light that he could touch me without pain. This would change everything, would open up a whole world of possibilities for me.
He took the very tip of his finger and ever so slightly brushed it across the top of my hand. Fresh, hot agony ripped through every nerve in my body and I hissed, yanking my hand to my chest.
“No! I’m so sorry.” Hayes leapt backward with wide eyes.
Defeat crashed into me like waves, breaking down the last shred of hope I had. A deep numbness spread throughout my limbs and I felt a heavy depression settle over me. It wasn’t a healer thing. Ariyon touching me was a fluke and he hated me. My lips would never be kissed. I would never have that love my father spoke about and I needed to accept that now.
“It’s okay. Thank you. Now we know.” I gave him a lame smile.
Eden frowned, looking at me with pity.
“All right, you guys hang, I’m gonna head home and have a cool bath,” I told them as Yanric flew from the nearby tree and landed on my shoulder.
Eden shook her head. “No, I can walk you home.”
Hayes looked disappointed at that and I waved her off. “No way, I’ve got plans with my dad later. You guys go do something, it’s so beautiful out.”
The sun was high in the sky and birds were chirping.
“I wanted to show you the rose garden,” Hayes told her.
A blush crept to her cheeks, which made me smile even though my skin felt like it was on fire, and I pushed all of my depressing thoughts down.
“Have fun!” I told them and walked off, hoping Eden wouldn’t put up a fuss. I just wanted to be alone right now.
“Okay, bye, Fallon!” Eden called after me and I waved over my shoulder.
Hayes did everything right: he barely touched me and only for a second. I would be okay after a cool bath and some rest, but I wasn’t sure my heart would ever heal from knowing that Ariyon was the only guy who could touch me and he despised me. I was going to be alone forever.
‘I can touch you. You won’t be alone, as you will always have me,’Yanric piped up.
