There was another knock at the door.
“Food delivery,” Ayden said and went to hobble again to get it, but I interjected.
“Let me, you need to rest.”
“I’ll get it.” Ariyon sidestepped me.
There was a tension in the air, or maybe I was imagining it, but Ariyon and Ayden seemed to be sharing some pretty edgy looks. A few moments later we were all seated around the dinner table with a giant bowl of pasta and meatballs in the center, and a wild lettuce salad.
“You don’t cook?” I asked Ayden as I served myself some pasta.
Ariyon laughed. “Ilana tried to teach us when we were sixteen, to prepare us for her leaving. He nearly poisoned us with raw chicken.”
Ayden grinned at his brother. “It’s true, I’m a horrible cook but I do like to support the local restaurants.”
We all laughed at that. It was a very diplomatic answer. The food was delicious, and I broke away to pull the cookies from the oven eleven minutes later. I switched off the oven and set them on the counter when I felt someone behind me.
“They smell like hers.” Ariyon’s voice was deep and thick with emotion.
I spun to find he was looking at me with a gaze I couldn’t interpret. These cookies, his mother’s recipe—I felt awful whether I had a right to or not.
Stepping closer to him, I swallowed hard. “In case it needs to be said…on behalf of my birth mother, I am truly sorry for what she did to your parents.”
He peered at me quizzically, using a fork to pry a cookie off the sheet, half mangling it in the process. “You don’t have to take responsibility for her actions, Fallon. Like you say all the time, you’re not really a Bane.”
His comment was innocent but also worried me. Iwasa Bane, no matter how hard I tried to get people to call me by my father’s last name or treat me differently, I had a familiar, and I carried this magic that was of the House of Ash and Shadow.
But before I could say anything more, he put half the cookie in his mouth and moaned, his eyes rolling shut.
“Ayden, get in ’ere!” he mumbled through a full mouth.
Ayden came rushing in, thinking something was wrong, when Ariyon shoved the remaining half of the cookie into his mouth. He chewed for about two seconds and then Ayden moaned. “It’s soooo good. Just like mom’s!”
I grinned and Ayden rushed over in the excitement and picked me up in his arms. “You’re amaz—”
I screamed as a jolt of pain shot through my body. He dropped me immediately and I crashed to the floor, my legs folding beneath me.
“Fallon!” Ayden whimpered as my body shook beneath him. “I’m so sorry. I forgot and…I got carried away.”
The side of his arm had made full contact with my upper arm. Sweat broke out on my skin and I nodded. “I’m okay.” I managed to produce a small smile, but nausea roiled through me as the curse did its worst.
I looked up into Ayden’s eyes and saw my own heartbreak mirrored there. He couldn’t touch me like Ariyon could, and any future we had died in this moment. Speaking of the grumpier twin, he was at my feet in seconds, warming up his healing hands.
“No,” I growled at him, shaking in agony.
He frowned. “What are you talking about? You’re in pain, I canfeelit.”
I reached out and grasped his hands, pushing them away from me. “Ariyon Madden, I willnotbe the reason you have any less life to live.” I would never again accept another healing from him, not after I had seen that wall where he counted down how many days he’d given away.
He looked at me angrily as my body twitched with another jolt.
“What can I do?” Ayden whined from where he hovered over me, guilt written all over his face.
I wanted to die of embarrassment in this moment; I’d ruined a perfectly good night. I gave a nervous peal of laughter. “This happens all the time, you guys.” I downplayed it. “I’ll be fine once I get home and soak in cool water. I should probably go, though.” Sweat beaded on my brow and I felt like I was going to pass out, but I didn’t want Ayden to know how badly he’d hurt me. Eden and Hayes were peeking into the kitchen behind him now and I could see the worry on my best friend’s face. Suddenly, Yanricpoofed into the room as a smoky black shadow and materialized before me.
‘Who do I have to kill?’he growled, looking around at the others in the room.
My body jolted again. ‘No one, it was an accident.’
