***
“You look like a sunset,” Dorian teases, lifting a lock of my hair. Due to the original shades of my hair, the orange ended up having a variegated effect.
“Why, because I go down on you at night?”
He pauses as my words sink in before barking out a laugh, going over to scoop up the changeling who just finished slurping up a snake like a damn noodle. The snake’s skin shines like obsidian, a lethal, living noose that slithers up Dorian’s arm to wrap around his neck. And not once does he lock up with fear or start panicking, just strokes a finger over the tiny head like it’s the sweetest animal in the world.
“What I wouldn’t give to just spend a day in your head,” he says, still chuckling.
His eyes flash with pain before he quickly masks it and looks away from my face. My cheek is slightly swollen, a split beneath my eye that’s still trickling blood that I swipe away, smearing it over my arm. Of all of the things I’ve done in my life, intentionally bashing a rock onto my cheekbone has to be one of the hardest. Self-preservation kicks in just before contact, subconsciously lessening the force behind it. Which just meant I had to do it twice.
Pulling up my glamour, I gloss over every injury, repairing my clothes and adding a shine to my hair. And though I’ve never attempted it on another person before, never had a reason, with the extra boost I got from our new companion, it was easier than I imagined to cover Dorian as well. I’m able to completely hide the mark on his hand, but mine, not entirely. The best I can do is fade the scars to near white, and pray that I can keep my hands hidden. Because while my mates’ were branded on, mine were carved to the bone with blade and magic, a public shaming that can’t be forgotten or erased.
“Hey, you never know.” We start walking, leaving the woods behind for the city that lies just beyond the hills ahead of us. “We still haven’t figured out what abilities you received from your FTD.”
He pauses for a second before rolling his eyes, turning to face me beside him. “Fae Transmitted Disease? Seriously? That sounds so dirty.” He snorts, but still, I managed to get a smile back on his face to chase away that haunted look in his eyes for just a moment.
“So am I.” I shrug. “Dirty and depraved. A heathen, many even say.”
He laces his fingers with mine, pulling our joined hands up to kiss his mark on the back of it. “But you’re my heathen.”
My eyes flick to the snake wrapped around his throat and I smirk. “The compliment loses some of its weight when you collect all of the dangerously beautiful things.”
He doesn’t skip a beat. “Nah, it just means you know I have good taste.”
Nothing’s really been resolved, but I feel...lighter. Less like I’m constantly drowning, that one wrong move will cause everything to shatter. They might have received magic through the bond, but I think I got something from them too.
“Seriously though.” I pull him back before we veer too far off topic, as the two of us always seem to. “Atlas apparently makes vampire fairy rings, so logically, you and Luce have tricks up your sleeves too.” Another glance at the snake and I raise an eyebrow in contemplation. “Though to be fair, you might actually be the monster tamer everyone claims me to be. You’ve got that changeling wrapped around your finger as much as I am.”
He scoffs. “If you think you’re at my beck and call, you’re deluded. I can barely keep up with you.”
We crest a small hill, the city looming ahead seeming increasingly imposing. “And you callmeblind.”
Our steps slow, both of us subconsciously agreeing to draw out our small stretch of peace as long as possible before gambling on my idea to work. If it doesn’t, things will get rough quickly, but between the three of us, I’m semi confident that we could escape.
We survived a human flaying the skin from our bodies, using the screams of the others to force us into compliance as they tried to break us for whatever reason. I have no clue what happened to Luce or Atlas beyond the shape Dorian described them in, but if we can escape from that hellhole?
Most fae are one trick ponies. They have a primary ability and hide behind it for everything, not needing to get creative when they can flaunt an obvious power. Humans, on the other hand, have to think outside of the box and form the illusion of power from nothing.
So if I can think like a human instead of a fae, we can pull this off. I gave them magic, but they gave me their morally grey humanity.
I don’t need to begood,I need to be willing to sacrifice everything simply out of spite.
