Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Kendrick glances at me, then back to his friends. “Probably.”
“I just want to look. I want to please her,” Remme says, shaking his head. “I promise I will be so good.”
“The longer you look away, the easier it gets,” Natan says, his fists uncurling.
“Why can Hale look at her?” Skylar asks.
I hold his gaze for a beat. “That’s a good question.”
“I don’t know,” he says softly, but something in his eyes tells me he’s lying or at least that he has his suspicions. Fienna.
Skylar’s shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath. “Okay. I think I’m better now. So we can’t look at her, and you’re unaffected by looking at her, but what do we do about the memory part?”
Kendrick squeezes my hand again. “As long as the magic doesn’t think we’ve parted ways, I don’t think I’ll lose my memories. And I’ll keep my journal updated for if we have to be apart.”
“And how are you going to make the magic think anything?” I ask.
He holds my gaze. “We stay tethered at all times. Especially when sleeping.”
Sleeping. Tethered to Kendrick. My stomach shimmies, then goes into a free fall of dread when I realize what will come in the morning. “What do we do about the daylight?” I ask.
“Right.” Kendrick flinches. “You’ll be weak all day. Will your strength come back at night?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never kept the ring on that long.”
“Lovely,” Skylar says.
Remme mutters a curse.
“We’re sure it will act the same when it’s permanently attached?” Natan asks.
“We’ll have to wait and see, I suppose,” Kendrick says. “If the daytime weakness holds true, we’ll figure out something to combat it.”
“We need to get that ring off,” Natan says.
“Agreed,” Kendrick says. “If it makes her that ill after a few hours of wearing it during the day, we don’t know what it’s going to do to her long term, but it can’t be good.”
“If it makes her too sick, we may need to cut off the finger,” Skylar says.
I flinch. Remme and Natan gasp in unison.
“To protect her,” Skylar growls.
“Let’s save drastic measures until we know they’re necessary,” Kendrick says.
“We’ll take her home and find a mage who can destroy it.” Natan’s words are so matter-of-fact. Destroy the ring. I wait for the kicked-in-the-chest feeling, but it doesn’t come. I want to be free of this ring—the good and the bad.
“The sooner the better,” Skylar says. “I’ve been hot for chicks before, but this feeling is what the straight folks call a girl crush, and that makes me want to punch myself in the face.”
“Don’t do that,” I say.
“I won’t. I promise I won’t do anything that displeases you,” she says, eyes big and voice placating. Then she growls. “Make it stop.”
“Sleep first,” Kendrick says. “We’ll figure out the rest tomorrow.”
The room Kendrick and I planned to sleep in together has very different energy when we enter it this time, the ring on my finger, tomorrow so unsure.
“I would give you some privacy to change, but—”
“No, right. I know.” I look around the room. If I were Skylar, I’d probably just strip down to my undergarments in front of him. “Maybe just turn around?”
He faces the wall without another word, but my hands still shake as I change out of tonight’s dress and into the soft cotton sleeping shift. It’s off-white and sleeveless and hits me just above the knee. There’s nothing sexy about it.
“Okay,” I say, “I’m decent.” I busy myself folding my dress so I won’t have to meet his eyes.
I hear the soft clank of knives and shucking of fabric behind me, but don’t dare look. I wonder how he sleeps—on his side or his back? On one side of the bed or in the center? Will he sleep differently tonight for my sake?
I sense him approach behind me before feeling him sweep my hair over one shoulder. He trails his fingers over the sensitive skin at the nape of my neck. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to see if there’s anywhere that sonofabitch didn’t cut you.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. This morning’s glamour faded while we were in the kitchen waiting for our friends to return. “If you think these are ugly, you should see what he left in my head.”
He turns me slowly. His broad, strong chest is bare, and I can’t help but notice the tattooed line of characters over his heart. He tilts my chin up until I meet his eyes. “There’s nothing hideous about you. Inside and out, you are beautiful.”
I lick my lips. “That’s just the ring playing its tricks on you.”
“I don’t think so. You were the most beautiful creature I’ve ever met long before I saw you with the ring.”
“Creature?” I try to make the word sound like a joke but fail. Creature. Not human.
“Person. Human who will soon be fae.”