Page 40 of A Touch Of Death

I look up from my ring and catch the four sharing a look. Spencer catches my questioning glance and says, "When we got home, we checked your pulse, and we couldn't find one. Nix had to lay his head directly on your chest to hear your very slow heartbeat. We thought you'd died before Nix heard anything."

I nod with my understanding and fiddle with my ring again. I'm quiet for a minute, thinking of how I can tell them about the fifth ability that really cements that I'm not an ordinaryfae and is likely the reason I was kept alive instead of being killed like the rest of my people. Ezra seems to lose his patience, however, and asks, "That's only four abilities. You said you have five. What's the fifth?"

My eyes meet his, and I hold his gaze. I know I need to tell them. They need to know all of me, it's only fair. Deciding it's best to show them rather than explain, I say, "I'll show you."

Chapter 19

Ezra

Novialets go of Spencer's hand and stands from Nix's lap, though Nix doesn't seem to like that development since he tries to pull her back. She walks around me until she's standing in the middle of the clearing, sunlight pouring over her through the trees. She looks ethereal with her white blonde hair shining in the light and her pale skin brighter than I've ever seen it before.

She looks absolutely stunning. Even in the plain black shirt and leggings I dressed her in. With her hair loose and the wind running through her strands, she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

But she's not mine. She won't ever be mine.

I work hard not to scowl at the beauty that's managed to niggle her way into my chest. Ignoring her did absolutely nothing to fight off my attraction to her, and it didn't help one bit with the feelings I have for her. After I ignored her, I expected her to hold a grudge, to have something snarky to say about it. I should have known the woman would prove how perfect she is by forgiving me and spending time with me like it was exactly what she wanted to be doing.

The unusual feelings I have for her are growing, but so is the knowledge that she'll never be mine. Watching her grow closer to Nix, Spencer, and Zayn is driving me mad, knowing they all have a bond to her that I don't. That I'll never have. After watching them all together, I know for certain it's a mating bond that Novia created and tethered to them all. But now I know for sure that they've all bonded to her, too. Nix can't ever stay away from her, Spencer always smiles around her, and Zayn... well, he's been taking trips to his personal blood bank more than he ever has in all the time I've known him. I know a blood bond when I see one. It seems they were all meant for her. But I wasn't. I don't have some cosmic bond to the woman I'm pretty sure I'm falling for. Taking care of her all week when she couldn’t do it herself has me caring deeper for her than before despite how long we’ve known her.

I brush off the feelings that thought alone brings. It'll do no good to ponder it. So long as Novia is happy for me to be around, I'll stay and simply keep my distance.

I focus back on Novia, who's watching us all apprehensively while she rubs her hands together. She looks down and nods to herself before standing straight. She doesn't look at us, but directly in front of her instead. Everything around us seems to quiet down, and I don't know about the others, but I find myself holding my breath.

The air leaves me in a quick exhale, and I gasp when Novia's eyes gradually turn white. Her beautiful mismatched eyes vanish, and all that's left are white orbs in her sockets. She looks at us as though she can still see, and it sends a shiver down my spine. She looks away again, and suddenly the air around us grows cold. The grass around Novia's feet begin to wilt and shrivel until all that's left is dead grass where she stands.

With my eyes wide open, I watch the moment Novia turns incorporeal. An invisible smoke-like substance surrounds her body while she slowly fades out of view entirely until all that's left to be seen is the ruined grass she'd been standing on. The air is still cold, but Novia has completely disappeared from sight. That is definitely not something afaeshould be able to do.

In a blink, Novia comes back in sight, though she's moved to stand in front of Nix again. Straight away, he grabs for her and yanks her onto his lap again. I stave off the burst of jealousy that infects my brain when I see her relax into him like she's done it a thousand times before.

None of us say anything for a while, absorbing this new mind-blowing information. So, she can turn incorporeal and then invisible. How? How is that even possible? Only those who die and come back as spirits are incorporeal. Not a single living being has that kind of ability.

With a soft voice, Zayn asks, "How is that possible, Novia?"

She shakes her head before steeling herself and dives into her story. "Honestly? I don't know. I can keep the incorporeal state just fine, but it takes extra energy to make my entire body disappear while still in the same state. I don’t know how I can do it. All I know is what my dad told me.” She looks down briefly, but not before I notice the sad frown she’s too slow to hide.

“When my mom was pregnant with Dahlia, things were fine. Her delivery was rough, and my mom came close to losing her life, but Dahlia came out kicking and screaming, and my mom recovered quickly. With me... I was a different story. The pregnancy went as well as Dahlia's, and my mom thought she had the easiest pregnancies ever. But then something happened, and my mom went into early labour. It was a month before I was due to be born. She'd been in labour for thirty-seven hours, but my dad told me I just didn't want to leave her."

Novia smiles sadly as a tear streaks her cheek, and it takes everything in me not to reach over and wipe it away. I keep myself planted in my spot on the grass and wait for her to continue. "The thirty-eighth hour was when... was when my mom’s heart stopped, and she died. She died trying to give birth to me. I was never told what caused her heart to stop, but she passed away before she was able to deliver me.

"My dad said they rushed to give her an emergency C-section to try and save me, but there were a lot of complications. The doctor told my dad that there was very little chance I would survive, and there was a strong possibility I'd be delivered as a stillborn. To everyone's surprise, I was alive when they delivered me. I didn't come out kicking and screaming like Dahlia though. My dad told me he'd never seen a more quiet baby, a baby who looked so sad. He said it was as though I knew my mom didn't make it."

It's quiet for some time after that. A few more tears escape Novia's blue and green eyes, but she doesn't brush them away. They drop from her chin and onto her shirt. There's nothing I want more than to comfort her, but it's not my place. She's not mine to comfort.

"The doctors had no idea how I survived. They told my dad it was a miracle, and that it shouldn't have been possible, but I was a fighter. A year later, I phased for the first time. Only from my bedroom to outside. My dad brushed it off, thinking it was my unique ability. It wasn't until I was five, and I vanished right in front of him, that he knew I was different. That I wasn't normal, or what faeperceive as normal. I had all these abilities with no explanation for how I got them, how I was able to do things that nofaebefore me had ever been able to do, aside from the one ability I got from my mom. From my fifth birthday onwards, my dad begged me to promise I wouldn't use my abilities in front of another being, not even my sister. And I didn't. I practiced them alone, in my room or in my greenhouse. No one knew I was different, and if I slipped, my dad was there to correct my mistake. He had the ability to alter memories, so I was never in danger before.

"The only problem is... now I am. I'm pretty sure Davis and the Top Psycho didn't have a clue about any of my extra abilities. They just knew I was different. Something about my blood being an anomaly. That's probably why they experimented on me more and why I didn't die with my family and people. But now Davis knows I can phase. I tried to think of any other option to get out of there without giving anything away, but phasing was the only thing I could think of. I've spent five years hiding who I am from those assholes, and then I slip and give away one of my secrets that will no doubt have him and the Boss chasing after me more than they probably were."

What do you say after that mic drop? I'm lost for words, and the others look just as shell-shocked.

Novia doesn't speak after that, leaving us all to think over what she's told us. She's not wrong when she said her different abilities is what kept her alive. Sure, the assholes that took her didn't know she had abilities that were more thanfae, but they knew she was different. She's the only survivor, and we already know they're looking for her. They need her for something, that's for sure. Only question is, for what?

That brings the question of how they found Novia in the first place. "Novia, how did Davis find you?"

She looks up at me with sad, glassy eyes and says, "Don't know. He didn't tell me. He said it didn't matter how, only that they did."

That has a spike of worry rushing through me. If they were able to find her after leaving the house for a couple of hours, what's to say they won't track her here?

I face Spencer and ask, "Are the runes still working around the house?"

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