Page 47 of Curse the Fae

Elixir startles at my question, visibly stunned that I would bother to concern myself. I watch him grapple with that before he swivels away. “The water buries them,” he answers in a gruff voice.

Mournfully, Elixir shuts his eyes. Then he opens them and runs his thumb through the pool, sending ripples toward the dolphin. The creature responds by gliding around us one final time, plunging into the river, and vanishing the way we’d originally come.

A sudden and overwhelming quiet fill the cave, except for a few droplets leaking from crannies in the ceiling. Though, the silence doesn’t last long. Elixir makes a hissing sound as crimson leaks from the notches in his arm, the gashes made by the crocodile’s tail. The clefts pour onto his scales and stain them.

I slosh over and grab his arm, which causes him to freeze like an animal caught in a snare. Then he jerks away, his confusion evident:What are you doing?

He looks confounded, as though he’s never received such attention before, which I can’t fathom seeing as the river Faeries worship him. Maybe for magical reasons, he’s never needed tending, on account of being a Fae who rarely suffers from wounds.

“Just let me,” I tell him.

Plucking the hem of my caftan, I use the fabric to dab the craters in his arm, pressing into them tenderly and patiently. I sense his attention riveted on me, so I duck my head to avoid his gaze. The flimsy textile shouldn’t be enough to staunch the bleeding, but it is. It may have something to do with him being an immortal who heals rapidly. Whatever the reason, I refuse to consider the magnitude of my actions.

Elixir does it for me. Recovering from his paralysis, he jerks back with serpentine speed. “Why did you help me?” he demands.

He’s not talking about his injuries. I retrieve my weapon with shaky fingers, retreat to an outcropping of rocks jutting from the walls, and crawl onto the mantle, my backside slumping. Cradling my upturned knees and resting my chin there, I stare at the place where the crocodiles sank.

A shadow moves closer, blending with mine over the depth. I drag my gaze to Elixir, who looms before me.

All I can manage is a shrug. “It was the right thing to do.”

From the way that he tilts his head, I could be speaking in a language he doesn’t know. “It’s easy to be cruel to enemies,” I explain. “It takes more strength to be compassionate.”

Slowly, the numbness rinses away. I rub my arms, glimpse the place where the battle had ended, and let the remorse clot my gullet. “It takes more grit to heal something dangerous rather than hurt it,” I say, my lips wobbling. “It takes more care to rescue something rather than turn your back on it.”

The atmosphere blurs, quavering at the margins as saltwater builds in my eyes. I’m exhausted, relieved, remorseful, shocked, and I want to go home.

For the longest time, the ruler remains silent. I glance up to experience yet another stunning vision. His features have crumpled like a wad of parchment, and his eyebrows are fluted.

So, this is what sympathy looks like on him. Or rather, it’s not sympathy but empathy. He’s bewildered that I would care what happens to the predators who’d attacked me, that I would long to know what becomes of them after the water sweeps them away, that I would show consideration for the predatory fauna of this world.

Can he detect the trauma in my voice? The bereavement?

The pool laps at the walls as he glides nearer, liquid parting around his hips. I tense but don’t move away, my limbs spreading of their own volition as he slides in between them. The sopping caftan bunches around my upper thighs, exposing too much of me. He’s so close that I’m straddling him, his viper scales skating over my inner thighs and making me tremble. Wet heat emanates from his torso, and his breath coasts across my mouth. I find myself inching nearer to those inhalations, yearning to infuse myself with them.

Elixir’s gaze strays. It follows the trajectory as his fingers steel out to brush the welts blooming over my hip. I can’t move, won’t move.

While glancing toward the lacerations, his accent turns ragged. “This was not your fault.”

My lungs compress. Any second now, the floodgates will open, and I’ll weep. But if I cry in front of him, I’m not sure what else I’ll be capable of.

His pupils lift to search for mine. The angle draws our lips closer, our mouths consuming the same pithy slices of air.

Splashes invade the scene. Elixir reels away from me as Coral bursts from the depth. Her crystalline eyes shimmer as she gapes at the remaining evidence of anarchy—our wounds and the crumbling foundations. Considering the territory, it’s easy to deduce what transpired.

My limbs clap shut, blocking out the nexus of my thighs, which had been so utterly accessible to Elixir. His inability to have seen a thing is immaterial; no matter what, I’d let it happen. I had parted my knees and allowed him to fill the space between my legs.

Nonetheless, my cheeks are too clammy to boil with humiliation. Far too much has occurred, and far too many other conflicting sensations take up residence in my being, for me to spare room for such a paltry feeling as mortification.

Either Elixir had summoned the guard, or the dolphin had acted as a messenger for him. Coral’s presence snaps Elixir to attention. A myriad of emotions streaks across his visage, from irate that we’ve been interrupted to ashamed for feeling aggravation in the first place.

I relate to this, Fables forgive me. Regardless, I do my most to stifle that flawed impulse by lifting my chin.

Coral casts me a stupefied glance, debating my part in this chaos. However, because Elixir and I had been huddled together, with our weapons coated in red, I see this female draw the conclusion that her ruler and I had joined forces. She must also see the effect it’s had on us, which causes a single, silver-blue eyebrow to arch.

Elixir glides farther away from me, his serrated baritone as sharp as steel. “Get her cleaned up,” he orders the guard.

Without another searching glance my way, the ruler swipes his daggers from the water and dives headfirst into the void, his tail flicking behind him. The level is shallow, yet he vanishes as though the depth is bottomless.

---