Page 102 of Synodic

I went to look down at my body, but Rowen caught hold of my chin and forced my gaze back to his tortured eyes. He seemed to be hurting just as much as I was. “Don’t you dare look.”

I couldn’t nod, only stare on as Rowen plucked a petal from my flower and pressed it to my worthless arm. It absorbed into my skin, and I heard the jagged crunch of my bones snapping back into alignment before I felt it. And when I did, I wailed out in excruciating pain, expecting the walls to tremble with my cries, but Rowen planted his lips over mine and swallowed my scream.

“Shhhh, I must ask you to be brave once more and try not to scream,” he whispered, his tone strangled as he rested his forehead against mine.

I now realized what Rowen had intended by making me completely lucid as he healed me. A body that felt kept you fighting.

Drawing himself back over me, he respectfully slipped aside the rags that hung from my body, better exposing my marred skin for healing. He worked the noxlily petals into my middle, and I felt my ribs crack back into place one by one. I tried not to scream, but I couldn’t help the sounds that escaped my throat. They were foreign and disturbing, and I knew they would haunt my dreams forever. I’d never been in such pain before, but Rowen plunged down and kissed me again, consuming my earth-shattering agony.

He continued his work, healing one broken piece of me at a time, his lips only leaving mine to find the next bit of abused skin and bone to mend. Each of my screams, moans, and pitiful whimpers fed into his mouth, and he swallowed every one.

He inhaled every destroyed part of me as it left my body, almost as if he was drawing and sucking out the pain one kiss at a time. I knew it was his kind and gentle way of absorbing my cries to keep us from being found out.

Who knew how long he had been muffling my screaming, and despite his best attempts, anyone could have heard us by now. Caeryn was probably already on his way here, most likely with reinforcements. I could endure the pain if I had to, I’d done it once I could do it again, but to think of Caeryn hurting Rowen, that…that would destroy me.

But no one came the entire time Rowen painstakingly healed and kissed the pain away.

Slowly I became whole again as sinews of flesh mended together and bones set back into their rightful place. Rowen settled what was left of my dress back over my body, and searched for me within my eyes.

The last of the pain lingered heavily in my mouth, a reminder of how close I’d come to death. And if it weren’t for the dried bloodstains, the tattered clothes, and my filthy body, I would have thought it all a dream.

I still didn’t quite believe it wasn’t.

I desperately needed to touch Rowen to assure myself that he was real, that it was all real. I lifted my blood- and grime-covered fingertips to his face. “You’re really here with me.” My voice was weak and hoarse, and I didn’t recognize it, but they were the first coherent words I’d spoken since Rowen appeared.

Relief washed over him like a flash flood.

He carefully took my chin in his hand and tilted my face up to his. He bowed his head toward mine and placed a featherlight kiss upon my lips. I didn’t blink, my eyes wide open and staring as he took my mouth. I couldn’t look away as I drank in his beautiful face kissing mine. It was tender, soft, and light, yet it contained every kiss, glance, and touch we’d missed since that first day in the forest.

He may have healed my body from the brink of death, but it was this kiss that truly healed my soul.

Still holding me, he pulled away from my lips and met my gaze. “Where else would I be?”

* * *

The pain was gone. All of it.

I moved my arm and leg, rolled my shoulder, and took in a deep breath, bracing myself to hurt. It was all I’d known for the past few days, but there wasn’t a single trace of lingering pain. It was as if my many tortures had never really happened.

A flash of cinder and crashing beams flashed through my memory. “The village? There was a little girl, I tried—”

“Everyone is alright,” Rowen assured me, holding me tight and calming my panic. “Ninette is weak but recovering with Takoda’s help, as is everyone.”

Relieved no one had been irreparably hurt, my mind rushed to the present, and I waded through fractured memories. Had Rowen really told me he loved me? Or had I only imagined it in my delirium? The kiss must have been real, I still felt it like fire upon my lips.

“How did you get in here?” I asked, his presence propelling my sanity to the surface. We were deep underground, who knew where, trapped within an endless maze of tunnels and chambers. It was a miracle he had even found me at all.

“I will tell you everything once we are safe from this place, I swear it to you.” Rowen stood, unraveling the length of his intimidating body as he reached for me. He was dressed from head to toe in all black, a color I’d never seen him in. I knew it was to blend in with the darkest of shadows, but I couldn’t help thinking he looked like a dark angel who’d just scoured the pits of Hell to find me.

I took his hand, eager to leave the room I’d thought would become my grave. He helped lift me to my feet and pocketed the stem of the flower that had just saved my life. “You need to get yourself out of here. Take yourself back to your home, far from here where you can’t be found.”

“I’m not leaving you, especially to cower in a world where I don’t belong.”

“I don’t deserve your loyalty. Even if I spent lifetimes trying to earn it. I’m the reason you almost died in this evil place.”

“Rowen, stop. This isn’t up for discussion. We are both getting out of here together like you promised. You told me to go back home, but you are my home, and I’m not leaving here without you.”

His clenched jaw dipped in acquiescence as if he knew the feeling and understood I wouldn’t back down from this.

---