Page 67 of Compass Points
“Arie…” She wasn’t even sure what to ask. “Where do you have to go?”
“I have to check on one more thing. There is even more at stake here than you realize.”
“More than the plague taking over the continent? More than the wrong Norden Point in the Compass?”
“Yes.”
“But you won’t tell me.”
“I will tell you, but not tonight. I’ll be back before the Ceremony tomorrow morning.”
Rose’s shoulders slumped. She trusted Arie, even if he wasn’t ready to tell her everything. He’d saved Luc. He saved her. He continued to show up for her. She’d give him the benefit of the doubt here.
“Okay. See you in the morning.”
The cat dipped its head slightly.
“And, Arie,” she said quietly as he approached the door. “Thank you.”
“Of course, Rose. But do me a favor. Don’t wait too much longer to tell him, alright? You don’t want to live with that kind of regret.”
Rose tilted her head, trying to parse what Arie was and wasn’t saying.
Loved.The thought she’d pushed away before. She wasn’t sure she was ready for that. But she knew she wanted a chance to see what she and Luc could be together. She didn’t have time to respond to Arie as his tail swished again, and he disappeared.
Rose didn’t have to wait long. She perched next to Luc as he lay there, still sprawled on the desktop. His breathing even. She pushed his hair back, running her fingers through it in a way she hadn’t been able to do freely since their market kiss.
“If this is the treatment I get for being…whatever that was, I should try it more often,” came Luc’s groggy quip.
She couldn’t help but smile. She’d trusted Arie when he said that Luc would be okay, but there was just something about Luc saying it himself that made her warm inside.
“I’m sure I can be persuaded to keep up the treatment without an attack on your person,” she said as her fingers curled deeper into his hair.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Luc sat up. She didn’t even try to stop him. She was sure he wouldn’t listen. Flirting may have helped him ease back into the situation, but he was likely still angry that Aiden had managed to stab him with some kind of poison.
Luc rubbed his hand over his chest where Arie had pawed at him.
“What did Arie do to me?”
“You’ll have to ask him yourself when he gets back. Though I suspect it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
Luc seemed to wrestle with his next thought. “I felt my magic fighting whatever that was, but I don’t think it would have won on its own. Whatever Arie did wasn’t pleasant either, it felt like flames cooking my body from the inside.”
“He said it wasn’t poison, but didn’t give me more than that,” Rose said.
“You didn’t know he could heal, did you?”
Rose shook her head. “No, but to be fair, that was kind of our thing. He never asked about what I was running from and what magic I had, and I never thought too hard about what he was. We just enjoyed each other’s company.” She shrugged. “Though I’m starting to think he knew more about me than he let on. I guess the time for ignoring those kinds of questions is at an end.”
She stood up from the desk and turned towards the door. She wasn’t quite sure what her face would reveal. Her confusion over Arie? More likely, the overwhelming relief that Luc was okay. He grabbed her hand as he sat on the edge of the desk. He gently tugged, wordlessly asking if she’d face him, if she’d talk to him.
She knew she would before her body turned. She rolled back toward him, fitting into the space between his sprawled legs. He squeezed her hand.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
“I think the fact that I’m breathing answers the question for you. You, on the other hand, seem like you’ve been through something.”
