Page 86 of The Reveal
“You bit me,” I say.
In my head, this comes out as an accusation. Stark and short.
That’s not how it sounds here in this room, though. The gloom all around us seems almost seductive, whispering secrets whether I wish to hear them or not.
Ariel’s mouth curves, though his gaze remains stark. “I did much more than that, I’m afraid.”
He moves his hand beneath mine, his thumb sweeping over the bite mark, making it feel ... bright.
Bright like blood,I think.
I can’t seem to think of much besides that. Besides him. His silver gaze. His body, so big around mine, blocking out the world. The fact that the terrible headache that plagued me yesterday is gone. The fact that there’s a part of me that wishes that scar on my neck would stay there forever, a mark even humans could see.
“What exactly did you do?” I dare ask again.
His mouth curves, but again, it’s bittersweet. It makes a low ache start in me, and I don’t know how to combat it. It sweeps all through me like a fever, and it feels far more dangerous than any bite.
Because it hasemotionwritten all over it.
It’s almost as if I already know what he’s going to say.
“I bound you to me.” The way he says it, I can hear that it has meaning. That it’s something more than his mark. Or maybe even more than his sacrifices of days gone by.I bound you to me,he said, and it echoes inside of me, like a vow written in blood and pressed deep into my bones. “I gave you my blood and you accepted it. According to the ancient laws, Winter, that makes you mine.”
Something hitches in me, and while it’s not as simple as fear, it does the same work.
“Or, alternatively, you and your ancient laws can fuck right off.”
That half smile of his hurts a little less, now. “Somehow I thought that might be your reaction to this extraordinary honor I have bestowedupon you. Never fear. The laws hold regardless of your feelings about them.”
His hand moves to cup my face, and I don’t push it away. I should push it away. I really should. IknowI should.
I still don’t.
I can hear my heart pounding and pounding and pounding in my chest, as if it’s looking for ways to break free. The way I ought to be right now, but am not.
“Am I ...?” My mouth feels ridiculously dry. I try to swallow. “Am I a vampire?”
His eyes are so silver they hurt. “I did not make you like me, little seer. I saved you.”
I shake my head, though there’s not much shaking to do when he’s still holding on to me, the coolness of his skin making my own seem to burn all the hotter in response. “I don’t know what that means.”
“I healed you.” He tilts his head slightly as he regards me, his gaze so serious. “Could you not feel it? You were dying. That vision in your head was killing you, and then that woman nearly finished the job. I believe that was her plan.”
“That woman was a victim,” I say, and fast, like if I let what he said sit on me it might wound me even more. The confusion is mounting in me, so I step back.
Then I put even more space between us, though it feels foolish. Foolish, maybe, but necessary. I turn back to the bed, but I don’t see anything that even resembles clothing, so I pull the snow-white blanket off and wrap it around me. As if my naked body will betray me by simple virtue of its exposure.
Or maybe because he can already read me too well with clothes on.
He stays by the window and I watch his gaze drop, as if he’s tracing the place where my phoenix tattoo claims my abdomen, even through the barrier of the blanket. As if he feels that link the same way I do.
A greater link now, if he’s telling me the truth. Now that my resurrections aren’t entirely figurative.
“She was tied up and brutally killed,” I say, still too fast. “A victim in every sense of the word.”
Ariel looks as if he would rather not disappoint me, and I can’t decide if the warmth I feel at that is temper or a kind of melting sweetness at the idea that anyone might want to protect me from the harsh realities of life. It’s so ... novel.
“That woman was an acolyte,” he says after a long while. “She was a sacrifice, yes, but she chose her role. Fought for the glory of it, I would imagine. And the goddess she serves likes blood and fear, pain and suffering, so that is what she delivered.”
