Page 37 of Hellish Fae
But my spine arches with pain, and my head flings back as scorching heat burns through my temple where my migraine was. It sears through me like a lashing knife, and my voice cuts out in a cry as pain wracks my body.
His hold on me loosens and becomes a delicate embrace as I fall apart in his arms.
“What’s wrong? What’s happening, Ari?”
My head throbs like my skull is trying to break open from the inside out.
And then it does.
Blood slides down my temples, and I fling my eyes open as the pain subsides at once with a numbness that can only be magically explained.
I heave for air, and I hate how I know instantly what just happened. But I reach my trembling hands up anyway. My fingers push through my bloody hair for only seconds before colliding with something hard. I follow the thing up. The smooth bone-like thing curves slightly before coming to a fine point several inches off of my head.
There’s two of them. Two smooth but bloody horns now pierce from my skull.
“What the fuck!” I shove back from his solid chest. “Youdid this. You’re turning me into a demon,” I accuse.
“What!” He lifts his hands like he might plead with me and strangle me all at the same time. “It doesn’t work like that, Ari. It’s not an STD. It’s not a fucking Sexually Transmitted Demon.”
I close my eyes and try to calm my ragged breathing, my slamming heartbeat, and my rapid-fire thoughts.
It’s not him, you lusty nitwit,Catherine whispers, and then my mouth falls open hard.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I push my hands through my hair, but then I touch the horns again. My anxiety just spirals higher.
I shuffle across the netting until I reach the platform. I sit there with wide eyes and not a single useful thought in my head.
I really imagined I could live the rest of my life in isolation with just me and my poltergeist. I really am a nitwit.
Fuck.
Air twirls my silver locks around my face, and someone lands with solid footsteps against the platform. His shadow covers me entirely, and I wish I could disappear in his darkness forever right now.
“You look like you’re feeling better,” Zaviar comments to his brother before his gaze catches on the sight of the curving horns on my head. “What the hell happened to you? You fuck a horny dragon, Crow?” His cruel voice rakes against my already frazzled nerves.
“She thinks I gave her a sexually transmitted demon,” Damien answers, coming closer until he’s right in front of me, his palms warming my thighs as he tries to catch my gaze.
“It’s the demon essence. It’s . . . changing me.”
Soon, I’ll be as much of an outcast as all of them. And I’ll wish I tried harder to make things right in this screwed-up fae world.
“Oh, so the pretty little crow is becoming demonic?” Zaviar sneers.
How does he even have room to talk right now? He still looks like he flew down from a cloud to lull me to sleep with a harp of gold and glitter.
“You look more fae than I do, you faehole!” A growl comes through my words, and the moment I say them, my eyes widen, and I know what I should do.
“Faehole?” His brow scrunches but I ignore him.
I have to do it right now! I can’t waste any more time with Catherine changing me like this.
I stand immediately. I don’t waste time with the stairs as I fly down to the lower level.
Damien looks down from the treetops overhead. Big green leaves hide him almost entirely from view, but I can feel the concern in his gaze.
“What are you doing?” he yells down.
“I’m going to go to a party,” I yell back. My fingers smooth my hair to a proper appearance, but the blood coating my face probably isn’t very appropriate for a celebratory bash.
