Page 58 of Beneath the Flames
Rhydian lifted his hand in front of my face and golden light shone faintly in his palms.“I could help.”
My eyes snapped open at that.“Keep your magic away from me.”
“I wouldn’t hurt you, Maren.I’d simply make it easier for you to sleep.You won’t be able to climb a volcano without any rest, especially not in these conditions.”
Well, I suppose he has a point.
While I was tired enough to fall asleep, I didn’t know if I’d be able tostayasleep.Would it be so bad if he helped me get decent sleep?I thought for another minute before relenting.“Promise you’re not going to kill me or something worse?”
“There’s something worse than killing you?”he asked, amusement lacing his voice.
“You know what I mean,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“I’m not sure that I do.”
I wasn’t about to try to explain how some things in life were worse than facing death, and sometimes, in moments of despair, death would be preferred so that you didn’t have to face those things anymore.
A flash of my father ripped through my mind, and I flinched.Rhydian’s expression tightened in response.
“What was that?”he asked after a moment.“That spike of emotion.I can’t quite get a grasp on it.Why did you flinch?”
Not for the first time, I hated his magic.I hated that it allowed him to kidnap me, to bring me here to a land full of freezing death, and I hated that it let him into my mind.Rhydian didn’t deserve these dark pieces of me.They were for me to bear alone, and I wasn’t about to explain the kind of man my father was.
I guessed in some ways, shame was as good a silencer as death was.
“It’s nothing.”
“It didn’t feel likenothing.”
I pressed my lips together, unwilling to share the broken pieces of me.
Rhydian waited a while longer, and when I remained quiet, he sighed.“Let me help you sleep.I’ll keep you safe while you rest.”
“I don’t trust you,” I whispered back.
“Then trust that I have just as much to gain from you not dying.I need you alive.”
“How charming,” I muttered, and he chuckled.
His fingertips grazed my temple, and goosebumps erupted on my skin.He was a dangerous Fae, so why did my body keep reacting like this when he touched me?
“Let me help you.”
I weighed my options for several seconds, going over his words in my mind.I supposed he was telling the truth—he needed me alive as much as I wanted tostayalive.Without me, the curse would remain untilhewas dead, Eroth with it.He had his own selfish reasons just like I did.
In the end, did it matter what the reasons were if we both had the same goal?
Sighing, I relented.“Fine.But just for a little while.”
Rhydian wasted no time, his fingertips returning to my temple and running a soft line down to my jaw.I barely saw the hint of gold light before darkness consumed me.
Something was wrong.
I knew it before I even opened my eyes, before I fully came back to consciousness.As my eyelids slowly fluttered open, multiple sensations flooded my awareness.
One.Maren, still asleep, soft breaths slow and deep.
Two.I had fallen asleep when I hadn’t meant to.
