Page 60 of Traitor Witch
I stop, lean over the bath and use one hand to turn on the taps.
“Sorry, Lady Solar, but your health is more important than your modesty. You passed out once already.”
“Rysen,” Nos’s voice snaps me out of my determined quest. “I’ll do it.” Nilsa finally stills and the Seer continues, “I can’t see anything, but I can make sure you stay conscious.”
He makes sense, but I don’t want to release my witch. It takes a considerable amount of willpower to let her down. So much so that I just stand there, breathing, for a second before I can persuade myself to leave the room.
The door slams shut behind me.
Chapter Sixteen
NOSTER
Ileave Cas arguing with Val on the deck and follow Rysen and our mate into the ship.
Keeping up with a vampire who can move silently is as difficult as it sounds. I have to guess he’ll take Nilsa straight to her room, and I’m rewarded for my quick thinking when I hear him turn on the taps.
“Sorry, Lady Solar, but your health is more important than your modesty. You passed out once already.”
“Rysen,” I call, almost crashing into the bathroom doorway in my haste to reach him before he starts trying to strip Nilsa and does irreparable damage to our relationship with her. “I’ll do it.” They both go quiet and I take that as a sign to continue. “I can’t see anything, but I can make sure you stay conscious.”
The silence dominates the room for a while, then the rustle of fabric on fabric tells me that Rysen is letting Nilsa down. I can’t decide if that’s because he wants to deck me or because I’ve gotten through to him.
It isn’t until the door slams closed behind him that I let out the breath I’ve been holding.
“Sorry, he gets… protective. You can’t hold it against him.” I step forward, hands outstretched. “I’ll do my best but, ah, yeah, I’m not sure how much help I can be.”
She’s still quiet for a second. “I’m fine.”
I can hear the tiredness in her voice. “Then I'll just sit here and chat,” I feel my way over to what I think is a wall and lean against it. “That way I know you’re still conscious.” When she doesn’t reply, I decide to pull out my trump card. “You don’t want to hear about what Cas and I got you at the Port?”
“How did you—oh, right. Seer.”
I hear her clothes rustle, the slight intake of breath that indicates pain, then the gentle splash of water as Nilsa slides into the tub.
Now isn’t the time to be thinking about the fact that I’m in a room with my naked mate and I can’t even see her. I’ll curse Fate for that later. Right now, my stupid eyes are a blessing. She would never let me stay with her if I could see, but my blindness makes me harmless in her eyes.
It’s a delusion, but I’m going to use it to my advantage.
If it keeps her safe, I’ll pretend I’m as harmless as a human.
“I knew you were coming back, eventually. I’ll admit, I didn’t think it would be so soon.” Nilsa doesn’t feel the need to answer the implied question, so I go for the direct one instead. “Why are you bleeding?”
“I went to visit another exiled witch.” Her voice shakes on the word ‘exiled’ and my fists clench by my sides as I resist the urge to reach out and comfort her. “I—” she cuts off, and I worry that she’s fallen unconscious, but she continues before I can panic, “Long story short, I can’t go home until I do some stuff. She gave me sigils to help me.”
“Tattoos?” Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to see that, but her story doesn’t add up. “They don’t bleed as much as what I’m smelling on you.”
“Not just tattoos.” Water splashes, she hisses out a breath. “The ink is mixed with herbs, then they force the Lady's magic under the skin into the mark.”
“Sounds… unpleasant.”
She chokes out a laugh. “It’s excruciating. Before today I only had thirteen… I lost count how many she added last night.”
“Do they work like the ones you gave Valorean?”
“No. His are a passive enchantment. Mine are more like a magical shortcut. They allow me to cast without using herbs or saying a prayer.”
My curiosity isn’t satisfied by such a simple answer. “And they bleed more because they’re magically infused?”
