Page 140 of Wrath of the Fae

My lip trembles, and he firms his hold on my face.

‘We’ll figure it out,’ he promises, sounding so sure.

‘There’s nothing to heal, even if you could heal me. I’ll… I’ll…’

‘What?’

‘I’ll never see you or Cyrus again.’

That’s what I’m so sad about? That’s all I can think to say? Not that I can’t see my enemies. Or that I’ll never see another sunrise. No. It’s their faces I’ll miss most.

His forehead rests on mine.

‘I said we’ll figure it out. Don’t cry.’

‘Does it look awful?’

‘No.’

‘Liar.’

‘It looks painful. Not awful. You’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.’ He tucks my hair behind my ear. ‘Lie?’

I slowly shake my head. ‘No.’

I reach out and run my hands up his arm. When I get close to his shoulder, he winces.

‘I bit you.’

‘Yeah. You did. Do you feel okay now? Not nibbly, I hope?’ He tries to make light. But this isn’t funny. None of it is.

‘I faded. How am I still here?’

‘We kind of…’ He considers his words. ‘Went inside you. Cyrus turned to smoke, me to light, and we entered you.’

‘Entered?’

‘Up your nose. In your mouth. Your ears. We clung on to you. Your cells. Your blood. And when you faded, we clung to the dust you became. What we did… that’s never been done before. But we felt it. We knew, like instinct. Something primal took hold, and we just knew what to do. And it worked. We went with you. We kept you together. It’s damaged us a little, but we’ll heal.’

‘Damaged?’

‘As I said, we’ll heal.’

‘Reid. I can’t see you. Please don’t use that against me. Tell me how you’re damaged.’

He lets out a long exhale. ‘Nose bleeds. Popped eye vessels. Blood in our ears and the headache to end all headaches. Nothing compared to the pain we’d suffer if we had lost you again, so don’t worry about it.’

He takes my broken wrist gently in hand, and I hiss as it moves.

‘Not enjoying seeing your bones poking out, if I’m honest, Little Bird. Did he do this?Jonah?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Your eyes too?’

‘Yes. I ate one of his eyes, which pissed him off.’

Silence.

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