“Can you stand?” he asked, his voice low.
She shook her head in defeat.
With each movement, Reeve’s eyes never left her wavering ones. His hand moved to the back of her neck, supporting her head. Fire surged from his fingertips, but she barely had the energy to register it. Her grip on his shirt loosened at once, and her arms fell slack into the water. His other arm wrapped around her waist like a ribbon of fire, his broad hand gently gripping beneath her hip. He stood, pulling her out of the water and soaking the front of his clothes as he supported her.
Her head rolled forward, settling against his chest with a shallow breath. She was too drowsy to understand how he managed to wrap her in the robe, but as he slid her arms through the smooth fabric, the feeling of being smothered crashed over her instantly.
She found the strength to lift her eyes up at him, completely pliant and soft against him as he towered over her. The breath that left him was calm, his focus on dressing her. She met his eyes, dark and swirling with molten, violet fire. They bore into hers with such gentle intensity that her knees took it as permission to buckle, but he held her perfectly still.
A bolt of electricity raced up her arm and crawled over his shoulder. It affected him less than a small breeze would have, but his eyes followed the bright blue path of light until it dissipated.
His eyes returned to hers. “Full of surprises, kitten.”
Her top half barely moved as he scooped up the back of her legs. Her body compressed against his as they moved through space. The lighting changed as he stepped across space.
New voices appeared, but her fever drowned them all out.
The water was ice as it hit her skin. Terrifying and smooth. It smelled of lavender and eucalyptus, and swirled with a thick purple color, rendering her unconscious in the white, oversized pool of water only moments after being placed in it.
Now minutes or hours later, she didn’t know, her fully conscious eyes were on Reeve, who sat in a chair at the far end of the water.
She sank deeper into the water, which was now pleasant. Her body was wrapped in a white gauze-like material that clung to her skin. She relaxed as she realized she wasn’t completely exposed to him.
Though she already had been. And he’d kept those devastating eyes up.
Her hair felt clean, washed, and dried atop her head.
“How do you feel?” he asked in a low hum.
His eyes were tired.
“I feel. . .rested. That fever is gone.”
Reeve nodded. “I can feel that.”
“You can feel my body temperature?”
“I can.”
Maeve leaned her head against the tiled wall behind her. “Is that because you are so great, or because of some other reason?”
Reeve didn’t smile. “All Immortals have heightened senses, should we want or need them. Smells, heartbeats. But with you. . . I haven’t got a choice.”
Maeve shifted in the water, letting it reach her back fully. She changed the subject.
“How long did it take for my fever to break?”
“Mere minutes. But the Healers worked on you for hours. Your arm had some residual issues they addressed. And their water did its part.”
Maeve brought her hand to the surface, and the deep violet waters glistened around her fingers.
“The famous waters of Aterna,” she said softly.
The place that she wanted Mal to come to before she’d altered reality, before he’d been lost to Shadow.
“How old do you think I am now?” she asked, a question she’d been wondering for a while. Wondering just exactly how much time had passed since she first began messing with her, and everyone’s perception of time.
“You don’t look a day over forty,” said Reeve.
