“Exactly,” I said, exasperated.
He used his grasp on my neck to pull me up the bed until my head met a pillow. He settled beside me, balancing himself on his elbow while his opposite palm remained around my throat.
“How do you feel?” he asked in the softest voice imaginable, his warm game on point once more.
“Irritated. Angry.Murderous.”
His lips curled, but only slightly. “How about physically? Are you sore? Does anything hurt?”
“Only my brain,” I muttered. “What with all the cryptic responses and everything.”
His amusement disappeared behind a mask of mild annoyance. “I mean it, Aflora. You went up in literal flames. I thought you were going to burn to ash beneath that wave of power.” He almost sounded sad by the prospect, but I knew better than to believe his tone. “Tell me how you’re feeling. Please.”
I nearly asked if that word hurt him to utter, but instead gave him the truth because I was too exhausted to banter with him anymore. “I feel balanced and tired.”
He nodded, his grasp loosening as he trailed his touch downward between my breasts, reminding me of my nude state.
I should have accepted his clothes.
Except it really didn’t matter. He’d seen me naked countless times in our dreams.
“Are you in pain anywhere?” he asked softly, rephrasing his earlier question.
“No.”Just my mind.
Another nod, this one more solemn. He gripped my hip to guide me onto my side to face him as he lowered his head to rest on the same pillow as me. “Has Kols or Zeph told you anything about Quandary Bloods?”
“I know they can take apart magic and rebuild it,” I said. “And that they used to work with the Death Bloods until the Elite Bloods had them all killed.”
He nodded. “Yes. They fear that which they cannot control.”
“Like abominations.”
“Just like abominations,” he agreed. “Which makes you volatile and dangerous in their eyes.”
“Because I’m too powerful for them to control,” I whispered. “You said it yourself—I almost killed you and Zeph tonight.” I flinched with the words, my heart giving a pang over the thought of harming another soul, let alone two so close to my own.
“But you didn’t,” he murmured. “I shadowed him out just in time, and you mostly contained your own explosion as soon as it released. Well, apart from murdering all those trees.”
If he meant that as a joke, I didn’t find it very funny. “Any loss of life is unacceptable. If I can’t be controlled, I should be exterminated.”
“That’s a very narrow view, Aflora,” he murmured, his palm sliding up my side, along my rib cage, and back down again. “What if you could learn control?”
“I’ve been trying that since I arrived, and tonight should tell you how that’s been going for me.”
“But now you have a support system to rely on.”
“I have no one to rely on,” I countered. “You never tell me anything of importance. Zeph is the realm’s worst teacher. And Kols hates me. Some support system.”
“Yeah, he’s a shit teacher,” Shade agreed, smirking. “But Kols doesn’t hate you, and I tell you important things all the time. You just don’t hear me.”
“Right.” I didn’t bother arguing with him. No sense in trying when it wouldn’t change anything. He wouldn’t even tell me why he’d bitten me, let alone who put him up to it.
A tense stillness fell between us, his icy gaze holding mine as he continued to draw his palm up and down my side. Slowly. Purposefully. Tenderly. Goose bumps pebbled across my arms, the intimacy of his nearness eliciting memories of our dreams and the touches that followed this caress. But he didn’t try to kiss me. Didn’t try to do anything other than softly memorize the curve of my hip and back up again.
“Kols’s grandfather ordered the slaughter of the Quandary Bloods shortly after they helped the Nacht family gain access to the dark-magic source over my family. I believe it’s because they didn’t want to risk that realignment of power ever being undone. It’s the ultimate point of contention between the Elite Bloods and Death Bloods. Which is why your existence must be protected.”
It was the most information he’d ever given me at once, and still not nearly enough.
