Goddess, damn it. Where are the seelie when I need them? I glance up, looking for Jaro, but Rose’s hand takes mine, stopping me before I can call for him to take her away and fix her.
“I am going to learn this,” she promises. “I… I just need to try harder.”
“It’s not about trying.” I’m repeating myself, but I don’t know how else to explain it. “It’s just about doing. You don’t try to breathe; you just do it. You can see my aura. You’re already halfway there. Just… take the next step.”
“Glamour her to look like you see her,” Titania suggests. “Maybe if she knows what to look for…”
Unconvinced that it will help, I sigh. “Fine. But she can see my aura. She knows what she’s looking for.”
I wave the glamour over her with little effort, and the others turn in their saddles, giving away that they’ve been listening the whole time.
Jaro’s hand comes up to shield his face. “Shit! Some warning next time?”
“Oooooh shinyyyy,” Lore croons, still looking despite the risk to his retinas.
Bree hisses, his whole body flinching so severely that he almost falls off his cat-sìth.
Ignoring all of them, I focus on Rose’s reaction.
“This is how you see me?” she asks, haltingly, waving her arm out like she can dissipate the glow with movement alone. “Drystan… I. How can you still see?”
I dismiss the glamour, sparing the rest of them from the glow. “With. Great. Difficulty.”
My nostrils flare as the salty scent of tears hits me in a wave, and I rear back, aghast. “Goddess, are you… crying?”
“N—” Her denial cuts off as her body rejects the lie. “Most of it is just the brightness.”
I’m willing to bet that most of it is actually the early effects of her fever, combined with her overly soft heart, but I don’t dare say that.
Should I pat her again? I glance to Titania for a hint, but the second Nicnevin is gone.
Fucking spirits.
“Now that you know what you’re looking for, do you feel more confident?” If I can get her to focus on her aura, perhaps she’ll desist with this emotional display. “Once you see your aura, you simply need to imagine it being sucked back into your skin and staying trapped there. You may not be able to shield all of it”—in fact, I’ll be impressed if she can—“but even half would lend you an advantage.”
It’s simple enough.
“Do you think she might be unconsciously blocking herself from seeing her aura?” Jaro posits. “It could be self defence.”
It’s definitely possible, and something I hadn’t considered. If she can’t see it… No. She has to. Danu wouldn’t be so cruel as to gift me a mate I can never look at.
Then again, a lot of the Goddess’s designs for my life thus far have been less than ideal.
I shrug.
Her body shifts, and I glance down just in time to catch her rubbing her arm. Her aura is spiking wildly across her skin, shifting in response to her agitation.
“Huntress,” I murmur. “You’re scratching again.”
Seven
Rhoswyn
Ifreeze, caught off guard by the huskiness in his voice. I hadn’t even realised that my nails were curling into my skin until he pointed it out.
“Why are you looking?” I ask, trying to crush the butterflies in my stomach. “If it’s so painful—”
“Every time I take my eyes off you, you end up in more trouble.” One of his hands leaves the reins to rest on my thigh, and I swear my nerves light up at the innocent touch. “You said yes. Tell me what your boundaries are.”
