?The next song begins and this time Darian dances with the woman dressed in her fox costume. His arm wrapped tighter around her back and his lips whispering something into her ear. Her entire body covered except her neck and hands.
?She has asked me to touch her scars because constant touch would hurt less.
?Constant pain eventually becomes nothing because your brain gets so used to it. A rewiring of sorts to get used to pain. And while pain can heighten pleasure, pleasure can also dull pain.
?She’s using Darian to try and get used to the pain from being touched by using pleasure to try and dull the pain.
?She’s trying to become used to the pain through sex.
?And she went to Darian because I had already refused and she would have been shot down by the rest of her fated. She went to Darian because she couldn’t go to her fated.
?Within myself I search for Thorne and knock on his mental walls. Darian continues dancing with the woman dressed as a fox into the next song. A woman I have a very strong feeling about as I curl invisible hands around that tether within me and yank it.
?Her step faulters and her masked head whips to me before Darian pulls her further onto the dance floor.
?Yes?
?I take a deep breath.
?Would you hurt Mavyn physically if she gave you consent and it meant it helped her in the end?
?It’s something she needs. It’s something I don’t think I could ever do. Pleasure and pain, there’s too much of a balancing act between them that I can’t push. I can be rough, I can edge, but I can’t actually hurt them. Darian. . . him and Thorne, that’s their kink. They like pushing boundaries. Varian too.
?His pause lasts longer than I would like it to before it feels like he cocks his head at me. He’s somewhere in theroom, actually disguised since out of everyone the society house presidents are meant to be and stay hidden. Another little game where they need to make an appearance at the ball, everyone tries to guess who is who, and their society house members have the chance try and find them for a prize.
?Why?
?Because I think she’s –
?I cut myself off before finishing that sentence and silence my thoughts where Thorne can hear. Confusion and intrigue bead through the walls he has at my silence. Unlike him I don’t usually try to hide my thoughts when we’re in each other’s minds. I don’t usually have anything to hide.
?But he doesn’t know about that part of Mavyn’s curse. He hasn’t seen the extent of her scars.
?Another reason she went to Darian. And the fucking angel can keep a secret. Despite thefuckingfactthat he’s essentially an open book. I’ve never felt a wall or barrier or shield up around his mind or emotions.
?I know he has one, but his mental control rivals all of ours combined.
?Callahan, Thorne urges within my mind.You think she’s what? Why would she want to be physically hurt?
?I watch her dance with Darian as another song starts. This one a quiet orchestra piece that gradually crescendos. A song brought over from Earth I’ve heard playing several times through her earbuds. It’s one of her songs where when she listens to it she loosens her hold on her aura. Her scent deepening just a bit and her magic humming with that song.
?Callahan!
?Forget about it.
?I can feel his – not quite annoyance. Not necessarily irritation or exasperation either.
?Quietly, near the edges I hear him say,She’s my fated too.
?You wouldn’t be able to notice the silent plea because Thorne does not beg, but I had been there in the shadows when Esmirra of Ebony told him about Mavyllora. Thorne never romanticized life and fate as I did, but I could see how he reacted when he learned more and more about the bone witch’s little girl.
?That still doesn’t mean it’s my secret to tell. She chose to trust Darian for a reason, and she didn’t have a choice in telling me her secret.
?We keep forgetting. She is still a person and entitled to her own secrets and such because they do not affect us. Aside from being fated, she is correct in that we have no right to know her business.
?I push Thorne out of my head so I can knock on Darian’s mental walls. Not commenting on Thorne’s last words because he is correct, but fate does not mean the same to Mavyn as it does to us. And I want her to trust us.
?Even though Darian is an open book, I know he has certain precautions within his mind. I can feel his smug fucking smile from here as he links his mind to mine and allows me in.
