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Chapter25
Ember
What must have been hours after we entered the water, Rafferty is carrying me back out and setting me down gently on the ground. No longer bathed in warmth, it doesn’t take long for my body to cool.
Goosebumps cover every inch of my exposed skin. He steps back, so I open my eyes as he strips out of his shirt and offers it to me. “It’s wet but will shield you.”
I reach for it and quickly pull it over my head. My body no longer feels like it’s on fire—so that’s something—but the aches are still there, likely from what I now see are long, deep gashes on the tops of both of my thighs.
Rafferty kneels beside me and presses his fingers to the torn flesh. I watch, breath held, as he whispers something. Golden threads wrap over my injury, pulling the skin back together as he whispers.
Soon, I’m staring at nothing but a jagged pink line. Then, he moves to the other side, repeating it and leaving me with a matching set.
“I can do more tomorrow,” he says as he stands. As soon as he’s on his feet, though, he sways, catching himself on the wall.
“Maybe you should sit, too.”
“I will once I’ve retrieved your gown from the water.” He turns, and my gaze falls to the two scars on his shoulder blades. They are huge and still red. The fact that I know where those came from brings a fresh wave of anger washing over me.
To lose such an intricate part of oneself—something that might as well have been a limb—I can’t even imagine.
He splashes into the water and grabs the dress still floating. When he turns to me, I drop my gaze then close my eyes as I track his movement with my hearing.
A few moments later, he drops to the ground beside me. “I’m sorry, Ember.”
“You saved me.”
“I should have heard it coming.”
“You would have if you’d just talked to me instead of getting pissed.”
He grunts. “When I get like that, I don’t know how to explain what comes over me. It’s like I’m not myself.”
“You seem fine now.”
“I seem that way, but I assure you, I am not. Something was lost in that clearing…and I’m afraid I’ll never get it back.”
I crack open an eye now and look over at the massive man sitting beside me. With his knees pulled up, he’s resting both arms on top of them and staring out over the water. “You forced him to kill those men.”
“I manipulated his mind, yes. Something that can only be done to a light fae by a dark one.”
“You’re a dark fae?” I whisper the words, only partially understanding the implication behind them.
“I don’t know what I am,” he admits. “I was born a light fae, but when I claimed vengeance for my sister and absorbed that dark magic…” He trails off, sighing. “I’m no longer sure what I am. For centuries, I’ve kept it at bay, refusing to use that ability because I knew what it would mean, and now I can feel it, Ember.” He turns toward me. “I can feel the darkness closing around me like a vice. It’s suffocating.”
He’d already explained as much to me, which has me even more concerned that he’d given in. Does that mean he’ll change now? Or does he have to fully embrace it? “You traded a piece of yourself for my safety. Why?”
His golden eyes, still rimmed with black, focus on me. “How could I not?”
Taking a page out of his book, I clear my throat. “I keep giving you the reason you shouldn’t: You don’t know me.”
“While that may be true, I know that you do not deserve the fate Taranus has in store for you.” He turns away from me, shoulders slumping.
“What he’s done is not your fault.”
“It is absolutely my fault,” he replies. “I was warned, over and over again, and ignored it. All the deaths of my people—they are mine to carry. You will not be another added to that list.”
“Rafferty, Taranus is his own person.”
