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Inside, Jesse had a fire extinguisher, and the sprinklers were on. Eli, however, was what caught and held my attention. My beloved was standing with his arms directing the flow of sprinklers through some sort of fae magic that was both beautiful and thoroughly foreign.
Iggy, looking slightly less cadaverous already, motioned me closer. “Earlier, I plugged my energy into yours to help direct. Go to the fae. Give him yours as I did.”
“I don’t know how to—”
“You do. You’ve pushed against him with yours. Every hexen does it when they meet magical beings. It’s irresistible.” The look he gave me was vaguely wicked, which was creepy as fuck while he was looking like a mummified corpse.
I walked over to Eli, who was sooty and soaking. “Eli?”
He glanced at me, and there were lakes inside his eyes.
“Hold on,” I whispered as I stepped closer so we were chest-to-chest. “I’m not sure how to do this without . . .”
I lowered the cage that kept that part of me inside, the barrier I’d taught myself to erect around whatever magic writhed inside me.
“Geneviève?”
I shook my head and pressed my body even closer, erasing the slight gap between us, not entirely sure how to do this without it feeling sexual and also knowing that being quite that affectionate was very not-fae. I slid my hands under his shirt, tracing the line of his spine with my fingertips, letting the energy that lived in my skin glide from my body to his.
“All of me,” I whispered against his neck. “All of me is yours.”
The fires that were flickered around the bar were drawn from the surfaces where they were dancing, and in a surge of uncontrolled energy, they walked toward us.
Flames crawled over our bodies, sinking into us like a million small touches, searing me inside so that I was barely standing.
“Geneviève . . .” Eli lowered his mouth to mine as my lips parted.
And in that instant, I felt as if I could see the entire city. Every single body in the soil, every last body that walked without life, I could see each of them. I saw faces turning to look back at me.
Then, behind us, I heard Iggy’s voice. “Pull back, hexen. You people,pull them apart.”
Jesse and Christy were there, hands grabbed and shoving us apart.
“Don’t hurt us,” Jesse yelled.
Eli and I stood, panting, and I felt my energy snap back like it was a net being closed. I separated from the dead, closed the map, and looked around. The room was thick with steam, as if the fog rolled off the river and into the bar.
A much younger, healthier Iggy grinned like a madman “Atta, girl!”
I blinked at him. Right now, he looked maybe twenty-five years old at most. He grabbed a bottle of whisky, chugged a long drink, and lit the old cigar in his pocket. “Heartbeat! My heart isbeating, Hexen.” He took another long pull of whisky. “Tastes as good as I remembered!”
“The floor,” Jesse muttered.
Flowers and moss flourished between the wooden planks, along tables, and the wooden parts of the bar now had branches. The windows were translucent stone, and a pond was burbling in a corner.
“Well, fuck me sideways.” I looked back at Eli. “I just . . . offered more energy than you needed I guess?” I squirmed, embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I was too much—"
“You’re never too much, bonbon.” And Eli looked around and just started laughing.
Chapter Fourteen
Morning came far too quicklythe next day. My genetics had always made nighttime my preferred “day,” and that was even truer since I’d been injected bydraugrvenom. It felt sometimes like my geneticdraugrside had been jerked to the forefront with that venom. I didn’t know what was going on inside me on a cellular level. I wasn’t a scientist, just an aberration with a foul temper.
Draugr, even half-draugr, were not really morning people, and as far as gifts from my unpleasant heritage that one was acceptable. Today, though, I felt energetic, despite the sunlight I knew was glaring outside my apartment. As I woke, I realized that was probably a side effect Beatrice’s blood—as were the fangs I couldn’t quite convince to recede.
“Eli?” I murmured.
He was awake, dressed, and lookingfine.
