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He rolled his head and faced me, a smile tugging at his lips but not quite reaching his eyes. “You must think me a sappy fool.”
I forced a smile in response, my lips quivering slightly. “I have no words as to how I would describe my thoughts for you, Marius.”
“Say it again,” he breathed, blinking and holding his eyes closed for a beat longer than normal.
“What?”
“My name.” When he opened his eyes again they found mine. As though a cord connected us both, that moment sent a thrilling explosion of feeling through my body. “Please, say it again. It… it reminds me of one great difference between you and… please.”
I wanted to press him further, but could not muster seeing the wince of his eyes or the paling of his taut lips when the storm of memories coursed behind his gaze.
So I obliged, running the back of my finger down the side of his face. “Marius. Brave Marius. Terrifying Marius. My Marius.”
“Thank you.” His voice was a bare whisper.
A stabbing sensation in my gut snatched my breath away, but I forced the feeling down.
We lay like that for a while, the book discarded and the room silent. Marius wrapped his fingers between mine and held on tight as though his life depended on it. At one point I thought he had fallen asleep. A place of peace for him, at least I hoped. But as I began to tug my hand from his, he spoke, breaking the quiet.
“Katharine has not returned as she promised she would.”
“But she was only here…” I trailed off. Marius showed no sign of caring that I clearly had overheard their last encounter.
“It has been five days. The moon is reaching its third quarter and Katharine should have returned.”
I leaned up on my elbows, echoing what Marius had said. “Five days?”
Impossible. I was aware we had lost time to each other, but five days? I shook my head. That couldn’t be right.
“Perhaps we missed her?” I asked, having flashes to our entwined limbs.
“I would have felt her presence at the boundary. It is how she can come and go as she pleases.”
I faced him, brows furrowed. “You are telling me you could simply let me leave if I chose?”
He shook his head, eyes blank. “It does not work like that. Not for the Claim. Many have tried and you are welcome to if you so desire. But for Katharine and her family, they have remained outside the twisted rules of the curse.”
Why?The thought echoed through me.
“So you let her in?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes. I sense her presence and provide her with the invitation to enter.”
Intrigue breezed through me, blowing away the cobwebs of guilt for a moment. “Have others tried to enter?”
“Not for many years, but yes. I did not let them in. For fear of what I may have done to them.”
“But why Katharine? Why her family?”
Marius paused. “I do not know, Jak.”
“I am sure she is okay,” I said, but I could not ignore the tugging in my gut. It was becoming hard to distinguish my worries from one another.
“Yes, she must be.” Marius did not sound so convinced. He made a move to lie back down on the floor beside me, but instead he ushered my legs apart and leaned forward above me. “My mind is a storm right now. Care to help me calm it?”
His voice grew silky with each word. His invitation to me clear and enticing. This is what I needed, to take my mind off my own storm. Him. His touch that had ways of taking me to different worlds. With him, on me, in me, nothing else mattered.
“How may I help provide your mind reprieve?” I asked, running my tongue across my lower lip. It was not only Marius who was in need for a distraction.
