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“And?”
“And we’re nearer to the Grimm side than the ocean at this point.”
“Dammit,” I say and shake my head.
“It seems you were dragged far and fast by your captors.”
“Bastards,” I spit. “I was out for most of it. They must have drugged me.”
“Yes, they are bastards,” he agrees, brushing my hair away from my face. “But I think we can help each other, Blaze.”
“We can?”
“Yes, we can.”
“How do you figure?”
I can feel him shrug—the ripple echoes through his body and travels into his arm. “I was captured so that Morningstar’s generals could use my powers for their cause.”
“Your powers?”
“I can heal even grievous injuries if I have enough time and exposure to someone. My abilities aren’t as strong as, say, ambrosia, but Morningstar still found me useful.”
“You helped Morningstar?” I immediately pull away from him.
“Calm down. I didn’t help him of my own free will.”
I do calm down then as he continues, “and I don’t want to use my abilities to help him ever again.”
Hmm, my mind returns to the fact that he’s a healer. That would explain a great deal, actually. Why he isn’t dead after so many weeks alone in these caves. Even the most ardent survivalist will have trouble eking out an existence in these cold, dark tunnels. The prey here is small, the water stagnant and quite possibly filled with disease. If his own body is healing itself, it means he’ll take much longer to waste away to nothing. Long enough to find a way out, or to happen across a blind girl who’s also trying to escape.
Ran brushes his fingers over my eyelids, his touch light and searingly warm. My lips part in surprise again, and I feel his breath on my face seconds before his mouth closes on mine, the touch so brief and gentle that it makes my heart ache. And even in that one touch, there’s enough magic to make my skin tingle. He’s not lying. He has magic enough to heal someone from even the most life-threatening injury.
I don’t know if he’s kissed me just to kiss me or to prove a point—because I can feel the buzz of his abilities on the skin of his mouth. When he kisses me, there’s almost a hum of electricity between us.
“I think I can restore some of your eyesight,” he says quietly. “Whatever you had before the accident took the rest.”
“So... I’d be near-sighted, sensitive to light, and I’d lack proper depth perception, but I’d be able to see... at least somewhat?”
He huffs a bleak laugh. “Something like that.”
“And you just have to kiss it better?” I tease.
He’s silent, body going taut under my hands. Ran doesn’t seem to find the joke funny. I reach up to run my hand along his jaw to judge the expression. His jaw is tight with stress, his mouth turned down in a frown.
“What is it?” I ask. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No,” he sighs. “It’s... it’s more involved than that. I don’t kiss things better.”
“Then?”
“My gift is sexual healing.”
“Sexual healing?”
“If you want your sight back, we’ll have to sleep together.”
My heart pounds as I really consider what he’s telling me. At first, I wonder if it’s just a stupid excuse to try to get inside me. But for some reason, I don’t believe it’s just that. And at the idea of sex with this man... hmm. It doesn’t sound like such a punishment, especially if I can get some semblance of my sight back. I won’t be left helpless the next time the enemy takes away my artifices. I can escape on my own or, better yet, with Ran at my side. Limited as it is, his powers could be useful. I’ve had sex with men for worse reasons than this.
