AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I see Blaise, and I find what I’ve always needed—a friend.
A friend I’m not sure I want to ever let go of.
A friend I’d want to be next to, regardless of whether my feelings crest in torrential waves or settle like an undisturbed pond in the center of a peaceful forest.
No, I don’t think love is what the Old Magic took away at all.
I don’t think he could have taken away something that wasn’t wholly there yet, something that had yet to take form.
Because I don’t think I knew what it was to love Blaise before. Clearly I didn’t, if I felt my lack of feelings was as good an excuse as any to leave her.
As I watch Blaise, take in her beauty, it’s the appreciation for how she’s cared for me, the understanding between us, from which blooms something else.
The very something I thought was gone for good.
As it turns out, it seems the Old Magic took away the feelings themselves.
I just needed to find the source.
Another vein that bypassed the one the Old Magic had clogged.
“And what would you do if you convinced yourself?” I ask, surprised at the headiness in my voice.
It’s because you’re alone in a bunker with a female, and because you’re sorely undersocalized, I remind myself.
Blaise props herself on her forearm, allowing her black hair to slip down to the floor and pool there. The dark shadows of the paldihv curl around her, and I can’t deny the allure of it all, the way my throat tightens and my muscles tense just looking at her.
Her gaze dips down to my wrist, where she once—no, the parasite once—sipped, sealing the bloodsharing ritual between us.
Blaise wasn’t there for it, of course, trapped in the corners of her own mind, though I wasn’t aware of that at the time.
My neck heats with the memory of it though, the intimacy of it, before the parasite sullied it with the realization that I’d shared something so personal with a monster.
No, that wasn’t what had upset me so.
It was that I hadn’t shared it with Blaise.
Something stirs in me, and it’s different from the protectiveness that surged in me when I found Blaise passed out in the sand, just moments away from burning.
Her gaze is still fixed upon my wrist, and I know exactly what she’s thinking, because I’m thinking it too.
I can still remember last time, and I find I hate that she doesn’t. That she doesn’t know how good it felt, the bliss of sharing that moment.
I find I want to teach her, want her to know…
I inch closer to her, pulling her into me and offering her my wrist. She traces patterns across my veins with her fingertips, lighting me on fire as she does it.
Like she’s claiming me.
I’m not exactly sure what the Old Magic did to me in taking my feelings for Blaise away. I have no idea what the parameters are.
But something within me feels as if it’s going to snap.
She must sense it too, because her thumb lingers over the veins in my wrist, her lips slightly parted as she stares at the faint pulse.
It’s then I realize she’s holding her breath.
“Are you sure you want this?” I whisper, but Blaise’s eyes are muddled over with something stronger than just desire. She slips her palm over my mouth, begging me with her eyes not to say anything.
