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I hold up the Dayrose salve. “Should we go outside? I don’t want to stink up the room.”
“Wise man.”
Every step getting to the courtyard hurts. I spot Nox resting in the moonlight, a favorite pastime of his apparently. This idea of me becoming a Halo Knight is the first time I’ve been excited in a minute. I’d get to work more closely with phoenixes, but I wonder if I’ll get to bond with one or if they’ll all sense the dead gray sun’s essence that has been in my blood for three lifetimes.
We pass the front gate of the castle because Wyatt says the phoenixes don’t respond well to the Dayrose salve’s stench either. I’m truly not looking forward to smelling like this for stars know how long. We sit close to the drawbridge, the sounds of the river flowing calming me. I suck in one last deep breath of fresh air before reopening the mason jar. The smell is so intense I cough and cough against the headband.
“Do you have any spray inside that handy satchel of yours?”
“Afraid not. We’re going to have to soldier through this one.” Wyatt steps closer to me. “Will you do me the great privilege of helping you apply it?”
The flashback returns of Ness helping me in the art supplies room—of Ness touching me.
“I got it,” I say.
“Be generous to yourself.”
I scoop out enough salve to cake my fingers. I almost lift my shirt, but Wyatt’s blue eyes are on me and I don’t want him to see my bare body. I turn my back and lift my shirt, applying the salve across all my scars. I spread the most over my stomach since the wound from Luna’s stabbing has been pulsing with pain. In seconds, something icy activates within the salve.
“Please tell me I don’t have to keep this on all night,” I say as I turn back around to Wyatt.
He doesn’t answer. He’s staring at me like I’m some work of art, which is ridiculous. “Believe it or not, love, but as forward as I have been with you I have been holding back some. I’m desperate to tell you how beautiful you are under the moon like some sappy poet, but I’m taking the hint that you’re not interested in me. Does my breath smell like that salve? Or is there someone else?”
Not once have Wyatt and I even talked about who we’re into, but I know that Halo Knight culture as a whole has always been really accepting of queer people. I wasn’t counting on him to be so forward about this. Definitely not tonight.
“Are those the only two options for why I’m not falling for your charms?”
“You think I’m charming, then.”
“No. I mean sure, yeah. You’re cool people and your accent has scored you tons of points in my book.”
“But?”
“There is someone. There was someone. We weren’t dating or anything and I’m not sure what he thought about me, but I was attracted to this guy Ness.”
Wyatt picks up a rock and hurls it down to the river. “Damn, that’s a great name. I was hoping for a Chad or Bobby. I can conquer all the Chads and Bobbys.”
I realize I have no idea why Ness picked that name. “His real name is Eduardo. He chose the name Ness after he became a Blood Caster.”
“Way to bury the lede!”
“Believe it or not, that’s not the lede. Ness was Senator Iron’s son. The one who supposedly died in the Blackout.”
Wyatt’s blue eyes widen with shock. “Wow. Well, I see why you’re resisting my charms. I can’t compete against a bad boy who came back from the dead.”
“He wasn’t a bad guy. Ness faked his death because his father was a terrible influence on him.”
“Joining your country’s most lethal gang makes him good?” Wyatt asks, a surprising edge in his voice.
This isn’t news to me, I’ve been a direct target of theirs for weeks. “The Blood Casters saved his life and offered him shifter blood to hide from his father. His choices sucked.”
“I would die before I willingly take in the blood of any creature.”
I don’t want to throw Ness under the bus, but me too. Though it’s not right for me to judge him when I still don’t even know his full story. “Ness was good. He was forced to kill Luna’s enemies, but he isn’t proud of that. It traumatized him so badly that he would wake up in the form of his victims. And when he had the opportunity to run away, he came back to save me. I didn’t see him die, but I’m pretty damn sure it cost him his life.”
I’m shaking and it’s not because of the salve.
Wyatt closes the space between us with open arms. “May I?”
