Page 132 of The Witch's Pet


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It’s not an entirely conscious choice. Maybe it’s simply a test—to see how she’ll react. And maybe it’s because she wouldn’t let me speak what I wanted to speak. I graze my thumb over the largest one, gently tracing it down to the blanket and back up just as she had traced my scar. Her eyes squeeze shut, brow pinching with…a look that I can’t tell if relieved or pained.

One erraticthump.

I do it again, making sure my intent is overt, communicating all the things she wouldn’t allow me to say.

These do not change how I see you, Pandora. They make you no less beautiful. You didn’t deserve for this to happen to you.

Her leg shifts again, the slightest nudge, drawing herself closer to my hand andme. I dribble the ink across the mark, working several swallows as the black lines of the Mark of the Goddess deepen. I feel oddly prideful of the three marks now decorating her back.

Her hand stretches across the bed, almost as if reaching for me.

She’s not afraid.My mind flits, recalculating everything, lingering on possibilities.

It might just be the effects of the blood magic—not to mention all the wine she’d drank. It takes all my will to force my limbs into action. With one last ghost of a touch, I rise from the bed. She doesn’t stir.

It’s all still wrong. Still dangerous.

But ifshecame tome…I know I couldn’t deny her.

It’s Sitri that stirsme awake as he shuffles quietly around the room. I watch him fumble through the wardrobe through slitted eyes. His marks glimmer as he pulls his pants on in two languid motions. He tugs a white button-down shirt from the hanger and slips his arms in. Something as simple as watching him dress is strangely cathartic. He turns back, gaze landing on me while he’s still working at the buttons.

I should be embarrassed at being caught in my perusal, but my contentment doesn’t wane. I suppose that means I’m getting used to this, living together in these chambers. Still, I tug the blanket up over the bottom half of my face. Haven’t quite broken that habit yet.

Feeling oddly barer than normal with the blankets brushing against my skin, it finally dawns on me--I’m still practically naked. “Oh!” I gasp, clutching at the blanket to make sure I’m covered beneath it.

“It’s okay. I’ll be out of here in a second.”

“Sorry-- I didn’t mean to fall asleep…” I say, face flushing as memories of last night wash over me.

“It’s okay, really,” he reassures me as he fastens his cloak. He grabs his boots and sits down on the end of the bed to tug them on.

“Why don’t you ever use the mirror?”

He makes a face in the direction of the bathroom. “It annoys me.”

“Why?”

“Don’t like the things it shows me.”

“It’s a mirror. Doesn’t it show you…you?” He supplies a pointed look. “I refuse to believe you’re anything but utterly in love with your own face.”

He lets out a laugh that doesn’t quite ring sincere. “True as that may be, the mirror has a tendency to show me moremethan I want to see. You’ll get a glimpse of something, and you’ll understand,” he tacks on in response to my vexed expression before dropping his voice to a whisper as he glares in the direction of the bathroom again. “Probably soon since it can hear us discussing this.”

“It listens?”

He nods. “I should be back around noon, and I’ll take you down to the kitchens to visit Vera.”

Genuine glee fills me, and I grin. “What are you going to be doing here in the castle?”

He ignores me as he finishes lacing up his boots and whisks himself out of the room, not even bothering to bid me farewell. My punishment for trying to nose into his business, I guess.

I slump back into the bed with a sigh, drifting back into sleep for a short time that doesn’t manage to last for long enough. Still several hours before Sitri will return.

It’s a good thing I’ll be visiting Vera today because I’m starting to think I’ve been trapped in these chambers for too long. The walls are starting to look different. Shadows quiver always in the corner of my eyes. When I turn to find whatever caused the movement, there’s never a thing. God, I truly am going to go mad.

The daemon riles with my irritation, and I retreat to the bathroom to take a steaming hot bath to relieve myself of its growing torment. I stare in the mirror for a long time before climbing into the tub.

Come on, show me something.It only shows me my own scrawny naked form. I turn around and study the symbols across my back. Three of them are the spitting image of Sitri’s, but the other one right in the middle is new. A circle with two crescent moons at its side. I decide I quite like the way they look. They make me feel something…I’m not attuned to feeling.Desirable. Even with the ugly scars marring my lower back.