Or so I thought.
That damn look takes over his expression as his eyes move to my bare chest. His brows pinch, and his mouth parts like he’s going to say something, only the words don’t come out. He’s seen me naked before, so it’s not like my upper male nudity is making him all horned up. It’s something else.
I tilt my head and look down at my chest.
Well, shit.
That can’t be good.
My eyes try to make out the shape or pattern or symbol. I have no clue what it is. Looking at it upside down probably isn’t helping. I know enough to know it’s not something normal that happens like a rash or allergic reaction.
This is shit I don’t mess with. I know it’s out there, in a loose sense, but I always push it to the back of my mind. While I wouldn’t say it scares me, it’s not my world and I’d rather not have any part of it.
My heart speeds up. The dark lines under my skin are pulsing. Or maybe that’s just my vision getting cloudy. I’m lightheaded, too.
“Donovan!” Torrin snaps my name, and I jerk upright. It takes all my energy to pull in a calming breath. My heart is still galloping like a horse in a race, but everything else seems to clear. “What did you do?”
“Nothing!” I roar. I might be slightly panicking. “How would I know what I didifIdidsomething? Torrin…”
I look at him as if he holds the answer. He’s closer to magic than I am. He’s my only hope right now.
“I have no idea, Boss.”
“Have I been poisoned?” Maybe fuckface Aubert has found a way to poison me. A very slow way. It’s his plan to draw it out and watch me suffer while he laughs at me from inside his ridiculous mansion.
Torrin thinks twice about what he’s going to say, leaving his mouth hanging open as his eyes fucking grimace at me.
“I gotta make a call. Don’t move.”
He darts out of the room before I can say anything.
I must close my eyes and fall asleep, because the next thing I know, I’m snapping alert as the door opens.
Torrin steps in. A shorter man follows behind him. Torrin’s cousin, Fabien. I’d recognize that face anywhere. Kid had been quiet growing up, always with his nose in a book. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, and I’m surprised at how he’s grown. He stands tall now, not a kid anymore, and his hair isn’t shaggy, hanging in his face as if he’s using it to hide behind like a curtain.
“Oh, um, Mr. Falco.” Fabien goes red from his neck to the tips of his ears. He cuts a look at Torrin as if scolding his cousin for not warning him about the state I’m in. Torrin chuckles and walks over to the desk. He leans his ass against the sturdy wood and holds out a hand, telling his cousin to get to it without words. Fabien turns his attention back to me as he approaches. “Do you mind if I…”
“Do what you need to do,” I tell him, letting my head fall back as my lids close. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. How have you been, Fabien?” I try to make small talk because he seems so nervous around me. I don’t like it. We weren’t close growing up, but he hung out with Torrin and me often enough that I felt the need to look after him back then. The distance started when I was thrown into this world full-time. Fabien is sweet and innocent, or at least he had been back then. Torrin and I agreed to keep him far away from the things we did.
“This is…” he whispers. There’s something in his voice that makes me want to open my eyes. “I’m not… I don’t think…” He clears his throat and tries again. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I think it’s a curse.”
Now my eyes are open and I stare at him like he’s lost his damn mind.
He swallows thickly, eyes wide as he pulls out a sketchbook from the satchel hanging across his body.
“Okay, I know it sounds crazy.” He sends me a tight smile. I might not know a lot about witches and magic, but I do know curses aren’t something they practice anymore. They’re too unpredictable. “But it has the telltale signs of one. The permanent marker under your skin being the big one. This symbol is normally reserved for imprisonment or death, not necessarily the end of life though. It could mean death to a piece of, well, you.”
“But you’renotsaying it doesn’t mean death, as in the end of life kinda death?” Torrin asks. Though his words sound as if they should hold some kind of humorous ring to them, there’s nothing like that in his tone.
“Yeah, it could,” Fabien says, cringing as if he doesn’t really want to say it. I sure as hell don’t want to hear it. He drags his gaze to meet mine, regret swirling in his eyes. “The fact that you’ve fallen so weak pretty much overnight, well, it doesn’t bode well for you.”
Torrin must have filled him in more than I would have thought. I wonder if it took some convincing to get Fabien here.
“I’m not poisoned?” I ask, sure that being poisoned would be a lot better than being fucking cursed. How was I cursed? What kind of curse is it? Is this Aubert’s doing, and if it is, how the fuck did he manage it?
“Umm, no,” Fabien tells me. “You’re cursed. I’m sure of it.”
Torrin and I lock eyes. There are no jokes coming out of his mouth. There’s no shaking of his head. This just got serious.
