Quinn’s fingers curled gently at the back of my neck, warming me all the way to my heart and tickling the curls in the kitchen at my nape. Her thumb brushed against the hollow of my throat, and I swallowed reflexively. Then, without any ceremony, she leaned in and kissed me, sweet and slow. It was so delicate, just like our first kiss. Her lips were just as soft and smooth against my own. As soon as they connected, electricity sparked between us. It warmed our bodies, a fire blazing bright in the snow around us. It was an embrace and also a promise to be around forever.
When we parted slightly, Quinn put our foreheads together to keep a breath between us. She murmured against my mouth, fierce and low. “I would do anything for you, always.Anything. I hope you always remember that. I swear I’ll make my father pay for what he’s done to you.”
I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I closed my eyes and let myself be in this moment, to believe in her words. It felt almost dangerous to believe in anything at all. I almost didn’t want to. So many things were up in the air. It was hard to cling to anything beyond right now.
“Let’s get out of here, Sweetness. Just us. Right now,” Quinn said.
I blinked, pulling back just enough to look fully into those hazel eyes that I loved so much. “Where would we go?”
“Anywhere you want.”
“Somewhere warm?” I said as a shiver went through me.
Quinn’s face broke out into one of her genuine, beautiful smolders. It warmed me so much that I thought about taking off my coat. “Too easy, Sweets. You’ve gotta make me work a little harder than that.”
I laughed. It felt foreign, like testing out a limb after an injury during physical therapy. But it was good. Better than I expected anything could feel right now. It was just amazing to be able to feel something. It was even better that the something was some excitement and hope. The weight in my chest hadn’t left, but it had shifted to make breathing a bit easier. The grief was lodged like a stone within my gut, but someone had heaved it away so I could float at least. It wasn’t gone, and I was far from healed, but I wasn’t carrying it alone. That helped to ease the ache.
See, Pops?I thought.I did find my okay, after all.
Suddenly, pain almost ripped me in two.
Something tore straight through my abdomen from behind. It was not the dull, bruising kind of hurt, nor was it the gnawing ache of grief I had been feeling. No, this wassharp.Wrong. Every nerve ending was on fire with pain and agony.
I looked down.
Jutting out through my stomach, sweater, and coat with sharp claws digging into me was the tip of a multi-barbed dart. It wasn’t made from regular steel. No, smokey ruby shadows swirled around the sharp point. The aura of power around it… It was so deadly and so overwhelming.
I knew this magic all too fucking well.
Blood magic.
This felt just like the blood witch-fae’s blades.
Poison! Cursed! Unnatural! Get it OUT!My dragon roared in my head, rattling my bones. She surged to the surface in an instant, leaving me no time to prepare at all. The obsidian pendant around my neck boiled from the inside out as if it opposed the magic, too. My scales rippled in patches on my skin. My four fangs and talons lengthened within my mouth and on my hands. Under my clothes, my wings and tail unfurled from my tattoos, and I immediately wished they hadn’t. My tail at least had the decency to slip through from above thewaistband of my leggings. However, my wings were stifled under my sweater and coat. I could feel them fluttering uncomfortably underneath all the layers, but there was nothing I could do.
I was no longer in control.
I didn’t scream from the pain.
I screamed withrage.
I wanted to reach down and try to pull out whatever was stuck within me, but I knew better than to even try, remembering the burning I would feel if I touched it. I could already feel my blood boiling. My heartbeat thundered, each pulse forcing the venom deeper through me. I tried to speak, to call out to Quinn who stood right in front of me, but the words caught in my throat wetly and came out as a gurgled hiss. The taste of copper filled my mouth.
“Byrd!” Quinn called, cutting through Clarkson’s barks and growls at the harpoon. If we weren’t bonded, her face and eyes would show the entanglement of feelings she was experiencing. They were all like a tangled series of threads, trying to follow each one to figure out what they were would take forever. But, I could decipher some of them.
Panic.
Worry.
Focus.
Terror.
Fury.
“Quédate conmigo, recuerdas?I’m going to get you out! Just hang on!”
Quinn, my beautiful Starlight, my pumpkin?—
