Page 86 of Obsession

I’m expecting Aris to start demanding information. What I don’t anticipate is the armchair disappearing from under me.

With a yelp, I start to fall, but strong, cold arms catch me before I connect with the ground. Aris quickly straightens, pulling me against his chest, and I don’t protest as he carries me from the living room, which I spare a single glance at.

Both armchairs are gone now, annoying me. Could Jaegen not have spared the magic, or did he take them just to slight us?

Now in my bedroom, Aris gently sets me on the bed before disappearing out the door. Seconds later, I hear the faucet running as I prop myself against a few pillows. By the time I’m better supported, he appears with a wet cloth and silently begins to clean my bloody knuckles. The warm water he soaked it in, as well as his long, calming strokes, soothe me.

I watch him, stunned and not quite believing what’s happening, while he is focused, consumed in his task of caring for me. Finally, he lightly dabs under my nose before setting the cloth on the side table and settles into bed next to me.

When I nestle into his arms, my face against his hard torso, it isn’t because it’s what Jaegen wants, and it isn’t because it’s what Aris wants; it’s because it’s what I want. What I need.

Indeed, as his arms close around me, I feel secure again, the encounter with Jaegen and our fight from earlier erased. His hold is firm, unbreakable, but not shackling. I could get away from him, if I wanted; he would let me.

Miraculously, my headache abates with a final, cruel pound, and I shut my eyes to bask in the peace. Aris always said that he couldn’t heal, but proximity to him has removed my pain entirely.

“Do you remember the rule?” Aris says quietly. “‘No lies, and no tricks.’”

“I do,” I whisper, eyes opening.

Though it’s midday, the curtains are drawn and the room is unlit. It feels like it used to, when we shared truths freely and without worry so long as we were in the dark. As it was when Jaegen appeared, there is peace between us.

“Can we make a new rule?” he asks.

I want to look at his face, interested to see his expression, but I’m too relaxed where I am now. “What is it?”

“It will be like the other, but firmer. We promise to always tell the truth.”

“The truth is a dangerous thing,” I say after a moment.

“I know.”

Does he? He couldn’t possibly understand.

The truth heals, and it kills. It ruins; it frees. People say they want it—until they actually have it, and they learn that what’s known cannot be unknown. It’s a dangerous thing, sometimes to be avoided. Little lies, white lies, exist for a reason.

My sigh is quiet. “Okay.” I feel something settling over me with the agreement, the lid of a sarcophagus sliding into place, dirt shoveled onto a grave. “I promise.”

Chapter nineteen

I’m prepared for an interrogation. By now, I know how it works with him: one question leads to ten more. But Aris surprises me. I promised to give him everything he wants, but he doesn’t move to take advantage of it. Instead, he adjusts me so my back is against his stomach and he is effectively spooning me.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Am I not allowed to touch you, still?”

I hesitate, thinking of my conversation with Jaegen. The memory of his heat threatens another nosebleed, so I toss it aside, too weak to stick to my morals at the moment.

“It’s not that. I just…” I pause as he rests his chin on the top of my head, then rubs his cheek on my hair like a cat spreading its scent. Marking its territory. The thought doesn’t trouble me as much as it should.

“Just what?” he prompts.

“Why aren’t you asking me anything?”

Come on, Aris. Show me you're the monster I know you are. Be demanding. Be harsh and mean and cruel. Show me that I can't trust you, even a little.

The dust in the air suspends. My breath catches, lungs halfway inflated. Time stops, as it does before a person dies, when one moment is stretched into a thousand.

This is it. This is where he snaps.

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