Page 77 of The Shadow Heir

When I was settled on the ground, Cas’s arm slid off of my back, taking its warmth with him.

“Wait,” I mumbled, barely able to form the word properly. “I’m freez…” My loose lips couldn’t finish the sentence before I tipped sideways, my face smearing against his warm shoulder. For a second, he didn’t move, then he wrapped his arm around me once again. I tucked my face against his chest and breathed deeply into his crinkled white shirt. The comforting scent of cinnamon and cut wood washed over me, soothing me. My tired body melted against his.

With nothing to lean against, Cas rocked backward as my weight sagged against him. When we were lying on the grass, my face pressed against him, he shifted so that I fit in the crook of his arm and propped his other hand under his head.

“Cas,” I mumbled, trying to sort through the shuffled thoughts in my head and feeling a strange desire to express them all. “I have to go home. I have to make it back home. Can’t you take me home?”

His chest expanded underneath me. “I can’t do that, Zara. The bargain still has power over you.”

To my shock, he stroked gentle fingers down my back and a sudden, strange thought occurred to me. If I went back home, I’d never get to feel him do that again.

“I’m not what you think,” I said, exhaustion weighing heavy on me but still feeling the need to explain myself. The fact that I couldn’t see his face made this easier. Or maybe it was the wine. “You wanted me to break, but I’m already broken,” I muttered, thinking back over the mistakes I’d made over the years. “I’ve been broken for years, and I’m afraid that’s why I keep messing things up.”

His hand paused as it traced lines up my back.

“The sunlight will help,” he said again, his voice as firm as the muscles under my smushed cheek.

My body shook with chills and the strange dizziness rattling my mind. He pulled me in tighter, and I tipped against him. As my arm wrapped around his middle, it occurred to me how wonderful this felt, and how I’d never felt safer. Sleep overcame me, and I dropped from consciousness.

When I next opened my eyes, I groaned as my muscles moved from the awkward position of being draped against Cas as we lay on the ground. I glanced briefly around at the sunlit fields and noticed a manor house tucked way in the distance. Cas shifted, looking over at me. The sunlight struck his eyes in a way that made them look lighter.

I struggled to sit up, to pry myself off of him. What in all the worlds had I beenthinking? He was the shadow heir, not a lounge chair.

And yet, he’d held me.

He sat up, raking a hand through his hair to rid it of the grass that clung to him. His cheekbones created shadowed ridges in his face, and I was struck by how handsome he was. I glanced at the back of my hands. The burn marks had vanished, leaving only a faint pinkish hue where they’d been.

“Sunlight helps the effects of the wine dissipate quicker,” he said, his voice rumbling through my bloodstream as panic set in. Ariana had warned me not to drink the wine, but in my confused state, I’d thought they were merely giving me something to ease the pain.

I’dsleptagainst him. And he’dletme. My mind spun, and a dull headache pressed against my temples. Cas had carried me here. Carried my limp, inebriated body to a place I could sleep off whatever I’d just drank.

“Aren’t you weaker in the sunlight?”

His mouth pressed to a hard line. “I am. But it makes you stronger.”

I blinked at him, trying to make sense of his words, of why my heart was beating so fast. I couldn’t let myself feel this way aroundhim.“And the burns?” I asked, examining my leg, which was a deep red, tinged with yellow in places.

Cas rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the ground between us. “The burns have only begun to heal. They won’t fully heal for weeks, and that’s only if you can get all the poison out of your bloodstream.” He glanced up at me. “I healed what I could, but you require magic I don’t have. I’m not an expert healer. When we leave here, I will take you to the infirmary, where you will rest until your wounds heal.”

Trying to look casual, I lifted my chin. “Where is here?”

He smiled, and for a moment, I forgot that I had been burned by poisonous magical flames. “See that house over there?”

I squinted in the direction he indicated.

A massive stone house sat in the distance. Two barns stood in the wide fields on either side of us.

“That is the home of your friend.”

A choked laugh spewed from my mouth. “Talia? She’s alive?”

He nodded. “And happy, if one can believe the reports that have arrived from the recent goings on in the Sun Court. I can’ttake you past the boundaries of the estate, as her husband’s magic prevents my court from trespassing, but I thought you might want to see where she lives. She married a very powerful high fae, my equal and my court’s ancient enemy.”

Covering my mouth as both joy and sadness bombarded me, I tried to stand, accepting Cas’s help as he hurried to steady me. When I glanced down at his hands, I gasped.

“Your hands.”

Snaking black lines covered his forearms.

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