Page 55 of Blood and Roses

Dear Rosa,

I know that the next week will be trying for you. You will see a side of me that I loathe, but it is unavoidable. The memory of our nights together and the hope of more in the future warm a part of my heart that I thought had been lost forever. I will think of your smile as I hide my own from the world.

Even though I cannot look at you, I long to do so, for every line of you deserves a study that I hope to one day devote myself to. Be patient with me, dear Rosa. I have not associated with a human woman in a long time. I understand that you may feel like I am hasty in the expression of my feelings for you, but they are as sincere as they are intense.

Your presence lingers in the attic like a beautiful ghost, making it seem empty and lonely without you. Know that when I'm alone up there, my eyes will be looking towards your little cottage, so close and so tortuously far from me.

I have moments of intense fear that you will reject me, that the summation of my feelings for you will turn me to ashes on the inside...and then I see your smile and the warmth in your eyes, and I know if it is fate for this love to burn me alive, then it will only be so that I can be born anew, and into the man that you deserve.

Dream of me. I will meet you there to kiss you.

Balthasar

Rosa read the letter twice before clutching it to her chest, trying to alleviate the longing she felt trapped in her ribs.

She went to her bedroom window and pulled back the curtains. In the distance, a light burned in the attic window. She touched her hands to the cold glass, staring up at where he was before closing the curtains once more and climbing into bed.

In her dreams,she was running through the forest, the knocking getting louder and louder. There was laughter in the mist and shadows. It was calling out to her like a piper's tune, begging her to join them. A woman appeared in front of her in a long white dress, her wet black hair snared with lake weed. She gripped Rosa tightly by the shoulders and shook her, her mouth working soundlessly. Rosa struggled to get away from her boney fingers that dug painfully into her soft flesh.

The woman's voice filtered through to her, high and accusing. "How dare you seduce him while I lay unavenged at the bottom of the lake! How dare he offer his love to you! He said he would love me forever. Only he is forever. Save me, Rosa. Avenge my death! Find my murderer!"

"I will, Jane," Rosa promised sleepily. "I will save you."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Rosa awoke the next morning to find the grounds filled with cars. At least fifty had turned up in the night while she had been sleeping.

She had dreamed of Jane all night and was feverish and damp with sweat and guilt. Her hand was swollen, and where Celyn's lips had touched was covered with a red spotted rash.

Once in the kitchen, she slathered it in calamine lotion, making sure that it was covered and that she wore latex gloves if she handled any food. By the mid-afternoon, she had to cut a pair of gloves from her hand because it had swelled up even further.

"That is the queerest thing I have ever seen," Cecily said as she studied it. "What did you say you rubbed it on again?"

"I don't know," Rosa lied.A scary hot fae! A scary hot fae!"It came up last night while I was asleep."

Rosa knew she needed to talk to Balthasar about it, and she was contemplating sending a message through a serving girl when Eli appeared in the kitchen. He stared around the room, sniffing the air as if he smelled something off until his dark eyes rested on her.

"Rosa Wylt," he announced, "you will come with me right now." The staff parted a path for her so that she could follow him into the passage.

"Where are we going?" she asked nervously.

"To my private office to see about the state of the floors." He held his finger to his mouth before indicating at the walls.Immortal hearing, he mouthed. Rosa nodded.

When they came to a locked door, Eli produced a silver key, and it swung open. Rosa had never been into Eli's apartments before. Part library and part laboratory, it looked as if he had been keeping a mad scientist prisoner. Rosa wouldn't have been surprised if an Igor was lurking about somewhere.

"Show me your hand," Eli said once the door was shut.

"How did you know that there was something wrong?"

"I could smell Fae magic on the food," he replied. "I knew they had been tampering with something or someone."

Rosa placed her swollen hand in his. She had never realized how large his hands were. They were near twice the size of Balthasar's, but to the rest of his large body, they looked normal.

"Celyn, that bastard," Eli muttered as he twisted her hand slowly. "He tried to put a compulsion hex on you and from the smell of it, an obsession hex. What did you smell when he came near you?"

"Holly and pine, sugar, cinnamon and wood smoke." Rosa tried to remember everything, but it was only the briefest flash of sensations. "Christmas."

"Show me your necklace," he said, and she pulled it out of her shirt. Eli raised a brow. "Seraphim. Old but good. Where did you get it?"

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