Page 30 of Legendary

“What?”

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“Dani, I’m not doing anything.”

She looked at me like I was stupid. “Yes, you are. You can’t look at me like that. You can’t look at me like…”

I grabbed her wrist before she could spread the wet liquid onto my face. “Like what?”

She looked from her captured wrist to my face and something in her eyes told me that I shouldn’t play with fire, that I would get severe burns if I did.

I liked her fire though.

I felt something curl around my wrist, it tickled but I knew it was nothing to laugh about. Dark shadows took hold of me and squeezed, the bones in my wrist were screaming as her shadows pressed their weight into me, threatening to snap my wrist like a twig.

“Alright, shit.” I released her, then noticed a small smirk play at her lips as she swiped the translucent substance against my wound. It was cool and refreshing, there was no smell to it, but slowly my face felt a little less swollen.

“Your father wasn’t lying when he said your weapons had angelic magic infused, huh.”

I started to reach up and touch my cheek, but she swatted my hand away. Her stern brown eyes silently warned me to stop touching my wounds. “We could always pump our own magic into it, like Reese did with his old bow when you and Elise had your fight, but you can get it pre-fueled.”

Dani wiped her finger on a clean cloth and nodded. “Why don’t you use your own magic with your sword?”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “I’ve never needed it. Life was pretty fucking simple before everything happened. And as for right now, well, the magic that’s already in the sword does its job. There is such a thing as a magic overload. And angelic magic that’s too stacked can be a problem, just like anything else.”

“Too much of a good thing.” She licked her lips. “Too much goodness just explodes into a heaping pile of brightly colored bullshit.”

I chuckled. “That’s one way to put it, I guess.”

She reached up and ruffled her hair a bit, lost in her own thoughts.

“Dani, did you hear something before you rushed into the woods?” There was a fifty-fifty chance that I was going to get an actual answer from her.

“Take off your shirt.”

My eyes widened. I stuttered as I got the only word I could out. “W-what?”

“You did get hit in the stomach, didn’t you? Take off your shirt.” She blinked, taking a small step back.

I delicately reached back behind me and yanked my shirt over my head, balling it up and tossing it next to me. Without the fabric in the way, I got a good look at where Elise’s tail had gotten me. Two long slice marks adorned my skin. They were raised and red, with black charred pieces littering the top. I looked up at Dani to find her staring at the marks as well.

Then I realized that her mind was starting to betray her when her eyes started to wander. They landed on my abs and then searched my chest, my neck and then made it to my face where I had one of my eyebrows raised waiting for her to meet my gaze.

She clucked her tongue and took a step back over to me, reaching for the same cloth as before. She dipped it in the water, conveniently not looking at me anymore.

“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.

“Take that as a hint.”

She repeated her movements from before, pressing the warm cloth to my stomach. “Dani, we both know I’m probably going to keep asking. It’s who I am.”

She huffed out a breath. “And is the reason you’ll keep asking the same reason you keep looking at me like you do?” She said the words to my stomach as she patted, but the warm water from the cloth might as well have been cold as ice. She was way more intuitive than I ever gave her credit for.

I watched as she balled up the cloth and tossed it aside, making a move towards the jar of clear healing liquid. “I do care about you.”

“I know you do, but that’s beside the point.” She started to spread the cool liquid onto my skin and I watched as some of the black charring pieces disintegrated, the redness starting to lessen. Her fingers danced over my skin in a way that showed that she was being cautious of how much pressure she was applying. Her skin felt good on mine and it took a lot for me not to get turned on by the proximity of her hand to the waistband of my pants.

She was quiet for a moment before she spoke again, “I heard something, yes.”

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