Page 73 of Never Run from an Immortal

Rae, stop.

Boiling. The fucking pool water was boiling, a ball of light so bright, sofamiliar. Just like his silver flame. Tearing off his shirt, Aidan jumped in after Rae, magic slamming against his skin, sharp and blistering.

Rae,he called to her again. He could see nothing but white light, but he didn’t need to. He swam to where he felt her heart beat strongest, his arms encircling her in the water.

Make it stop,she pleaded, so weakly he barely heard her.

Aidan began to kick against the tile to break for the surface, but Rae tried to stop him, to pull from his embrace, eyes flicking open and looking up into his. Grey-blue eyes like a roiling storm that he knew were hers, and not some spell.

A ball of light, offlame, swirled around them at the bottom of the pool and Rae pressed a hand to her chest, pain tumbling from her so sharp Aidan felt it everywhere they touched.

Please. I can’t.Even mind to mind, her words were like a choked gasp, as if whatever she was doing was burning her from the inside out.

I’m right here with you. Just tell me what to do.Aidan’s fingers rested under her chin, magic and water swirling around them, power building and building so fast he was certain the pool wouldn’t contain it. He pulled back on every instinct that told him to delve into Rae’s mind and help her control her spell. With how strong she was and how much she’d fight him, she might not survive it, no matter how much he wanted to help, no matter that he’d have done anything,givenanything to ease her pain.

Rae’s fingers clawed at his shoulder, hair swirling around her as Aidan began to struggle for breath. She might have been able to remain under water for unthinkable amounts of time, but he couldn’t.Take it, please,Rae begged.I can’t do this anymore.Her pain was like a knife twisting under his ribs, bones snapping, flesh tearing.I’ve broken something that can’t be fixed, and I can’t…she sobbed, eyes scrunching tight,Just take it.

Aidan didn’t get a chance to answer. Rae’s mouth was on his, her tongue parting the seam of his lips and breathing air into his lungs. Burning, hot air, but Aidan didn’t push away. His arms wrapped around her tightly as he kissed her back, as he held her close. Nothing would make him let go.

Magic surged and swelled around them like they were the centre of a storm, pulling the water away until flame and light twisted and bent. Magic filled every space, danced across every place her body pressed against his, and he felt it then. The way his veins sang under the power.Hispower. The molten heat of his silver flame.His, and she was breathing it into him, pouring it into all the places that had mourned its absence for so long.

Aidan took it greedily. Every last drop that he’d gone without for so many years. Elation danced along his bones as the power rushed in. But as Rae made a pained sound deep in her chest, he felt her relief, her sorrow. Her anguish. Every emotion slammed into him with his magic, with her kiss, her breath. Memories followed them: fractured pieces of Rae’s past, a female beating her, pressing an iron into her skin, kicking her down a set of steps, drowning her, drowning her, drowning her. The face of a young male Aidan was certain he recognised.

So much pain, but Rae didn’t stop, so Aidan tested his magic, tugging as gently as he could, experimenting, examining. The brightness around them diminished, the storm slowing, heat fading. Rae didn’t pull away, and Aidan didn’t break their kiss, even when the water rushed back in, bubbling away.

Rae hadn’t been able to control it, but the more of it she poured back into him, it obeyed. It always had. Aidan relished the feeling of commanding his magic after so long without it, pulling it all back, owning every piece of it. As the water calmed, he felt the tremors wracking Rae’s body, physical pain overtaking her emotions, coursing through her. Her kiss slowed and Aidan kicked them both to the surface, any damage the boiling water had caused healing with the return of his magic.

Rae shook in his arms, and as her mouth fell from his, her eyes were glassy, unseeing. Her head fell back, his panic freshly renewed.

“Rae.” Aidan brushed the hair from her eyes, kicking for the steps with her limp in his arms. Baelin and Orion had made their way to the edge of the pool, a heartbeat away from diving in.Don’t, he warned them. They had no magic that would keep them safe from the water temperature, or from Rae, and Aidan had no way of knowing if her own magic was unstable enough to follow.

He brushed against her thoughts, seeking, asking for permission to go deeper, but her memories played over and over, and Aidan couldn’t risk waiting any longer. He reached into her mind and willed her to sleep.

Rae had burnt herself out. Burnt away every spell she’d been using, and there were many. Her natural hair, dark brown, now dry, fell below her shoulders in waves. The sight of her was like a punch to the gut. Aidan had seen a few of her scars before, but it hadn’t even been half of them. She was covered in hundreds of small marks, burns, and large scars, some jagged, some Aidan couldn’t fathom how anyone could give them to their worst enemy, let alone their own daughter. And on her back, a white tattoo spiralled from her spine and spanned across her shoulder blades, fine lines of script in a dialect Aidan didn’t recognise. Another spell, no doubt. One he suspected she’d gone to great lengths to conceal.

She’d slept throughout the night, and he’d sat by her bedside,hisbed, the entire time. Waiting for her to wake, waiting for answers. Not long after dawn, she began to stir.

“Farren,” he said quietly, fingers gripping the sides of his chair lest he do anything stupid.

Her eyes opened slowly, the colour more blue than grey in the dim light of the room as they met his. He couldn’t help but press against her mind, checking, testing, making sure she hadn’t been harmed from what she’d done to herself in the pool, what he’d had to do. He loosed a silent breath as he realised she was fine, whole, every part of her. Except for one thing. His magic.

All this time, it had been inside of her. And she’d fucking told him as much the night he’d stitched up her wound.

Did you know Witches can store magic in anything? Objects, trees, people. It’s a very well-guarded secret.She’d played him all along.

Panic flared from her for a moment, but she covered it up quickly, pushing herself up in the sheets before realising she wore nothing, and damn him if he didn’t want to peel that scrap of fabric off her despite everything. Despite all of this, he couldn’t help but think about how beautiful she was without any spells in place to hide herself.

“Talk,” Aidan commanded, still not trusting himself to move.

Chestnut hair fell over her shoulders as she pulled her knees, the sheet with them, to her chest. “Do you have siblings?” she asked quietly.

He’d only told Baelin, that night he’d driven into the city for Rae, but he’d never felt the need to hide anything from her. “A brother and a sister.”

Surprise flickered across the Witch’s face. “Older or younger?”

“Younger.”

A tremble in her lower lip. Pain, raw and fresh, and it twisted something in him to see her like this.

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