Page 48 of Hunted
My vision swam as rage came over me.Acacia had been so smug and sure of her power.But now she was wary, suddenly questioning her hold over me.My mind went blank.Everything went black.
Odin cawed from somewhere nearby.
I slowly came back to myself and realized that Ruya’s bird was sitting on my shoulder, gazing intently at my face.The glistening black beads of his eyes flashed, temporarily turning clear, crystalline blue.I blinked and the color was gone.Back to birdy black.He launched himself off my shoulder and circled above us with another echoing caw.
We were outside again.But I didn’t remember how I’d gotten here.The swampy air felt too wet and too heavy, like it would suffocate me.
Sanka put a hand on my back.“You okay?”
“No,” I said.“But I’m not hers right now.Not completely.”
“Good,” Richard said happily.“Because I just hate being friends with evil puppets.It’s so gauche.”
I didn’t laugh.
Chapter 16
Ruya
Ismoothed a freshlayer of balm over Cicely’s warm skin, fingers trailing over a thin arc of scar tissue beneath his jaw, where Josh’s teeth had torn his skin.The wound was healing too slowly for my liking.The bite hadn’t reopened, but my magical senses told me the bruising remained.Yukio described it to me as purple and “sickly green,” and I could sense it blooming like a shadow pressed beneath his skin.It was getting better.But soslowly.
It was only bruising and a scar, and yet...it worried me.Aside from a few instances of long-standing severe injury or congenital deformity, I was used to my magic instantly healing all ills.Cicely wasn’t in any immediate danger, but not being able to immediately restore him to perfect health was maddening.What if some lingering bit of Acacia’s poisonous presence had leeched into my faun somehow?
Cicely sat beside me on the chaise, still as a statue while I tended to him.My fingers brushed his hair, curls damp from the bath he’d coaxed me into with him hours ago.He hadn’t spoken to me in my mind since we got dried off.But I could feel him watching me, too quiet and too still.
His aura had been withdrawn since the attack—gathered tighter at his core.And that, too, was worrying.
“I know it aches,” I said softly.“But itisfading.And I can’t sense any threat to your health.It will heal eventually.”
He didn’t answer, just patted my knee.
Resting my fingers lightly on his cheek, I pressed my thumb gently beneath his ear and ran it downward, smoothing over the line of the scar again.He didn’t flinch away, but he also didn’t lean into the touch.His breathing was shallow.Ah.How had I missed how his heartrate kicked up just a bit every time I touched his throat?My sweet faun was traumatized.
I hated it.I hated what Josh had done.But...I didn’t hate Josh.And I felt vaguely guilty about that.Did Cicely hate him now?Did he fear he’d be attacked again?Did he hatemeand the others for not punishing his attacker, but continuing to treat him with careful kindness?
I could feel him watching me, probably wondering what I was thinking.But he knew not to press too much when my heart tangled itself up like this.He offered me quiet, steady presence instead.I couldn’t imagine life without that solid peace.And maybe silent support was what he needed right now, too.
