Page 35 of Bought By the Revenant
“No.” I take Amity’s hand in mine, grateful for the warmth that has returned to her skin. “I’ll stay with her. You may go.”
She hesitates but then bows slightly and shuffles out of the room, taking all the bloodied cloths with her.
Now that Amity and I are alone, I let myself feel all the terror I’ve been pushing aside. The thought of losing her is so painful that it leaves me breathless. If she’d died on that altar, or in the carriage, or here on my table, I would’ve followed her. I would’ve released my soul from this stitched-up body and returned to the void rather than live without her for a single day. After losing one bride to horror and fear, I couldn’t survive losing another who actually chose me, who looked at my monstrous form and saw something worth loving.
I lift her hand to my lips and kiss her fingers.
“I will never let you out of my sight again,” I promise her. “When you’re well, we’ll have our wedding by the lake. We’ll say our vows. Everything will be as we planned.”
She doesn’t respond, but her breathing has steadied into a normal rhythm, and her pulse feels stronger under my fingertips. The magic in the thread is working. She will heal. She will survive this. I settle into the chair, holding her hand, prepared to watch her all day, and then through the night.
“Everything will be all right,” I whisper. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter Seventeen
Amity
I wake to sunlight streaming through a high window. For a moment, I’m disoriented, I don’t know where I am, or whether I’m actually alive. Then it all comes back to me: the villagers trying to sacrifice me, and Riven arriving just in time to stop them.
I’m on the table in Riven’s workshop, and I’m feeling warm, and… well? I push myself up to sitting, and wait for the pain to hit me, but there’s only a dull ache in my muscles. That doesn’t make sense. After losing that much blood, I should be weak and barely able to move.
Riven sleeps in a chair next to me, his head bent at an angle that must hurt his neck, and his white hair hangs across his face. One of his hands rests on the table close to where mine is, and I know he must’ve been holding my hand. I study his stitched face, his slightly parted lips, and his wide forehead, finally relaxed, and I realize that he doesn’t look frightening at all. I feel warmth spread through my chest, and I smile. It’s hard to believe I’m here, with him, and that my past will never bother me again. Thorne is dead. I saw Riven kill him, and I saw the Elder wail over his body. After the lesson Riven taught them all, I’m sure they will never come after me again. Who knows, maybe Draug will accept Thorne’s spilled blood, and bring back the rain. I’m being sarcastic, of course. It will rain when it rains.
I lift my injured arm to examine it. The Elder’s knife cut me from elbow to wrist, deep enough that I should have died. Now black stitches run along that line in an intricate pattern. These aren’t normal stitches, though. They’ve somehow become part of my skin, fused into me completely. When I run my finger along them, warmth spreads outward from each one, movingthrough my arm and into the rest of my body. I’m not sure what happened… What Riven did to save me.
I slide off the table and test my legs, expecting weakness, but I feel strong and steady. More than that, I feel incredible. Every part of me feels lighter and more alive than ever before. Even my heart is lighter, like there’s no point in worrying about anything. I walk to Riven and touch his shoulder. He jerks awake, his white eyes going wide when he sees me standing before him.
“Amity? You shouldn’t be up.”
I smile down at him. “I feel wonderful.”
“Are you sure? You lost so much blood…”
I settle myself onto his lap and wrap my arms around his neck. His whole body goes rigid before he relaxes into my touch.
“I feel like I was born anew,” I whisper and lean in to kiss him.
The second our lips meet, fire races through me. I press my body against his and deepen the kiss, sliding my tongue into his mouth to taste him. Heat builds between my legs, and I can feel myself getting wet and swollen with need. His cock hardens beneath me, and I shift my hips to press against it, which pulls a deep groan from his throat. My hands move down his chest, feeling all the different textures of his stitched skin through the fabric of his shirt. I slip my fingers under the hem, desperate to touch his bare skin, but when I reach his side, he flinches. I pull back, remembering Thorne stabbed him there.
“You’re hurt!” I jump to my feet, horrified that I forgot about his wound. “I’m sorry. What was I thinking?”
Riven catches my hand and pulls me back onto his lap.
“It’s nothing. Revenants heal faster than humans. We have magic running through our stitches.” His fingers trace the black line on my arm. “And some of that magic runs through you now.”
“Is that why I feel so different?”
“You needed a blood transfusion, so I gave you my own blood, then used enchanted thread to stitch you up. There was no other way. You were dying, Amity, and I couldn’t lose you.”
I rest my forehead against his. “Thank you for saving my life.”
“I simply couldn’t lose you,” he repeats. “Not when I’ve only just found you.”
I kiss him again, keeping it gentle this time, but the heat builds between us anyway. When I pull back to look into his glowing eyes, the words I’ve been holding back finally spill out.
“I love you, Riven.”
Joy makes his eyes glow brighter.
