Page 41 of Tempting the Fae Lord
“I want to see the size and shape of the cut. I’ll heal it after as a sign of my goodwill. Please?”
“You can do that?”
“Most likely. Unless there’s some sort of magic involved you didn’t tell me about or perhaps aren’t even aware of yourself.”
Well, that’s worrisome. But it would be nice to have the cut healed. With no small amount of trepidation, I hold out my hand.
She sets her teacup aside and carefully unwraps the makeshift bandage. With gentle, dainty fingers, she examines the cut. “How much did it bleed?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I didn’t look.”
“Squeamish?”
“Yes.”
“Me too. When it’s my blood at least.” She stares at my palm and the angry red slash that cuts diagonally across the pink flesh.
I focus on one of her plants instead, counting each leaf on the vine until this part is over with.
“Should be easy enough to heal,” she says. “I sense no magic. This will feel warm, maybe tingle, but it shouldn’t hurt. Ready?”
I nod and brace for whatever happens next, though I needn’t have done, because it’s exactly as she says, warm and with a pleasant tingle. No pain. And when she’s finished, my palm is perfectly healed.
“There you are.”
I make a fist. It doesn’t hurt. “Wow. Thank you.”
“You’re in my debt, if only a little.”
I tense.
She laughs. “Oh, don’t fret. I’m jesting.” She waves this away as if it were nothing. “I am fae, Gale. What did you expect, a free favor and no teasing at all?”
I don’t know what to make of her. I want to like her. She’s been kind to me. But the twitchy spot low in my gut is twitching away, urging me to be cautious. I smile, hoping it looks genuine, then take a slow sip of my tea to calm my nerves.
She does the same. The atmosphere lightens a touch.
“Why do you want to go through the gate anyway?” I ask.
She leans back against a wall of pillows, legs stretched in front of her and crossed at the ankles. “It’s simple, really. To see where I came from, where I should never have left.” Her gaze grows distant. “Hopefully, to find my real mother and father. To find out what happened that I ended up here.”
I nearly choke on my tea. Her words slam directly into my heart. “I understand.”
Her brows draw inward. “How could you?”
“That’s what I want as well. To find my family. To answer questions.”
“The Gatekeeper switched you too?”
I nod.
“And yet you drink from him?”
This topic again. I want to stay as far from blood-drinking as possible. “That’s complicated. But my parents are earthside somewhere, as yours are faeside somewhere. I’ve always wanted to find them.”
“So we are alike.”
“We are.”
