Page 24 of Evil Eyed
Aidan wasn’t usually a warm and cuddly type but he wrapped her in a bear hug from the side. “It’s not as bad as all that.”
“No?” She kept her forehead pressed to her knees. “So I’m supposed to feel better about people dying of their own free will to appease a dark god blasting their crops with disease or drought?”
Doran dropped down on the mattress, making the bed frame groan beneath his bulk. Lying across the foot of the bed, he pulled her down onto his gigantic chest. “Have we ever lied to you, love?”
“No,” she mumbled against him.
“Ivarr, come shine some truth for her. Keane, you too.”
I moved around the bed and dropped down on my knees by Doran’s head. “How can I help?”
Keane sat on the opposite side of the bed, sliding in behind Warwick.
“Look at us, love. See what magic and love surrounds you.”
With a sigh, she lifted her head, bracing her arm on his mighty chest. “I knowyouare love and magic. Even Aidan.”
“Hey,” he grouched. “How dare you call me love and magic.”
Her lips quirked because she saw right through him even without my piercing gift of truth. She always had. That was why she’d been comfortable enough to walk right up to him in the tattoo joint and grab his junk in front of the rest of the gang.
“Ivarr, call your light,” Doran ordered.
I didn’t have to call my light forth. It always shone inside me. I simply had to open and let it pour out. Soft golden light spilled over our little group, easing the harsh lines on Aidan’s forehead. Even Doran’s mighty stone softened in my light.
“What happens when this light touches something of darkness?” Doran asked.
“It hurts,” she whispered.
“Damned straight,” I replied, nodding. “Imps and pookas alike screech in pain and are forced back into their foul tunnels and holes. Even the Ellén Trechend in the cave would have drawn back to shield itself from my light, if I’d dared called my power without worrying about leading the changeling straight to you.”
Doran cupped her hand in his meaty palm, gently unclenching her fist so her fingers lay spread against his much larger hand. “See how the light dances on your skin. Does that hurt you, love?”
“You know it doesn’t.” She tried to pull her hand back, but he tightened his grip on her fingers, keeping her hand fully in my light.
“Why is that?”
“I know what you’re trying to say, but it’s hard to believe when I don’t even know who I am. Not really. Look at all the shit that’s gone down in the past fucking week. I find out that leprechauns are real. A stone gargoyle starts talking to me in my dreams. I find out about the four treasures and dark fae for the first time. All of that makes for a crazy, exciting story, right? And then oh, by the way, the man you were married to for five fucking years was actually a fae changeling who was feeding on your memories and killed your cat every night to torture you. But oh, yeah, that cat wasn’t really a cat, it was your mother in disguise. Finding out that my father was a dark god who reveled in human sacrifice is just the cherry on top of Shit Mountain.”
She panted a little, out of breath from her rant. I waited a moment to make sure she was finished, but when she remained silent, I said, “Look closer.”
Her gaze flickered up to mine, unsure what I meant.
Doran tipped her arm back and forth in the spill of my light. “His light doesn’t hurt you. Far from it. His light dances on your skin.”
Her forearm gleamed like someone had dusted her skin with crushed opals and diamond dust, refracting into shining rainbows and pearly orbs around her.
She gasped softly, holding her breath. “Oh. But that’s Warwick’s magic.”
“You know that to be untrue,” Warwick replied, his voice a light, soft lilt of awe. “My magic is emerald green, sometimes sparked with gold. The rainbows are you.”
I opened more, letting golden light spill across the bed. “You’ve always glowed like this. You just didn’t see the magic because you didn’t know to look for it.”
She lifted her gaze to mine, her eyes shimmering in the magic flowing all around her. “The treasurekeeper magic, then. It’s from you.”
I shook my head slowly. “No treasurekeeper has ever cast rippling rainbows and diamonds just from seeing my light. But even more importantly…” I shuttered my gift, closing the golden glow back inside me. “You shine even when my light is banked. You shine with love. You shine with happiness.”
“You shine with hunger,” Keane added, his voice deep and husky. “You shine with pleasure.”
