Page 23 of A Touch Charmed

The crackling sound started again, and a deep sense of unease tightened the muscles around my spine. This time, when the arrows flew out of the trees, I was ready for them. Twenty of them came this time, all with one target. Finn.

Because the curse knew it couldn’t do a damned thing to me.

There was power in knowing that.

I flung myself over him and took all twenty arrows in my back. My spine cracked from the convulsion that wracked my body. “That hurt.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” He scrambled out from underneath me and began pulling arrows out of me. Each rip of my skin felt like I was being stabbed with a thousand knives. Whatever was in that poison had been perfectly designed to kill quickly and painfully. “You should’ve let me take some of those arrows. You can heal me.”

“I feel it either way.” It made no sense for Finn to take them. I’d have to feel his injury in order to heal him, so we might as well skip the middle part.

“I hate this.” Frustration laced his voice as he continued to rip arrows out of my skin. Blood ran down my back and pooled in the brown grass. “Why couldn’t I have been the one with the healing powers? You should’ve gotten the speed. Your last name is literally Chase.”

“Speed is an air power. Fire cauterizes wounds.” I gritted my teeth as my magic fought the poison and pushed it out of my system. Finn ripped out another arrow and a fresh wave of pain washed through me. “You should be asking why you couldn’t have been born an Aries.”

“Obviously, I had no choice but to be a Libra, given how fucking charming I am.”

I laughed, then sucked it back in when he ripped out another arrow. The poison made my veins feel like they were melting, but it couldn’t get near my heart. My magic rejected it before it got close. “How many arrows are left?”

“Last one.” Finn pulled it out of my body. I was certain the sound of my skin tearing over and over again would haunt my nightmares for years to come. “You took twenty poisoned arrows in the back and lived to tell the tale. Testing time is over.”

“Agreed.” I leaned up on my elbows as the last of the pain faded from my back. Blood had soaked into the tattered remains of my top. I reached behind me and patted my smooth skin, still in awe of what my power could do.

At least I’d gotten something out of this trip. As long as Finn and I were together, the curse would always aim for him first. It wouldn’t bother with me unless I couldn’t touch Finn. Which meant neither of us could be alone. At least, not until we defeated this thing.

I didn’t want to think too hard about what that meant for us on a personal level.

He stood and helped me up. I dusted the dirt and dead grass off my shorts as smoke rose from the cave once more. We expected it to launch a mental attack next, but it didn’t go for our minds. It appeared as though it only had enough power for one, and this time, it had chosen physical. We turned our backs on the sound of leaves crackling behind us.

Big mistake.

A snake shot out of the tree line, twice as large as the one we’d encountered before. It didn’t slow down as it slithered toward us, leaving a smoky trail of black behind, as if it had burned away the grass with whatever acid coated its underside. Just like with the arrows, it lunged for Finn. I shoved him to the side and took the bite in my abdomen. Razor-sharp fangs sank deep into my skin, piercing my kidney.

Finn moved beside me in a streak of shapes and colors. So fast I couldn’t even see him. Just blink, there, blink, snake gone, blink, snake dead. Within a fraction of a second, he had pulled the snake out of my side and killed it before it knew where to lash out. The remains turned to smoke that evaporated in the air.

I blinked again and we were far outside the dead zone. He set me down next to the fallen logs where we’d taken a break earlier and told each other truths we couldn’t take back.

He leaned over with his hands on his knees, as if he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs, and held up a hand as he sucked in deep breaths. “I told you that was a bad idea.”

“It actually turned out to be a great idea.”

He stood upright and gave me a withering look. “How so? Do you have a poison kink I don’t know about?”

“We got information. That’s worth a few arrows in the back.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” he muttered.

“We now know the curse won’t go after me when we’re together.” I swallowed as the implication of that hung between us. “Because it knows it can’t hurt me when you’re within reach. It just let me know my limits without me having to test them, and it turns out there are none.”

“That’s something, I guess.” Tension vibrated through his frame as he moved in quick bursts from one side of the small clearing to the other.

The blur of motion when he sped past me coupled with the sudden stillness when he stopped threw my own equilibrium off balance. Just watching him made me dizzy. “Quit bouncing around like that. You’re supposed to be The Flash, not Tigger.”

“I need to burn off this energy somehow.” Blink, he’s on my left, blink, on my far right. “There are only two ways I can do that, and we’ve already ruled out option number one.”

“You ruled out option one,” I grumbled.

He paused in front of me, his body still vibrating from the sudden stop. “I ruled out option one when magic overrides your ability to make your own decisions. If you’re the one in control, this is a whole different conversation.”

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