Chapter Seventeen #2
“If you want to know what we were saying, all you had to do was ask.”
Joon arches a brow.
“We were talking about you,” I say, earning a startled look from him. He hadn’t expected the blunt truth.
I get up and go around to his side and sit with my legs tucked. I reach out and cup his cheek, turning his face so he looks me directly in the eye. This close, he is paler than he should be.
“It was nothing bad, Joon,” I say gently. “Do you know how much Mingi and Iseul worry about you?”
He frowns.
“I told her I was curious about your life—don’t make that face. She respected your privacy, but she did ask me to give you a chance before judging you.” Lowering my hand, I sit back on my heels.
The muscles in his body relax.
“Then she said you obviously couldn’t resist falling for my charm,” I tease.
Joon snorts. “Hardly.” He fails to hide the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth before I catch it. He motions to my plate. “Eat before the food gets cold.”
The rise and fall of his shallow breaths keep me in place. “Joon, what’s wrong?”
His gaze snaps to mine, desperation and something else shadowing the different shades of blue. “I will be fine—”
“Let me do what I promised.”
“Very well,” he says after a moment. He rises to his feet, pulling me up with him.
I reach up and wrap my arms around the back of his neck, bringing his face to mine, and will whatever power I hold within me to help him.
His lips are warmer than I remember.
At first, Joon doesn’t react. Then his hands find my waist. I cannot tell if it’s working, but when I deepen the kiss, he responds, his mouth moving against mine. He is like winter and warm honey at the same time.
When his tongue finds mine, I melt against him, forgetting everything beyond our bodies pressed as close as we can get. My appetite is replaced by something else entirely.
Then I feel it. The tug from inside my bones as the magic wakes, gathering, then races out of me and into him, and I no longer know which way is up. I hold on tight as he crushes me to him.
My chest squeezes, bringing a sharp pinch with every beat of my heart. Joon starts to pull back, but I can sense that the transfer is not complete. The power still hums under my skin.
I tighten my arms around his neck and push up on my toes. He groans in response.
The pain in my chest intensifies until I forget how to breathe. He breaks the kiss, and I gasp for air. This time, he holds me, ready for how the siphoning affects my condition.
“Breathe, Violet,” he says, pressing his palm against my chest at the base of my throat.
Cool power seeps into me, soothing the pain like a balm. Each inhale brings more air to my lungs until there is no sign that the episode ever started.
The light glow of iridescent scale-like frost pattern passes over the back of his hand, vanishing as quickly as it appeared.
I let my forehead fall against his chest. He lets me stay there.
“You should not have pushed it.”
“It wasn’t so bad this time.” I smile weakly. “Don’t worry, I know I’m no use to you dead.”
“Do not take this so lightly, Violet,” he snaps.
“I understand the risks, and I am fine now.” I step back, and his arms fall away. The air is noticeably colder than before. Or maybe it only seems that way after the warmth of his embrace. “Are you worried about me?” I ask with a teasing smile.
“Of course I am.” The harshness of his voice is a sharp contrast to his words.
I don’t have the faintest idea how to respond.
Joon jerks his head toward the window, eyes wide. “I did not expect to sense another so soon.”
It should be good news, but he looks distraught.
“We should leave now,” I say, remembering how our first search took us all over the fae lands of Arum before the trail went cold.
Joon turns to me and shakes his head. “It is one thing to leave before dawn, but another entirely to leave near nightfall.”
“Then there’s no time to waste.” I grab his wrist and tug him toward the door.
He resists. “Violet.”
I round on him. “There is nothing that can be done for my condition, but we can do this for you.” He still doesn’t look convinced. “It could be closer than you think. And if there’s not enough time to safely make it back, we can stop somewhere or find shelter or figure something else out.”
Joon is silent for a long moment. “Now you sound worried about me.”
I wave a hand. “Purely selfish reasons. I don’t get what I want until you succeed,” I say airily. Though not entirely untrue, it doesn’t quite ring as honest as it once would.
It takes more prodding than expected, but less than half an hour later, we are on the road, galloping toward the unknown destination of the next shard. The urgency to outrun the night and to end his curse before he is out of time is tangible between us.
I press against his back with my arms around his waist. We are married in name only for the sake of our bargain; holding on to him shouldn’t come as naturally as it does.
Around us, the landscape jumps from one to the next as he opens path after path, letting one fade and the new one form. If he uses too much of his power, I think I should be able to handle another siphoning.
We stop on the outskirts of a town with an hour of sunlight to spare.
“It is close,” he whispers, though there is no one around to overhear.
He pants from the exertion of using so much magic in a short time. It would be best for him to preserve what remains to avoid having to siphon again so soon.
“It would be faster to go through than around,” I say.
The tingling sensation of his magic envelops me as Joon disguises us with a glamour and urges the horse onward.
His entire body is rigid with tension as we pass through the main road, being as inconspicuous as possible.
I recognize this place. It’s where we stopped on our journey to the palace after the Choosing.
At the time, I didn’t take the opportunity to really take it in.
The city has a comforting feel, with citizens milling about unhurried as lanterns, already lit in anticipation of night, line the streets and paths like a thousand stars fallen to earth.
A young man climbs a ladder as an older couple, who I assume are his parents, survey him.
The woman frets, wringing her hands as her husband passes a freshly painted sign for their son to hang.
The sign reads “The Dragon’s Tome,” and I wonder what books they have that I can only dream about getting my hands on.
The dimming light casts a strange shimmer over the young man as a beam passes through a thin break between buildings. Even the sunsets have an air of magic to them on this side of the border.
It stings to see a happy family like the one I once had, and I wonder if Joon feels the same or even notices them.
Hours seem to pass before we make it through the quaint town. We slip into the woods and weave between the trees until we reach the edge of a sprawling field of flowers.
Joon dismounts, striding ahead as if in a trance. I leap down and follow, feeling a little guilty about the way we’re trampling down the beautiful plants.
My heart plummets when he stops dead in his tracks. I hold my breath, waiting for him to say he lost the trail.
He falls to his knees in the dirt. My feet carry me over, and I kneel beside him. Joon’s hand trembles as he reaches for a folded flower, such a dark shade of purple it nearly looks black.
The lightest touch of his finger against the glossy petals is all it takes for it to unfurl as if he were the sun itself.
My breath catches in my throat when I see a shard of a mirror, nestled in the center of the flower.
He plucks it up and wraps it in the strip of cloth I ripped off my skirt on our last journey, then tucks it safely away. I didn’t realize he kept the stained rag instead of throwing it away.
I grip his shoulder. “You did it. You found another one,” I say.
He turns to me. His fingers tangle in my hair, and he’s pulling me to him. Then his mouth is on mine in a crushing kiss that steals the air from my lungs. His lips move against mine, demanding my surrender so he may consume me.
Joon releases me, ending it as abruptly as it began. “It is all thanks to you.” He clears his throat and looks anywhere but at me.
A lone demon howls in the distance, and my stomach answers as my forgotten hunger returns with a vengeance.
“We can return to the palace or stop here for the night,” Joon says. “Whichever you prefer.”
The feel of his mouth lingers on my lips. It has me wondering what it would be like to kiss him as long as I wanted, to surround myself in his scent and feel his touch everywhere.
I shake my head. With thoughts like these running through my mind, I don’t think I can trust myself to be alone with him tonight. “We should return.”
His eyes search my face, and the knot in his throat bobs as he nods.
“Yes. That is probably for the best.” His voice is hoarse, and I wonder if he sensed the direction of my thoughts.