Chapter 13 #2
I opened my mouth to reply, then stopped short when a sudden pulling sensation deep inside my brain cut me short, like a shoelace being yanked tight. “What the –”
Pure calmness pulsed through me as his finger left my forehead, sliding down my face. The pain was completely gone, and my mind felt clearer than it had since we’d left Neverthorn.
I blinked, a sigh of relief sliding out of me.
I flushed as I watched him do the same, just inches away from my face, staring at me with that perfect, intoxicating expression.
The expression of someone who wasn’t just seeing you, but taking in every part of you, down to your core.
We both paused, staring at each other for a moment that stretched longer, and longer.
I wanted him to lean forward and kiss me, maybe even needed it on some visceral level, but he held back, his expression growing more serious as he put a bit of distance between us. Though he did not let me go.
“Whatever the dark energy is, it actively fought against me,” he said. “I put a seal around it for now, but we need to investigate it further after I do some research. I can’t say for sure, but it almost feels like some kind of curse . . .”
My pulse thrummed in my neck.
A fucking curse? A little voice inside me whispered a new fear . . .
Maybe from Typhon? To get back at you?
I swallowed past the sudden ache in my throat. “Maybe Thalienne can help? She’s an expert in curses, right?”
Liam shook his head grimly. “Too risky. It might’ve been her gate that cursed you for all we know.
And we don’t want her poking around in your head too deeply if we can help it.
Give me some time to look into it. Now that I’ve sealed the energy off, you aren’t in immediate danger, and I may be able to break it myself.
That said, you need to get in touch with me right away if you start feeling sick again, yeah? ”
I nodded, doing my best to not let this new wrinkle send me into a tailspin.
If Liam said he’d take care of it, he would. I had zero reason not to trust him.
But a fucking curse? No, I had to trust Liam to handle this. I had enough on my plate.
“Speaking of getting in touch, I came up with a way for us all to communicate while we’re here.”
His lips quirked. “Of course you did. Tell me.”
“The others made these stones for me before we left Neverthorn . . .” I said, explaining how they would work. “As soon as I get some time with Fable, I’m going to ask her to make you one too.”
“Excellent.” He drew me close again until our foreheads touched, his fingers gently tracing my jawline. Absently, almost as if he didn’t realize he was doing it.
I let my hands rest on his hips, maybe even pulled him a little closer. “We’re all meeting up tonight at nine. At the secret entrance.”
“I’ll be there. Whatever it takes, Harlow, I’ll always be there. I know it’s unnerving with the Senate sniffing around now, but I swear, you’ll be alright. My job is to keep you safe.”
I shivered because his words echoed something Typhon had said. That he was trying to keep the students safe – but that was like a lion saying he was keeping the antelope safe from the hyenas. It was just so his food source didn’t disappear.
The twinge in my breastbone as thoughts of him surfaced infuriated me, and I lifted my hand to Liam’s head, threading my fingers into his hair, which was as soft as it looked. Defiance at Typhon’s continued intrusion in my life only pushed me further. “I can keep myself safe.”
“I know you can. But be careful with Thalienne. She has much she can teach you. But she’s more powerful than you can imagine, and if she thinks you’re here from Neverthorn . . . if she thinks you’re here to cross her, or spy for Tarquinius? It will not end well for anyone.”
I was struggling to care as his fingers worked in swirls across my skin, tingling and drawing sensations upward that made it hard to think. Was he using runes on me? Did I care? Would it push Typhon from my mind?
Only one way to find out.
“Are you going to kiss me or just stand there thinking about –”
Liam’s lips cut me off in a most pleasant way, his tongue dipping deep, sweeping through my mouth. He kept one hand on the side of my face as the other went around to the small of my back, then lower to my ass, dragging my hips closer to him.
I returned the favor, kissing him deeply, tasting him even as I let my hands wander, sliding up under his shirt, across tight abs and . . . I gasped and pulled back an inch. “A nipple ring?”
He grinned, that twinkle in his soft brown eyes growing. “I have my secrets.”
This was what I needed – a physical connection that stole me away from the world for a time, that stopped me thinking about anything but the moment at hand.
Of course, we were being stupid. I knew it; no doubt Liam knew it. But what stopped us was not one of us being smart and breaking it off, but the sound of footsteps outside the door and the voice that came along with them.
“I know you’re concerned, Thalienne, but we don’t really have a choice. With the Runecoats here, we’re going to have to rethink everything.”
Still wrapped up in his arms, our faces close but our lips no longer on one another, I mouthed, “Bryony McCabe?” My transmutation teacher from this morning by the sounds of it.
He pursed his lips, nodded and reluctantly let me go. He didn’t need to invite me, we both leaned close in order to press our ears to the door. Thalienne let out a rather creative string of curses that would’ve made me laugh if I wasn’t suddenly strung tighter than a fiddle.
Because Liam getting caught with someone everyone else saw as a nineteen-year-old girl in a dark room, all by himself?
Yeah, that would be a fucking mess.