Chapter 28 #2
I make the wish with more confidence than I feel. The sun curse is an immovable force . . . If I believed Sheena was capable, I might have asked her to break the blood circle, but if she tried and failed, everyone in this room would know about it.
There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to lose the connection, and—gods above!
Sheena’s feet leave the dirty floor. Her head rolls back as blinding purple light shoots from her hovering body into mine. At first, it’s uncomfortably warm, then it begins to burn—exactly like when the sun reaches me.
I fall to my knees, grunting from the pain of my boiling skin. I can’t believe it. The tiny woman with the stubborn chin is actually attempting to lift one of nature’s most ancient curses.
Please gods . . . if you’re listening, give her the strength.
The burning moves from my skin to my eyes, then my organs, invading my body layer by layer until I’m certain that acid has replaced my blood.
I lock my jaw to keep from screaming. Through vision blurred with tears, I see blood drip from Sheena’s nose. Ciprian tugs on her legs frantically, his black eyes panicked as her spine curves unnaturally. His mouth moves. I think he’s shouting, but I can’t hear anything over the roaring in my ears.
The three of them circle her floating body, and I blink my melting eyes rapidly, trying to get a better look at what’s happening. Is my wish killing her? That was never my intent. I open my mouth to take it back, but no words come out.
One by one they touch her. My pain gets worse each time. Ciprian’s body gives off black smoke, and Sheena breathes it in. The burning penetrates my bones. My fangs slice up the inside of my mouth, and I taste blood on my tongue.
As they collapse, fear and hope war inside me. I’m not sure if Sheena siphoned magic from the others or if I hallucinated it, but I feel lighter, freer, better—
The burning stops so suddenly it’s as if I imagined it. If it weren’t for the lingering ache in my joints and the four crumpled supernaturals on the concrete floor, I would think I dreamed the whole thing.
I crawl to Ciprian’s side and press my trembling fingers to his neck. His pulse is strong. I sag in relief and check the others, finding them in a similar position. By the time I reach the fae, his glacial blue eyes are open.
“You’re awake. That’s good,” I say cautiously, hiding my shock as hope swallows me whole. No one can know what happened here. I swore not to tell in my wish, and I have no intention of figuring out what would happen to me if I violated magic as powerful as Sheena’s.
“I’m going to need help to get them out of here.”
The sun beams on my face, and my eyes sting. This time it’s not from heat, or bloodlust, or thirst, or magic—it’s pure emotion. I can’t believe Sheena managed it.
Any minute now, my skin will blister as my blood boils in my veins.
I’ll fall to the oil and piss-stained street, eyes melting in their sockets as they face the force of the sun’s wrath for the final time.
The warm, glorious light will fade, and I’ll be back where I belong: in the bloody, endless, impenetrable dark.
But it doesn’t happen.
I don’t die.
Everything is bright.
I’m exhausted—haven’t slept a wink—but I can’t stop walking. If I go to my apartment to rest, I might wake up and realize it’s all a dream. That a djinn didn’t lift my sun curse and give me what no vampire, turned or born, has ever been gifted: life in the light.
So I keep walking. Shirt unbuttoned to the waist; I put one foot in front of the other. Each step is better than the last.
Near the Strip, I pass tired, hungover human tourists still wearing their wrinkled clothes from the night before. Sequined, jewel-toned dresses catch rays of sunlight and shoot chaotic, squirming fractals of color against a Grecian-inspired building.
An older man wipes his glasses on his shirt, then fumbles in his pocket for a cigarette.
When I leave the tourists behind and pass an apartment complex, I watch a small, scruffy dog with a crooked tail and a bright pink bow piss on a scaly succulent. It’s visibly suffering from the injustice of countless lifted legs.
The dog looks at me and growls, then takes two steps back. I smile at her. She pees again, the stream lit by magnificent, glorious daylight. When her owner glances up from her phone to see why her baby is riled, I hide my fangs and wink.
The woman’s eyes dart over my exposed chest, and she blushes. I marvel at the clarity of my vision—the bloom in her cheeks as capillaries burst to the surface, a tide of blood rolling beneath her skin.
I dip my chin as she drags the dog away and keep walking.
When my stomach growls, I buy an ice cream cone from a corner store near a park, then eat it sitting on a bench with my face upturned. I have the spot to myself. It’s the only one in full sun. Every other bench is crowded with sweaty people searching for shade and a break from the heat.
Gods. I think Sheena really did it. I think my sun curse is gone.
This changes everything.
I stuff the end of the cone in my mouth and keep walking.
I end up outside Celine’s apartment. My hand hovers over the door. I want to share this moment. With her. With Luca. Ciprian’s face runs through my mind, and I push it out. His friend gave me this gift; not him.
The door opens without me knocking, putting me face-to-face with Luca. He blinks in surprise before grabbing two fistfuls of my shirt and yanking me inside.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“I’m fine—”
“Honest to fuck, Alistair, you’re freaking me out. Forty-eight hours ago, you looked half dead. Now, I find you skulking around during the heat of the day. You might as well stick your head in the oven—”
“Luca, I’m fine,” I assure him. His eyes are wild, and a secondary warmth rolls over me. This one has nothing to do with the sun.
Celine runs down the hall, wings tucked, her brown eyes wide as she looks from me to Luca and back again. “What’s going on? I heard yelling, are you hurt?”
“I don’t know!” Luca waves his hands at me. “I found him outside, and the UV index is insane today.” Since when does he monitor the UV index? Overgrown lizard that he is, Luca loves the sun, and it loves him right back.
“Take a breath and look at me,” I say. “Am I burned?”
Luca takes his time staring, narrowing his eyes as he notices what I’m having a hard time coming to terms with myself. Unblemished skin. “I don’t believe it,” he mutters.
Celine grabs my arm and tows me into the kitchen. Under the faint hum of the fluorescent lights, she studies me, her frown growing by the second. “How?” she asks.
Before I can come up with an answer, she yanks on my shirt. The two buttons I left fastened come loose, ricocheting off her cabinets with muted pings. My shirt falls to the tile forgotten, then all I can feel are Celine’s fingers caressing me.
“How?” she repeats. She sounds dazed. I can’t blame her. I also can’t tell her the truth.
I drag in a shaky breath. “I can’t tell you.”
“Bullshit,” Luca argues.
I reach for his face, hoping to reassure him, but he bats my hand away and shoves the hair hanging in my eyes behind my ear. “You’re fine,” he says. “I can see that, but how long were you in the sun?”
“Hours,” I admit. A lump bobs in my throat.
“Did you buy a spell?”
I shake my head.
“How long will it last?” Celine’s voice is tight, choked with emotion.
I shrug. “Forever, I hope.”
The last part is hard to admit. Hope makes me vulnerable. But I want to tell them everything. How the blood dripped from Sheena’s nose to the floor. The pain, my disbelief, how her men and Ciprian shared their magic to give her to power to lift the sun curse.
“This has something to do with your meeting last night,” Luca guesses. “The one you asked to have in the storage room with Ciprian. We never saw you leave.” Because the fae’s glamours are incredibly powerful.
My silence was a part of the wish. If they guess the truth, will I be cursed again for breaking my word? I stiffen. Maybe coming here was a bad idea.
“Stop asking him questions,” Celine says. “His heart is racing.” Her palm rests warm and heavy against my chest, and I realize too late that she isn’t examining me anymore and has transitioned to monitoring my vitals instead.
“Okay.” Luca releases a ragged sigh. “Fuck, as long as you’re okay. You scared me to death, Ali.”
Something in me snaps.
I pull them both into me, one on each side, and slump in their arms. The exhaustion of my sleepless night hits me as the elation fades, leaving me with nothing but the soul-crushing weight of relief.
A tear rolls down my cheek. Another chases after it. And before I can put a stop to it, a sob escapes. Gods, this is humiliating. I’m supposed to be strong. Powerful. The one you go to when you’re out of options. I can’t cry in front of them. They’ll be disgusted.
Luca’s hand moves to my hair, and he guides my head to the crease between his neck and shoulder. “You’re safe, Ali,” he murmurs in his rough baritone. “Let it out.”
As if my body were waiting for permission, I fall apart. My shoulders shake, fat tears rolling down my cheeks to be soaked up by Luca’s shirt.
Celine’s arms tighten around my waist, and her wings graze my back as she wraps them around all three of us. They’re soft and fluffy now, but if someone tries to hurt us, they would turn to knives in a flash.
With blinding clarity, I realize the truth I’ve ignored: I’m not curious about Celine and Luca or obsessed with collecting them—I just need them. Fighting by my side in every battle life throws at us and celebrating every win.
And I almost destroyed it.
Even after the horrible things I’ve said and done, Celine and Luca care enough to make sure I’m safe—safe enough to let my guard down.
Suddenly, I see the future clearly: everything we could be if I stopped getting in my own way. And it’s as beautiful as the bloody sun.