My chest rose and fell in steady breaths as I whispered, “I happen to him.”
“He may hit you again,” he breathed out, “but he will never hurt you. You will smile, and then…”
“I will happen to him,” I whispered.
Warmth coursed over my body, a curtain lifted, and my lungs opened, steel coating my skin and knives sprouting from my nails.
The racer slithered over my finger and up to the surface of the soil, moving away into the other plants, and I looked down, seeing my palms still buried, but Aydin was no longer holding me.
When had he let go?
Taking them out, I looked at him, seeing him give me a small smile. Then, he leaned over and grabbed the black snake, still fisting its body and staring at me as the reptile hissed, snapped back around, and struck the back of his hand, sinking its fangs into him.
Aydin released it, and I watched as he sucked the two red punctures into his mouth and spit the blood into the plant bed.
“Like nearly all suffering,” he told me, “it bites, but you live.”
Sweat cooled on my skin, and my head was in the clouds, a tremendous weight I thought I’d always feel suddenly gone.
Leaning in, Aydin kissed my temple, and I didn’t even consider pulling away. His lips were warm and gentle—almost like a…
Like a father.
“You’re Lilith,” he whispered against my skin. “You can’t be burned if you’re the flame.”
Pulling back, he looked down into my eyes, and I didn’t want to smile. He wasn’t off the hook for that scare, but I walked in here with something that I was going to leave without. Everything felt stronger and lighter.
How the hell did he do that?
Lilith... His words drifted through my head. Was he Jewish? She was in our folklore. Adam’s first wife and cast out of the Garden of Eden, because she refused to be subservient.
She was dark and light. She wasn’t afraid to fall or to burn too bright.
She was a flame.
Something shifted off to my right, and we both turned our heads, seeing Will standing just inside the room.
He wore gray sweatpants, hanging low on his hips, and nothing else as his hair stuck up all over the place in the most adorable way.
My heart instantly ached at the anger always in his eyes, but I was ready to do something about it now.
His gaze shot from Aydin to me in his lap, the sharpness in his scowl suddenly turning flat, like he didn’t care. He just stood there, unmoving, and I rose from the seat, remembering that night on the dance floor at Homecoming.
Everyone had stared at us because we didn’t belong together, but we felt nothing other than the ache of the agonizing inch between us, and suddenly Aydin wasn’t even in the room.
“Micah and Rory gone
hunting?” Aydin asked, leaning back in his seat.
Will nodded, refusing to look at me now. “I told Taylor to go with them.”
Aydin chuckled under his breath, looking at Will over his shoulder. “Just the three of us, then,” he mused, glancing at me. “You kids want to play in the pool?”
I gazed at Will, ignoring Aydin’s thinly veiled request that I take off my clothes, but then Will spoke up.
“Just take her,” he said. “I’ve had her.”
I stared at him, the challenge clear, but while I would’ve mouthed off or walked out ten minutes ago, I felt roots sprout from the bottoms of my shoes, keeping me steady.