Really?
I take a better look at it. Just like I thought, it’s silky, a real shiny, deep black color, and it reminds me of the blanket that I woke up with right before I ate the peach. It’s smaller, though. Like a scarf, only I have no idea what it is—or why Nine’s giving it to me.
“Am I supposed to know what this is?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“You will.”
Oh, great. More riddles. “What’s it for?”
“Whatever you want it to be for.”
Whatever. Right now I want it to be a bread holder, I guess. Works for me.
The bread is freaking delicious. I take the first bite hesitantly, waiting for it to turn against me the same way that the peach did. When it doesn’t, I gobble up half of the roll before realizing that I probably should make it last.
It’s light, it’s fluffy, and it’s still warm. The only thing that would make this better is—
“Water?”
He holds out a vial.
How did he guess?
Mouth still full, I nod.
This time, though, I don’t tell him to set it down. When he begins to crouch down, I actually stop him. Well, after I quickly swallow my mouthful of breath, I do.
“It’s okay. You just surprised me with the bread. You can hand me that. I… I didn’t mind it when you touched me before.”
Nine slowly rises. But, first, he sets the vial of water down on the floor. “You don’t mean that.”
I kind of do.
I kind of liked the way it felt when he touched me—the pleasure that drowned out the agony—and now that I’m feeling more like myself, it’s a shock to realize that I want to experience that again.
The even bigger shock? That I was bold enough… reckless enough… to admit that out loud.
I don’t know for sure what Nine did to me yesterday. I would’ve thought, before the whole peach thing, that I’d rather die than let another fae touch me again. That’s how strong my, well, my brainwashing was. He spent my whole childhood warning me against the power of a fae’s touch magic. Especially after I saw what it did to Madelaine, I hated the idea of letting one of those monsters get their hands on me.
Then I ate the peach and I actually knew what it was like to think I was dying. My whole thought process switched in an instant. I would’ve let Nine do anything—and I mean anything—to me if it meant he saved my life.
The question I’m struggling with now is would I have felt the same way if it was another fae offering to heal me? Rys?
I don’t think I would.
Nine’s caress changed something. There was affection in the gesture, and an unholy heat in his eyes that I know I didn’t imagine. He wanted to touch me. And I wanted him to.
Not just because I was cursed. Not because I didn’t have a choice.
But because it’s Nine.
My Shadow Man.
His touch might have erased the effects of the peach, but it did more than that. It allowed me to look past my hatred and fear of the fae and see the truth right in front of me. That the love and affection I had for my only friend has blossomed and bloomed into something way different now that I’m older and he… he’s different.