Of Fae and Hate

She blinks, her gaze blank and I sigh, grabbing her and hoisting her into my arms. One of her hands grab my shoulder, her grip surprisingly tight.

“We can talk in the living room,” I tell Alik before moving past Fox. Soskia is standing out in the hallway and I suspect that she’d gotten the fuck out of the way the second she saw the black smoke leaving Neryssa’s mouth.

Thankfully, she isn’t having another breakdown.

I set Neryssa down on the couch before sitting down next to her and pulling her feet into my lap. She seems to be a little more aware now. Her gaze goes to her hand, but she looks away the second she sees the disfigured limb. Her eyes move to her covered knee. “You don’t want to see,” I warn her. “But don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

I don’t know where the sudden protective urge comes from, but I can’t deny it. I want to protect her from what’s happening to her despite the fact that I know it’s impossible.

Once the change starts, it can’t be stopped.

My eyes move over to Fox. He’s standing across the room with his arms folded over his chest, watching us. I have no doubt his thoughts are in the same place as mine.

Alik sits down on the couch across from ours and Soskia takes a seat as far away from him as possible.

“She’s from the ether,” he says bluntly with no preamble.

I shake my head in disagreement though I’m not so sure he isn’t right. Even before the night in the attic, there’s been something off with Neryssa. “Her energy is from the ether,” I correct him. My gaze flits over to Foc briefly before sweeping over Soskia and returning to Alik. “She was infected that night in the attic.”

Soskia goes completely still.

Neryssa tenses up and when I look at her, her gaze is searching mine.

“And you?” Alike asks, dragging my attention back to him. “You consumed that ether energy with no problem. Are you infected to.”

I shrug. “what can I say? Sometimes I like to munch on a little energy from the best pits of hell.”

Alik isn’t entertained in the slightest.

“I don’t know why but I can consume ether energy,” I swallow, not liking feeling vulnerable. Fox is the only person that knows about my situation as I’m the only person that knows about his. “I wasn’t infected, I was just born this way. It’s not something that’s important.”

Alik shakes his head. “You don’t think that’s important?”

“No. What’s important is that we get the ingredients needed to cook up a potion to heal her.” I tap a finger on Neryssa’s calf and she twitches slightly.

“That’s not going to solve our problem,” Alik says.

“No,” I agree. “We need to go back to Kylu X and grab that damn book. That’s what’ll solve our problem.”