I reached up and wiped the tear away. Andre caught my wrist and pulled me into his embrace. His arms enfolded me, and his chin rested on my head. He whispered to me in Romanian things he knew I couldn’t understand and held onto me like I might blow away.
“Thank you for telling me,” he said, letting me go.
I searched his face. “Of course.” My words were silly, careless; I hadn’t planned on telling him.
Andre gave me a sharp nod and that was the end of that conversation.
I couldn’t decide whether I was relieved or frightened that he hadn’t made any false promises.
Andre fished out the remaining bottles of seer’s shroud from his pocket. Unstopping one, he downed it like it was a shot of something strong.
He held up the remaining two. “I’m presuming these are for your friends?”
I nodded.
“Then let’s get these to them. We’ll all be safer once they drink this.” He turned away from the edge of the outcropping.
“Hey Andre?” I said, stopping him.
“Hmm?”
“What did you do while I was gone?”
Andre’s face darkened. “Hestia placed an enchantment on the church. I couldn’t leave it. I destroyed what I could before she bound me up with magic. Then I seethed.”
“Ah.”
His evening sounded almost as fun as mine. Almost.
“What is it?” Leanne asked, when we returned back to where she and Oliver rested.
She held the bottle of seer’s shroud up to the moonlit sky. I almost laughed; there was no way her human vision would make out details of the liquid in this lighting.
I swayed a little on my feet as a wave of dizziness passed over me.
“It’s called seer’s shroud,” Andre said, casting me a concerned glance. “It hides your movement from seers. Highly illegal.”
“Breaking the law? Oh, I’m game,” Oliver said, his voice still weak. Limply, he accepted the vial Andre handed him.
In one smooth motion, he uncorked the bottle, and downed the fluid. I noted the way he forced his throat to push the liquid down. I was perversely happy that I wasn’t the only one who had a hard time drinking the liquid. He grimaced. “Ugh, that tastes fucking horrible. Like unwashed asshole.”
It wasn’t that bad. Even the girl without an appetite could attest to that.
“Ugh, Oliver,” Leanne made a face. “I still have to drink it.” She hesitated. “Highly illegal?”
“Highly,” Andre confirmed. “You do not have to drink it, but for Gabrielle’s safety, you cannot travel with us if you’re not under its protection.”
Leanne chewed her lower lip. “I understand. Give me a minute.” She closed her eyes, her breath deepening.
As I watched her, I grew lightheaded.
“She does nothing by the seat of her knickers anymore,” Oliver stage-whispered. “I’m telling you, that doppelganger fucked her up.”
“Shhhh,” she said, overlooking the barb. Beneath her closed lids, her eyes darted back and forth, watching our phantom futures play out.
Darkness crept up from the corners of my vision.
When she finally opened her eyes, she nodded. “Oliver and I should be fine.”
She unstopped the bottle and chugged its contents.
Blackness swallowed my eyesight as another wave of dizziness slammed into me. I stumbled forward.
“Soulmate?”
I reached out for Andre, but I never felt his touch before sweet oblivion consumed me.
Chapter 14
When I came to, the first thing I noticed was the tang of blood at the back of my mouth and the arm that cradled my head.
My eyes fluttered open, and I stared into the dark, concerned gaze of my soulmate, who held me in his lap.
He handed me a blood bag with a single command. “Drink, love.”
Using the tube at the top of the bag, I began pulling the thick liquid into my mouth, not stopping until I’d finished the bag off.
I set the empty bag aside and stared up at him. “What happened to me?”
“You fainted.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I fainted?”
“Looked like a beached whale too, all pasty and belly up,” Oliver added helpfully.
“You seem to have made a complete recovery,” I noted, eyeing him.
He guffawed. “As if there was any doubt. There’s a reason no one messes with fairies. Can’t kill us that easily. Best not to try, really, because if you can’t off us on the first go, we’ll up and go Attila the Hun on you.”
“Culturally insensitive,” Leanne said.
Oliver sighed and, with a roll of his eyes, turned to Leanne. “Just because you sacrificed your pettiness doesn’t mean you have to go and slaughter everyone else’s. Geez.” He swiveled back to me and shook his head. “It’s culturally insensitive of some people,” his eyes slid to Leanne pointedly, “to expect a fairy to act like a saint.
“Anyway,” he continued, “those Amazons will rue the day they shot me. I’m going to be that cold sore that won’t go away. That chlamydia that you accidently picked up from that one time you went to a rave over the summer and decided to participate in an orgy with a bunch of male sprites.”
I wrinkled my nose.
“Oli-ver,” Leanne said.
“Bad idea,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Bad idea—but at least it wasn’t the herps, which is what I’ll totally be to those Amazons—persistent and uncomfortable.”
Andre cleared his throat and gazed down at me. I could tell from his pained expression that he’d only just managed to sit through the last two minutes. For a guy that had lived for seven centuries, one would think he’d have a little more patience.
“Feel any better?” he asked.
“I’m okay,” I said, sitting up.
He readjusted his grip to accommodate me, but I noticed that he wouldn’t let me stray far from his lap. It wasn’t like I was dying to leave him. I cringed at the thought; that literally was what was happening.