Soft. Plush. Cloth. A bed? Citrus scent. Where am I? My arms are heavy and it hurts to try to move them. I take in a breath and feel another stab of sharp pain, but I can't wince or yelp out in pain. What is happening to me?
"Why isn't she awake yet?" Who is that?
"Well, you hit her pretty hard with the amount of Earth you threw at her. No wonder she's not awake."
"I understand what the fuck I hit her with." Lyle.
"Then you should understand that I'm trying my hardest to heal her in her state while she's in a coma. She needs to stay that way so she can completely heal," Ah, the healer. A ruffling of clothes then silence. A presence sat on my bed, "I'm going to do some more healing practices on you. It might hurt, I hope you can't feel it."
His hands reached around my torso where my cracked ribs were and he firmly wrapped his hands around me. It already hurts. A cool, soft feeling moved throughout my skin and settled on my right side where my ribs are. Pain. The pain is unbearable but I can't scream, but, as soon as it came it left. His hands unwrapped from my torso and next thing I feel is something wrap around me. Must be a wrap. Wow, I'm tired, but I want to wake up. I want to see what place I made, and I want to see…I can't believe what I'm about to say, but I want to see Lyle. I want to kick his ass, but I want to see him. But I am so, so tired.
Pain. The pain returns at full force and once again I can't scream. Please, please wake up! It hurts like hell! Thinking of my toes I try to wiggle them, but of course I can't seem to wiggle even one. C'mon, wiggle your big toe. A tension pulled taut on my right big toe like a thread as I continued to concentrate on just that little guy. C'mon, please… just wiggle. Flexing my toe once more it bends down; oh my Welun I wiggled my toe. Okay, okay, don't freak out. Don't freak out! You got this. But it hurts. No, you can't be thinking about how much it hurts, you just have to keep wiggling your toes. Once you can wiggle those, try your fingers. Okay, okay, now it's the rest of my toes' turn. The pulled tension returned to the rest of my toes and this might just be the hardest thing I've done in my life. The pain from my ribs is gone.
Finally, one toe at a time, they start to flex and move around. Thank you. Now, I have to move my fingers. I don't think I've been out for too long, at least long enough to lose anything significant. Concentrating on my right forefinger I feel the movement of how it would feel to flex my fingers, and I pull myself to that feeling. Tension returned and I forced the pull of it to my fingers and bent my finger. Oh thank Welun. I think it's about time I woke up. Okay, now I need to focus on my eyelids which you would think would be the easiest thing to move, but no it's as heavy as that crap Lyle threw at me earlier…Was that too soon?
My eyes flit back and forth under my eyelids. Time to redo the same method as I did before, it seemed to work rather well that way. Forcing some tension to the top of my eye I pull back on it. The tension that I used on my fingers and toes snapped back from me and lacked on my eyelids. What the? Tugging on the connection it thrummed like a guitar string. How interesting. Okay, so what now? Do I try again? Throwing the pull back to my eyelids I tie it to my top eyelid again and pull. The thread grew taut and I pulled it more and more. C'mon, please just open. I need to get back out there. The thread groaned under the amount of strength I'm using to pull it and finally, with a lot of strength, my eyes snapped open.
Finally! Looking to my right there sat a half cup of water on a table, but looking down at my right hand I raised one of my eyebrows. Are you going to move? Slowly, my heavy arm moved towards the water. I'm so thirsty. Wrapping my fingers around the cup I tested the weight of it. I can lift it. I slowly brought the water back to my open mouth and tossed the water back. Thank goodness. I put the glass back on the table to my right and look around the room. It was decent, and there was a heavy citrus scent throughout the room that I wanted to choke on. At least I know it's clean. Biting my lip I pulled back the blankets, lifted up my gown, and saw the wrap that was around my ribs. Taking in a deep breath, at least there's no pain, I unwrap myself and gasp at the colors of my skin. Despite the healing from the healer my skin was all sorts of colors; deep blue, dark purples, and yellows. I must be at the very end of the healing process. Putting the wrap back around myself I look around the room, in front of me is a board with several different parchments with scribbles, to the left in the corner is a dresser and a window. Beside me on the right is a table, and another wall that juts out and the exit door is beside the wall that comes out.
Do I even want them to know I'm awake? Surely it might be a surprise to them, but I do want to see Lyle. Even Addison and Ridoc to see how they did. I hope everyone passed. The door opened and in came a gray haired man in a white long coat with glasses. He gasped and rushed to my side.
"You're awake? I didn't think you'd wake until you were completely healed. I mean, I just healed you earlier."
"Yes, well…" my voice was slightly raspy and I swallowed to wet my throat, "I wanted to wake up."
He smiled softly and put his cool hands on top of my right hand, "Well, there are people who are waiting for you. One of them has threatened to beat me up a couple times," he chuckled, "But, before I can let them see you or even let you go I need to double check your ribs one more time."
I nodded my head and lifted up my gown moving my arms slightly wide for him. His hands formed to my ribs and he closed his eyes. The cooling sensation I felt earlier returned to my skin and I hissed in response. But, I found out why the cooling effect had happened, I looked down and water was stretched from one side of me to the next in a band. Water healing. Sweat formed on his forehead as his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth set in a hardline. Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted from my right side and a scream followed that pain. Tears ran down my cheeks and fell to my chest as I cried over the pain.
"That was the last one. He broke all of your right side, you're lucky it didn't puncture your lungs while you tried to fight with it."
Breathing in and out at a ragged pace I nodded at him, "That. Hurt." I gritted out between my teeth.
He took his hands back and grabbed a small towel from his pocket and wiped his hands, "Yes, well, healing hurts. You should go kick that guys' butt for what he did to you."
"He wouldn't yield and neither would I." I admitted, almost sheepishly.
He eyed me, "Yet you didn't get him back? Professor saw the fire spear you made, quite the feat for you by the way, and yet you didn't throw it. Why?"
I didn't throw it. Why didn't I throw it? Surely I had the time while he was standing there with the fear of a little boy in his eyes. He was frozen, "I–"
"Blake!" Addison shrieked, running with her arms wide open.
She pushed the healer out of the way and wrapped her arms around my neck, "H-hey, Addison."
"Oh my gosh I'm so happy you're awake! Ridoc is going to be thrilled. And so will Lyle!"
Lyle, "Addison, how is everything going?"
Her breath hitched and she barely grimaced, if you weren't observing her then it could've been missed, "Well, everyone passed, including you."
"You didn't do that face for no reason," I pushed.
"Well," she paused and looked towards the door, "Lyle hasn't been exactly here."
"Here? What do you mean?"
She tapped her foot, "He's been gone most days. Or at least hauled up in his room. What happened? By the time everyone else finished you were already passed out."
I cleared my throat recalling the memory, "He threw a large boulder's worth of Earth at me. It hit my right side on my ribs and broke them."
She gasped and put her hand on my shoulder, "What did you do? Just pass out?"
I quickly glanced at the doctor who was standing at the end of my bed and with a smile I looked Addison in the eyes, "Yes. The pain was too much, I remember crying out. You didn't hear that?"
"Well, we did, but the Professor said it was normal for people to get hurt and to concentrate on what we were doing. So, we went back to it."
"You all just went back to fighting instead of seeing why I was screaming?"
She frowned, "Well, after you passed out Lyle yelled and went towards you. After that we all stopped and took you to the healers."
"He yelled?"
She nodded quickly, "Yeah. It was…" she paused again, "I saw…" hesitation with a breath, "something in his eyes and heard it in his scream when you went down. He was pleading with the Professor for you to pass and for us to stay with you. They wanted us to move on." She hesitated slightly while talking about Lyle.
"So, I passed because of Lyle?" That doesn't make any sense. I passed because of the mess he created?
"Yes. He was very persistent. Knox was also up their ass about letting you continue." She stepped back from me.
"Addison, how long was I out for?" my eyes bore into hers.
She swallowed and opened her mouth then closed it, and opened it again, "A couple days."
"Define a couple. You know a couple means two and this doesn't feel like a two day vacation." My anger was rising and my cheeks burned.
The healer interrupted her stuttering, "A week. You've been out for a week."
"Oh hell no. I've gotta get out of this bed." I threw the blanket off of me.
After getting dressed in a fresh short sleeved shirt and a pair of trousers I leave the healers ward and head back towards my wing. I've been out for a week? No wonder I couldn't wake myself up and battled to even wiggle my toes. Addison left shortly after she couldn't tell me how long I've been in that damn bed for. The doctor was kind enough to tell me, and even gave me some bread to eat on the way back to my room. I can't believe them.
Opening the door to my wing I look at the stairs. Gods, that's a lot of stairs and they're taunting me. Rolling my eyes I throw my right foot out and haul myself up the stairs. My breathing labored as I went up the last flight of stairs, thank Welun my room is right next to the stairs. Opening the door and closing it I look at my room and it is as clean as I left it. Sighing I fall to my bed and throw the blanket on top of me with a hum. So comfortable. My door opened and thudded against the wall.
"Blake?" A small voice said by the entrance to my room.
Groaning, I sat up and saw Lyle standing across the room. His soft stubble grew to a thicker length with disheveled hair, "Yes?"
He crossed the room in several paces and gently grabbed a hold of my shoulders, "How are you? Still in pain? Bruised?"
I put my hands on his shoulders and squeezed them, they were so firm, "Lyle, I'm fine. The healer did his job, to heal me. Yes, I still have some bruises but I'm here."
"Oh Ithquent, thank you…" he whispered while pulling me to his chest, "I'm so sorry, Princess. I didn't mean to."
"Not true. Remember what you said? Everything you do is intentional."
He pulled back and sighed, "Blake, you know what I mean."
I pushed his hands down, "No, I don't. I can't believe you would intentionally hurt me."
He groaned and rubbed his face with both hands, "You weren't going to yield willingly, and I wasn't either."
"So you throw a huge boulder size piece of Earth at me? The fuck sense is that?"
"I–" he stopped and pointed at me, "You were going to strike me with your very impressive spear. Why didn't you?"
"I–" I stopped and shut my mouth. Looking away I cross my arms across my chest, "Nothing."
He eyed me up and down before relaxing, "Listen, you can tell me."
Looking into his eyes we battled, "No, I can't."
His face contorted to hurt as he rolled his eyes, "Blake, don't be ridiculous. You can tell me."
I huffed in anger and threw my hands in the air before settling them, "You're scared to death of fire! I saw the fear in your eyes as I raised the spear. I couldn't do it."
"How–" he paused and shook his head, "No I'm not, Blake. I'm not sure what you saw."
I growled in anger and reached up to his shirt collar pulling up above his head and taking off his shirt. Turning him around I put my fingers on the closest scar I can get to before he turns back around, "I know what those are, Lyle. You can't lie to me. Your scars look just like the Fall siblings'."
His eyes watered before he blinked several times before turning his head away, "I'm not going to lie to you about them."
"What now that I've seen them?" I barked.
He turned back to me, grabbing my waist and pulling me towards him, "Do you want to see it or not? I know I've been shirtless at the lake before, but this is different."
"I–" I paused. Do I? That is incredibly personal; not that he isn't shirtless and his body isn't dangerously close to me. Before I could rethink my decision I blurted out, "Yes."
He breathed in deeply and breathed out before removing his shirt and turning around letting me get a view of his back. It was awful. His back was full of raised burn scars, some were shorter than others and some were worse than others. There was some regular skin on his back too, mostly by his shoulders and neck, but the scars quickly overtook his back. I gently took the tip of my finger and laid it on one of his scars causing him to flinch with a small groan. Putting my hand on his shoulder I gently turned him back towards me, "I'm sorry."
His eyebrows furrowed with confusion, "Why? It was self defense."
"No, I'm sorry for this. No one deserves to go through this kind of pain."
He looked away and tilted his head as if considering my words, "You're wrong. My father deserves it."
"Did he do this to you?"
"Yes." Lyle gritted out.
Moving my hands to his cheeks I rub my thumb gently and move my body slightly closer to him; once again pulled in by him. He flicked his wrist and moved the chair from my desk to him and he sat on it. His fingers wrapped around my waist and he pulled me on top of him. He's beautiful. He pulled me further to him to where our hips sat flushed against each other. His right hand moved from my waist, up my spine and cradled the back of my head, his fingers entangling in my hair. He tightened his grip on my hair and pulled it slightly; letting a moan slip from my lips he groaned slightly.
Lyle gently pulled my head towards him, and my face was inches away from him. Lips inches apart. His lips touched mine and my eyes fluttered close. Heat inched its way from my lips to my cheeks and they burned, but it felt so good. A low groan came from his throat and his hand that rested on my hips squeezed me. My skin lit up where he touched, and it created a burn that didn't want to go away. What is this? My hands moved to his stomach and my fingers splayed across him. He was so firm and beautiful it was ridiculous. His hands moved from my waist and hair to the bottom hem of my shirt. He paused and looked at me, sucking in a breath I nodded. He removed my shirt, revealing my underclothes that covered my breasts but showed my bare stomach. His hands moved to my stomach where he squeezed me. His touch burned wherever he touched me. So good.
"Blake, I," he paused before kissing my cheek, "I need you to know something."
"What?"
"I don't think this relationship can work anymore."
"What," my heart thudded in my chest, "That's insane."
"Blake, I want you. I can't think of anything happening to you."
"Lyle, we've only known each other for–"
"Forty-three days."
I eyed him, "What? Forty-three days?"
"Whenever I met you in that carriage forty-three days ago ever since then you have invaded my mind. I cannot breathe when you are not near and I nearly lost it when I fucked up so bad that you could've died because of me. I almost killed you."
My breathing stopped and I brought his forehead to my lips, kissing him, "Lyle, I know we were fake dating, and failing. I don't even know if anyone knew."
He laughed, "No, Princess they know. They just didn't say anything."
I gasped, "No! What do you mean?"
He shrugged and smirked, "Why do you think Saxon stopped messing with you? Everyone stopped messing with you. Scary boyfriend privileges."
"You're ridiculous."
"No, I'm not ridiculous. I can't stop thinking about you, you are on my mind the entire day. When I wake and when I go to sleep. You inhabit my dreams and keep away the nightmares, you are the light in my darkest of hours."
His fingers brushed the skin on my stomach and with a gentle touch his fingers skimmed my pants hem. I sucked in a breath and he tilted his head, "I'm not asking for that. Don't worry."
I relaxed slightly and nodded. I did want that, but not right now. It's way too soon, we've only known each other for forty-three days, "So, what are we?"
His eyes searched mine and with a grin he put his nose in my neck and snorted. Laughing I pushed him back, "What do you mean, Princess?"
"You said this relationship isn't working, so what are we?" my heart continued to thud. Thud. Thud Thud.
Lyle's breath caught, he cleared his throat, "We should continue to date. Just fake date."
"But, Lyle–" I'm confused. He just told me I inhabit every thought of his and now he doesn't want me? That makes no sense.
"No, Princess. Once we're done with this we can move on. You can have your happy little Fae Royal life and children." Lyle's voice was set and his lips in a fine line.
My eyebrows knit together and I took in a deep breath, "But, Lyle, you promised me to show me your information from your library. You also said we'd get married to unite our Kingdoms."
"Gods, no, Blake. We just can't. They will kill me and you." He huffed out before getting up and exiting the room.
Well, that was a bust.