Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
I remember another thing he’s talked about extensively and dash for the window. As soon as I pull away the curtain, we are covered in the glow of a moon larger than any I’ve ever seen, and for a moment I forget why I’ve uncovered it in the first place.
I almost feel its cool radiance, as if it were the morning sun in the summer. “It’s so… so different.”
“It’s closer to us than the one in your world,” Sylvan says and approaches me with the rose. “I hope you will be able to enjoy it as much as the sun.”
“I’d rather have you than the sun.” I slide both my hands under his jaw. His neck is delicate, like a bird’s, and I promise myself that he will never be harmed as long as I’m around. No matter what I have to do in this strange new world, I will take care of him in ways his family never did.
He looks up at me, so full of emotion, and I’m reminded of how he grabbed a stool at the grimsmith’s to reach my lips for a kiss.
“Would you like to be higher?” I point to a large chest he could stand on, but he stops me when I try to move.
“No. I want you to see me as I am and choose me still,” Sylvan says with all seriousness, as if he had warts all over his face, not skin smooth as porcelain, sweet pink lips, and a compact body I imagine naked whenever my thoughts drift off.
I nod, eyes pinned to his earnest expression. “Of course I choose you. How could I choose anyone else now that I met you?”
I feel like the biggest sap when my eyes start stinging, but the words come straight from my heart. My brothers always mocked me for my interest in pretty twinks, but they don’t get it. I have a soft side I can only show to someone who isn’t like me. Sylvan’s personality might be all jagged edges on the outside, but they fit mine like we’re two pieces of the same broken vase. Life has dragged us both over the gravel in different ways, and to him, I can be important, special. Not just because of my shadow. I sense in his touch, in his kisses, and in his words, that he needs to be taken care of.
He can handle himself. Hell, he was the one to lead us here, to get his collar off, and to kill a man who stood in his way. But he’s so fragile in places he shows no one else but me. He seeks my hugs and attention like an abandoned kitten, and I’ll never betray him. He might be a prince of the Nocturne Court and some shadow wielding mage, but I can give him the safety and affection he craves. If this is all some elaborate scheme at manipulating me, then so be it.
I gasp when his pale shadow rises off the floor behind him like a silent ghost. “Don’t be afraid,” he whispers when I flinch, but when the shadow expands and settles over us like a widow’s veil, a strange sense of peace overcomes me.
“So now, I grab this rose by the stem,” Sylvan explains, and I’m about to stop him at the sight of sharp thorns, but it’s too late. He closes his palm and squeezes it with a hiss. “And now you put your hand over mine,” he says, holding the rose between us.
I spot a droplet of blood sliding down his hand and hope this ritual doesn’t involve any more pain on his side. I want to grab a piece of cloth and wrap his hand, but he is the one who knows what he’s doing, so I swallow my discomfort and cradle his slender hand in mine, like he told me. I tower over him in every way, yet when our eyes meet, I know he’d be as ready to stand between me and danger as I am for him.
“And now?” I whisper, afraid the sound of my voice might shatter the spell that’s meant to connect us forever.
“This gesture symbolizes that even though I take your shadow, I will not abuse your trust. I will take the brunt of any injury.” Sylvan is so earnest as he looks into my eyes. His hand is so dainty in mine, but he’s the one bleeding, and I get it, suddenly choked up.
With my size, and the violence I so easily mete out, I never thought anyone would consider wanting to be my protector. I always thought that I would always be the one to give while my partner takes. Yet here Sylvan is, promising to bleed for me. I’m so touched I don’t know what to do with myself, but Sylvan saves me by speaking.