I suppose that’s what I get for using her perfume without asking.
“Well, it doesn’t matter what you call it, I don’t have it anymore, so I’m afraid you would find our partnership a bit one-sided,” I say.
The stranger frowns, truly frowns, for the first time. “What do you mean, you don’t have it anymore?”
“Exactly what I said.”
He gives me a wry look and clasps his fingers together. “Well, then, where did it go?”
I fall silent for a moment, contemplating the wisdom of telling this stranger the truth. On the one hand, I don’t trust him. For all I know, he wants the parasite for himself and had planned on cutting it out of me with a hunting knife as soon as he got me alone. Clearly, he doesn’t understand how the parasite works, otherwise he wouldn’t have believed that the parasite could possibly be gone while I still breathe. On the other hand, if his plan is to steal the parasite, perhaps he’ll try to cut it straight out of Abra if he gets the chance.
And I can’t say I’m opposed to that outcome.
I pat his hand condescendingly and say, “You seem like an intelligent guy. Why don’t you figure it out for yourself?”
I expect him to argue, but he doesn’t. Clearly, he’s fairly confident in his own cleverness.
“Well,” I say, standing from my stool, “if you don’t mind, I’ve had a long night, and I plan to catch up on some lost sleep. It’s been such a pleasant coincidence meeting you,” I say, with as much saccharine disingenuity as I can muster.
His eyes, which had been murky and far off, snap back into place. “Oh, I don’t believe in coincidence,” he says. “I believe the Fates place opportunities in our paths so we can grab onto them.”
I scoff. “And what if grabbing at your opportunity gets in the way of someone else’s?”
His lips twist into the most stunningly beautiful smile I’ve ever had the misfortune to witness. “Then it’s a good thing the Fates like me better than everyone else.”
My rest is fitful. The inn room is pitch-black thanks to the lack of windows, but every second that passes is another that could be Nox’s last.
I’m gone the moment the last rays of sunlight descend over the snowcapped mountaintops, sprinting across the Serpentine, my legs fueled by desperation and anxiety and magic.
When I catch a glimpse of a dark-haired man cresting a nearby hill, my sleep-deprived mind jumps straight to suspicion, and I wonder if the stranger at the inn went ahead, thinking to catch me on an empty section of the road.
But then moonlight highlights the shadows under the stranger’s eyes, and I realize it’s not a stranger at all.
It’s Nox.
CHAPTER 56
BLAISE
For a moment, I don’t trust my eyes, sure Nox is simply a mirage I’ve conjured in my desperation to get to him.
I’m so good at imagining things, after all.
But I launch myself from my horse and into the dream anyway.
Nox closes the gap between us, and his strong arms engulf me, and there’s nothing left between us but the fabric of our coats.
“Blaise.”
My name is a chime on his lips as he pulls me into his warm embrace.
“I thought I’d never see you again. I thought… I thought…” I choke on the words, unable to force them out. As if saying them might will that particular version of reality into existence, rather than the one I’m somehow living. Nox’s arms around me. Nox safe in my embrace.
He pulls back to get a good look at me, though he keeps me tucked into his firm chest. When he smooths my hair with his palm, my heart aches with the tenderness in his gaze.
But then I catch the sadness glimmering in his pale blue eyes, and my heart stutters.
“How did you escape?” I ask, practically beg, as all of a sudden I realize he’s not wearing a coat, just his typical black shirt, and his bare arms are exposed to the cold. I back away and try to shrug off my cloak to offer it to him, but he just draws me back in and shakes his head.
“I don’t need it,” he says, and I don’t miss that he hasn’t answered my question.
“Nox, how are you here?”
He smiles, but it’s painfully forced and resembles a grimace. “I’m not.”
“What do you mean, you’re not?” There’s a harshness to my tone that I don’t intend, and it comes out sounding like an accusation.
When Nox inhales, I can feel his chest expanding against mine. “I mean I’m not here, not really. My body’s still at the castle.”
“But I can touch you; I can feel you…” My hand clamps over my mouth instinctively. “You can’t be dead, you can’t be dead. Ghosts…I wouldn’t be able to touch you if you were a—”
Nox grabs my hands and rubs them with his thumbs. “I’m not a ghost. I’m still alive; however, I think there is more to bloodsharing than we ever realized.”
I shake my head, not understanding, too relieved by the fact that Nox isn’t dead to form words. He just stands there and pierces me with those dreadfully intoxicating eyes of his, looking me over like I’m the heroine of a tragedy on stage.
“She was cruel and deserved what she got,” Nox says, and for a moment I don’t grasp what he’s talking about, but then I remember Nox’s voice, clear and vindictive beside me, when he held me all night, only to disappear when Evander and Ellie found me.
“You were there?” I half-ask, half-breathe, my breath fogging the chilled air.
