Lover's Curse (Red Queen Awards Winner)

Chapter Sixteen - A Brand New Day

                            Distance, inches in between us                                                                  I want you to give in, I want you to give in, oh                                                                             Weakness, tension in between us                                                                                           I just wanna give in                                                                                                And I don't care if I'm forgiven                                                                                                                                          - Shameless by Camilla Cabello

I wake up next to her.

Sunlight fans across her face, and I feel cold.  I know what happened last night.  I know it, but I can't make sense of it.   That boy is a stranger, some cursed lovechild of delusion and infatuation.  I refuse to become so smitten again.

Finally.

Mother has been waiting.  I chill, pulling out of bed like Mare will infect me if I get too close.  Or I will infect her.

Don't you ever shut me out again.  You need my help.  I want to see you succeed.

You are my son.

Mare sits upright, watching me dress.  She was crying last night.  She told me not to stop.  If I close my eyes, her face spears through me, glazed with melancholic hope.  Her skin was so soft.

I think I told her I loved her.

Love makes you foolish.

"You're beautiful."

My foot catches on a stray book and I clutch the dresser for balance.  I fight the urge to look at her, reveal the silver creeping across my nose and cheeks.  It's so casual.  Like she's not talking to me.

I may have started a new game.  One I'm not sure how to play.

"Beautiful.  Broken.  Cruel."  Mare chuckles.  "And surprisingly sappy."

She'll never let me forget this, will she?  "Don't know what came over me last night.  I'm not prone to idiocy.  It won't happen again, I promise."

"I know."  Hands slip around my waist.  "No more bad poetry."

"I don't remember any poetry."

"Want me to recite it for you?"  I tense, and she leans into my ear.  "Eyes like sunlight-dappled mahogany.  Hair like willow-branches with wizened silver buds.  Blood like magma, hot and dangerous, scorching your skin in delightful ruin."

"You're right.  That's terrible."

"Isn't it?"  She sniffles.  "You were trying so hard, and none of it made any sense."

"I drank a lot of whiskey," I lie.

"Strange.  I didn't taste it."  Mare peppers kisses across my shoulder blades, creeping towards my throat.  "What about the 'I love yous'?  The reverent touches?  The soft cooing?  Was that the whiskey too?"  She laughs.  "It's a better lover than you are."

"I never claimed to be a good lover.  Only yours."

Another kiss caresses my jaw, a hint of teeth with no bite.  "Didn't expect you to be.  You've failed at love so many times.  Your father.  Cal.  Even Thomas."  Acrid smoke burns my lungs.  "You're a monster, not a lover."