Zoe's only wish is to be able to run barefoot through grass, but she knows it'll never happen. Ever since she was born, she's been unable to touch anything living without it instantly dying. It's a curse she would do anything to get rid of, but that...
A tear fell from my eye and started rolling down my cheek. I wiped it away and took a deep breath to push the tears away. It was a ridiculous thing to cry over. What was I even crying about? The impossibility of that I was a nymph? I had never even thought that possible so why did that fact hurt so badly.
"It's okay to cry. It's better to cry and let the sadness out and then you can start to heal," Pine whispered and it was all that was needed for me to break.
The tears streamed down and I hugged myself. The only hug I had ever gotten and ever would.
That thought made the crying even more violently. I shook and sobbed, barely able to breath. And I just couldn't understand. Why did I have to be like this? All I wanted was to feel someone hold me and not have to be scared to death at the same time. And what wouldn't I give to be able to just walk down a street without being conscious of people's proximity. And to wear something not meant to hide me. How wonderful it would be if Ash and Pine were right.
But maybe I asked for too much. I did have a father that loved me and a home and I didn't have to worry about food. I also now had found my mate and he accepted me, even loved me. It was more than a lot of people ever got, but... It just hurt. If my life would continue like this, I wasn't sure for how much longer I could keep going.
"It's all unfair," I whispered when my crying had subsided some.
"What is?" Pine asked.
"My whole life. It would be better if it was only miserable, but instead it's like all the good things are dangling above me, just out of reach for me to touch. Anything would be better than living with this curse."
"There's no such thing as a faerie's curse. They don't do curses," Ash said. Words that sounded only like a taunt for me from all the times the Librarian had told me that exact thing.
I snorted. "Then what up with my skin, huh? What is the inability to touch anything without it dying if not a curse?"
"It's a gift you never learned how to control," Ash said and moved up her hand as if to stroke my cheek. I reacted on reflex and grabbed hold of her wrist to stop her. But as I did that, something soft and warm landed on my other cheek. I turned my head to look at a wide smiling Pine whose bare hand rested on my bare skin.
"Your skin is so smooth," Pine giggled. "Soft also. And pinchable."
She pinched my cheek and then laughed loudly. She laughed so hard that she clutched her stomach.
"Your face is adorable!" she exclaimed.
At that I pulled my facial features together. My mouth and eyes had both been wide while staring at Pine and my hand had gone up to touch my cheek where she had touched.
"But... How?" I turned back to Ash.
"It's that damn Rheseis' fault," Ash sighed. There was clear annoyance in her face as she pinched the space between her eyebrow before continuing. "Now, faeries don't do curses, but they might not always explain everything they do. They do do things for a good reason though!"
"Who's Rheseis?"
"A friend, a faerie. She knew Oak very well too!" Pine said.
"Rheseis was the one to introduce Oak to your father. She loved him from the moment she saw him. They lived together for about a hundred years before she became pregnant. And then she..." Ash bit her lip.
"And then I killed her," I mumbled.
"No!" Ash and Pine shouted as one and shook their head vigorously.
"We're not sure exactly what happened though. She only told us that you were dying in her womb, but that Rheseis saved you. What you call a curse must be part of what Rheseis did to save you."
My head was a whirlwind and it felt like it would explode. It was all too much and too different from what I knew. And if all of it was true, why hadn't my father ever told me?
But as much as that question burned inside of me, others burned even stronger.
"How could you touch me?" I asked Pine.
"Have you actually ever tried to touch someone and not expected it to go badly?" Pine answered.
I just gaped at her and felt anger coming on. I refused to believe it was that easy and quickly turned to Ash to get a better explanation.
"As you said, nymphs' abilities are sort of to give life," she started the explanation. "And it works simply through our touch. So when we touch you, it counteracts whatever it is that makes your touch kill. With that it would stand to reason that you can make that happen for your whole body. Like that you have two different sets of skin, one that kills and one that heals, and you can decide which to put forward. But since you've been unaware of the healing one, the killing one has been default."
It made sense, if they were right about that I was part nymph. But I wasn't ready to hope, not quite yet.
"How are you so sure that you knew my mother?" I asked.
"You look just like her, Zoe," Pine smiled.
"And we can feel it. Your energy is so much like hers," Ash answered. "But there is an easy way to find out. Try to touch the grass."
She didn't even have to finish talking before I started shaking my head. My mind automatically travelled a few days back in time and the shattering disappointment I had felt when the amulet hadn't been enough to stop the curse. If it failed now as well... I really didn't know if I could take it.
"Just imagine it as a layer of the finest silk that you wrap yourself in," Ash said. "Picture it clearly in your head. And especially see it covering your other layer of skin. You can do it, Zoe, I know that. Imagine them as distinctively different and consciously pick the silk."
Zoe... She knew my name. Pine had said it too. But I had never told them and that made me trust them, made me take a deep breath and close my eyes. I was terrified, but I couldn't help the bubbling excitement and hopefulness. They could touch my skin, so why wouldn't they be right about this too?
I thought about my skin and thought about how I viewed it. Poison, that was what my skin was. A black thick layer of tarry poison. But it didn't have to be. If Ash and Pine were right, I could change that.
I wasn't really sure what I did, but I imaged wiping the poison off me. With a towel of cotton. I pictured the whole process in my head as detailed as possible. How the towel touched every part of my body and the poison disappeared and left my skin clean. No, more than clean. The poison was replaced by the smell of sunshine after rain. Light and life.
Was I done? Had it worked? I knew that whatever it was that I had just done, was rather related to nymph magic than witch magic, but could it really be so easy? Was it really just to imagine?
I didn't dare open my eyes as I took off one of my gloves and placed my shaking hand on the ground. Ash and Pine were quiet, which made me scared. I withdrew my hand as I opened my eyes and looked down.
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