The Faerie Curses

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Running From a Dying Kiss

My eyes widened as warmth flooded my veins, and I wasn't aware that I had been crying until I tasted salt on my lips. The summer magic was overpowering the curse now, and I felt heavy with exhaustion. My eyes fluttered tiredly as the pain slowly receded.

"Don't fall asleep on me now," Glen told me. "I need to make sure that your magic energy is restored to your blood. You've lost a lot of power."

He didn't know that I was cursed.

The truth hit me like a slap. Glen had no idea about the curse; he thought that it was simply a shortage in my magic energy that had caused my pain. I suppose it was better for him not to know. I didn't want Glen to find out that I was dying. Sometimes it's better to lie.

The pain was slowly fading, but my mind was hazy and fogged. It was as if a cloud had covered all of my logic, leaving only fleeting, whimsical thoughts. I held onto Glen as I lay in the snow, magic slowly returning to me.

I let out a hiss of pain as the scepter's power pummeled the curse out of me.

"Don't think about the pain," Glen said. "You need to control you heart." He gave me a flirtatious wink. "I know how hard that is when I'm around, but I need you to try."

If my energy wasn't gone, I would have slapped him.

Colors flashed across my vision, and I gripped Glen's shoulders, trying to swallow the dizziness. My heart was pounding as new magic flooded into it, keeping the darkness at bay.

"Just match my heartbeat." Glen told me softly into my ear.

I nodded, clenching my teeth. I rested my head against his soaked shirt, listening for the drumming inside his chest. Finally, I found its rhythm and forced myself to take deep breaths. Soon I could hear our hearts pulsing together. I glanced up at Glen, and as he smiled down at me I could hear his heartbeat faintly growing faster. The realization made me smile slightly.

"I've been thinking," Glen said as the branches above us waved in the frosty wind. "And I've discovered that you haven't fulfilled your promise to me." His words were low and soft.

It felt like eons ago when Glen had strode through the cloud of squawking ravens after Nicholas' funeral. I remembered the way his lips had twisted into that smile that made a girl do anything as he demanded the price for saving my life.

"I still owe you that damned dance, don't I?" I sighed heavily. "Although there's a chance I'll be dead by then."

I would definitely be dead by then.

"Don't think like that, partner." Glen chuckled warmly. "I'm not letting you go until you hold up your side of the bargain."

"Technically, I didn't agree to it." I mumbled tiredly into his shoulder.

"I tricked you into agreeing to it." Glen corrected me. "But you're giving me that dance whether you like it or not."

"You know that I dance like a drunken ogre."

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you dance with me. Just once."

I laughed lightly as the darkness closed in, embracing me. I felt as if I were floating away, no longer tethered to the earth by agony. Through my delirium, I looked up to see Glen's face gazing down at me, snow lightly coating his auburn hair. His green eyes were soothing in the sharp sunlight.