Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 119: Heat

Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen: Heat

When Ella finally made it back, Xaphile went to look for his uncle, so she walked over to where the others were sitting. Sinmir smirked and eyed her flushed cheeks up and down, looking more than a little amused.

He seemed to guess that something had occurred.

Perhaps it was something in her face that made it obvious.

"I take it you managed to convey what you wanted?" Amelia quipped. "How did it go?"

"It went well," she said simply, tossing her wet hair out of her face; then she parted her cloak and looked at her bleeding knees with a wince. "If I may ask, could you use your magic to stop the bleeding on my knees and soothe the bruise on the back of my head?"

Amelia's eyes flew up from her food and landed on her knees.

"Ella!" she squalled, leaping upright and hurrying over. "Why didn't you tell me you were wounded when you first fell?!"

"I needed answers from him. To me, that was more important," she said simply. "I got what I needed, though, so rest assured things... are all right between us."

"Your health and physical condition come first," Amelia scolded, waving her hands with an indecipherable chant; Ella sighed when they began to glow gold. "Don't ever do that again! No more secrets, remember?"

"It wasn't a secret that I fell," Ella pointed out. "You saw me plain as day!"

Amelia scowled, but her touch was gentle, and the magic that spread throughout Ella's body was as soothing to her as cool moonlight. Her aches disappeared in a flash.

"I assumed you were all right," she said. "You got up and ran off like it was nothing."

Ella sighed, baffled. "Fine, I won't do it again, I promise."

"Good."

And with that, Amelia discarded the cores of her eaten fruit, grabbed a few fresh apples, and walked out into the rain. Her braids swung heavily, full of rainwater as they were, but she paid no mind to her soaked dress or even her hair as she approached their horses.

The other faery women were still milling about, singing beautifully and filling the air with their voices. Some of them were even twirling about and dancing like the otherwordly creatures they were, sending rainwater flying off of their bare skin. Gus and Vrael seemed to be enjoying the sight, considering how their eyes were fixed on the enchantingly beautiful creatures.

Then again, it could have also been the fact that the women were nude.

Ella rolled her eyes and was about to sit down when Sinmir stood up and walked over, coming to a halt directly in front of her. She looked up in confusion when he bent at the waist and leaned close to her face, flinching away when his wet beard brushed her cheek.

"So have you figured out what's wrong with Phil?"

She heard him well enough before the rainfall snatched his words away.

"Damned if I know," she said back, speaking directly into his ear, because after the angry-snap-and-kiss incident, she really had no clue. Sure, they'd kissed each other and she'd basically solidified all the stuff she suspected lay between them, but he'd still acted like her touch was the most repulsive thing in the world, so what the hell was she supposed to think?

She did know that it wasn't just a fever, though.

That much she was sure of.

"Well, you two sure seemed to be growing cozier during our stay in Calcoon," he said, and Ella's blood ran a little colder, since he'd likely figured her out. "All up in a tree and stuff, eh?"