AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My very soul shivers.
“You are more precious than the bodies I have come to understand. I want your heart.” Ollie’s eyes open. “If you are one day compelled to choose me and all I come with, it will only be because you feel the same burning in your chest whenever I enter a room. It’s a fantasy I can’t so much as imagine coming true…but I will accept nothing less than the assurance I bring you more bliss than all the rest of the world could hope to. Only then, would I dare… If you ever come to love me, I will honor your love with my every cell.”
“Kiss me,” I beg, breathless. “Please.”
His lips touch mine for the briefest caress that feeds peace into my tight lungs. Trembling, he rests his mouth near enough for mine to feel his words as they leave him. “If you’d prefer not to deal with my brothers, I will arrange for you to stay out of their sight while they are here.”
“No. I want to face them together. Whether I’m fully fae or not, I will be by your side.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“Yes. You’ve had to deal with them on your own enough already.”
“They’re really annoying. And periodically cruel.”
“They can never hope to be half the chihuahua you are.”
Ollie chuckles. “I appreciate your human sentiment.”
“I’d still be able to say it if I were fully fae. You’re kinder and stronger than they can understand. It’s easy to be the expectation. It’s easy to excel naturally. It’s so much harder to have to fight for everything you earn, to face the threat of never being good enough every single day, to fear that the next failure might steal all the things you’ve worked so hard for away.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose this on you. They can be a lot to handle.”
“So can I.” I sniff. “When I put my mind to it, I can be anything.”
The barest hint of a dimple settles in his cheek. “You have the most lovely aspirations.”
“Thank you,” I state.
His throat bobs. “They can’t physically hurt us. Cael makes sure of that. He usually has Zy tail me whenever they visit. And Zy’s…subtly terrifying. Exactly like a cat. He’ll swat his half-alive prey between his paws with an amused smile on his face and not feel an ounce of remorse.”
“Wow.”
“He’s what I mean when I say that becoming fae is life-altering. He’s a human-born. That means he was human once, but that’s gone now. With the right prey and the right reason, it’s all instinct.”
I’m a little too ready to be a fluffy Pomeranian to worry about what the shift might do to my brain. The current human and fae parts of me are almost positive I was born to be a puppy cloud.
“I hope you know I’m not trying to be difficult or insecure or discouraging, sunshine. I just couldn’t bear it if I let my own pounding instinct to make you mine overcome everything else.”
“I understand. You’re very careful with what you love.”
Drawing back, he averts his eyes as his face warms. “Are you trying to make me come undone?”
“Not at all. That’s an Alana move. I’m just trying to validate your soft boy archetype.”
“My what?” he asks.
“Soft boy archetype. Gentle boy, sweet boy, cute boy. Protecc at all cost. National treasure.” I clear my throat. “By the way, protect is spelled with two ‘C’s’.”
He blinks, cocking his head as his thumb traces my jaw. “Why?”
“Because. The internet. I think.” I chew my lip. “I’m just saying…being with you feels like I’ve finally found where I belong. I don’t know if I have access to the instinct you mention, but if I do, I know all of this is worth fighting for.” Freeing my lip, I meet his eyes. “You’re worth fighting for, Ollie.”
Setting his guitar down against the foot of the bed, he turns fully toward me, letting our knees brush through the fabric of our clothes. “Thank you.”
My skin hums.
A fragile smile slips over his lips. “So long as you want me in your life, I promise to fight for you when you need me, too.”
