Page 53 of Of Shadows and Blood

Eager to feel more warmth, I swim past him, confident the dark skies hide most of my body. Flipping on my back, I float and still my limbs. I do love swimming.

Changing the subject, I think of the only thing boggling my mind right now.

“Who were we to each other?”

Cedric shifts in the water. My eyes are still trained on the moon, but I feel the waves as he drifts closer.

“Well, that is a loaded question, Liv.”

I flip back up and begin treading water again. From this angle, Cedric’s face is completely illuminated.

“How so?” I frown.

“If I tell you everything, I risk overwhelming you. If I hold back, I risk losing what sliver of trust you have for me.”

I hate to say it, but he has a point.

“Tell me half of it right now. Explain fifty per cent of what we are to each other.” I wade a bit closer, not wanting to mishear what he has to say.

Cedric releases a breath and slicks back his hair with the water.

“We were childhood best friends. We share a birthday and our parents raised us together. If one of us had a first, both of us had a first. We argued and sometimes stayed silent for weeks on end. Actually, we spent one whole season in silence over an argument. But we always came back together, whether it was as friends, enemies, confidants or… lovers.” He struggles on the last word. His features sharpen for a moment as he twists away from me slightly.

I sigh and do the same.

“I think what we mostly were to each other wasn’t a physical connection, it was spiritual. That is the part I miss the most.” We’re now facing each other, floating aimlessly in a lake in a kingdom I have never heard of.

“Thank you,” I whisper. His honesty seems so unscripted and raw. If this was a ruse, he could fool an army.

Cedric and I change into our dry clothes and just when I think he is going to fast-sprint us to the castle, he doesn’t. I’ve already wrapped my arms around him for no reason at all.

“Are we going to go?” I ask, loosening my grip a bit.

“I—” he starts, pausing to laugh. “I wanted to walk a little before that.”

I withdraw my hands and smooth out my dress. The sticky feel of awkwardness pulls at my skin.

“Let’s walk then,” I say, clearing my throat. Cedric laughs again and begins walking into the grove of pine trees. I follow next to him, slightly struggling to keep up with his pace.

“How long until you fast-sprint us there again? I want to steel my stomach beforehand,” I say, picking my skirts up to avoid the pull of branches.

“Fast-sprint?” Cedric chokes out, folding himself in half as he laughs. I stop too, caught off guard by the sudden comfortableness in this moment. A host of fine lines crinkle by his eyes as he tries to catch his breath. I fold my arms, not sure what was funny. He reels back in, only laughing again at my stance. “It’s called apparating, officially,” he says as he shoves away his last laugh. “Only vampyr can do it.”

“All vampyr?” I say and he smiles.

“We can travel through little blips in the world, we just have to have some visual context to where we are going. Imagining a forest or a distance, a clearing we are aware of. Shorter distance gives more opportunity for guessing but longer distance is the challenge. We simply appear or yeah, the opposite.”

A thought dawns on me. “Then why did we apparate here together?”

Cedric stills. His face tenses but his body eventually slackens, hands going back in their pockets. “Safety and you don’t have your powers back, remember?”

We make it about twenty minutes before coming upon a large home adjacent to two other connected smaller cottages. Large pine trees sprout from the middle of them, shooting into the night sky. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The homes are faded golden-yellow, like the color of the dirt my ceiling was made of at the farm. It starkly contrasts with the deep browns and greens of the forest and its floor. We follow a stone path which forks, one route leading to the rounded front door and the other to the side of the cottage.

The house is teeming with energy. Through the windows I can see bodies packed together. We take the path to the side of the house, but I still arch my neck to see the liveliness of the party indoors. Behind the cottage is a courtyard lit with the light of firepits, shadows being cast on the trees surrounding the place. Musical notes float through the air. There are twice as many people filling the outdoor space but it feels less stifling than the dining hall at Demis.

From one of the side doors, a person exits the cottage, striding towards us.

“Do you give me permission to touch you?”