Page 15 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)

He chuckles, and then pulls me into his arms, our legs twisting together as my head falls on his chest, over his heart, and my tattoo, and he wraps his arms around me.

“While I had your nipple in my mouth,” he replies with a smile.

“Is it true that supernatural women can take a potion that doesn’t affect their periods or anything, no nasty side effects, and just stops you from getting pregnant or catching anything nasty?” I ask him.

“Yeah. There’s also one that men can take that stops us from being able to get anyone pregnant, and also protects us against nasty things,” he explains. “Both have absolutely no side effects, and your body carries on having periods and things.”

“That’s great. It makes a lot of sense for both men and women to be able to protect themselves, you never really know the true motives of some people,” I reply thoughtfully.

“Exactly. You only have to take it once a year too. The only reason why I used a condom is because I wasn’t sure when I last took it.”

“We can both get some from town, I bet the little apothecary place has some,” I reply.

“I would be really surprised if they didn’t,” Coen confirms.

We’re silent for a moment as I get lost thinking about how much better things would be if humans were able to have a contraceptive like that.

Pulling away from my wayward thoughts, I move so that I can see him, and he smiles the most beautiful smile that sets butterflies swarming in my stomach.

I move so that I can kiss him, and his hand cradles my face as he kisses me back.

When I pull back, he looks slightly nervous as he studies my expression for a moment.

“I love you, Neith,” he tells me.

I smile and kiss him again, “I love you too.”

Happiness dances in Coen’s eyes as he pulls me closer, and I happily go.

I’ve loved Coen for a long time, and I’ve told him several times, and he’s told me too, but always when we’re nearly dead or I’ve had a massive panic attack.

This is the first time that we’ve actually said it to each other without being in a life-threatening situation.

My heart beats hard, and it takes me a few moments to calm down.

Coen’s hand softly strokes my back, and the events of the day catch up with me as I fall into a deep and restful sleep.

∞∞∞

Something is off.

My eyes are still closed, and my internal clock is telling me that it’s still the middle of the night.

Unlike before, when I felt like something was off and woke up to find Kylen staring at me, the voices aren’t warning me of anything, and I haven’t shot anything, so I know it’s not that I had a nightmare that I immediately forgot.

I sent Betty and Asael home when we were gathering our bags from the room at the castle, and they were leaning against the wall where they always are, when I came into my room to put my pyjamas on earlier. So, if it were a nightmare, then Betty would have been in my hands.

Still, there’s something that's not quite right.

I slowly open my eyes, half expecting to see Winston staring at me a couple of inches from my face or something similar.

Instead, though I frown, all I can see is the ceiling.

Turning my head, I let out a shriek as I realize that I’m floating in the air, the bed far too far below me for my liking right now since I have no idea how I got up here or why.

My arms flail and I somehow end up standing in the air instead of lying down.

Which is marginally better, but I’m still freaking the fuck out.

My yell wakes up Coen, who looks around frantically before looking up at me and blinking like he’s entirely unsure what he’s seeing. I can’t say that I blame him.

Of course, my panicked scream was loud enough that all of the guys come bursting through the door.

“What the fuck are you doing up there?” Coen asks, from the bed, prompting the guys to look up.

All of their eyes widen, and it’s then that I realize that I fell asleep naked. This is not the way that I wanted them to see me naked for the first time, but it really is the least of my worries right now.

As the thought of having something to cover myself crosses my mind, my whole body gets engulfed in flames, and I screech again, trying to put them out and end up spinning in mid-air.

I must look absolutely ridiculous, like a fiery disco ball.

“Neith!” Doc shouts, and I stop panicking for a moment. “It’s not burning you, it’s your magic!”

I stop, “Oh.” As soon as his words sink in properly, I get mad, “That’s not what I meant when I thought that I wanted to be covered. Obviously I didn’t mean that I wanted to be covered be fucking fire.”

My rant has absolutely no effect on the fire, it’s still burning, I’m still naked, and still floating in the air.

I’m also still panicking.

“She’s going to set the room on fire,” Reed mutters, and I know that I wasn’t supposed to hear that.

“Fuck!” I yell, my panic making the fire flare even brighter, “How do I stop it?”

Before anyone can answer me, and probably tell me to calm the fuck down, because even I know that me panicking right now is not helping things, the fox spirit guide suddenly appears, floating in front of me.