Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
As she stared up at a fiery Ryu, she could swear she could see fire burning behind his dark, glowing eyes, and the smile that suddenly lifted his lips sinisterly sent a chill up her spine, even though she was burning from the heat of him.
He reached out to her, letting a single finger get dangerously close to the burned side of her face as it hovered only a few centimeters above her scarred skin. “I could touch you, you know …”
She stood there, as still as a statue, as her breath caught in her throat, wanting both to not be touched and, for the first time, to be touched.
I swear not to touch you until you ask it of me.
The words he had said to her at their first meeting were already beginning to come true while her body screamed out for him to finally touch her.
It was nearly impossible not to compare it to Kenji almost touching her and how she had recoiled as she stood in front of Ryu, secretly hoping he would, as she continued listening to him.
“One touch, and you’d think twice about what you just said,” he told her hoarsely as his finger traveled over her skin without contact until he went lower and picked up a strand of her hair to twirl it around his finger.
Eira had to close her eyes, unable to look at him teasing her any longer. It was the anticipation of him doing so that was starting to kill her.
He slightly tugged the strand, causing her to close her eyes even tighter.
“Then this game I’ve been letting you play would be over.”
“What?” she breathed.
When she didn’t get a response after a moment, she finally opened her eyes back up to see he was no longer there. Nothingness stood in front of her, and when he had left, she hadn’t even felt so much as a breeze or her hair fall back to her shoulders.
Mystified, she called out for him, “Ryu?” She spun around in desperation to look for him, tried again louder, her heart already sinking, “Ryu?”
When she still received no response, she carefully went to the edge of the cliff, not knowing why she looked down.
The way the cliff curved down back into the mountain, she could only see waves crashing in the open ocean. She didn’t know what she expected to see, anyway, as she hadn’t even heard so much as a splash.
Trying once more in sheer hopelessness, her heart cried out his name, but this time she already knew she still wasn’t going to receive a response. “Ryu …”
The strange thing was, it already felt like it had all just been a dream.
11
Nine Petals Remained
Ryu entered the bedroom window without making a sound. Earlier, at the mountaintop, he had just needed a moment to get himself under control, fearful of changing next to her. He was certain if she saw him in his other form, she would never let herself get close enough to touch him, and all would be lost.
As he sat on the bed beside the sleeping beauty, he couldn’t believe the woman before him was actually made for him. She was unlike anything he had ever seen, as he had only heard about women who had her features in tales.
He had been carefully studying her over the last few days and the way she covered her scars with her clothes and her veil of hair. She probably thought her burned skin was why people stared at her, but she was wrong. They stared because her beauty wasn’t from this side of the earth.
When he heard the lulls of sleep, he could sense the nightmare beginning. If he hadn’t made that forsaken promise to her, he would touch her, and this all would be a bad dream in itself. But he had, and he was determined to keep it. Also, his pride wanted her to choose him out of choice and not magic.
He sat there for a few moments, wondering if he should save her from the nightmare that was turning worse by the second. That only, in turn, made him feel worse by the second as well. Ryu didn’t have to wake her to know she’d lie about having the dream, as she didn’t want him to feel bad about it. They both knew he was causing them. Him sitting down beside her only proved that to be so, as she had been sleeping peacefully until he entered.
Having made up his mind about what he should do, he stood up, leaving the way he had come in. However, when he closed the window, he did it rather loudly and was satisfied when the glow of her bedside lamp turned on.
Where he was going, she wasn’t strong enough yet. This, he needed to do alone.