Our Forbidden Love 2

17: Starley

It was weird to be in Alex's position for a change; and it was only now when I realised how scared he would've been. That was how I felt now. His large, cold hand feels lifeless in mine; every breath that moves his chest up and down gives me hope; his closed eyes occasionally flickering in what appears to be pain; his other hand sometimes spasming looking for something to hold onto. I try really hard not to look at him. Instead I look at my lap and let the terrified tears come and drip onto my tail. My hand still holds onto him, but I try to imagine it's not there. I've been sitting here so far for twelve hours, sleepless, hoping that his eyes will flicker with life and not pain. I'd teleported with him from Kiwi Civitatem, carrying his pretty much lifeless body, and struggled most of the way due to my little-to-no strength and my small body. His skin had been even colder than it usually was. The only hope I had that it had actually worked was the growing screen similar to mine on the inside of his wrist. It hadn't fully formed when I teleported though; I could only see the purple outline sinking into his skin.

I look up from my lap and I see Piper sitting on the other side of the bed. I can't get the image of my Reverse Reading out of my head and I feel awkward around her now.
"I told you not to go through the Records Room without me, and I also told you not to Reverse Read again," she says, as if reading my thoughts. I realise she probably is, she's a Telepath and I don't have any force field magic in my head to prevent it.
"I told you that I couldn't control my Reverse Reading if I didn't go through the Records Room," I snap. My comment leaves the room in silence once again.

Then the door opens and Daddy steps through and goes to wait beside Piper. I try and look at him, knowing that he wants to have a go at me as well. One: leaving the city without telling anyone, two: going through the Records Room after I'd been told not to, and three: completing the Reverse Reading vision from earlier in the year. I'm looking at him trying to seem bulletproof against his anger that I know is coming for me but it just feels so awkward to see them together, knowing they did that, possibly even more after my vision ended. So I look at my lap, though not out of cowardice like they probably both assumed; instead it's out of awkwardness and shame.
"Coward," he says, watching me. I roll my eyes. My thought had been correct.
"Shut up," I say, my eyes looking up at him trying to blur out the figure he is so casually standing next to.
"You're scared of me," he says.
"I said, shut up. And no I'm not," I retort.
Suddenly the door opens and behind it is a very timid looking Lilliana. Her deep brown eyes flick between Daddy and Piper moving across the bed, briskly sweeping over Alex, to me. She's obviously overheard at least some of our argument, if not all of it.
"Am I interrupting something?" she asks, timidly.
"No," I answer before anyone else can, "it's okay. What is it?"
"Can I please borrow you for a moment out here? I need all the information you have about what happened to him." I nod and let go of Alex's hand and leave it sitting on the bed, alone and move outside with Lilliana, ignoring the looks that pass between the other people in the room.

"Where were you guys? I felt your presence as you arrived back here, so you were obviously out of the city."
"We went to Kiwi Civitatem."
"With the Stonal Shell?" she guesses and I nod in confirmation. "Okay then, so he's just facing severe side effects of Fate's magic. I thought maybe you'd been attacked by someone, perhaps Weedy again, though this time she targeted him instead of you. Glad to hear that's not the case," she says, her brown eyes accompanying her smile at me.
"How long do you think it'll take for him to be out of here?" I ask.
"Not as long as it took you," she answers, knowing the hidden question behind my actual spoken question. "You were hurt by dark magic. He's only been hurt in the process of some of Fate's magic. Once he wakes, it will probably only be a couple of days." I nod in response. That all made a lot of sense. As I watch Lilliana talk I notice how pretty she is. Her olive skin is really complemented by her deep brown eyes. Her teeth are perfectly straight and white as white can be. Her hair is quite exotic in colour, pink and purple, in her ombré style. Her tail is in the same style as mine though the colour is a pale ice blue which matches her olive skin perfectly. How or why I came across this odd revelation now is unknown, but I came across it all the same.

Having found out all the necessary information she wanted and needed, Lilliana opens the door for me and I'm about to swim through the doorway, but I stop halfway through. My heart rate quickens instantly and I feel my blood pressure getting higher and higher. I feel my hands start shaking and all my blood rushes out of my head and I turn more pale than I am normally. I grab hold of either side of the doorframe with my hands to try and steady myself and hopefully the reduce the risk of me fainting which definitely feels more than possible at the moment. My breathing is very uneven, though it's a different kind of uneven to when Alex makes it happen. For a few seconds I can't think straight and none of my thoughts are completed; all I can do is wait in the doorway, holding the doorframe until everything goes back to normal, but at this point it doesn't even seem close to possible.