It felt... different.
My brows furrowed but before I could start to consider why, the pleasant tickle of magic slipped away and pain replaced it. It struck at the tip of my nose when it hit an unrelenting surface rather than surfacing in the creek that ran in the woods behind my parents yard. Next, it bloomed at the center of my forehead as the momentum with which I threw myself into the water kept me moving forward. But there was nowhere else for me to go.
The crunch of bone and burn of pain that accompanied it had my mouth opening to sound my agony, but all that resulted in was water rushing in to suffocate me and my cries. The sharp tang of blood began to trickle down my throat when a firm grip at the back of my collar had the front of it digging into my airway to cut off air I already wasn't getting. I was unceremoniously jerked back from the tub I had thrown all my hopes into only to have my nose broken by its porcelain bottom. That hope had shattered along with my bone.
With my head no longer submerged, hacking up the water that had rushed down my throat only made the pain pulsing in my face grow. Landing hard on my ass didn't help either as it jarred my bones and rattled my teeth. With water no longer surrounding my nose to whisk away the blood, it now trickled down to my lips to paint my teeth and tongue, leaving a warmed path in its trail.
Distracted by pain, my eyes which had been clenched shut only sprung open when I felt rough palms grip my head on either side to tilt it back. A sharp hiss escaped my bloody lips when Rowan moved a hand to inspect my nose. He was crouched before me, filling my sight just like he had after I had failed to rob him in the dead of the night. I had also been sporting a different head injury at the time.
Rowan's tongue clicked disapprovingly. "I forgot how stupid you humans can be."
I tried to pull away at the insult, but his hands held me in place. "What the hell would a fairy know about humans?" I snapped back instead. It was clear it had been a while since they had to last deal with my kind.
Too in pain to regret throwing an insult back at him and to fear any possible consequences, concern was the last thing I expected to see looking back at me when my vision cleared as I blinked away the tears of pain that had been blurring my eyes.
I was surprised to see his lips had pulled down into a frown as he tilted my head side to side, inspecting the damage I had caused to my nose. "You in particular given how you've already proven how troublesome you can be." I jerked back when he tried to prod at my nose again. "And I know more than is typical of fae. I was friends with a human growing up."
"Let me guess, the Queen chopped his head off too," I replied with dry sarcasm that was a result of discomfort and failure.
I would have chosen a different response if I knew how close my words would strike to the truth.
Rowan's lips flattened into a hard line. He gave me a stiff nod as he carefully grabbed my nose between his fingers. "She discovered that he knew I could heal."
"So... of went his head..."
He gave another grime nod.
Shock accompanied the warmth that radiated from his fingertips to heal. When he had warned me about keeping his ability hidden, it hadn't crossed my mind that not doing so would result in having my head severed. It should have considering everything I had seen and learned since his initial warning. But I had been too worried about losing it for other reasons, ones that were harder to hide than a secret Rowan insisted I keep.
Once the warmth died down, taking my pain with it, Rowan gripped me by the chin to tilt my head again to inspect his work. Deeming it suitable, he released me. But instead of moving back, he reached for me again, aiming for my hand that clenched the chain the portal key hung from.
