When my eyes returned to Rowan's, they zeroed in on the red mark that decorated his shoulder. It was larger to fit his larger size, but other than that it was identical.
"Yes, it was," Rowan confirmed, his eyes already on mine when they snapped up to meet his. He had moved to sit at the edge of the bed, his feet flat on the floor. "You... scared me," he admitted, reluctance having him awkwardly reach up to scratch his neck. "You screamed and passed out. That... that's not normal." He let out a breath, letting his hand fall back down. "I was worried that something went wrong, that you were hurt. I checked you over while you were unconscious but found nothing wrong. Still... I couldn't shake the feeling that something was."
His eyes flicked to my shoulder and then back to me. "You're Mark, the feeling of unease started the moment my blood etched it in your flesh. Yet I couldn't find anything wrong. So... I looked deeper. That's what you felt. My magic conducting a thorough examination."
I lifted a brow in question. "Find anything interesting?"
Part of me was annoyed at how little control I had over what I felt while he was conducting his examination, but a part of me also wanted to know if there was something wrong with me.
I felt that curiosity hardening to stone when Rowan's eyes lowered to my hand. The one that had released the neck of my shirt to return to my side.
"Yes. Broken bones and fractures that healed improperly."
My hand twitched in response, apprehension having old aches that had grown with me flaring. They always grew past the point of being ignored when snow began to fall.
I shrugged, curling my fingers into a fist and pressing my knuckles into my thigh. "I don't know what your bones are made of, but human ones aren't that hard to break."
"I know how much force it takes to break a human bone," he countered. "Especially during adolescence."
Surprisingly, the last part was what had me tensing as my teeth ground together. He saw too much.
As he pushed off the bed, my eyes couldn't help but drop to take in the way his dick moved as he straightened to a stand. Unabashed by his state of nudity like I had become with the addition of light to the room, he made his way toward me with the same air of confidence and certainty he always carried. It didn't faze him in the slightest that his dick moved distractingly with each of his steps.
I had to pull my eyes away to keep from staring.
While he made his way towards me, my hand covering the portal key curled to gather it in a fist, not fully trusting that he would follow through on his end of our agreement. "What, you break the bones of human children in your spare time?"
"No, but I've witnessed my friend break his countless times," he said, coming to a stop in front of me.
"And I'm sure you healed them to his detriment each time," I drawled out with a roll of my eyes without thinking. It was only when I saw him visibly stiffen that what I had said hit me.
I felt my heart drop, my face falling with it. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said-"
"No," he raised a hand to stop me, "you're right."
I was already shaking my head before he finished speaking, the weight settling on my chest grew suffocating as it dawned just how cruel the words I had said were. "No, I'm not. You didn't kill him. Your mom did," I tried to argue as I clutched at his arm with an unexpected desperation for him to believe me.
"No!" His abruptness and the harsh tone of his voice had me flinching. Taking a breath to soften his voice, he raised a soothing hand to cover mine. "She is not my mom, she is the Queen. That is all she has ever been or ever will be to me."
