Adelia

[11]

I placed the back of my hand against her peach cheek, "You have a fever."

"No, I don't, " She said, pulling her knees up to her frame, starting on the farthest corner of my bed, huddled away, creating a small space for herself that was hers. That I knew I couldn't cross. She needed to be kissed, and she needed to heal. I was so close to repairing her aged scars, and now I didn't know how many new ones had appeared. But I was willing to heal these too, see, because I love her. I am so dearly in love with my Adelia. 

"What happened to you?" I asked.

She looked up, empty eyes burning from the void of her face. There was almost nothing there. She almost wasn't alive anymore. Her breaths were slow, but short. She cut them off one by one, not wanting to distill too much of herself into my life. 

"I want you to take me away from here," She said, reaching out her slim, ice, silk hand to touch my face which was ablaze. Having her here, so close to me, but so far away... Made blood beat faster throughout my body. I needed to kiss her. 

"What do you mean, Adelia?"

And she didn't blush. She sat bleakly, "I don't want to be called that any longer, Finnegan."

"What would you like me to call you?" 

Her eyelashes batted a magnificient tune, "I don't want my name to touch your lips." And then she looked at my lips. Her eyes flicked there for just a moment and then returned to the space in front of her, not to my eyes, just to that limitted frozen space. 

"Do you hate me?" I said, those words were agony when they hit the atmosphere, I could see how they chilled her.

"No, Finnegan," She said, finally working up enough courage to let her brimming hand touch the surface of my cheek, "I'm afraid that it's something closer to love."