Sold

34: Remedy

Master Synn's forehead is warm against mine, and his soft hair drapes around my cheeks. My lips still buzz from our kiss and my brain wanders back down from its fuzzy state.

I can hardly believe I've gone from being forced to tie the knot with Meben to willingly giving myself to a magick-wielding Draconian. It all feels like a dream like I might wake back up atop the soft lakeside grasses with the Neyenflies fluttering above my head and realize it was a dream all along.

So much of it is unfathomable. Magick. Death. Finding a man I truly care for. And most of all...wielding that magick myself and coming back from the brink of death. 

"Where did all of my power go? What exactly happened when you nearly killed me?" My eyes float toward the empty vial of blood on Berea's shelf. 

Master Synn moves his forehead away from mine but keeps his hands around my waist, following my gaze toward the shelf. "Berea taught my late mother to trap her magic in that chrysallite. After I escaped and followed my family after you, I sensed her magick and found her here. She told me how deeply the magick had bonded to you and offered me her help."

"She offered her help? After everything I did to her?" I shake my head, turning my gaze back toward Master Synn. "You probably ran into her right after I tried to kill her. She shouldn't have wanted to help me."

"My grandmother is an old woman with many regrets. It calms her to remedy them." He lowers his gaze to the floor. "She'll soon join my mother in the afterworld and I think meeting you reminded her of that. She did for you what she was unable to do for her own daughter, so her soul will find peace."

"Berea is dying?" I frown, shifting and backing away but Master Synn's grip on my waist holds firm.

His pale eyes turn to meet mine and his brow tenses. "She's seen many sunrises. It's about time for her to see her last. It's completely natural but, don't worry, it's not quite that time yet."

I bite my lip and Master Synn raises his hand to the back of my head, pulling my face into his chest and petting my hair.

I relish the sensation, closing my eyes as his gentle touch calms me. I'll miss Berea. This whole time she's been good to me despite my awful behavior. I wonder how long she and other Draconians truly live.

"What happened to the magick?" I pull away from Master Synn's chest, looking into his eyes. "Is it back in the chrysallite?"

"It is. And the chrysallite is hidden away again. But with my family gone, no one will likely ever find it." His voice sounds strained.

I struggle to hold his gaze. "You killed your father."

"I did," he mutters, keeping eye contact as he shifts in place on the hammock, "but I wouldn't call him my father. He was evil, power-hungry, and abusive."

His lips purse and his gaze trails to the ceiling. "My mother was like that, too, for most of her lifetime. But at least, in the end, she had a brief moment of sensibility, and I saw a shred of what it would have been like having a true mother."

"You said Berea abandoned you, too, after your mother died?" My heart grows sore.

How difficult must it have been for Synn to grow up without a real family? I felt alone growing up, but at least I had my mother for a time and it seems as if the Draconians live for much longer. It's no wonder he was lonesome when Fexen delivered me.

"My grandmother was heartbroken. She didn't want to see anyone after what happened." Master Synn rests his hand on my lower thigh. "I didn't expect her to take care of me after she felt she failed to take care of her own daughter."

"Are you and Berea the last of your kind?" My eyebrows dip into a frown.

Master Synn shakes his head. "I'm not certain, but I don't think so. We're reclusive by nature. It wouldn't surprise me if some fled and survived my mother and father's power-hungry reckoning."

Rubbing my thumbs together, I purse them and stare down at the hammock. "I feel like there's so much I don't know."

"It does no good to think about such things." Master Synn raises his eyebrows, cocking his head with a hint of a smile playing across his lips. "Why don't you think about what you'd like for once?"

I shake my head, still looking downward. "I'm not used to doing that." 

Master Synn removes his hand from my thigh, places his fingertips under my chin, and raises my head to stare back at him. "I'll provide you, my good little girl, with anything you'd like."

A flush dusts my cheeks. His lips are so close. I could move a short distance and close the gap between us. "Can we really go back to how things were?"

"No, but we can make them even better this time." He inches closer and my heart swells. I want desperately to feel his lips against mine again. It's only been a few moments, but it feels too long to wait.

His breath fans across my skin, warming my cells with an invigorating buzz. "We can live wherever you desire. You will make your own choices without restriction, you can do and wear whatever you'd like, and I will still care for you and spoil you as my little girl."

"You will?" I press closer, letting our lips barely touch. "Thank you, Master Synn." 

Master Synn closes his eyes, moves both of his hands to the back of my head, and pulls my lips into his. But the moment they touch the front door creaks open and Berea steps inside.

He pulls away and lowers his hands from the back of my head to his sides. Berea raises her brows at us sitting so close in the hammock.

I quickly stand, pulling away from him even though I would have loved to savor his lips for much longer.