Page 3 of Kissed By the Sun

A groan sounded from next to me and Thorn’s eyelids fluttered open. The glow of his marked eye seemed to intensify as he woke up fully.

I glanced at the healer only to find him looking grim. If Thorn hadn’t been able to wake before, but he did now that he was close to, and touching, me, then that wasn’t a good sign in terms of us being soul bonded.

He groaned before eventually getting some words out. “Where am I?”

“Back at the capital, in the healing ward. You were found unconscious on the road toward the veil of death.” The healer was still holding my hand to Thorn’s shoulder and when Thorn tried to sit up, he finally noticed.

The look of annoyance he gave my poor hand had me snatching it away from his skin faster than the healer could stop me.

The other man just sighed and gave in to the fact that we were both stubborn and not wanting to touch right now.

Thorn looked over at me, his eyes going wide as though he hadn’t really registered my presence until we made eye contact. “Why are you here?”

Before I could answer, the healer responded for me. “She’s here because of the same reason as you. The two of you are soul bonded.”

Thorn took a breath to argue and the healer held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks. “Before you try and deny it, Senara already admitted it when she was delusional with pain and fatigue.”

“Who knows?” Thorn snapped. The seriousness in his stare made my chest tighten with anxiety and a worm of regret wriggle in my stomach.

A flash of a memory filled my mind before I could slam the mental door on it again. A boy sneering and spitting vulgarities at me, promising he’d make me pay for seducing him when I was cursed. Now was most definitely not the time to think about that.

The healer himself seemed to sense the threat that Thorn could pose, even in his current state and quietly responded, “Just me and another healer.”

Thorn exhaled heavily before adjusting how he was sitting in the bed, raising one leg so he was resting his elbow on his knee. It was like he was trying to look super casual even though he was strung tighter than a bow. “I don’t want to be the bad guy here, but I’m asking if you two could please keep this to yourself for now?”

Why would he be the bad guy? His words didn’t make any sense to me, and now that we weren’t touching again I was starting to feel sleepy, exhaustion washing over me once more.

I pushed myself into a sitting position as well and caught Thorn’s gaze as it raked over my form, which was only obscuredby the thin healing gown I’d been forced to wear since arriving in the healing ward. It was like fire and ice running over my skin at the same time and goosebumps broke out over my arms.

“We will keep this private for now. But at some point, the King and Queen will need to be informed. Before they are, we would prefer for you both to be hearty and hale though, which can take a while, or so I’ve been led to believe in the small amount of documentation there is on soul bonded fae.”

I wondered if this healer had a death wish. Based on the glare Thorn was giving him it seemed like he was about to get his wish answered, whether he wanted it or not.

“Are you threatening me?” Thorn asked, a dangerous growl lacing his words.

The healer sighed heavily. “No, just being honest. There’s only so much we can keep quiet. It will come out eventually that you two are soul bonded and in that case we will face the wrath of the King and Queen which is something I’m not prepared to do.”

After a tense moment, Thorn nodded his head. The relief that coursed through me made my eyelids feel even heavier, sleep was calling my name. Screaming it, in fact.

I didn’t want to give in, though, not when I had only just woken up. Plus, I wanted the healer to leave so I could talk to Thorn, figure out how he felt about all this.

“How long till we’re back to normal?” Thorn asked, glancing at me as he did so.

I leaned back, propping myself up on my elbows, unable to stay sitting any longer. It was a futile attempt to hold sleep at bay, I knew that, but I had to try, at least while they were still talking.

The healer glanced between us, looking slightly guilty. “We don’t know. There's honestly very little documentation aboutsoul bonds. Once we have you both stabilized I would love to interview you both about it so we can note this for the future.”

Thorn grunted and it was neither an agreement or a denial, more just an acknowledgement.

“As far as I understand each bond is different, unique to that couple, which means that no one can predict how it will take its toll on the couple. You two stretched the bond, and since we don’t know how old it is, we don’t know how much it’s going to punish you for that.”

“Punish us?” I asked, so sleepy that I sounded tipsy.

“The fresher the bond the more it has to be obeyed. It’s only time and the repeated, uh, confirmation of the bond that allows people to eventually live however they choose.” The slightest blush stained the healer’s cheeks as though he wasn’t used to talking about that kind of thing, and maybe he wasn’t. Were there special healers for battles and others that worked with more mundane things or ones that were specific to pregnancy like in the human lands?

His words were confusing, but the way he’d said confirmation, combined with the blush, made me think of only one thing. Sex.

A rush of desire flooded my body, to the point that I could feel my core ache with need, which was only for one thing: Thorn. I knew that instinctively. It was a desire that would only be satisfied by the broody fae next to me.