Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter EightySage

Chapter Eighty

Sage

T he world was quiet, and then it wasn’t.

I shot up in bed, a desperate pull for air ripping through my lungs.

My eyes opened wide, but I cursed, throwing a hand over them.

Everything was so bright—too bright—and I shielded my eyes and looked down, toward the blanket that covered me.

“Dean?” I called out, but my voice pierced my own ears and I yelled against the pain, which only made it all worse.

“I’m here,” he whispered, a hand closing over my wrist and another stroking my back.

“It’s too loud,” I said as low as I possibly could. “The fire.” I shook my head violently. “It’s too much.”

The roar of the fire took over all of my senses, and I heard Dean curse beside me, before he was gone.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to put it out,” he said low, from the other room, but I still heard him as if he sat beside me.

There was a hiss and I knew he’d thrown water on the fire, and I slammed my hands over my ears, my eyes clenched shut against the light from the windows.

Dean came back in the room and I felt him pulling the blanket back, felt his hands on my knees, gently pulling them over the edge of the bed.

The light shifted, and I knew he was facing me away from the windows.

“You have to adjust to it eventually,” he whispered.

Slowly, I peered my eyes open as far as I could before it was too bright. I’d let them adjust again, and open a bit more.

I continued until I could see Dean kneeling on the ground in front of me, brows pulled together in worry.

My eyes darted around me, noticed all the new things I could see that I couldn’t before. The tiniest of dust motes in the air, the fibers of Dean’s shirt, and the small flecks of dark gray that speckled his eyes.

“I’m sure this is all a lot,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t better prepared.”

I swallowed and shook my head. “It’s okay,” I rasped.

Despite the fire being put out, I could still hear my own high heart rate, and Dean’s. I could hear both of our breathing, and the swipe of his thumb along my knee.

I winced, putting my hands over my ears again, but Dean shook his head.

“You have to adjust,” he whispered. “You can learn to filter it all out. Focus on each one of them, one by one, and you can begin to push them all away. You’ll still hear them, but it won’t be so obvious or overwhelming anymore.”

I clenched my eyes shut and tried. First my breathing, then his. Then our heartbeats.

It took what felt like hours, and by the time I was done, I smiled. The sounds were still there, but bearable.

It was then that I noticed the ravenous hunger in my stomach, and then it growled.

My eyes widened and Dean stood with me, grasping his hands over my wrists.

“This is the most hungry you will ever be,” he said, meeting my eyes. “You’ll feed once a week, and that will keep you satiated,” he said, then started to let go of me, but I grasped onto him and saw him wince briefly. “What’s wrong?” he asked, and lifted one hand to pry mine off of his.

I realized I’d hurt him.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed, eyes wide as I looked down at my hands.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “What’s wrong? What do you need?”

I remembered why I stopped him and looked up. “Why did you try to walk away?” I asked, shaking my head. “I need you.”

He gave me a small smile. “I was going to get your clothes. We need to go to the Feedery. There are human volunteers there, I’ll be with you the whole time—”

“No,” I snapped, shaking my head. “No, we can’t go.” I looked up at him. “Can’t I feed from you? We’re mates.”

That was how it worked, wasn’t it?

His gaze was steady. “Of course,” he said quietly. “I just didn’t know if that was something you’d want to do.”

I nodded. “Of course it is,” I whispered.

He tried to hide the small smile on his face as he settled us back down onto the bed.

He turned us until we faced one another, the blankets a tangle below us, and my eyes darted everywhere I could hear blood pulsing.

His neck, his wrist, his chest.

“Where do I…?” I asked.

“Wherever you want,” he said softly.

I looked back up at him, eyes wide.

“I just bite?” I whispered, and he nodded.

“Yes, you’ll learn to be able to drop your fangs whenever you want, and to force them back in if needed, but for now they’ll come out automatically because you’re so starved for blood.”

I nodded, listening to his words but only able to focus on the faint flicker of blood pulsing beneath the skin of his neck.

“Go ahead,” he whispered, reaching out to put a gentle hand on my knee.

I scooted closer to him, eyes still pinned on his neck, and rested my hands on his shoulders.

“What if I hurt you?” I asked as I drew closer.

“I’ll stop you. Don’t worry, it will be okay.”

My lips neared his neck, and I let my lower jaw drop open. And as soon as I did, I felt a pinch in my gums. I gasped as I felt the fangs elongating, and fumbled a hand up toward my mouth to prod at them. They still felt like my teeth, only longer and sharper.

I saw the flicker of pulse beneath his skin again, and all thoughts faded away.

The only thing that mattered now, was blood.

His blood.

Something beat in my head, an unsteady rhythm that reminded me of Vasier’s banging on my door as a girl, but I ignored it.

My lips touched Dean’s neck as my hands fisted in his shirt at his shoulders, and I let my fangs hang out, let them touch his skin.

He took a breath and I felt him still, and slowly, I pushed forward.

Instantly, blood flowed past my fangs.

Warm and fast and sweet. Like elderflower and pear. It reminded me of my favorite tea my mother used to make me.

I slid into Dean’s lap to wrap myself around him, to pull myself closer so I could pull the blood through, faster.

His arms wrapped around me, held me closer, and I noticed his moans.

No, my moans. I was moaning against his neck and he shivered underneath me.

Gods, I wondered if it felt for him to be bit as it’d felt for me the night before.

I didn’t have time for the thought to make me blush, because more blood slipped down my throat and I took another drag.

He groaned above me, and the sound made my skin tingle.

His hand raised, tangled into my hair, and I pulled another drag.

“Sage,” he whispered. “You have to stop soon.”

He mumbled into my hair, pressing kisses into it. As if he knew I’d had enough, I felt my stomach settle. Felt that I was nourished enough.

I removed my fangs from his neck and instinctually flicked my tongue over it to heal the wounds even though I knew they would’ve closed on their own.

I took a deep breath and pulled back, felt his hand on my shoulder fall away until it landed on my hip.

“Good job,” he breathed, and the smile on his face caused one to spread on my own.

He cupped one hand around my cheek and swept a thumb along the side of the hollow of my eye.

“What is it?” I whispered as he watched me through a beat of silence.

He smiled softly and shook his head, eyes flicking between mine. “Nothing. I’m just going to miss your green eyes.”

They widened then. I’d forgotten that they’d change.

I stood up and tried to run for the bathroom mirror, but moved faster than I anticipated and nearly hit my face on the wall of his bedroom, instead catching myself to brace against his doorway.

“Gods,” I hissed.

Dean was at my side. “It’s okay, just takes some getting used to. Each movement you make will be stronger and faster than before. You have to learn how to control them all.”

I nodded as he guided me to the bathroom.

Each step I took seemed as if it lasted a year, but I knew he was only dragging us along at a normal human pace.

“Gods, how do you deal with this every day?” I asked and he chuckled, his breath ruffling through my hair.

“You get used to it,” he promised.

But I couldn’t respond, because I was in front of the mirror.

I leaned forward toward it, as if I’d ever need to see better with these new eyes. I widened them, turned my head from side to side, to get a good look at their new light gray color.

Small spots of steel gray freckled the irises, otherwise, they were an overall light gray color, like a fog that hangs over a town in the beginning of fall.

I pulled back and saw my full reflection, and gasped.

Not because I looked different, not my face or anything else at least. Only my eyes had changed.

But since my sight was better, I saw more freckles than I ever had before. I saw the emerald green that shined through my hair brighter than it used to look, and each and every one of my individual eyelashes.

But that wasn’t what I gasped at. It wasn’t what surprised me.

In the mirror, I saw a woman I’d never seen before. Her face, hair, all that, really, was the same. But her eyes were gray.

My sage green eyes—the eyes that were the very reason Vasier had re-named me Sage when he’d first found me—were gone.

And with it, the woman I’d been. The girl I’d been. The one he created.

Now, seeing these gray eyes fill with tears—seeing my mate standing in the reflection behind me—I knew that I was home. At a home I belonged, one where I was wanted, instead of used.

My thoughts drifted back to the night before we got Evaline out of Mortithev when I’d been convinced that I’d left that little girl Vasier hurt in the hallway, and I smiled.

She truly was gone, now. There was no trace of her left. Now, she was done. Now, she could rest.

No more forcing her to use blood magic. No more using her portals to hurt people—

My eyes widened in the mirror as I met Dean’s in the reflection.

“My magic,” I breathed. I’d forgotten about it and could tell he had too by the way his eyes widened.

“How do you feel?” he asked, guiding me to the sitting room to stand in the center of it.

I shook my head. “I feel completely different. All my senses have changed,” I tried to focus on what my magic used to feel like flowing through my veins. Tried to call for it, like I used to be able to.

“Can you portal?” Dean asked beside me, of course unaware I was looking for my magic.

I couldn’t tell whether I felt it. And I wasn’t sure if it was because it was gone, or because everything else had changed so much that perhaps I just didn’t know what it felt like anymore.

I raised a trembling hand over the floor to make a portal and prayed to the Gods it was the latter.