CHAPTER 90: OTHERS?

The kiss had fudged her mind out. She was like that anytime Ian had kissed her. It was like she wanted to melt and become one with him. Shelby just could not help it. Something deep within her drew her to him, especially when he touched her.

At first, she had thought that it was because she had never been touched by any man, but now all with all of this information, she wasn’t so sure anymore? She knew other existences existed around her, but weren’t all these too much for her to take in?

A small whimper of dissatisfaction left her when Ian pulled back from the kiss.

Ian held her palm up to her, and her eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets.

"What is this?"

The euphoria from the kiss was overcome with shock so strong that she did not know what to do as she stared at her palm held up in front of her.

She stared at the white slanted line in her palm, shining as if a white light was trying to burst out of a crack.

’Is the tattoo glowing?’ She asked herself as she pushed her wedding ring up just in time to see the glow fade.

Her palm returned to its natural flawless state as if nothing like that had ever been there.

Ian looked at her silently and waited for her to say something. He was not surprised at her next words though,

"W-what was that? I mean, errrmh, w-what a-re you?"

He looked her right in the eyes,

"A Fae!"

"A what?"

He remained silent and watched her intently.

"You mean those mythical creatures? Aren’t they small, tiny creatures.... You look nothing like that.... Not that I have seen any of them before. I just – What am I even saying?"

"Apparently, I have half of that blood running through me, and that is why I am different. But I even have a hard time believing some of- wait, you don’t think I’m mad or anything?"

"If you are mad, Ian, then I guess that makes the two of us!"

A relieved breath left him.

"I think this Fae story should continue another day as it will be too much to take in-"

"No!" she interrupted,

"I want to hear them and know what I am getting into. Or rather, what I have gotten myself into as ...."

"Ask me anything."

"Is this whole blood-oath-thing reversible?"

Ian’s heart sank.

"Do you not want to be with me? Is this why you ask?"

Shelby shook her head vigorously and waved her hands in front of her in a denial gesture.

"I-"

She chose her next words carefully,

"I don’t think I know what I want at this moment-"

He felt his mood sink even further, and he questioned himself, wondering what was up with him.

"- but I know that I want to give it a try with you. I am stuck here anyway. So, I might as well do something worthwhile with my time."

Ian sighed. He had mixed emotions about her words, but he could not refute them in any way.

"As far as I know, this is a ’till death do us part’ kind of oath."

"Oookkkkayyyy....., so just like the marriage vows. In a way, I already took the marriage vows with you... that sounds simple enough for me."

"It really doesn’t bother you?"

"On the contrary, I think that I kind of like it!" She smiled. A smile so innocent, pure and bright that Ian felt his heart skip a beat looking at the short blond-haired blue-eyed girl he unknowingly had tied himself to.

"Are there other Faes around then?"

"There should be. But in your immediate environment, there should be Currey, Murray, and I suspect young Gabriel may be one as well."

"Gabriel?" She asked thoughtfully.

"Yes. From what Currey has told me about Murray, he is a real special existence. So, for Gabriel to be able to see and converse with him means my adopted son is definitely not human. I’ll have to dig deeper to understand this, though. There should be a good reason for that." Shelby nodded thoughtfully, accepting most of the information more readily than he would have thought.

"Do they all have wings? I mean, do you?"

"Hahahahaha, you have to ask them when you see them." But he conveniently forgot to include himself.

"Are you sure that they’ll tell me?"

"Why won’t they?"

"Ok, if you say so." She hesitated only a bit before asking the next question,

"Is this oath the reason why other men cannot touch me?"

"You want them to touch you?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"You’re jealous about this?" she asked, chuckling.

"Who said that I’m jealous?"

"yeah yeah, if you say so. I just want to understand what is going on with me. I know that this phenomenon started from after that night in the park. Before this, my life was basically a daily fight in trying to ward off unwanted advances from men who couldn’t control themselves- It was just a trying thing growing up with this face. I wished to even destroy it sometimes.

But nothing ever affected me. No mark nor scar ever remained throughout my adolescence. I don’t know what the big deal is about this face. I have the same two eyes, one nose and mouth with everyone. My limbs are the same, but men just cannot control themselves around me. The women were too jealous to stay friends...." A faraway look crossed her eyes and Ian then stated blaming himself.

’I should have been there for her!’ he thought while counter thinking, ’You didn’t know her then Ian!’

"...Whatever happened at that park, gave me room to breathe. At least no one could touch me afterwards..."

Ian studied her intently, his thoughts going back and forth, getting more upset with each word she spoke about her past and men around her. He stopped for a second as if thinking deeply about something.

"What I am sure about is that it is the oath; from the time you had invariably sworn yourself to me, certain things changed. I am not sure of the specifics myself. I am only half-fae and should not be able to imprint on any female or pick a life-time partner like they do.

I am still trying to understand how I was able to invoke the highest of links or this oath with a human that apparently even no Fae has ever been able to do....at least according to the data I dug up. But apart from this, I think most of the issues will be from Murray. He would be the most probable cause of this. I heard that he is a rather mischievous one."

Ian would never admit it, but he like Murray for that.

"It’ll take me some time to understand your world but why would Murray go out of his way to do this?"

"He became your assigned shadow guard, after that night. His one duty is making sure that no harm comes to you when I am not around."

"You assigned him? If you knew of this-"

"I didn’t." he interrupted,

"Or rather to say, I don’t remember doing it. I- It’s another long story that I can’t go into now. Currey and Marray have their way of doing things but their instructions come from me invariably. You can safely assume that Murray is not around only when I am around you."

"But- what do I need protection from?"

"That- "

He tried to find a way to explain so that it would not be too alarming, "You bound yourself by blood to a Fae. It’s safe to say that you are in constant danger."

"But, I am of no importance to anyone so why-"

Ian rose up abruptly to his knees and stared intently into her eyes.

"Do not ever say that! You are the most important existence to me no-"

"Even more than Aliya?"

"I-" He could not continue his statement as an inner conflict flashed across his features. A lot more went on in his thoughts that he was unsure of himself. There was a lot that Ian needed to re-examine, but it was proving to be difficult, especially when Shelby was in the vicinity. He longed to say, ’yes’ but knew that she would not easily believe something that he was still trying to accept.

"Forget it! It is my fault for ’binding myself’ to someone whose heart belonged to another. Whether I knew what I was doing then or not. I have to sleep in the bed I have laid for myself."

"It’s not that Shelby, I-"

"Don’t bother explaining yourself Ian. You’ll sound hypocritical if you force yourself to say something that you do not mean. It’ll be even crazier and unwarranted for me to feel that you will forget a woman you have shut yourself out of the world for. That will never be possible. So don’t force it."

She had hit the nail right on the head, and he could not find anything to refute what she had said. But the disturbing thing that he knew was that Aliya was long gone, and he had to tell his crazy mind to accept that fact.

"I’m sorry,"

"Don’t be. She must have been a brilliant woman to deserve such devotion from a man like you."

Ian opened up his arms and asked, "May I?"

With a nod from Shelby, he hugged her in her chair, still kneeling.

They both relaxed into the embrace, drawing comfort from each other. But then, "You still haven’t answered my question about the food."

He chuckled, the sound reverberating through his chest that was latched to her,

"You never forget, do you?"

"Nope!"

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