Deviant Descendants (Descendants Academy #2) - Belle Malory Page 0,20
those sea bitches who’s boss, eh?”
Xander glared at him. “She almost died, Cass.”
“Just trying to lighten the mood,” Cassius said, frowning. “But she should be proud of herself. Not many mages could pull off what she did, not at her skill level.”
Grudgingly, Xander conceded that. “True enough.” He turned back to face me, his eyes tightening at the corners. “What happened down there?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Xander. Please…just don’t look at me.”
I couldn’t stand it, seeing all the horror in his face. So, I walked away. I felt awful, but those mermaids had stolen more than my beauty. They managed to take some dignity too.
“Sheridan, come on,” Xander called after me. “You know I think you’re beautiful, no matter what.”
Pretty words, but I wasn’t in the right headspace to hear them. All I could think of was the way he liked to stroke my hair, and the way he gently touched the side of my face, gazing at me as if I were a precious commodity. He might claim it didn’t matter, but Xander liked my appearance well enough. And as shallow as it was, beauty meant a great deal in Aphrodite too. Now mine was gone.
Xander quickly caught up to me. “Hold on a sec.” His hand came around my arm, and I hissed at the sting from the scratches. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“I just had my ass handed to me, Xander.”
“It happens,” he said, with way more patience than I had left. “Not every match is a win. We win some and we learn from our losses. That’s the Ares way.”
I snorted. That wasn’t my way. Curling up in bed with a pile of books, crying for days, and trying to forget this ever happened sounded like the best road to recovery.
“There are spells that can help with healing—”
“Xander, stop.” My tone came out sharper than I intended. I appreciated what he was trying to do, but right now, I needed him to back off. “I want to be alone. I’ll see you later.” I shrugged out of his grip.
He let me leave, but I caught the pained look in his gaze before I walked away. As if I’d slapped him. Ugh, it only made me feel more horrible than I already did.
But I needed space. To wallow. To hide in shame. I would deal with the world again tomorrow, if I was brave enough. Tomorrow was a new day, after all. Hopefully, one with less hiccups.
7
“Sheridan!” Ione woke me with a startled gasp. “What have you done to yourself?”
I slit my eyes open, not ready to wake up and face the day just yet. It took me a few seconds to register what she was going on about. Then I remembered, bits of the previous night coming back to me, and I wished I hadn’t.
“Gods—your skin!” Ione’s face contorted in horror. She lifted my arm and let it fall back on the mattress, cringing at the dried blood and the overall greenness of it. “What happened?”
“I needed a makeover. You like it?”
Her eyes flashed, letting me know she didn’t consider this a joking matter. “You look like a beat-up toad.”
“Good, that’s exactly the look I was going for.”
She sat next to me on the bed, twisting one of my shortened locks of hair. “Tell me the whole story. Start from the beginning.”
I told her everything. She listened with wide eyes, truly devastated by what Riley and those mermaids had done.
After I was through, she set to work on mending my appearance with various potions and spells. To start, an elixir that would make my hair grow back by sunset. Next, a healing lotion for my skin. Then, an overall radiance and renewal spell. All of it, bringing me back, little by little.
Once she was finished, Ione looked me over with a sigh. “I can camouflage the green until it fades on its own, which should take a few days. The cuts won’t leave scars. You can thank your lucky stars for that.”
The cuts bothered me least of all. They reminded me, when it came to Riley, not to make stupid mistakes ever again. But the rest came as a wonderful surprise. I thought I would have to wait weeks to look and feel semi-normal again. “Thank you, Ione.”
“What were you thinking?” She said with a tsk.
“I thought I saw an opportunity.” My chance to get Riley to talk had vanished faster than it appeared. “I was wrong.”