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But I decided a long tih it represented every ancient curse I wanted to run frorained in my soul as the desire to live was And it had become an escape When I played the world disappeared behind me, melted into the recesses of my mind and I existed in a way that I nor I could control, ers here I wanted the beautiful When everything else inI owned And so I had to be careful that I never used it along with the curse, but that wasn’t a proble More than even Nix

"Is this where you guys practice?" I teased when I felt Ryder behind me I stood just inside the doorway to the closet; the space was big but cra up so much room Ryder’s heat was on my back, his breath floated over the nape of my neck

"Just Phoenix," Ryder answered softly

I ran h hat I stepped forward a little to separate ers on the underside of the instru sound of the cymbals made that brassy sound I kind of loved

I felt Ryder co to some kind of incredible revelation He suddenly reached forward and grabbedfear and anxious hope sprung up inside … well, I didn’t knohat I was hoping for

His eyes weren’t ondown at my upturned wrist With the hand that held me in place, his thu gently at the skin His expression was so fiercely intih I knehat he was doing, what he was trying to see I couldn’t stop him

I needed to stop him, and now But I couldn’t make myself erous truth that would ruin everything for erous reasons to snatch rasp, I was also partly stunned After being so very careful to conceal the hidden word, I couldn’t even fathoh the thick concealer or how I missed even the smallest piece to cover

Just under the base of my thumb, the black ink had been left exposed How Ryder knew there would becould just have easily been a pen scratch or dirt sreenish tint that gave the tattoo away, but either way it reinforced the idea that if you wanted to keep a tattoo hidden, the wrist was a really stupid place to put it

The pressure of his thumb increased as he worked to rub away the cover up Slowly the thick cream distorted so more of the full piece revealed itself Ryder paused for aainst the collar of his black t-shirt The cover up left a pale se where his collarbone was hidden under the fabric of his shirt and a shot of lust pushed through me His eyes met mine as he transferredpieces of it with every swipe of his thumb

His eyes were liquid silver, depthless and raith perception He was seeing a part of me no one had seen before, save for the poor tattoo artist Ia minor Ryder discovered a piece of me that was intended only forwith anyone

Finally, Ryder released aze traveled slowly, so slowly, from mine to my wrist "Blackheart," hein the charged air between us The small, fancy script looped around itself and created a pretty effect to the terribly ugly word

"Blackheart," I concurred quietly

"What are you, a pirate?" he tried to joke, but even he couldn’t crack a sht with soeable instinct that should have terrified

"What else do you have?" he took a step closer to s until it stopped completely and I instinctively took a step back until my back was balanced on the corner of the door fraasped

"You didn’t want anyone to see this," He reached doithout looking and took rasp His entire hand circled around the bone there and his fingers easily overlapped each other I felt fragile and s the hideous word now that it was exposed "And itto tell me what it is Instinct tells me this is not your only secret, Ivy"

His words were like pin pricks in my carefully arrasp, even reluctantly I could have used my other, free hand, but the severity of the moment demanded I use this hand, some symbol of confession I didn’t even fully understand hed a thousand pounds instead of the delicate silk it actually was Ryder’s gaze fell i with myself the entire time, I pulled my shirt to just below the underwire of my bra My stomach was coh I was still trying to talk myself out of it, I trusted him I trusted him to see this

I trusted him to see uratively

I looked down at ers and rubbed at the second tattoo that ran across the ribs on ers several more times to remove the concealer completely but eventually the words were revealed

Ryder’s own hand cahtento sooth He brushed his fingers across the identical cursive script almost reverently His brow furrowed deeply and I wondered what e out in his head Confusion? Pity? Lust?

Only it wasn’t lust Not by a long shot

"My soul is free," he whispered into the silence with the reverence the phrase was meant to hold "My soul is free"

He repeated the words and my heart expanded at the incantation The words I had chosen so carefully held the deepestof my existence I loved the way they sounded out loud, how they fell out of his lips and off his tongue with care

"What do they mean Ivy?" he asked while his hand fell back tothe word that was inked there