Whispering Suits

It's warm when I wake up, there's a soft heat radiating against my cheek that's strangely comforting. I half consciously snuggle my head against the pillow below me, but then I hear a soft low chuckle and remember that I'm not in bed, and this isn't a pillow. I jolt up and find myself face to face with Cyrus, his eyes shimmering a bright almost gold hue. “If I'd known getting ill would end up with you sleeping with me, I might have done it sooner” he says, his soft velvety voice too close, too warm. I push myself up and shuffle down the sofa away from him, I can feel myself blushing from the embarrassment. “Don't get it twisted” I say, trying to avoid the look in his eyes. He's looking at me like he's a starving man looking at a banquet. “I was only using my body heat to warm you up. Forgive me for giving a damn. What were you even thinking, standing out in the rain like that? You could have died…or was this just some twisted game for you? Huh, you figure it might be fun to test the mortal and see if they really care…” I feel the tears pricking at my eyes, I can't even look at him. I stand up to go, but Cyrus reaches out and grabs my hand. “Wait” he says, his voice no longer carrying its usual cocky tone. “Please.” He says, and I can hear the sincerity in it. I don't move, I feel such rage. But, there is something else too, relief that he's ok. I hate to admit that I care, after all, I've worked so hard to keep that wall up between us. I shake Cyrus’s hand off mine, and cross my arms. I don't want to give him any sign that he's winning me over, whatever his game might be I don't want to play it. “Indigo, forgive. I am grateful for your action. I use humour to hide my shame…it is pitiful that you had to go to such lengths to revive me, I should have been more careful. I was…concerned, I thought that you weren't going to come. It pains me to admit that this binding of ours has had effects on me which I did not predict. However, you have my word that there was no trick. I truly didn't expect you would care to save me, but I am truly glad you did”. He stands and hands me a tissue from the table. I snatch it from him and scrunch it up in my hands. “Of course I did, afterall” I say, turning to face him “you can't teach me how to use magic if you're dead” I finish, grinning with what I hope is a convincing aura of confidence. There is a flicker of something in Cyrus’s eyes, but whatever it is he doesn't show what thoughts have crossed his mind. He just nods. “Of course, though, I must say you seem to have completed your first spell without any help from me”. I shyly walk round the table to sit on the other sofa, and pull my deck out. I retrieve the card I used, and though the design doesn't look as dark as the card mum used I can tell it doesn't have a second use in it. I placed the card on the table for Cyrus to see. “Yeah, about that, I don't really know how I got it to work. I don't know if this is normal or not, but the cards kind of…speak to me. They told me what to say, and it felt so natural. But now, well look at it”. Cyrus reaches out for the card, but stops before touching it. He looks up from the card to me. “May I?” He says, and I'm a little surprised by the thoughtfulness of the gesture. I nod, and he gently picks the card up. He turns it around in his hand, and I can see he is genuinely fascinated by it. “How very bizarre” he murmurs, clearly lost in thought. “What's bizarre?” I ask, now nervous. Cyrus places the card back down on the table. “It'll be easier if I show you. Wait here”. He crosses across the room in three long strides, and I listen to his footsteps as he makes his way to what I assume is his bedroom. He returns holding his tarot pouch, he must have retrieved it from his wet clothes. Cyrus places the pouch on the sofa and then removes his jumper. “Erm, what are you doing?” I ask, feeling myself flush. I know I'd seen him shirtless before, but he'd been cold and pale and honestly my mind had not been focusing on what he looked like. But now, his golden tan is back and his skin almost shimmers on the firelight. His muscles ripple slightly as he tossed the jumper down, and he's grinning like a Cheshire cat. He's clearly pleased to see that seeing him like this is having an effect on me. I might not like him, but I can't deny he's beautiful. I take a deep breath, and remind myself he is a Faerie, it is in their nature to tempt mortals. “I'm doing a demonstration. Pay close attention, I want your eyes on me”. He says, the timber in his voice running through me and down my spine. I nod mutely, slightly anxious as to what he might do next. I'm suddenly unsure that I would be able to fight back if he did try to tempt me. Especially when he has that look in his eyes, and for just a second my true sight shows his eyes turn from a shining copper to a glorious gold that glitters like the first glimpse of sunlight at dawn. He pulls out a card, and shows it to me. It's his Ace of Wands, the design looks similar to mine, although there are slightly more flourishes and the ink is gold rather than the red mine had been before I used it. Cyrus places the card on the table so that the design is facing him, and focuses his sights on the card. He places his hands in the air on either side of the card, not touching it but forming a space above the card. “Ace of Wands, Manifest! Bless me with your flame. By the life within, by the Arcane's Might, bring forth your essence, into the light!” The ink peels off the page, and forms a red hot ball of fire that Cyrus pulls up from the card into his hands. The fire looks different to what I summoned, and I wonder if the effect depends on the user. Then, Cyrus pulls the fire towards his chest, he presses the flames against his skin starting at his heart and then spreading out, running it across his torso and as he does so bright red and orange marks begin to appear on his skin. He continues, spreading the flame down each arm in turn, before pulling the last of it to his hair. Once he is done he spreads his arms out with this look of pure joy and ecstasy on his face. His arms and body are now covered in these strange red and orange swirls that look almost like a tattoo inked into his skin, and his hair seems to move and flicker like it's now made out of the flames themselves. As Cyrus levels his gaze on me, I can see the flame alive in his eyes, flickering with life. I find myself completely lost for words, if I thought he looked good before…now he looks like the living embodiment of flame, and it's a good look on him. Cyrus relaxes back on the sofa, and I can't help but grin. If I had any remaining concerns that he wasn't warm enough, they're long gone, I can feel the heatwaves running off him as he bathes in the power the card has granted him. I pull my attention back to the card, and immediately realised why Cyrus had said my tarot card was bizarre. The card he used is still sitting there on the table, but it's now blank. The design he's vanished, he literally pulled it off the card and onto his skin. I look back up at Cyrus, and he gives me this smug satisfied nod. “Well, I feel much better. Forgive my showboating, but I do oh so love that card. And, as you can see, the tarot card I used now lays blank. If I wish to use it again, I will have to ink the design over from scratch. What I find bizarre is that your card has clearly parted with the magic stored in it, and yet the design remains. It truly is a unique deck, unlike anything I have ever seen before”.