Silver Blood (Series of Blood Book 1) by Emma Hamm (bill gates book recommendations .TXT) 📕

back into reality. He was murmuring nonsense in her ear and continued to hold her weight easily. Her fingers flexed against his heart as she stirred.

“I’m fine,” she muttered.

“No, you’re not.”

“We’ve already had this conversation.”

“I believe I was right.”

“I’ll never admit it.” She pushed away from him as she said it. Standing on her own two feet made her confidence raise at least a little bit.

“Wren.” He reached out for her before thinking better of it. She watched as he curled his hands into fists and stuffed them into the front pockets of his pants. “I’ll show you to your room.”

They walked together in silence down the winding hallways. The lights were too bright against her eyes, but she squinted through the pain. Wren refused to appear weak even though her knees were shaking.

Her hand remained solidly upon the walls as she walked. The soft sound of skin sliding against plaster was the only sound between them. Jiminy remained stoic and silent until he opened the door to one of the many rooms.

Wren was completely lost. There were too many turns for her stressed mind to keep track of in addition to the pounding of her head.

“In here,” Jiminy said quietly.

The room was beautiful. Wren admired the soft green color of the carpet and the neutral yellow of the walls. It was the perfect color to soothe her aching head and ground her feet.

She couldn’t trust the voice that she had always considered to be her own. There was a distinct difference between her own thoughts and E’s. But now she could tell there was a difference between E and the rest of the things inside of her head as well.

It was confusing and frankly terrifying to consider that there were massive amounts of voices that were guiding her. She didn’t know which one was her own. There were too many opinions and thoughts and still silences for her brain to weed through.

Her breathing had sped up. When she had started to breathe so quickly? But she couldn’t be certain that it was herself asking that question. The voice she had always considered her own might not be. It could be a creature from long ago, one of the thousands that made up the creature that was E.

“Wren?” Jiminy’s voice cut through the panic that was rising in her chest. “Wren, look at me.”

His strong hands closed around her arms. She focused on that touch, on the feeling of warmth and the callouses on his palms.

She shook her head to clear her mind. “Sorry. I got lost for a second.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he murmured.

Jiminy guided her towards the bed and settled her down onto the soft yellow comforter. He stooped in front of her, much in the same way that he had in the room they had left. His hands held hers, and she was struck by how strong they felt. There was a scar on one of his knuckles that resembled that of a star, she noticed.

“There are too many things inside your head for you to converse with them, Wren.”

“I know that.” Her voice was merely a whisper.

“You can’t focus on all of them. If you start feeling confused you need to ground yourself.”

“I know.” But she didn’t. She didn’t know how to deal with this at all. Suddenly she had been tossed into a completely different way of living. She wanted E back.

But then she couldn’t have E back, now could she? E wasn’t E anymore. E was thousands of beings all wrapped into one. Some of which liked her, others that did not.

“Wren, you’re going cross eyed.”

The warm laugh that huffed out of Jiminy made the side of her mouth quirk. “I am not.”

He touched the tip of her nose with his finger. “Yes, you are. Now follow my finger back out.”

She watched the guide of his finger and realized that she had actually been cross eyed after all.

“Oh.”

“Mhm,” he muttered before the angry expression on his face cleared once more. “Get some sleep, I’m going to talk to the Five.”

As he turned to leave, she linked her fingers together in her lap. “How do you do it?”

He paused at the door. “What?”

“Reconcile yourself with your creature.”

“I don’t have to. Both my creature and I decided it was best to merge our souls. When I die so does it.”

The fingers in her lap twisted. She didn’t know if she would ever have asked E to merge with her soul. First of all, because she didn’t want to be the reason that E died. Second of all, she wasn’t certain if it was possible now that she had all the information.

“Isn’t that a lot to ask?” She looked up to meet Jiminy’s gaze. “We house immortal creatures inside of us. To ask them to give up immortality and live a mortal life combined with our soul… It seems cruel.”

“Immortals are a fickle bunch,” he said. Wren watched as his eyes glowed bright blue. “Even they are curious about death.”

“I don’t think E is the same as that.” She could feel the separate minds chattering in her head. Muffled, but there. “E seems to want to cheat death.”

Jiminy crossed his arms and leaned against the door as he watched her. “Yours is a lot different from mine. Did you know you bleed silver?”

“Yes. Just another part of being a Curiosity I suppose.” She blinked. “How do you know that?”

“Your dreams are incredibly vivid. Even without E with you.”

Instantly her cheeks flamed bright red. “So you remember that.”

“So you do.”

They both remained silent for a few minutes. She was staring down at her hands as she twisted the fabric of her shirt. Her cheeks were bright red with embarrassment even though she had no reason to be embarrassed. He was staring directly at her with an unwavering intensity.

“Why’d you do it?” she asked him.

“You don’t know the answer to that?”

“I want to hear it.”

“Because I find you fascinating. And because I haven’t been able to stop thinking