The earth rumbled softly beneath my feet, and I dug my toes into the soft moss that covered the ground beneath the tree, and unwound my hands, reaching my arms toward the sky. Lifting my face to the trees above, I opened my palms, and two large dark streams of smoke poured from them. Meeting in the air, they swirled together, harsh black mixed with shades of gray, to form the shape of a horse. It reared in the air in front of us.
“Holy shite,” Luch breathed.
“Duck,” I said, realizing I’d never done this with anyone around before. I held my arms up to my face, as did Luch, and the horse shattered into a thousand dark moths that fluttered past us and into the soft morning air.
Once they’d passed, I held out my hand for the robe, the pain gone even though many bruises still mottled my body. I needed my tea and a long sleep. Then I’d be sorted. Luckily, I didn’t actually have any scheduled patients this morning, so I’d just have to keep the closed sign on the clinic’s door. There wasn’t much to be done about that.
I didn’t speak, couldn’t really, as I fell into step next to Luch. What could I possibly say that would explain away the weirdness he’d just witnessed? Instead, I focused on conserving my energy and gratefully accepted the mug he handed me once we were back inside.
“What next?”
“I need to sleep.” I shrugged a shoulder as I took a gulp of my special tea, the first sip already helping to restore my energy.
“What about your bruises?”
“They’ll heal.”
“But you sent the pain away, didn’t you? Is that what you just did?”
I leveled a look at him over the rim of my mug.
“Aye.”
“Then why aren’t the bruises gone?”
“They’re less than they were, but healing comes with a price, one that’s usually worth it.” I drank more of the tea, gulping until I’d drained the cup, hoping to restore enough energy so I could drive home and collapse face firstinto my bed.
“I have arnica cream. It will help.”
“No, really. It’s fine. I just need to get home and go to sleep.” I paused at Luch’s expression. “What?”
“You’re not going home.”
“What?” I swayed on my feet, the bone-deep exhaustion of healing already trying to claim me.
“Nice try, darling, but I don’t let my patients check out until I know they’re in the clear.”
“Luch,” I began, but had to reach out and grip the counter as I swayed again.
“Uh-huh. See that?” Luch picked me up again—I could get used to this—and went back into the bedroom where he pulled back his blankets and deposited me on the mattress. “I’ve got your car keys. Unless you’re up for wrestling me for them, which, I might actually find enjoyable, I might add, you’re staying put.”
“But…” I really had no argument and clearly no energy to fight him. Defeated, I turned my head into the pillow as he pulled the blanket over my shoulders.
“Rest, a ghràidh.”
My love.
His lips pressing to my forehead was the last sensation I felt before exhaustion claimed me.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Luch
Bloody hell, but she had terrified me.
It wasn’t the magick, that I could handle, but the sight of those nasty bruises marring her gorgeous skin? It had sent a wave of panic through me that I hadn’t felt since the time I saw my mum fall from her wheelchair and crack her head on the way to the floor. That had been terrifying and had stayed with me after all these years.You can never un-hear the noise, her cries of pain.
But knowing Faelan was in pain? Not knowinghowshe’d sustained the injuries, not knowing how critical her injuries were? It had stirred something unexpected in me. It wasn’t terror I felt, but torment. As a physician, Ineededto find the cause and treat her. As a man, I’d felt powerless and fearful.
