I stood up before Aster could protest and dug my hands into grooves in the rocky surface. Hoping it was dark enough that I could convince Aster the bounder wasn’t too big, I shunted it upwards and pushed it away. It rolled down the valley.
I knelt beside Aster. He groaned, his clothes covered in rock dust.
‘How the hell did you get that off me?’ He moaned as he rose to all fours. ‘Callum, your hand.’
I glanced down. I hadn’t noticed the boulder biting into my skin. Under the blood, I could feel the wound disappearing.
‘It’s nothing.’ I covered it with my jumper sleeve, making a mental note to bandage it before Aster could check. ‘Are you hurt?’
I reached for his hand and thoughtlessly leached pain from his body. None of it was sharp or urgent. His legs cramped from being stuck in one position for too long, his stomach growled with hunger.
‘What is that?’
It wasn’t so dark that Aster couldn’t see the pattern of black and grey swirls across the back of my hand as I pulled his pain.
I whipped my arm away. ‘It’s nothing. Let me help you up.’
Aster was too weak to walk back to the cabin. Ignoring his muttered protests, I swung him up in a bridal hold and climbed out of the valley.
‘Be careful you don’t fall into another one,’ Aster mumbled against my chest. ‘I’m not sure someone else will magically appear to rescue us both.’
‘I won’t,’ I reassured him.
I tried to jog home, but the pace I set was somewhere between a sprint and something much less human. Aster didn’t talk. I hoped he’d fallen asleep. Even if his eyes were wide open, he wouldn’t be able to see how quickly we moved through the night-draped mountains.
I avoided tripping over the friendly goat when I slowed in front of the cabin, and only let go of Aster once I’d lowered him onto the sofa inside. I tucked a blanket over him and chucked a couple of logs on the fire.
The relief of having him home, unhurt, was short lived.
Aster’s eyes narrowed when I turned around. ‘Callum, show me your hand.’
Too late, I realised I’d wiped the blood away with my sleeve and had used my hand like it hadn’t been injured recently. I clenched my fist, as though that would hide the evidence that I’d healed at an astronomical rate.
‘I didn’t cut it badly.’ I fixed my eyes on the cushion beneath Aster’s head and hoped the light was dim enough that he wouldn’t notice me avoiding his gaze. ‘It was a graze.’
‘Show me the graze then.’ Aster sat up. His face was as serious as I’d ever seen it, and grew more so when I kept my hand at my side.
He looked over to my left. On the coffee table sat the book Frank gave him. Aster hadn’t had time to read it all yet. Several times, I’d considered ripping out the pages about werewolves.
I looked at Aster, but he stared at that stupid book.
‘A cut healing super fast,’ he murmured. ‘And you’re quick. No way you didn’t break the sound barrier with the speed you ran here. You must have good eyesight to be able to run around in the dark. That weird black pattern on your arms. I saw it before, on the night I arrived. You made me feelbetter, not the bath. And you’re strong. That boulder was huge, but you lifted it like it was nothing. And I bet you jumped straight down into the valley, yeah?’
‘You’re tired.’ My heart thumped loud in my chest. I had to stop this now, couldn’t let Aster figure it out.
He shook his head. ‘I’m not tired. You saw to that, remember? You took all my pain away.’ Licking his lips, he stared at me. ‘I assumed your family secret was something historic that painted your ancestors in a bad light. I didn’t realise it was something like this.’
‘It is a historic thing,’ I lied, desperate to derail him. ‘And I still don’t want to tell you. If you care about me, you’ll stop poking at this now.’
Aster raised one eyebrow. ‘That’s a low blow, Cal.’
I knew it was, but I needed this to stop. ‘Please, Aster.’
He stared at me for a long time, his eyes flickering with reflected firelight. He felt as dangerous as a naked flame, holding the knowledge to uncover my true nature. All I wanted was for him to smother it, forget it. I didn’t want him to prove there wasn’t a single person I could trust with my secret. I didn’t want him to show me that this side of myself would push everyone away.
I loved Aster, felt so much more for him than I ever had for anyone else, but I couldn’t see how this secret would do anything other than drive him off.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t let this go,’ Aster said. He misted as my eyes filled with tears. ‘What the hell are you?’
