Except he felt fantastic. Koios took a deep breath, and his chest didn’t throb. His back held its normal level of pain, but not as bad as it had been recently.
“Bathroom first. Debates second,” Koios grumbled.
Ben guided him to the other side of the room and a doorway that led to the bathroom. After escorting Koios inside, Ben stood and blinked at him. “Uh, let me….”
“Walk out while I use the bathroom, and then you can come back and help me. Trust me, I’ll yell if I need you.”
Ben grimaced but walked out of the room and hovered just outside the door. Koios didn’t push his luck. He moved the gown aside and peed for what had to be a solid minute. He waddled over to the sink and washed his hands before daring to glance into the small mirror.
He looked normal. Pale skin. Dark eyes. Hair a bit of a mess. Scowl firmly in place, even though it might be more of a smirk. Koios pulled the gown aside to reveal the sticky pads still on his chest. He’d expected bruising at the very least, but his skin was its usual glow-in-the-dark white.
“Okay?” Ben asked.
“Coming out now,” Koios said.
He waddled back to the door and leaned against the frame.
“Pretty sure you healed me with your magic touch, Doc.”
Ben didn’t seem to agree. In fact, he had a perplexed frown.
“Is it possible…hmm….” Ben’s forehead creased, and he began to nibble his bottom lip. He guided Koios back to the bed with the same impersonal doctor’s touch he’d used before.
“Okay, tell me what you’re thinking,” Koios said as he settled back against the mattress. “And then explain why you think my biological parents being air and metal magic is so significant.”
Ben froze as he positioned one of Koios’s wings on a bolster. “That’s a complicated question.”
“Which one? I asked two.”
“Okay, those are complicated questions then. I’ll tackle the ‘what I’m thinking’ one first. It’s easier. I’m wondering if the cardiac arrest caused your body to do a sort of system reboot.”
Koios considered the idea. It had merit, especially considering the lack of soreness he currently felt in his chest. It had been a hell of a lot worse earlier, which actually served as a rebuttal to Ben’s hypothesis.
No, Koios went into cardiac arrest after he’d touched Ben. And he’d healed after touching Ben as well. If his system was responding to anything, it was the man standing beside him.
How exactly could he explain that to the good doctor, though?
12
BEN
“You don’t agree?” Ben asked.
Medically speaking, the idea made no sense. Magically, however, it could be feasible. A “system reboot” would explain a number of things, and considering Koios likely had some magical connections to metal, and metal conducted electricity?—
“I need to think about it,” Koios answered after several deep breaths.
He’d thought of something and wasn’t sharing it with Ben. Instead of his usual scowl, Koios had a perplexed frown on his face.
Ben pretended none of it bothered him—after all, it shouldn’t—and spent a few minutes getting Koios hooked up to the monitors once more. He checked the read outs and all of Koios’s numbers were in normal range.
“Everything looks good,” Ben reported.
“Wonderful news, Dr. Jerrick.”
Ben glanced down at his patient and frowned at the laughter in Koios’s eyes. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a chance to find out what caused the look because the next shift of visitors arrived.
Taj and Iris were both too beautiful for words. No one would have any problem believing they were the fae typically shown in movies. Tall, slender, blonde, and ethereal, they carried themselves with a self-confidence Ben only had when he worked.
