“Um,” a tiny, mousey voice squeaks. “What, um, do you need me for, again?”
“You,” Sienna says confidently, “are our fail safe.”
I rub my nose as the spearmint plumes even stronger. Gods, this person is insufferable.
“F-f-fail safe? Oh, no. You’ve got the wrong guy. I, um, should head to class?—”
Someone slams their hand against the door. “Marick, buck the fuck up. You have strong magic, but you let it control you when you should be controlling it.” Footsteps steer this ‘Marick’ away from the door, and the armchair wheezes as he’s pushed down to sit. “How do you expect to find a mate when you freeze everyone you touch?”
The tender male mumbles. “I’m not always cold. You just—make me nervous.” A tiny laugh escapes him. “Sorry.”
“I’ll make you a tonic to dampen your powers,” Gemma says. “Then you won’t have to worry about any mishaps.”
Sienna speaks next, grabbing my full attention. “If we can’t heal Revyn, I’d like you to try and stop the rot from spreading any further. It’s in his blood, so you should be able to slow down its progress.Withoutkilling him.”
For some god-awful reason, Revyn seems on board. “I run hotter than most species, so you’d have to use a lot of juice to freeze me out completely.” He claps mouse-boy’s shoulder. “Don’t sweat it.”
“First, we’ll try other methods. But I want you to be prepared in case we need you, Marick. That’s why you’re here. And Gemma, if you could research the wilds—find out what the rot is made of and if it’s magical or plant-based or what, that would be great. I’ll help you with what’s in the library. But I bet a lot of the texts we’ll need are above first-year clearance, so Thorn can assist with accessing higher level tomes. I’m not sure how to access third-year books yet, but we’ll steal them if we have to.”
“Research takes time,” Gemma says gently, “and we don’t know how much Revyn has left.”
Sienna’s heartbeat skips as it ramps up speed. “I know. That’s why option one is for me to heal him myself.”
There’s movement, and I desperately wish that I could see?—
My vision lurches. Pain blooms behind my eyes and my ears ring, but I can see the other side of the wall. Everything’s grainy, the image dull, but I watch as Sienna straddles Revyn’s lap on the bed and wraps her arms around his neck. The others stare in silence.
Everyone except Callum.
“You cannot mate with him,” the vampire warns, placing a hand on both their chests to keep them apart. “We don’t knowthe consequences of mating with someone tainted; it could spread to you, Sienna, or to the academy grounds if you overload your magic. Which, by all accounts of mating rituals over the last five centuries, always happens. Your magic will be unstable during the mating process.”
“Good thing I’m not a witch, then,” Sienna counters hotly, gripping Callum’s wrist so tightly that his veins show. “There isn’t much magic in me.”
The burn on my neck warms, a direct contrast to her statement. Shedoeshold magic, but it’s not shifter magic. It’s something else.
Thankfully, I’m not the only voice of reason.
“Need I remind you, Wildfire,” Callum hisses, stealing my nickname for Sienna. “You are not merely a shifter, but hybrid. We do not know the source of your power, and it is dangerous to underestimate it.”
“I think I can decide what to do with my own body!”
Their eyes meet, but neither of them backs down. Callum closes what little distance lies between him and Sienna, speaking so softly that even I can barely hear him. “Do not let your love for Revyn blind you. Mating with him right now does not guarantee that you will heal him. It could damn you both to a few meager days of little more than decay tainting your blood as your organs rot from the inside.”
Thorn shudders, the only one of the others to hear Callum’s words.
Interesting reaction for someone who’s already dead. What’s a little decay to a vampire?
“I canhealhim,” Sienna insists, holding Callum’s ruby gaze. “Mates heal each other.”
“It’s a rare but powerful gift,” Callum agrees, “but it’s also one you do not possess.” He turns his head and stares directlyinto my eyes, sending chills through my body. “Alistair is proof of that.”
“You can’t see me,” I whisper, my heart suddenly racing. “No one can see me.”
A small smile curves on Callum’s lips, but he masks it quickly and turns his attention back to Sienna.
But I can feel his presence in my bedroom, the faintest hint of his scent lingering despite him not ever having set foot in here. I toss the Sensing Stone to the foot of my bed and sever the connection. My heart races, and I gasp for air as pain tears through my skull. Shifters aren’t meant to use witch magics for long, and tapping into multiple senses at once has consequences. Rubbing my temples, I bend my knees and rest my forehead against them.
If I could get the nausea to stop?—
