Damon reached up and touched Elliot’s cheeks, wiping under his eyes with his thumbs. “Don’t cry over me, Croft.”
“You passed out on the field, and they wouldn’t let me near you, wouldn’t let me help. I was so scared.”
Elliot tilted his head into Damon’s hand, and something twisted in Damon’s chest.
“They wouldn’t let you help, huh? What was your plan? Gonna give me CPR or something?” As soon as the words were out, Damon’s eyes went wide. It would have been a joke he’d have made before he knew Elliot was gay, but now it felt wrong. Joking about Elliot’s mouth on his. About the air in his lungs being breathed into Damon’s lungs. About Elliot’s hands on his face. Kinda like how Damon’s were on Elliot’s face right now…
Damon’s stomach pitted. That anxious feeling in his gut—that was guilt, right? He didn’t want to make Elliot uncomfortable.
Elliot didn’t seem to notice Damon’s inner crisis because he sniffed and stood straighter, face becoming somber. “I have to tell you something.”
Damon nodded robotically and pulled his hand away. That feeling in his gut was definitely anxiety.
Elliot walked to the door and shut it before returning.
“Whoa. This is serious, huh?” Damon tried to joke.
Elliot sat on the edge of his bed. “This may come as a surprise to you, but promise me you’ll keep it a secret, even if you don’t believe what I say. You have to—” He swallowed. “You have to promise, no matter how crazy you think I am, that you won’t tell anyone.”
Damon didn’t feel like making a joke anymore. “I promise. You can tell me anything.”
Elliot fingered the sheets on the bed near Damon’s hand. He didn’t know why, but he wished Elliot would touch him, would hold his hand as he said whatever it was he wanted to say.
Elliot took a deep breath and released it. His eyes glided up to Damon’s. “I’m a witch. I healed your broken arm in the first grade, and I healed the other one like forty-five minutes ago.”
Chapter Seven
When Elliot watched Damon crash into his teammate on the baseball field, he almost had a heart attack. His chest ached so much that it threatened to bring him to his knees. He’d ignored the pain and ran onto the field, trying to push through the players and coaches and medics.
He wasn’t quick enough. Someone grabbed him and held him back before he could get close enough to touch Damon and heal him.
Elliot watched, helpless, as they put him into the ambulance. Damon’s eyes were closed, and his arm was bent in a sickening angle.
Elliot’s magic burned through him, straining, reaching, yelling out for his best friend.
Elliot had ridden the bus that morning, so he didn’t have his car. He called his mom and dad, but they were both slammed with work and couldn’t drive him to the hospital.
His grandmama drove up to the baseball field twenty-five minutes later. She took one look at his hands, which were intermittently blinking white light, and said, “It’s him, isn’t it? He’s the key to your magic.”
Elliot could only nod. Too numb from shock. He got into the car and squeezed his hands together to get the magic to calm.
“What happened?” Grandmama finally asked after Elliot’s heartbeat ratcheted down.
“I’m pretty sure his arm is broken,” Elliot said. “I’m going to heal him. He’s got a scholarship for baseball. An injury could make them revoke it.”
Then they wouldn’t go to college together.
Elliot was not going to let that happen.
Grandmama tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “You do what you got to.”
Grandmama never instilled fear into Elliot about sharing his power, not like the covens did, which was why Grandmama and Elliot were considered outcasts among them. She wanted to do more to help people, but the covens were too afraid of risking exposure.
The world they lived in was ruled by powerful drug companies who would defend the use of their expensive medicines until their last breaths. If entire industries could be toppled with a simple wave of a witch’s hand? They’d be courting extinction, the covens warned.
So healing witches worked on the peripheral and didn’t draw attention to themselves.
Elliot stared out the window, gnawing on his lip and thinking about his best friend. “And I already decided I’m going to tell him.”
