Page 94 of Bonded By Tea and Tarot

“Kinda,” I mumble.

“I’ll help,” Jayce says.

I squint one eye open to see a freckle-covered chest filling my vision. Jayce has been sending waves of comfort, love, and strength down the bond since the moment Aury wrapped me in his arms last night. Every time I woke up, whenever I had a bad dream or an anxious thought, he was there sending me reassurance. I hope he didn’t stay awake all night, but I suspect my distress kept him up.

“Did you sleep?” I ask, reaching my arms out with a groan in acceptance of his help.

He grunts in reply, which means ‘no’ in Jayce language. My eyes fall closed again and I let him maneuver me around the bathroom.

“Why does everything hurt?” I ask when Hayden returns. I take the pills they hand me and gulp down the water.

They don’t answer for a moment, and I crack my eyes open to check they’re still here. Aury reaches over to clasp my hand in his, and I squeeze it for comfort. Hayden scoops my feet into their lap and digs their thumbs into my arches.

“Well,” they finally say, “stress on the body, especially during and after an assault, causes an adrenaline rush and then crash.” They work around my ankles and then up my calves. Aury starts massaging the hand he’s holding, and Jayce begins rubbing my neck and shoulders. I groan, my body melting into their strong fingers.

“All of that can lead to hypertension in the muscles, buildup of lactic acid, and extreme soreness the next few days.”

That certainly adds up to what I’m experiencing. My mind is feeling floaty now, though, so I don’t worry about it too much. I must fall back asleep, because I wake again to the sun slanting through my nest with late afternoon light. My gauzy green curtains are pulled back, and the sun sparkles off my vintage glass containers and the sun-catcher I have hanging in the window. Dappled light streams in through the leaves of my hanging plants, and Bunny is snoozing on a pillow in the middle of the sunbeam. I roll over, attempting to disentangle myself from the thick purple comforter and soft green sheets, but there are arms banded around the entire bundle of blankets, sheets, and me.

Jayce gazes down at me, his hazel eyes lined with dark rings.

“You still haven’t slept?” I croak

“I napped. Are you hungry?”

Of course he’d want to feed me. I huff, pretending it’s not amusement and fondness I’m feeling instead of irritation at his babying.

He smiles like he sees right through me, then releases his hold so I can wiggle out of the cocoon. When we get to the kitchen, there’s a bowl of yogurt and fruit waiting for me, and Aury jumps up to get more.

“This is good for now,” I say. “Kinda want to start slow.”

He nods and sits down, then both of their eyes fix on me. I pause, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“Stop watching me. It’s creepy. If you’re gonna sit here, you have to eat too so I don’t feel weird.”

“Oh,” Jayce says, looking surprised that I don’t want to be stared at like an animal in the zoo.

Aury hops up again and quickly fixes two similar bowls for him and Jayce, then sits down and pointedly looks at Jayce instead of me. I grin, covering it by taking a bite.

Then I notice my phone sitting on the charger.

My smile falls, as does my spoon, and that attracts their attention again. They follow my gaze, and Aury cringes.

“Ah,” he says, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck. “So I kinda forgot to turn the live stream off when Helen… You know…”

It takes a couple moments for his words to sink in. “So they saw…?”

His lips twist. “They didn’t see much, but they definitely heard more than we probably wanted them to. Hayden found it still streaming after we sat down by the river. They said you were okay but taking some time to rest and probably wouldn’t be on for a few days, then shut it off.”

I nod, tearing my eyes from the phone. I’ll deal with it later. Right now, I want to relax and spend some time with my pack. The pack I want to bond me. The pack I hope will agree to move in with me.

Anxiety tightens my throat, because it seems like a dream. Too good to be true, despite two of them sitting here in front of me, proof that it’s already happening, and I’ve all but adopted Aury’s cat. I’m pretty sure most of her things are here at my place now instead of his. I distract myself by pushing the empty bowl away and striding to the reading room to snag an emotional support tarot deck.

“Oh, wait,” I mutter to myself, stopping suddenly on my way to the couch.

“Oof.” Aury bumps into my back. “Sorry, Moonbeam. Didn’t expect you to stop so fast.”

“My deck and crystals. I need to cleanse them. Do you know where they are?” Why can’t I remember what I did with them?