“Ready,” Kinan was saying, and Cormal’s attention snapped back to the present, where Kinan was laid out on a blanket on the floor.
They’d gone back and forth about cushions, but Kinan had pointed out that he couldn’t feel them anyway.
“Ready,” Perian and Trill confirmed next.
The doctor was sitting next to Kinan, calmly ensuring that he recalled all of the effects and sensations that Sopellan had described.
“You can tell us to stop at any time,” the doctor reminded him.
Kinan nodded, but Cormal already knew that Kinan wasn’t going to ask them to stop. And since they didn’t know what would happen if they tried, it was probably just as well.
Last night, they’d stroked themselves slowly and languorously. Although Cormal had utterly refused to call it a goodbye, he’d been aware that the edge of desperation had turned it into more of ajust in casethan he wanted.
Kinan smiled at Cormal. “I love you.”
Cormal had to smooth out his fists and not snarl. It wasn’t Kinan’s fault that sounded a bit like goodbye.
“Love you, too,” Cormal told him.
Those gray eyes were nervous but bright.
Perian said, “See you soon, Kee,” which seemed flippant andridiculous, and Cormal wanted to snap, but he saw the way it made Kinan’s eyes soften, and so he bit back his retort.
“See you soon, Perian. I owe you a really big hug.”
Brannal said, “On three. One, two, three.”
The shield formed almost instantly, translucent and shimmering, still one of the strongest and most beautiful shields Cormal had ever seen. The other back-ups were standing at theback of the room, anxiously waiting to see if they’d be needed. Cormal couldn’t make himself move more than a foot or so away from Kinan.
Cormal made himself smirk at Kinan. “Time to get naked.”
An answering smile lit Kinan’s face, though he looked embarrassed, too. He was made of energy, and so his clothes were probably just energy too and wouldn’t get in the way. But Lokinna’s notes had mentioned nothing between the shield and the patient, and they’d decided they better not take the risk.
A look of concentration appeared on Kinan’s face, and a moment later, he was naked. His sister had already promised to look away for this part. Cormal wasn’t willing to break Kinan’s gaze to check what she was actually doing.
Perian said calmly, “I’m going to start sending you Life Magic, Kinan. Just relax. It shouldn’t hurt, not if it’s like it was for Sopellan, but it may cause some discomfort, especially as it’s your whole body, not just one limb.”
They knew all this, and the doctor had just reminded Kinan of it all, but even through the shield, Cormal could see the way Kinan relaxed a little more, like the calm recitation of what was going to happen was exactly what he needed to hear.
Whatever happened, Kinan wouldn’t come out of this the same. Either he was healed, they failed, or it went horribly wrong.
Cormal tried not to project his anxiety. He just kept staring at Kinan, made sure that there was a smile on his face, and made sure that he was as outwardly calm as possible. Being angry wouldn’t help anyone right now, despite how tempting it was to throw a few fireballs and try to get rid of some of the explosive energy inside of him. He could only imagine what Kinan’s reaction would be if Cormal set the room on fire during his healing.
He cut off an aborted laugh because there wasn’t time to explain to Kinan that he was an idiot.
Though the man surely already knew that.
His gray eyes were so beautiful. Cormal could get lost in them forever.
Perian asked Trill, “Ready?” and at the man’s nod, he added, “Sending energy now.”
The shield tightened like it was being sucked closer to Kinan’s form, encasing him completely, and then between one blink and the next, it went opaque, just as it had for Sopellan. Brannal sucked in a breath.
“What?” Cormal snapped way too aggressively.
Thankfully, Brannal didn’t take offense. Cormal was very glad Brannal knew him so well.
“The pull is a lot stronger than it was with Sopellan—but we expected that,” he added, even as Cormal opened his mouth to… he didn’t even know what.
