“Honey pie.”
“Sweetums.”
“Honeypie looks knackered after you idiots have been running him into the ground,” Dagger says with a mock sigh. “Could you have one day where you don’t stab each other, run into a wall, or need someone to check your arsehole is just as puckered as usual?”
I’m pulled to my feet and a drink is thrust into my hand while someone else claps me on the shoulder.
“Aster, my man!”
That’s another man’s scrotum I’ve seen far too close for comfort.
“Hey, want to see my ear? You fixed it up so good. I reckon it’s even better than it was.”
“Quit showing him your messed up body parts, he’s just about to eat and he’s off for the evening. If one of you idiots sets yourself or someone else on fire, you can fix yourselves,” Dagger replies.
I take a sip of my drink, feeling an almost instantaneous flush go through me. I take another sip and then another. And everything takes on a cosy glow after that. People keep appearing to show me how well they’re healing and handing over more drinks and snacks before disappearing again, only to be replaced with another crewmember.
By the time Reva and Torin appear in the doorway, I’m not sure how much time has passed. It seems equally as likely that it could have been ten minutes or two hours. I’m not sure if I wasnapping or what, but I’m also cradling Reva’s potion to my chest with a dopey smile stretching my face.
“You’re here,” I say, holding out the mug of potion. “I made you something so that you’ll feel better.”
There’s a moment where Reva just looks surprised, eyeing the crewmembers still sprawled out across the floor. Then a slow smile spreads across her face. “You look like you’re having a nice time. Are you responsible for the punch then?”
“Punch?”
She points to the mug in my other hand and I sniff it experimentally before taking another sip.
“I didn’t make this,” I tell her. “But I did makethis. Brewed in the moonlit hours until it turns the colour of a siren’s tears.” Stumbling to my feet, there’s a hairy moment when my legs don’t want to work right and I nearly take a tumble, but Torin appears beside me and helps me stay upright.
Reva’s hand brushes against mine as she takes the potion from me and I feel that funny zing of sensation that happens every time we touch. Her eyes widen slightly so I can tell she feels it too.
She eyes the drink and my warm buzz dries right up. What am I thinking? Of course, she’s not going to trust me enough to drink a random unidentified potion that I mixed up for her.
“You don’t have to drink it,” I blurt out, sobering instantly. “It’s just... you’ve looked tired recently and you’re not eating properly. It should help with that, at least for a little while.”
“Pretty sure booze does the same thing,” someone mutters from beside me, earning them a clip around the ear from Torin.
Reva meets my eyes and then very deliberately swallows the whole thing, licking her lips once she’s done. “I trust you,” she says softly.
And just like that, I feel entirely drunk again. My cheeks flush and I’m warm all over as I beam at her.
“Oh no, you guys are as bad as Bones and Cookie,” Dagger says. “If you’re going to make kissy faces at each other, maybe we should head on back to the party.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll fend off the horde of hungover idiots for as long as I can, even if I’m one of them.”
“Thank you,” I say to him, then hold up one of the potions I made earlier, adding in stilted Drakian, “To help prevent the hangover.”
At least, I hope that’s what I say to him in Drakian. Most of what I’ve learned so far has been cursing and words from that raunchy book.
Reva steps forward and squeezes my hand in hers. “Did you just say that in Drakian?”
“If I said what I meant to, then yes,” I reply just as stiltedly. “I’m trying to learn.”
Can’t she see I’m trying so hard to be useful? To be less of a burden on her?
I feel at a distinct disadvantage right now. My head’s fuzzy from the alcohol and the exhaustion and she looks like a glorious angel, with a clouded halo around her gorgeous face.
Torin lets out a low chuckle as Reva’s cheeks grow pink. Almost like...
“Did I say that outloud?”
