Chapter 12
Reva
How did I not notice Torin has no hands?
No hands.
I’m clearly the most self-obsessed person around. I’ve seen him countless times since we were in the labs and somehow I didn’t look at his hands.
I know he’s been trying to avoid me, but I don’t know how I could have missed something so big.
The morning after the party, Aster’s got us both sitting in a triangle at the water’s edge, bathed in the light of the morning sun, and he’s gripping... nothing. He’s holding the space where Torin’s hands should be.
“They’re still there, you just can’t see them,” Torin assures me. It’s the same thing he told me last night and even as he squeezes my hand to demonstrate, I still can’t quite wrap my head around it.
“I don’t understand how I missed it,” I tell him.
“I’ve been hiding it from you,” he replies with a shrug. “I thought you had enough on your plate without adding this. And then I just kept on keeping it to myself.”
“Well, I feel weirdly better today,” I tell him. No headache. No nausea. “I actually feel a lot better than I have in weeks.”
“Maybe spending time with us all last night was good for you,” Aster teases with a little grin.
I huff a laugh, but something niggles at the back of my brain.
He might be right.
The last time I felt a fraction as good as this was sitting in Kit’s lap, at least until he got distracted and I had to persuade him to head to bed.
Something to think about later. Right now, I’m focused on the two men in front of me. Kit’s who knows where, while Jack and Finch both disappeared off somewhere during the party and haven’t been seen since. Meanwhile, Frannie’s sitting close by with her head tilted up to the sun, hanging around just in case things go wrong with whatever Aster has planned for us.
I’m not entirely sure what she’s expecting to happen. But, judging by the bucket of sand at her feet, it feels a bit like she thinks one or more of us will set on fire any minute.
That’s not likely to happen. At least, I don’t think it is.
“What is it we’re trying to do here?” I ask. “You want to try to take some of Torin’s magic and feed it into my skin?”
“It sounds like he absorbed too much excess magic from the labs,” Aster replies. “I thought we might kill two birds with one stone. Drain Torin’s excess magic and push it back into your skin.” He gives me a lopsided smile. “That’s the intention, anyway.”
“And you’re good with this?” I ask Torin.
He nods his gorgeous head, blond hair falling in artful tendrils around his face, and I’m struck with the urge to pull down his bun and see it in all of its glory. “I trust him.”
It takes me a second for his words to sink in, too distracted by Torin’s powerful presence. When I pull my eyes away from him, Aster’s watching with a pleased grin and is holding his hand out to me to take.
“Are we ready to start?”
Aster twists over his shoulder and gives Frannie a little wave, and she salutes him back. I then take a steadying breath,focusing on the feeling of the gritty sand beneath my legs, and when I squeeze my eyes shut, all I can see is the glow of the sunlight behind my eyelids. There’s still a chill in the air, the breeze off the sea whipping my hair against my face and neck, but I breathe it in, searing my lungs with the cold.
Putting my cold fingers into Aster’s hand on one side and Torin’s massive paw on the other, we form an odd little triangle.
“All righty then,” Aster says, his arresting amber eyes meeting mine as soon as I open them. “Are you still happy translating for me?”
I nod, and Aster begins to talk Torin through the steps while I translate.
“I want you to go deep into that place inside you where your bear lives,” Aster says. “Draw it out.”
A growl immediately rumbles out of Torin’s chest, and he fists his hands in his lap, knuckles bleaching white.
