Page 12 of Petrified

Lev’s mouth tightens. “That’s the sequence.”

Gerald writes again before asking where Lev had been touching me. Lev gives him a look that gets sharper the longer Gerald waits, then gestures toward me.

“My hands were on his face and chest at different points. Amand was holding him upright, Medusa was trying to figure out whether the fragment would weaken, and I was trying not to lose my fucking mind.”

Amand’s posture changes slightly beside me when Gerald asks whether he had been touching Lev at the same time. “No. I was supporting Rowan.”

Gerald nods and writes that down too. “I’m trying to determine whether Rowan’s bond signature alone triggered the response or whether the three of you interacting changed it.”

Lev rocks back slightly in his chair. “You think the bond triggered it.”

“I think it’s possible your designation reacted to an active threat against one of your mates.” Gerald gestures toward the scan still glowing on the desk. “The medical findings make that more likely, because you didn’t simply remove the petrification. Something protected Rowan’s organs during the reversal.”

Lev looks at the image again. “So my magic wasn’t just breaking the stone.”

“No. If the healer is right, it was limiting the damage while the petrification released.”

I watch Lev process that, and this time I don’t tell him I’m fine. He spent yesterday with his hands on my chest while my lungs stopped working properly. He gets to sit with the fact that whatever he did mattered.

Gerald gives him a moment before asking, “What did you feel when the first fracture appeared?”

Lev rubs his thumb against the edge of his palm while he thinks. “Rowan’s magic hit mine. Mine reacted to it, but I don’t know how else to explain the feeling. It was like something caught and pulled.”

“His magic or the petrification?”

“I don’t know.” Lev’s irritation returns immediately. “If I knew what my designation was doing every time it decided to surprise me, my life would be substantially easier.”

Gerald accepts that and asks whether the response became stronger after the second kiss. Lev confirms it did, then gives him a rough estimate of how quickly my breathing improved and how long it took before I had full movement again.

I watch Gerald write every answer down.

The questions themselves make sense. That’s the part I don’t like. Any one of them sounds like something a mentor would ask after Lev discovered an ability nobody knew he had.

Amand looks at me.

He’s thinking the same thing.

Gerald closes the gap between his notebook and the scan with one finger. “Whatever happened, your designation didn’t only protect you this time. It responded to something actively damaging Rowan, recognized the threat through the bond, and found a way to counter it.”

Lev folds his arms. “You’re making it sound much more organized than it felt.”

“It probably wasn’t conscious.”

“It definitely wasn’t conscious. Conscious me was busy panicking and kissing him until pieces started working again.”

Gerald smiles faintly, but his attention stays on Lev. “Do you think you could reproduce that response deliberately?”

I feel Amand go still before I even look at him.

Lev doesn’t answer right away. His expression changes, not frightened or even particularly suspicious, but irritated in the way he gets whenever someone starts moving from asking what he can do toward telling him what he should try.

“I don’t know, and I’m not testing it on him.” Lev tips his head toward me. “If your next sentence involves deliberately exposing Rowan to something so we can see whether my magic feels cooperative, save your breath.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that.”

“You were thinking about it.”

Gerald pauses, which is enough of an answer for me.