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She has the last word, not giving me a chance to respond before she sends me back to my house.
I land with the same jarring force as I did at Posey’s. Pain lances up my leg, and I cry out as the familiar scents of home surround me. My knee gives out, and I clutch the door handle for support.
“Daphne!” Cat comes running, her arms locking under my armpits so she can help me to the ground. She follows me onto the tile floor.
I’m so glad it’s heated as I sink onto the warmth. “I’m fine,” I assure her, reaching for my ankle. I tug up my leggings to see that the joint is already bruised and swollen.
“That doesn’t look fine.” Cat scoots around to study it. Gingerly, she lifts my foot onto her lap, and I wince.
“I’ll call a healer to come look at it.” I try to get to my feet, but Cat slaps my arm.
“Stop it. I don’t know how you managed to do this in the five seconds it took you to cross the room, but I’m going to call for Finn.” She cups her hands together and blows into them. When she opens them, a dove flies out.
“When did you learn to do that?” I ask as the bird passes through the pane of glass and vanishes into the night.
“Finn’s really been helping me learn my powers, and he showed me a few tricks to make it easy to contact him if there’s trouble.” She looks away from me sheepishly.
“Good. I’m glad you’re learning. But really, I still need to pee and don’t want to do it with an audience.”
Finn is in the doorway before I even finish my sentence.
“What in the Underworld happened?” He looks at my rapidly-swelling ankle.
“Captain Disaster over here broke her ankle walking to the bathroom,” Cat answers.
He squats down and lifts my ankle with care. I can barely feel his fingertips and wonder if he’s using magic to keep his touch so light.
“That’s not what happened, but I really have to pee and this position isn’t working for me, so, if you guys could leave the bathroom and close the door, that would be awesome.”
Finn looks at me dubiously but obliges. “Are you sure?” He helps me onto my good foot, and while my bad leg hurts like a motherfucker, if I want any hope of peeing in peace, I need to pretend the pain isn’t blinding.
“Yes, leave me.” My words are shaky as I order them away. I hobble, trying not put too much pressure on the weak leg.
When I have finished relieving myself and washing my hands, I emerge to find my bedroom stuffed with people.
Xavier surprises me by stepping forward and scooping me up, one hand firmly around my waist and the other cupping my knees. I yelp but don’t want to show how welcome this is. He deposits me on the bed before sitting beside my bad foot. This position is almost worse, though, because now my hip is hurting too, and taking several deep breaths isn’t enough to keep the tears from my eyes.
“I feel like a freak show. I hurt my ankle. It isn’t cause for an inquisition.”
As he lifts my ankle, my brother-in-law’s voice is whisky smooth. “How, Daphne?”
I sigh, noting the concern in Xavier’s eyes. “Well, since you’re all here, I might as well tell you. I saw Posey.”
Everyone starts talking at once, demanding to know how I got it in my head that visiting her was a good idea and why I would confront her on my own.
I let everyone get their initial reactions out of their system—the outrage, the questions—before I bother answering them. “I didn’t intend to see her…” I lose my train of thought as my ankle warms in Xavier’s hand. I want to flinch and pull my foot away, but I know he’s healing me, so I don’t.
“Then what happened?” Xavier’s voice reaches me over the din.
“I went to the bathroom, and she…pulledme to her house. I was there for ten, twenty minutes before she dropped me back here. And by dropped, I mean, she literally dropped me.”
“I’m going to reach farther up your leg and toward your hip to make sure she didn’t fracture it. I wouldn’t put that past her.” The dark tone in Xavier’s voice makes me tremble, but I nod, trusting him.
I’m not sure if it’s being away from Posey, his affection for Cat, or a combination of the two, but he’s been much acting more brotherly toward me, to the point I can even call it affectionate.
My ankle is still throbbing, but it becomes a different sort of pain. His fingertips ghost along my leg, touching only the outside and top the closer he gets to my hip. The peanut gallery has gone suspiciously quiet, but I don’t take my eyes off Xavier. I giggle when he touches a sensitive spot along my hip just below my stomach. I see his lips twitch at the sound, but he frowns when he presses down on each hip bone.
I wince, and his frown twists into a scowl. He repeats the process down my other leg before sitting on the bed at my feet.
