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"Maybe you need to stop thinking so hard. I was always taught that magic is emotion. It's a feeling. It's the moment between the moments. It's like you've got a second heartbeat, and your soul is dancing. You sorcerers seem to want to suck all the wild joy out of it, to capture it. To tame it. That's where you go wrong. Fixing the hole in Melbourne's magic and the hole in you are problems that will be solved with the heart and not the head."
Augustus stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, fighting the desire to lift it to his lips. "You have been working on this speech, I see."
"It's what happens when you ignore me for days. All my lectures build up." Mara let out a curse. "I've just realized I've become my mother. I'm sorry, I have no right."
"You have every right. You can see everything so clearly where I've been caught up in it for so long I don't know which way is out anymore."
Augustus was getting dangerously close to kissing her. He shoved the urge down as best he could, which was only enough to not go through with it. He was crushing on the saint, and he was powerless to stop it. He didn't even want to anymore.
"Do you have the rest of the day off?" he asked, not wanting to let her go.
Mara's mouth twitched. "I could. Why do you ask?"
"There's something I need to sort out, and I don't particularly want to go and do it alone." Mara stared expectedly at him until he huffed and admitted, "I hate hospitals."
Sixteen
"An unlived lifeis the only thing that should make you fear death." — Sayings of the Blessed Crow.
Mara had never been inside a hospital and wasn't sure she would enjoy the experience much more than Augustus.
Saints didn't die of things that medicine could cure, and from all the stories she had heard from customers, she imagined hospitals to be the most unpleasant places in the world.
Mara risked a glance up at Augustus's stern gray eyes. She knew deep down she had only agreed to go with him because she had been so worried about him. Even deeper down, she didn't want to let him walk away from her again.
Mara had wanted to give him space after dredging up such painful memories and had gone to the gallery to clear her head. She had decided to go and see him in Albert Street, and there he was like she had wished it.
Why do we keep on finding each other?
She needed to go over her books again and see if there was any mention of such a thing occurring before.
Augustus paused in front of the automatic doors leading inside the hospital. Patients and visitors were hanging about, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee.
"We need to get to the Intensive Care section of the hospital. They are usually restricted, so can I make you invisible? It will make everything a lot easier," he said.
"Do it. Just don't forget to take it off when we leave," Mara replied, turning to face him.
"Really? No arguing?" His eyes flashed with mischief. "Oh, dear, whatever would your precious Saint Anea think of you letting a sorcerer put a spell on you."
"What can I say? I'm a weak woman who trusts sorcerers far too easily."
"Especially the handsome ones," Augustus replied with a smile that heated her insides.
Mara cocked a brow and looked around. "Are we meeting another sorcerer that I don't know about?"
"Very funny," he scoffed and gently pulled her out of the way of a man with a walking frame. Mara could feel the warmth of his palms through her jacket, and she suddenly wanted him to pull her closer.
It's just because it's so cold today, she lied to herself.
Augustus let her go. "Are you ready? It won't hurt."
Mara nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Augustus's power rose between them, and she tasted lightning on her tongue. His fingertips went to her forehead, sketching a sigil that tingled against her skin.
"Is it working?" she asked.
"It is. Don't wander off, little saint," he said, reaching for her hand. "I wouldn't want to lose you."
Augustus's long fingers tangled with hers, and Mara felt the strange miracle that had been growing inside of her move dangerously along her ribs.
