“Well, then, if Austin had wanted me to change him, he would have said something sooner. He also wouldn’t be tied to a damn chair with a silencing spell on him. Would he?” I finally broke my stare down with Austin and glanced at Master Yoshi.
The expression he wore made my blood run cold.
“Perhaps I didn’t phrase myself quite right,” he murmured in a dangerously quiet voice. “I wasn’t asking you. I was telling. You will heal him, change him, whatever you want to call it, because he is one of your bonded guardians. You have no choice in the matter.”
“I don’t understand,” I admitted, backing another step away from Yoshi and in front of Austin. Hopefully if this maniac pulled out a gun or something, I’d have time to get in the way of it.
“Of course, you don’t. You’re just a baby. So take this as a practical lesson.” He held up a hand, palm out toward Austin, and spoke a simple word.
That was it. Just one hand up, one word.
Wetness hit me in the back of the neck, and I whirled around to face Austin. Still tied to the chair, his throat looked as if it had been slashed with an invisible machete or something, and blood poured from the gaping wound that was his neck.
Acting on pure instinct and fear, I threw myself at him, my hands clamping the edges of his wound together in a futile attempt to stop the blood from flowing while my magic slammed through me with the force of a damn freight train. Whatever the feeling of his supernatural power was, I couldn’t make it out from the feeling of his blood rushing between my fingers and the frayed edges of skin, tissue, and tendons as I tried to hold everything in place.
“Fuck, fucking fuck, shit, fuck,” I cursed and willed my magic out faster. I had no idea if it worked on the dead, and I wasn’t willing to test the theory out.
Austin’s eyes held mine as I swore, and I could taste the salty wetness of my tears at the edges of my mouth. He still didn’t look afraid, that fucking wanker. His gaze was steady and confident, like he had no concerns about my ability to save him from this bloody mess.
“Trust you to fucking get your throat slashed, you.... argh!” The magic was pounding through my body and into Austin, but still my hands slipped in his blood, and I kept needing to readjust my grip to try and hold pressure or hold the edges together or something. My body sagged as I poured more and more energy and will into healing him, and finally the blood began slowing. The raw wound began knitting back together and gradually began looking less like Austin’s head was hanging by a thread.
My knees buckled, and I let them go, resting my weight on Austin’s lap while keeping my grip around his slick, crimson throat.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling a wash of fear and panic and sheer sadness. He’d known he wasn’t human, for probably longer than I had, but said nothing. Aside from the fact that I wanted to fucking kill him for keeping quiet, I also felt overwhelmingly sorry that this healing was going to change him when he so clearly didn’t want that to happen.
His gaze held mine still, and I saw the reassurance there that he didn’t blame me. Not that he would have any right to, fucking bastard. But still, I felt guilty and responsible. Without me, he could have lived out his days human.
Skin fused back together bit by bit until his throat was whole once more, and I kept my hands in place, pushing more magic into him until I was satisfied that all traces of the wound were gone. Before I withdrew my magic, I felt it do a sweep through the rest of him, and I recognized it as having done the same thing on all my previous healings, like the magic was sentient and checking that all was fixed before it departed.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered again, my hands falling limp from his neck and my forehead dropping to his shoulder as my body went boneless.
“Don’t apologize, Princess,” he replied in a husky voice. “I should have seen this coming.”
“Is he gone?” I whispered back, meaning Yoshi. The fucking Mage. What the fuck?
“Yeah, baby, he took off almost immediately. He’ll be watching somehow, though. Making sure you didn’t actually let me die.” Austin’s face buried into my hair, and we stayed like that for a long moment.
“Um, I guess I should untie you, huh?” I murmured, not really ready to move just yet. Not really sure I could move just yet. I was seated straddling him with my head resting on his blood-slick neck, and he was still bound to the chair.
“Please. Preferably before you pass out?” His voice was gruff, but there was almost a level of concern in there. Almost.
Hands braced on his chest, I pushed myself up to standing, wobbling like I’d had one too many vodkas and then catching myself on his shoulder.
“You okay?” he checked, and I nodded, not trusting myself to speak without vomiting. The room was spinning dangerously, and I could already feel my stomach churning like I was on a ship. I hated ships. Sea sickness was a real damn thing and not in the least bit fun.
“He will have tied those ropes professionally tight; you might need a knife or something,” Austin suggested, and I nodded again. Holding his knee for support, I reached down and slid a deadly sharp blade from my boot and showed it to him.
“That’ll do.” He grinned a tiny half grin. “You’re learning, Princess.”
Taking slow, deliberate breaths to calm my rolling stomach, I shuffled around behind him and sliced through the intricate web of ropes that held him immobile. As they fell away, he groaned and rubbed his wrists. My gaze had snagged on the glittering pattern around the chair, though, and I reached out my toe, digging it into the sparkling substance and dragging a line back to me, messing up the runes and breaking the circle. The air in the room seemed to compress and pop, like we had been in a bubble or something, and I raised my eyebrows at Austin.
“What the fuck was that?” I whispered, and he grimaced.
“It was a spell, and you just broke it. I didn’t know your kind could do that, but it’s certainly handy to know.” He stood and stretched, cracking his neck.
“We will be discussing that. Later though. When I’m not about to pass out. Okay?” I pointed at him sternly, but there was suddenly three of him, and the floor was rushing up to meet my face fast.
The sharp, copper tang of blood filled my nostrils, and I blinked awake again, meeting a pair of emerald green eyes only inches from my face.
“Hey, baby girl, stick with me. You just need a recharge, right?” Austin murmured softly, and a pathetic sounding whimper slipped out of my throat. “Try not to slap me when you regain your strength.”