Chapter 11
Aster
After a few weeks of working as the crew’s medic, it now feels like I know every member of the crew by name and by sight, and I’ve also seen far more of their bodies than I’d ever have hoped for.
Today started with treating Kilter, a boar shifter who really should have a brain injury by now.
It’s the third time I’ve treated a head injury for him, not surprising considering he likes to use his head to smash into things a lot.
For some reason, he’s taken it upon himself to teach me Drakian, the language the rest of the crew speak.
Every day over the past week, he’s come up here and started reading to me to try and teach me new words.
Too bad that he can’t focus on the words all that well, so he ends up passing the book over to me to stare uncomprehendingly at the words I definitely cannot read.
When he does actually manage to read me any of it, the book has turned out to be so damn dirty I find myself blushing wildly while he grins and winks at me.
I’m still clearing up from my last visitor and am waiting to finish brewing a special little something for Reva that I’ve spent the past couple of days working on. But it seems like my moment of quiet can’t last any longer.
Silvertooth appears in the doorway to the room I’ve been using as a med bay, clutching an armful of drinks and bringing with him a handful of crew members. “Mr Medbay, in the flesh.”
Dagger smacks him around the back of his head. “That’s not his name, and after you made him look at your arsehole earlier, you should be calling him darling.”
“Honey pie.”
“Sweetums.”
“Honeypie looks knackered after you idiots have been running him into the ground,” Dagger says with a mock sigh. “Could you have one day where you don’t stab each other, run into a wall, or need someone to check your arsehole is just as puckered as usual?”
I’m pulled to my feet and a drink is thrust into my hand while someone else claps me on the shoulder.
“Aster, my man!”
That’s another man’s scrotum I’ve seen far too close for comfort.
“Hey, want to see my ear? You fixed it up so good. I reckon it’s even better than it was.”
“Quit showing him your messed up body parts, he’s just about to eat and he’s off for the evening. If one of you idiots sets yourself or someone else on fire, you can fix yourselves,” Dagger replies.
I take a sip of my drink, feeling an almost instantaneous flush go through me.
I take another sip and then another. And everything takes on a cosy glow after that.
People keep appearing to show me how well they’re healing and handing over more drinks and snacks before disappearing again, only to be replaced with another crewmember.
By the time Reva and Torin appear in the doorway, I’m not sure how much time has passed. It seems equally as likely that it could have been ten minutes or two hours. I’m not sure if I was napping or what, but I’m also cradling Reva’s potion to my chest with a dopey smile stretching my face.
“You’re here,” I say, holding out the mug of potion. “I made you something so that you’ll feel better.”
There’s a moment where Reva just looks surprised, eyeing the crewmembers still sprawled out across the floor. Then a slow smile spreads across her face. “You look like you’re having a nice time. Are you responsible for the punch then?”
“Punch?”
She points to the mug in my other hand and I sniff it experimentally before taking another sip.
“I didn’t make this,” I tell her. “But I did make this. Brewed in the moonlit hours until it turns the colour of a siren’s tears.” Stumbling to my feet, there’s a hairy moment when my legs don’t want to work right and I nearly take a tumble, but Torin appears beside me and helps me stay upright.
Reva’s hand brushes against mine as she takes the potion from me and I feel that funny zing of sensation that happens every time we touch. Her eyes widen slightly so I can tell she feels it too.
She eyes the drink and my warm buzz dries right up. What am I thinking? Of course, she’s not going to trust me enough to drink a random unidentified potion that I mixed up for her.
“You don’t have to drink it,” I blurt out, sobering instantly. “It’s just... you’ve looked tired recently and you’re not eating properly. It should help with that, at least for a little while.”
“Pretty sure booze does the same thing,” someone mutters from beside me, earning them a clip around the ear from Torin.
Reva meets my eyes and then very deliberately swallows the whole thing, licking her lips once she’s done. “I trust you,” she says softly.
And just like that, I feel entirely drunk again. My cheeks flush and I’m warm all over as I beam at her.
“Oh no, you guys are as bad as Bones and Cookie,” Dagger says. “If you’re going to make kissy faces at each other, maybe we should head on back to the party.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll fend off the horde of hungover idiots for as long as I can, even if I’m one of them.”
“Thank you,” I say to him, then hold up one of the potions I made earlier, adding in stilted Drakian, “To help prevent the hangover.”
At least, I hope that’s what I say to him in Drakian. Most of what I’ve learned so far has been cursing and words from that raunchy book.
Reva steps forward and squeezes my hand in hers. “Did you just say that in Drakian?”
“If I said what I meant to, then yes,” I reply just as stiltedly. “I’m trying to learn.”
Can’t she see I’m trying so hard to be useful? To be less of a burden on her?
I feel at a distinct disadvantage right now. My head’s fuzzy from the alcohol and the exhaustion and she looks like a glorious angel, with a clouded halo around her gorgeous face.
Torin lets out a low chuckle as Reva’s cheeks grow pink. Almost like...
“Did I say that outloud?”
Reva peers at me with those gorgeous hazel eyes. “When was the last time you drank alcohol?”
“Or slept,” Torin adds.
I think for a moment, struggling through the mess of my memories until I find one that sticks.
“I last had alcohol a few months before I left home,” I say.
“My mother used to make moonshine and sometimes she’d sell it at the market.
We always had fresh vegetables from the farm, so she was forever testing out new types. ”
I remember our harvest was terrible right before I left, things weren’t growing how they should have been so most of what came out of the ground was only fit for soup or moonshine.
I should probably find some way of contacting her to let her know that I’m alive. Although, whether she’ll want a son who's been accepted into the fold by a bunch of outlaw pirates is debatable.
“You should teach Bones how to make your moonshine. The stuff he makes always winds up tasting like toilet water,” Dagger says from the doorway.
“I will, if I can remember how she made it.”
“We should get more vegetables the next time we’re on a supply run,” Dagger adds before downing the potion I made. He grimaces and gives a dramatic shudder. “Or maybe you should feed this to everyone and it’ll put us all off drinking for life.”
Reva snorts. She looks so relaxed and carefree tonight, not carrying any of the pain she’s been trying to hide over the past few weeks.
She’s also still holding my hand, although I’m not sure she realises.
“Did you want me for anything?” I ask.
“Nothing important.” Torin claps me on the shoulder, nearly sending me flying into the wall. If it weren’t for Reva’s hand in mine, I might have tripped over my own two feet.
“Shit, sorry.” He peers down at me. “Not sure you’re fit for dancing, lad. You look like you could fall asleep stranding up.”
I feel it, too.
“We came up for two reasons,” Reva says. “First, we wanted to draw you out of this room as apparently you’ve barely been eating or sleeping up here. And honestly, join the club, we can be tired and slightly miserable together.”
She squeezes my hand again, which is the point I realise that she hasn’t forgotten at all. She’s actually choosing to continue standing with our fingers interlinked, something that has my chest going all tingly and warm.
“Yeah, fellas, that’s definitely our cue to head back to the party,” Dagger says. “Who wants to bet they’ll have their kit off in the next ten minutes?”
He gives a little wink as he heads out with the other crewmembers, leaving just the three of us in awkward silence.
“And what was the other reason?” I croak out.
“Torin’s hands have disappeared,” Reva replies.
For a minute, I imagine I’ve misheard her. But then she grabs one of Torin’s arms and wiggles it around and even through my bleary eyes, I can see she’s right.
“Woah, where are your hands?” I grab his hand and yank it up to my face, poking myself in the cheek with one of his fingers. “Oopsie daisy.”
Some of the fuzz in my brain clears as I inspect his hands again.
I sway slightly and then stumble backward before deciding it might be a good idea to sit down.
The floor is nice, safe, it doesn’t keep trying to trip me over.
I pat it appreciatively before remembering I’m supposed to be inspecting Torin’s invisible hands.
Tugging his sleeve, he slowly lowers himself beside me until he’s sprawled out on the floor.
“Huh.” I twist them this way and that and then roll one sleeve up to reveal his very visible wrists. “Uh huh. Interesting.”
“I’m not sure this is the best time for this,” he says. “We should probably do it later, after you’ve slept and eaten.”
“Or maybe this is the best time,” I say. After Reva translates for me, Torin stares me down but I ignore his intense gaze. “How’d it happen?”
“It started in the labs. My hands were covered in that black stuff and they started to just... disappear. I thought there was something wrong with my eyes to begin with but then they disappeared entirely.”
“And can you switch it on and off?” I ask.
“It doesn’t seem like it. Do you think it’s going to spread?”
If I was more sober, I’d probably answer differently. But I’m not, so I find myself shrugging. “Possibly. Probably not, though.”
Reva’s busy snooping through the collection of glasses borrowed from the ship and the potions I have neatly labelled. They’re all currently lined up on the floor since I don’t have any shelves. She snorts and sips at my drink before gagging slightly.
“Ugh, that’s disgusting.”
“Does your bear have no hands either?” I ask Torin.
“Paws,” Torin says with a smirk. “And I don’t know. I haven’t shifted since.”
“Too much magic,” I mutter. “Can you pass me that blue potion over there?”
Reva grabs it and hands it over before joining us on the floor. She sips my drink again before handing it back to me with a shudder. “I don’t know why I keep drinking it, it’s so horrible.”
I take a sip of my own and wind up mimicking her shudder. She’s right, it really is terrible. I then pour a little of the blue liquid onto Torin and watch his hand shimmer into view for a moment before disappearing again.
“Too much magic,” I repeat before scratching my cheek and somehow tipping some of the blue stuff onto myself. “Oopsie daisy.”
“I think it might be time for you to get to bed,” Torin says. He eyes the pile of blankets in the corner. “Have you been sleeping in here?”
“Only some nights,” I reply. “Most nights I don’t sleep at all. Someone always seems to fall down the stairs in the middle of the night.”
Or the nightmares come, and there’s zero chance of me sleeping beyond a handful of hours.
“Come on, we can talk more about this tomorrow.” Reva gets to her feet and holds her hand out to me, which I take.
Part of me howls in protest. I want to watch Reva dance and laugh and be carefree, like she deserves. I want to stay up and chat with the others now that I can do more than nod back.
However, a bigger part of me wants to pass out like I’m dead and wake up naturally.
So I find myself being shepherded along with Reva’s arm linked through mine.
It sounds like the party is still going strong downstairs, judging by the whoops and yet more raucous laughter that echoes up the stairs.
They lead me to a room I don’t recognise that smells incredibly comforting, and I find my shoulders loosening as I suck in a deep breath of the scent.
“Is this—?”
“My room,” Reva says. “Is that weird? I probably should have asked first. It’s just... I don’t think I’m in any state to head back to the party either.”
“You want to share a room with me?” I ask, barely able to believe it. I’ve spent so many days thinking about her, pining after her, hoping we might find a way back.
The bed’s big. Big enough for us both. And just seeing it and being inside Reva’s room, with her clothes and her scent all around me, has some of the dread that comes with the thought of sleeping fading away.
I kick off my shoes and eagerly crawl into bed with Reva climbing in beside me while Torin clambers in on the other side. With all three of us packed in like this, the bed is not quite big enough but Reva lets out a soft giggle that lights up the deepest, loneliest parts of my soul.
I fight to stay awake. I want to stay awake. But the tension in my body fades away, and I find I can’t win against it.
AND WHEN I WAKE UP, gasping from the same nightmare where I’m trapped in the basement with nothing but rats for company, I’m not alone.
A warm hand moves through my hair, gently squeezing my sweaty neck. Soft words fill my ears, even though I can’t quite fight through the haze of fear to understand them.
I suck in breath after breath, trying to force my racing heart under control.
“It’s all right. You’re all right.”
They’re the same words I remember saying to Reva weeks ago when she was trapped in her own nightmare. Then there’s another, larger hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently.
All around me are gentle touches and comfort. And they’re enough to send me back into a deep sleep.
And when the nightmares fade away, I wake up with something other than terror and hopelessness filling my body.
The spark of an idea.
I might know how to help Reva and Torin too.
First, though, I need to find Jack.