LEVIATHAN #2
“I don’t know because this isn’t supposed to happen.
” Medusa pulls the scarf from her head, letting the rest of her snakes lift and taste the air while she studies the wrapped piece on the floor.
“The fragment is still alive enough to carry my magic, but it’s separated from the larger snake.
It shouldn’t have enough power to hold him permanently. ”
I tighten my grip on Rowan’s hand. “You keep using words like shouldn’t, and I’m developing a complicated relationship with them.
” His fingers squeeze mine once, still warm and strong enough that I’m trying very hard to pretend this is only mildly concerning, but the stone has already crossed his elbow and is crawling higher beneath his sleeve.
Then his leg locks so abruptly that his balance goes with it.
Rowan tips sideways off the bench, Amand catching him around the chest while I grab his thigh and help haul him upright before he can hit the concrete.
“Okay, no. We were laughing five seconds ago. I liked that version better.” I run my hand down the rigid leg, stopping where warm muscle gives way to stone beneath his pants. “This version can fuck right off.”
“So did I,” Rowan says, shifting what little weight he can onto the leg that still works.
His voice stays steady, but the humor has disappeared from his face, which means we have officially crossed from Rowan did something stupid into Rowan knows he did something stupid and might actually be in trouble.
I point at Medusa without taking my other hand off him. “Fix him.”
Her eyebrows rise. “I turn people into stone. I don’t undo it.”
I stare at her long enough that one of the snakes closest to me pulls its head back. “That is a catastrophic design flaw.”
“I didn’t choose the ability.” Medusa kneels beside the wrapped fragment and keeps her hands well away from it. “That piece is small. It shouldn’t have enough magic to hold him like this for long.”
I look back at Rowan when his breathing catches and flatten my hand against his chest. “Hey. None of that.”
The gray has reached his shoulder now, crawling across his collarbone in thin veins that thicken as I watch.
Amand tears open the top few buttons of Rowan’s shirt so we can see where it’s going, and whatever irritation I’m clinging to evaporates when stone starts spreading down one side of his ribs.
“Rowan, breathe deeper.” My palm stays pressed against his chest while he tries, but the movement underneath it is too shallow. I feel his ribs lift a fraction and stop, and something cold opens in my stomach. “Again. Come on.”
He takes another breath and gets even less this time.
I move in front of him before I can think about it, both hands going to his face while Amand braces Rowan from behind.
“No. Absolutely not. You don't get to stop breathing because you touched something I specifically told you not to touch. That is too fucking embarrassing for everybody involved, and I refuse to put that in the report.”
Rowan’s good hand closes around my wrist, but the grip is weaker than it was a minute ago. Medusa is still talking about the fragment eventually losing power, but eventually has become a completely useless concept while the man in front of me is slowly losing the ability to expand his chest.
Amand shifts closer behind him, one arm locked around Rowan’s middle to keep him upright. “His breathing’s getting worse.” Hearing the same fear in Amand’s voice sends mine straight into my throat.
“I know.” I slide one hand from Rowan’s cheek to the side of his neck, searching for warmth, movement, anything that isn’t stone. “Medusa, there has to be something.”
“There isn’t anything I can do from this side of it.” Her frustration finally cracks through the calm. “I can petrify. I can’t reverse another creature’s use of my magic, especially when it’s being carried through a severed snake.”
“Fantastic. Excellent. Love that for us.” The words come out too fast, and I stop because Rowan is trying to breathe again and failing badly enough that nothing about this is funny anymore.
I have no idea what to do. Gerald hasn’t secretly tucked how to unstone your idiot Basilisk mate into one of his lessons, Medusa is apparently only qualified for the first half of this disaster, and whatever Chameleon instinct is supposed to make me adaptable has chosen a spectacular time to remain silent.
Rowan’s eyes find mine when another shallow breath catches in his chest. I stop looking for an answer and kiss him.
There isn’t any thought behind it beyond the fact that he’s still here and I need him to stay that way.
His mouth is warm against mine, his hand still wrapped around my wrist, and I press closer like I can somehow force my own breath into him if I try hard enough.
The second our magic collides, something inside me jerks hard enough that I pull back.
A sharp crack splits through the stone along Rowan’s jaw.
For one second, none of us moves.
Then Amand’s hand tightens around Rowan’s shoulder. “Lev. Again.”
“I fucking saw it.” I grab Rowan’s face and kiss him a second time before anybody has a chance to explain something I’m already doing.
This time I’m paying attention. Rowan’s Basilisk magic surges first, hot and heavy through the bond, and mine catches on it with a strange pulling sensation under my skin.
The petrification around his mouth fractures with another sharp crack, stone flaking away from his lower lip as Rowan drags in a ragged breath.
Relief hits so violently that my knees nearly give out.
Rowan grimaces against my mouth. “You bit me.”
I stare at him, half his face still stone and one side of his body basically decorative. “You were turning into a fucking statue and came back complaining.” The laugh that breaks out of me is shaky enough that I barely recognize it.
Amand exhales hard behind him and drops his forehead briefly against Rowan’s shoulder before lifting it again. “His chest moved more that time. Keep going.”