Chapter 21
Altair
I blinked my eyes open, then groaned when I felt my entire body ache.
A loud purr reached me from my left and I carefully turned my head to see Kitty shaking with excitement.
What happened yesterday? I looked around the room as my mind started to remember the earthquake and how Xari had almost died.
How I’d almost killed him. I’d hurt Tino.
My Tino. I felt the warm tears trail down my cheeks as I let the horror over what I’d done wash over me.
“I’m so proud of you.” I turned my head and found Tino looking at me with so much relief and love in his expression that I started crying in earnest. I didn’t deserve him.
I shook my head. “I almost killed Xari.”
“You didn’t do that on purpose, Tair,” he said matter-of-factly, and before I could argue further, he added, “And you healed him, then me, using everything you had to save those around you, ignoring your own body and what it needed.”
I frowned, then looked at my bandaged arm. “Who?”
“Grethe,” he answered. “She came right away and looked you over. But because you were so deprived of magic, we needed to offer you some of ours before you could be healed. She put a cast on it to protect it from further harm. If you didn’t wake up in the next two days, she would need to heal the bone so it wouldn’t grow together wrong. ”
“You lost magic because of me?” I’d really fucked up.
He shook his head and kissed my tear stained cheek. “We offered some of our magic to help yours along. I gave almost all I had, but the others gain that amount in a day. I believe Grethe knew I wouldn’t be okay with giving less.”
“Xari?” I asked, ignoring the magic offering discussion for now.
“He’s okay. After a full night’s rest, he’s as good as new. Not even a single scar to show off.” I should be relieved, but I still had the horrible feeling of guilt churning in my stomach.
“Are they…” I swallowed. “Are they mad at me?”
“God no!” he exclaimed, searching my eyes which I had no doubt were red and swollen. “My Tair, they love you.” I still felt the guilt weighing me down, but Tino would never lie to me. I had to trust the others hadn’t turned their backs on me.
“Breakfast!” Xari’s cheery voice filled our cabin followed by five quick knocks on our bedroom door. “Wakey wakey!”
Tino got up from the bed and opened the door, letting a way too energetic Xari inside. “Took you long enough,” he grinned as he watched me sit up in bed.
“What?”
Xari rolled his eyes and then grinned at me again. “You’ve been out for two days.” I had? “And I come bearing bad news too. Willow just told me a big meeting is starting in an hour.”
“What would she have done if Tair was still asleep?” Tino asked before I could.
Xari pulled out a spray bottle from the back of his jeans pocket. “I was to make sure he was awake, so I grabbed this.”
Tino’s eyes widened. “You’d spray him awake?”
Xari gave him a duh look, then looked at me like can you believe this guy?
I smiled, unable to stop myself. Xari had already helped my mood immensely. “Well,” Tino said, clapping his hands. “You brought breakfast?”
After getting dressed and relieving my bladder, we followed Xari to our front room where Niam was already eating with Silver, Wilston, and Julie.
“What’s the meeting about?” Tino asked once we were all seated.
Xari shrugged. “She didn’t say, just that it was important and everyone in the camp would be there.”
“Then let’s hurry and eat,” Niam said, offering us each a plate.
I filled mine with more cakes than actual food.
I wasn’t in the mood to think about health today, still too drained to do anything else than just fill my mouth.
It hadn’t been easy getting dressed with my arm broken, but Tino had helped me, just like he did now as he spread butter on my bun.
After a few minutes of silence while we all filled our empty stomachs, Niam looked at me with worry.
“You think you have enough magic to heal your arm before the meeting?” I shook my head.
I’d only just gotten enough to be awake, I just had to deal with one arm being useless for a couple of days until I could safely heal myself.
The pain disappeared then and Niam gave me a wink. “Hope that helps at least.”
I breathed easier now that no pain could be felt in any part of my body. “Thank you.”
“No problem, Mr. Healer.”
I grinned. I hadn’t let it sink in yet. I was a healer.
“We never got to test your magic!” I said as horrifying realization dawned on me. Tino never had his chance at finding his magic. I’d forced him to wait because I’d messed up.
Tino shook his head. “I needed to see what my elemental magic was to read up on it while you slept, so I trained with Wilston and Xarius yesterday. Niam, Silver, and Julie stayed here with you.”
“I missed seeing you get your magic?” My voice sounded broken, even to me, but damn it hurt not being there with him. Not experiencing it with him.
“I’m sorry, Tair. But I needed to know, and we had no idea how long you would be asleep for.”
I nodded, unable to meet his gaze. “Fire and wind?” I asked.
“Fire and wind,” he confirmed.
“Oh! Tell him your ability!” Xari exclaimed excitedly.
“You know that too?!” I knew my voice was way too indignant and I knew I wasn’t allowed to be mad. It was, after all, my fault I wasn’t there to experience it with him.
Tino gave me a sheepish grin. “I can coerce people.”
“Huh?”
“He can make people do what he wants with his mind,” Silver explained, pointing to his temple.
“You can control people?” I asked, needing this confirmed.
He nodded. “That was why Nujik answered my unspoken question, because I coerced him into telling us the truth of his powers.”
“That’s…” I had no words. Amazing. Life changing. Cool?
“Yeah, it really is,” he agreed, not waiting for me to finish my sentence.
“Oh, and get this,” Julie said, sitting up in her chair. “Gilbert can squirt venom! He’s basically an acid gun!”
Wow, okay… way too much information at once.
“We’ll explain further after the meeting, but we need to be there in five minutes.” Wilston tapped his wrist. We’d each been given a watch so we would know what time it was so we wouldn’t be late for meals. They didn’t allow phones, so our only way of knowing the time was the old way.
I stood, glad my pain was gone, and with my good hand, I laced my fingers through Tino’s.
Mages filled the area like at the first meeting we’d held. They all looked at us as we sat on the thrones. It still felt like we were playing pretend, but since these people trusted us to save our world, the least we could do was sit on the pretty thrones they’d made for us.
“How’s your arm, dear?” Grethe asked me kindly while we waited for the last mages to arrive.
“Still broken, but I’ll heal it once I’ve gotten enough magic back,” I assured her. She placed her hand over it and light poured out of her palm. A shiver ran through my body as the sound of my bone snapping into place filled the air.
“There. Now the bone is put together again. You need your magic for more important things.” Then she left without offering further explanation.
“Well, that was ominous,” Silver muttered as we watched her sit down with the mages.
“Very,” Xari agreed.
“I have a bad feeling about this meeting,” Tino said, voicing my worries aloud. I could only nod my agreement, trailing my eyes over the crowd. Every mage seemed to know this wouldn’t be a happy meeting, not that our meetings would ever be happy, but this seemed… like something big was happening.
Willow and Nujik stepped up beside our thrones and spoke to everyone with grim expressions. “We need to return to the Realm of Mages. Today.”