Chapter 8
In His Hands
As Maya stood there trying to figure out how to respond, Apollo gently took her elbow. “Go ahead and lie down. It will be easier for the magic to work when you are resting.”
“Oh, okay.” Instead of lying down, though, Maya started unbuttoning her shirt.
She had several buttons undone when Apollo asked, “What are you doing?”
“You should have access to the scar, right?”
“I can just lift your shirt. You don’t need to strip.”
Maya was just finishing unbuttoning her blouse as he spoke. Pulling her arms through the sleeves, she lay down on the bed. “I don’t mind. That thing was uncomfortable anyway.”
Apollo’s face was a little pink, and he seemed to have a difficult time looking at her. “I don’t … usually people don’t strip.”
Maya turned her head on the pillow. “Isn’t it easier to work without the fabric in the way?”
“Well, sure, I imagine that will help, but ….” he swallowed.
Maya turned to face the ceiling, then closed her eyes. “Just let me know what you need me to do.”
Apollo’s voice sounded a little tense, but she could hear him moving around beside the bed. “Right now, just relax. I need to focus,” then he said under his breath so that she could barely hear him, “which is going to be more of a challenge than I was anticipating.”
As much as Maya wanted to ask what he meant, she was quickly distracted as she felt his hands on her stomach.
His touch was light and warm. Every so often, he would press on different places, but for the most part, his fingers seemed to follow the scar, working around the edges of the tissue.
To her surprise, she enjoyed the feel of his healing magic, soft and pleasant as it spread out from his touch.
She let out a low moan, her eyes still closed as a dull ache faded under the healer’s fingers, then said, “That feels really good. Is all healing magic like this?”
Apollo’s response was delayed, but he finally replied, “No. My magic is not like the others. It’s not nearly as potent as Noel’s, who has been doing all kinds of experimental work to find solutions no one has ever considered.
And it is much more focused than Cosmo’s, which makes him instrumental when there are multiple patients.
Mine tends to need to be trained on a single person, and it is much more traditional. ”
“So there are different ways to heal people?”
“Yes. Like each wedding, every patient’s—or client’s—needs and reactions are different.
A single healer can only be so effective.
The more healers we have, the easier it is to find the right way of treating a patient.
Kind of like …” he cleared his throat as his hands reached the top of the scar, just under her ribs, “you have many vendors, and you will almost never use one vendor for all of the weddings you plan. You may have one you tend to use, such as a baker or florist, but sometimes a client will have very unique tastes or needs. For them, you will find a different vendor who can accommodate the request.”
The room fell silent as Maya considered his words.
After a while, he removed his hands. “I’ve done some initial work, but I’ll need at least a week to repair much of the damage.”
Maya opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Do you mean that in a week, I may be able to shift into a dragon?”
He turned a little away from her, then picked up the blouse and handed it to her. “Yes,” he cleared his throat, “yes, that should definitely be possible. If you wouldn’t mind, I would appreciate it if you would put this back on.”
“Oh,” Maya sat up and took the blouse. “Hold on,” she looked down at her naked torso and tried to make a shirt form over her skin. Frowning, she said, “I don’t understand why it isn’t working.”
Apollo turned a little, saw that she was still half naked, and quickly faced away from her. “What isn’t working?”
“My magic. I can’t get clothing to form over me, and it’s upsetting.”
“So you usually walk around without material on you?”
“Yes. I don’t like the feel of clothing. And generating my own saves me a lot of time. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have noticed that my clothing wasn’t working if Cosmo hadn’t pointed it out to me.”
Apollo quickly turned and looked at her. “Cosmo saw you naked?”
“Yeah,” Maya held up the blouse and glared at it for a second, upset that she would have to put it back on.
“The old couple was hounding him to come after me. I think they made him so uncomfortable he preferred to face me rather than them.” Maya laughed and shook her head as she slipped her arms into the sleeves.
“After he woke me and entered my room uninvited, it was seeing that I wasn’t wearing anything that made him finally feel any shame. ”
“You weren’t … wearing anything as you slept?”
As she rebuttoned her shirt, she said, “I went to sleep with a slip on. It started glitching after I woke up. I think it had something to do with the old couple somehow messing with my magic, no doubt hoping to inspire something physical to happen. A stupid idea, really.”
“Yeah, what were they thinking?” Apollo said. Maya looked up and saw him shaking his head. “When you are dressed, just come out to the living room and we can talk some more.”
“Sure.” She was nearly done, then she asked his retreating back, “About what?”
“Leaving,” he said over his shoulder.
It didn’t take her long to finish dressing. Without thinking, she stopped in front of a mirror and straightened up her blouse, then touched up her hair. That’s weird. Why did I do that?
Hurrying down the hall, Maya stopped in the kitchen. Apollo was cleaning the dishes at the sink. “I’m not sure how to leave just yet. I mean, flying is the most obvious and easiest way to escape. Unfortunately, it sounds like they have realized that is a problem.”
Apollo placed a dish in the drying rack, then reached for a towel to dry his hands. “Well, I can understand it on some levels. Sasha literally burst through a window to escape, and Noel wasn’t too far behind her. I’ve also heard that Everet started making trips to human areas for skiing gear.”
“Really?” Maya had a lot of questions around that last statement. “You know the king well enough to call him by his first name?”
Apollo chuckled a little as he sat at the table. Maya moved over and took her own seat as he responded. “He consults with the healers a lot, so he’s in our facility often enough. I wouldn’t say that we are more than acquaintances, though.”
“Oh. Why?”
Apollo’s smile didn’t fade, but he shook his head. “It’s not something I can talk about.”
Maya’s shoulders sagged a little. “Oh. Okay. Do you think he’ll be a good king?”
Apollo considered the question, then replied diplomatically, “It’s too early to say. I know he will be a much better king than the last one, but that bar is far too low to make the situation look particularly optimistic.”
Maya scrunched up her face. “No matter how the media and his people tried to portray the old king, there was something off about him. I mean, his words did not match reality.”
Apollo held up his hands. “We can only hope that his son is a better ruler.” He then put his hands down on the table. “So flying is not an option for us. And I know that portals off of the island are too dangerous. Can you think of other, less common ways to travel?”
Placing her elbows on the table and clasping her hands, Maya placed them against her mouth. “I know that an actual portal was used to get me here, which seems like a huge violation. It also suggests that there could be a way to access one to get away too.”
Her companion’s brow creased a little. “I think there is something controlled about the magic they use. Several of the shifters from the Christmas group were brought here that way.”
“There must be some way to reverse the portals to get back. But that may not be the safest way to return home.”
“What about an object?” Apollo was looking around the kitchen. “Would you be able to make an object that can get us back?”
“Just one of us. Then I would not be able to get the other person back without being there to make sure that things work properly.” She drummed her fingers against her face. “I should have thought of that much earlier.”
“Considering how little sleep you’ve gotten, I’m surprised you were still functional.”
Maya looked at Apollo. “How do you know whether or not I’ve gotten enough sleep?”
“How quickly you fell asleep in my arms earlier was the first indicator. Usually, that only happens when there is a substantial amount of blood loss. At first, you scared me with your reaction. But when I started trying to resuscitate you, your body made it clear that you were severely sleep-deprived.”
“How did my body indicate anything?”
“It’s part of the assessment process. I’m able to check basic vital signs and patterns with my magic, and your body was loud about how little sleep you’ve gotten.”
“It’s the nightmares,” Maya said without thinking.
He just nodded. “I can help with that. If you would like me to.”
Unable to help herself, Maya asked, “You mean you can amplify my nightmares?”
“What? No! I meant—oh,” he sighed, rolled his eyes, and shook his head, but Maya was glad to see that Apollo was more amused than annoyed. “No, Maya, I mean I can help reduce your nightmares.”
“Not going to promise to completely get rid of them?”
Maya was smiling, but something in the way Apollo’s smile froze and his yellow eyes looked at her made her think she had said something wrong. Before she could apologize, though, he looked away. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
As much as she wanted to ask about it, Maya could sense that her question had somehow bothered him. Trying to get back on topic, she looked out the window. Then she openly mused, “Somewhere out there is the world we desperately want to reach. But how? How?”
Drumming her fingers on her cheek, something came to her. “No. It couldn’t possibly be that easy.”
Apollo leaned forward again. “What are you thinking?”
A wicked smile spread slowly across her face. “Oh, I think we can use the meddling to our advantage.”
“How so?”
“I need to figure out how to get someone’s attention.
Someone who would be upset that people are trying to force couples together.
The last thing matchmakers and their ilk want is to be exposed for manipulating events and people.
It’s just a short jump to making this place look like the machinations of the court. ”
Apollo’s smile mirrored her own. “Miss Madison would be positively irate if she knew about a couple trying to force people together. She’s level-headed, and I think I can get her to help us. Although,” his smile faded, “I’m not sure that we would be allowed to be gone for too long.”
“Are you able to contact her to get her here?”
“Unfortunately, no. Without an emergency, she won't make an appearance.”
“What kind of emergency?”
“She came here several times over Christmas; the last time was because Sasha was dying. That’s what got Sasha off the island without a mate or a lesson.”
Maya stood up and started pacing. “So, nothing short of death will get us off this island?”
“I’m sure there are other ways. It’s just—”
Maya took a deep breath. “I’m trusting you, Apollo.”
He gave her a concerned look. “Trusting me to do what?”
“Make sure I don’t stay dead.” For the first time in more than a decade, Maya let the full force of that horrible injury hit her body.
The scar opened, fresh as it had been on that day over two decades ago.
Just like when she was a child, she crumbled to the ground, her body unable to handle the strike.
Unlike the last time, though, there was nobody standing by, ready to ensure she survived to suffer for the rest of her life.
A cruel way to ensure that someone paid for her family’s mistakes long after their deaths.