Chapter Twenty-Two Lyra #2
“Goddess, there’s everything, isn’t there?” Cheese toasties, tomato soup, chips, a salad, scones, three different kinds of meat pies, sausage rolls, a variety of biscuits, and a pickle and cheese tray were spread out before me. “Please tell me you’ll help me eat this.”
“Uh, sure, if you want me to stay,” Rab said, clearing his throat before sitting across from me.
“I do.” I looked up at him, and his shoulders seemed to relax just slightly.
I started with a cheese toastie, dipping a corner in the soup and munching as I watched the firelight play across Rab’s handsome face.
“How did you end up here?” I asked, chickening out on asking him about what had happened with us, that fateful day, in our youth.
Maybe it was lack of courage, or maybe it was just because I’d had a wildly emotional day, but I wasn’t sure I could handle whatever he would say about the moment he’d broken my heart.
“Tonight? Or on Earth?” Rab’s lips quirked in a smile. “See there’s this thing called the birds and the bees…”
“Ha ha,” I intoned, shaking the toastie in the air at him. “Tonight.”
“Lads’ night at the pub. I’d just walked in the door when Knox got the call.”
“Ah.” That made sense. What didn’t was why he’d come along with Knox. “And you came with to help?”
“Of course I came to help,” Rab said, exasperated. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, glowering at me.
Ah, so we were back to that. At least I’d grown familiar with his glowering over the past year.
“Well, thank you. Again, I guess.” Feeling awkward, I focused on eating, knowing I needed my strength.
“We need to figure out how this happened. Felicity can’t go around armed like this.”
“I don’t think she was armed.” I laughed, looking up from my food. “I think she was being stupid.”
“You’d be surprised how often those two go hand in hand,” Rab said, and I snorted.
“It’s just Felicity,” I said, shaking my head. “You can’t assume malice.”
“I know. I just…” Rab finally leaned forward and picked up a pie. “I want someone to blame for this.”
“I get it. But sometimes, shite happens. This was one of those times. Let’s look on the bright side, Rab. I’m hurt, but not seriously. The knife missed major organs and arteries. I don’t need surgery. I should be fine in a matter of days. Albeit, likely with a scar.”
“Your beautiful skin,” Rab said, the words so soft I almost missed them.
I nearly dropped my toastie in my soup.
The look in his eyes was almost… feral. Was it need? Or was he wanting to fight someone? It was hard to understand.
I wasn’t sure if I had the emotional capacity to decipher it.
At least not today.
All I knew was that it seemed some tenuous bridge had been built back between us, and what that meant, I wasn’t sure. But I did know that he would be here if I needed him. Which meant, for me, at least, that I could consider Rab a friend again.
If I ignored the kiss from last night, that is.
“Tuberculosis. Meningitis. Flu. Polio. Chickenpox,” I muttered, trying to ignore my body’s flush of excitement when I thought about Rab’s lips on mine.
“Are you worried about your wound getting infected?” Rab’s eyebrows rose.
“No.” I stabbed a chip with a fork, grumpy, and shoved it in my mouth.
“Lyra.” I looked up to see one side of Rab’s mouth lifted in a smirk. “I know why you’re repeating random nonsense.”
My cheeks warmed. Would my embarrassment for the day ever be complete?
“You do?” I asked, stabbing another chip.
“Transmutation is one of my powers, Lyra.” Rab leveled me a look over his pint glass. “Which means, when I was learning, I went through a similar phase of understanding that strong emotional responses can trigger a transmutation.”
Oh. Oh. Bloody hell. So he knew exactly why hedgehogs were popping up every time we were alone.
It seemed my embarrassment for the day was not, in fact, complete. Closing my eyes, I pressed my lips together and nodded.
“Can we pretend that was just my extreme dislike for you that did that?” I popped one eye open to see Rab’s shoulders shaking with repressed laughter. “Cool. Cool.”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. There’s a learning curve with magick.”
“Which is what I’m dearly afraid of.” I sighed and reached for my lemonade, needing something to cool my burning throat.
“Why didn’t you tell me about failing your exam?”
“Och, Rab.” I waved away the memory of the past. “Can we not? I’ve had enough embarrassment for the day.”
“Embarrassment? You should hardly feel embarrassed for getting stabbed, Lyra. If anything, you should be pissed. I could throttle Felicity for—”
“No, I just mean… everything else. Like, all the explosions and messy magick at the filming. Then, after. Everybody here. Me getting stitched up. It’s all just…
” I waved my hands in the air. “Messy. Uncomfortable. I don’t know.
I’m just feeling very at odds with myself lately, and I don’t know what to do about it. ”
“Growth will do that to you,” Rab said sagely, and ducked when I threw a chip at his head. “What?”
“Listen to you. Like acting like you’re some old, wizened sage. You’re barely two years older than me, Rab.”
“Och, I just meant with your magick. It doesn’t immediately fit. Not with anyone. It’s like, I don’t know, having to break in a new pair of shoes. Just turns out yours is worse because of the curse and all.”
“Ugh.” I glumly spooned up some more soup.
“It’s going to be okay, Lyra. You’ve made some progress with the curse. I’m sure, between all of us, we’ll get it figured out.”
“ ‘Us’?” I said, raising an eyebrow at him.
Rab shifted, looking away. It was clear this conversation was making him uncomfortable.
“Lyra… I think we should talk.”
Talk? As in about us? Would we finally lay everything out on the table? My heart hammered in my chest, but, unfortunately, now that I had food in my stomach, exhaustion snuck over me, burrowing deep. As I went to speak, a yawn escaped instead, and Rab’s eyes snapped back to me.
“You must be knackered. Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”
“I can—”
“Let me help. Please, Lyra.” It was the “please” that stopped me in my tracks.
Something had changed with him, but I couldn’t figure out the undercurrents of what was happening here.
Before I could respond, Rab was up, coming around the table, helping me as I stood.
As much as I hated to say it, he was right.
I needed the help. Leaning on him, I let him lead me to the bed.
Pulling the warm duvet over me, Rab surprised me by brushing my hair back from my face and placing a soft kiss on my forehead.
What did it mean? Why was he being so nice to me? How was he just putting aside a year of turning his back on me? Could I even believe his actions now? Confused, and too tired to do anything about it, I let my eyelids flutter closed.
“Sleep well, darling. You’re safe here.”
His words drifted across my skin, just as comforting as the blanket he’d pulled over me, and I slipped into sleep.