Quinn
Silvius’s lab seemed more sinister now that I was alone. The sterile countertops gleamed dully in the moonlight as I stared into my blurred reflection, unable to shake the thought that he had engineered the virus stealing her memories in this very room.
After Eva had fallen asleep, I quickly excused myself, bringing the samples of her blood down here despite the late hour.
It wasn’t like I would get any sleep tonight anyways.
The sight of my best friend so weakened after mere hours of fighting this cursed virus had my palms itching to get to work and see what I could find out.
If this research wasn’t threatening her life, I might have welcomed it.
After all, this was exactly the sort of thing I was uniquely qualified to solve—a challenge that was the perfect mix of science, magic, and medicine.
While I enjoyed helping with the day-to-day needs in Soleara, I was looking forward to when things settled down and my passion for healing felt less like a hobby.
I had been meaning to visit Mayim for a while now to learn from the influx of healers there.
Marin had even put me in contact with one of the head healers of the Enclave, Dolion.
The Enclave was both a hospital and a research lab all situated by Queen Sariyah’s castle—and Dolion was one of the Enclave’s head researchers.
He had been instrumental in helping set up my personal lab in a world that didn’t run on electricity.
I had come to cherish our correspondence, especially when I found myself stuck on a problem.
There were so few people that thought like me—that truly cared about the science as well as the magic of this realm—but Dolion was one of them.
As I walked to the centrifuge, I marveled yet again at the modifications that had been made to power it with magic. Yael had brought it here, looking perplexed as I set it up, before she returned to help with Eva.
My hands trembled as I portioned the blood sample I had taken from my best friend. Then nearly jumped out of my skin as a low voice behind me asked, “How can I help?”
I glared at Tobias over my shoulder, then set the syringe aside. “Maybe by not scaring me while I’m holding a glass vial of your sister’s blood?”
He had the presence of mind to look properly chastened. “Sorry, Sagray.”
I should’ve known he would follow. After all, I wasn’t the only one dying to fix this as soon as possible.
There were circles under his eyes, though there always seemed to be nowadays.
I didn’t remember him being a night owl, but every time I passed his door, light streamed through the crack no matter how late.
“Knock next time.”
Though I had been so lost in thought as I thought through the tests I needed to run that I doubted I would have noticed if the False King himself rose from the dead and decided to follow me down here.
Tobias leaned sideways, rapping twice on the metal counter. “Now…how can I help?”
To anyone else he would have looked utterly indifferent, but I knew him better than that.
The casual lean against the counter was for show.
I had seen how his hands slipped into his pockets to hide their shaking; the worry he was trying to hide.
I didn’t have it in me to rehash my frustrations with him, especially not when that had achieved nothing in the stairwell earlier.
I had more important things to deal with for now.
My teeth sank into my lower lip as I gathered my thoughts. Tobias cocked his head, waiting.
“I need to separate the blood’s components in a centrifuge,” I said, thinking aloud. “Then we can prep the plasma to view the virus under magnification.”
Tobias nodded, though he looked confused. “What can I do?”
“There’s a drawer with what we’ll need over there,” I said, pointing to the opposite side of the lab. “I can talk you through how to use the negative stains in order to see the virus under the microscope.”
I looked back at the blood samples, glad I had thought to ask Yael for the magically impermeable gloves from my lab.
They were a gift from Dolion that had been tucked into one of his missives after I had complained about running low on disposable gloves from the human realm.
If Silvius’s notes were misleading—if the virus was transmittable without an injection—then we were all already exposed.
But coming into contact with blood laden with the virus was another risk entirely.
“First, you need to stop shaking,” Tobias said firmly.
He stepped closer—close enough that I was forced to look up at him.
Even when we were kids, I had always been the shortest of the three of us, but the difference felt so much more pronounced now that he had grown into his frame.
His shoulders were broad and sturdy, the muscles of his arms and chest shifting as he reached for me.
Wordlessly, Tobias took my hands in his. I jumped slightly at the immediate static. He gently removed my gloves—one hand easily holding both of mine before the other came to join it.
“Big breath in,” he started, before breathing in through his nose.
“Count each second,” I continued impatiently.
He gave me an exasperated look, one eyebrow arching.
I shrugged. “Your dad taught me too, remember?”
“Prove it then,” Tobias grumbled before pointedly sucking in a breath through his nose.
“Sorry.” I closed my eyes, breathing in for a steady four count—listening as Tobias matched me. Only when he exhaled did I do the same, our timing perfectly in sync. As we inhaled together, I couldn’t help but breathe him in—the earthy, slightly smoky scent almost hypnotic.
“There,” Tobias murmured, his voice noticeably deeper.
I opened my eyes to find him already staring at me. “Hmm?”
The space between us had all but disappeared. I was suddenly very conscious that I could count each golden speck in his irises. A long moment passed as his eyes traced my face, his gaze as heavy as a touch. My heart skipped a beat as his gaze lowered to my lips.
Tobias was still holding my hands, his thumbs brushing back and forth across the backs of them in soothing strokes. He looked like he was bracing himself—like there was something suspended in this moment that one wrong move could scare away.
“You know, my mom always told me to ground myself in the details when I was feeling overwhelmed,” I said quietly. “To make a list.”
His thumb paused. “A list?”
“Five things I could hear, four things I could see, three things I could touch, two things I could smell, and one thing I could taste. A mental list to bring myself back to the present.”
“I’ll have to remember that.” Tobias’s eyes searched mine like they were looking for something I didn’t know I lost.
Then he dropped my hands, stepping away so abruptly I nearly fell forward. “You’re not shaking anymore, Sagray. So, let’s get to it.”
?
I squinted at the centrifuge, making sure it was balanced one last time before turning it on.
Then I returned to the microscope with a sigh.
Silvius had installed the equivalent of an electron microscope in his lab, one powerful enough to see the virus on the slides Tobias helped me painstakingly create.
Stifling my yawn, I leaned forward. My tiredness seemed to melt away as I focused on the helical viruses clustered around Eva’s blood cells, the capsids encasing the viral genetic material clearly visible. I blinked as the virus shimmered strangely.
Tobias cleared his throat, and I jumped.
“Sorry,” he murmured.
Maybe it would help to talk it through. The later it got, the harder it was to focus. All the information was there, slowly coalescing, even as the answers I wanted remained frustratingly out of reach. I often found that talking through what I knew helped me find things I missed.
“Actually, come here.” I ushered Tobias forward with one bent finger, stepping aside so he could look into the microscope. “Do you see the smaller clusters?”
Hesitantly, he bent so he could peer through the magnifier. “I see a lot of wiggling things.”
“The spiral shapes are the virus. But even looking at a regular blood smear…” I pointed at the smaller microscope beside it and Tobias dutifully moved over. “Look there.”
A pause. “At…?”
“The donut-like shapes are red blood cells,” I explained impatiently.
Tobias made a small sound that might have been a laugh. “Donut-like?”
I rolled my eyes though he couldn’t see me. “Would saying biconcave discs been easier for you to understand?”
“Fair point.” He frowned into the microscope. “Why are the spirals so…shiny? Are they usually like that?”
“I think it’s the magic involved,” I said eagerly. “The infected blood cells have that sheen after the virus attaches itself to them. If it wasn’t trying to kill my best friend, I would be impressed. The research that must have gone into creating this…”
Tobias pulled back, staring at me inquisitively. “Does your magic tell you more about it?”
I blinked slowly, barely stopping myself from hitting my palm against my forehead.
To say it had been a long night was an understatement.
While I had used my magic to try to heal Eva, I hadn’t considered what it could tell me about the sample itself—not when I had been too focused on identifying it.
Tobias’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me that wasn’t the first thing you tried.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you,” I muttered as I pushed past him.
His hand fastened around my upper arm, stopping me before I could reach the microscope. “Unless you think the magic can somehow infect you if you do. Is it safe for you to be messing with it?”
I shrugged, and he immediately released his hold. “Considering Silvius’s notes detail how the victim’s blood is used to target the virus, I don’t think so. This was made specifically for her. Otherwise, I would’ve quarantined everyone here tonight.”
Tobias still looked uneasy. “Are you sure?”
“No,” I admitted. “But since Eva was most likely injected with the virus, I doubt it's a risk. It may not even be bloodborne.”
“Or magic-borne?”