Page 23 of Icy Heart, Empty Chest
“Dae, what’s going on? Are you having chest pain?” I was immediately nervous, the rage replaced with anxiety at the visual of him holding his chest in obvious discomfort.
“Horse form doesn’t like that I don’t have a heart to pump the blood,” he wheezed out.
I bit back a stream of angry statements about irresponsibility. He opened his eyes slightly and gave me a small self-satisfied grin.
“It felt so good to run again though.”
“I bet.” Some mild sarcasm there.
“You got any healing juice left in there?” he asked, looking pale.
“Me?” I was incredulous. I wasn’t kidding when I said I hadn’t done more than burns or cuts recently.
“No, your cat.” He could still form sarcasm, that was good, I think. I don’t even have a cat.
“You can’t be serious, Damien.”
“Not really the time to joke, Cor.”
“I really haven’t done anything in a while. I do not think I am the best candidate for this,” I answered quietly.
“Cor. I told you I needed your help and your skills. Please?” He had a nauseated look on his face.
“Fine.” I rolled up his shirt and took off my coat. I had started sweating and my deodorant could definitely use an extra few coats. Also, if he puked on my rug, I would have to get it professionally cleaned.
I let out a deep breath and rubbed my hands together, feeling the magic starting to well there. It took a second. My magic wasn’t used to me calling on it. My eyes were closed but my fingers should be emanating a periwinkle blue light. Assuming this was working.
I opened them and gingerly placed both hands on either side of his spell scar. Closed my eyes again and pushed the magic in. I could feel it streaming out through my hands and into him, feeling cool, soothing. Think icy, peppermint, the first flakes of snow, aloe vera on a burn. After a minute I was starting to feel prickles on my hands which means I was getting close to my reserves. I kept pushing though. I didn’t know how much he needed and I wasn’t going to undershoot.
A shock passed through my hands and I jolted, balancing on my side to stay upright. Ugh. Oh no.
“Better?” I asked, with my head spinning.
“Yeah. No pain.” His face was back to normal color, the spacey look had left his eyes.
“OK. Good.” On the other hand, I was not quite as good. I was, in fact, nauseated with a shooting headache.
I took my hand out from his chest and lay back on the soft rug near his face. Fuck I am out of practice with that. I feel immensely unwell.
“Please don’t ask me to do that again for a while,” I said quietly, eyes closed against the light.
He sat up. “Are you OK?” Concern flew to his face.
“Magic, as you know, takes energy. Healing, for the unpracticed, can take a lot of energy. I’m going to lie down here for a bit, at least so the world stops spinning.” I flexed my fingers in the shag rug, trying to focus on one thing.
“Cora, why did you go that hard?” There was an edge of rebuke in his tone.
“I wasn’t going to risk your chest cavity exploding like a horror film,” I shot back shakily. I could feel the sweat running down my forehead.
“I guess it was pretty stupid to run. I just missed doing it. I’ve kept the exertion pretty low recently.” He sounded remorseful. “I wanted you to remember horse form.”
“Hard to forget a giant green horsey. I’m not going to rub it in, only ’cause it takes too much energy,” I breathed. “But this isn’t over. Yell later.”
“It was stupid, I know.” Pure remorse. I got the feeling that had nothing to do with his heart.
“Didn’t you used to run to work off frustration?” I can’t believe I still remembered that.
“Yup.”
