Page 59 of Hooked on a Witch
“Maybe what? You found your guy or he’s dying?”
“Both, maybe.”
“The full-body healing only works on your Gods’-chosen, meant-to-be forever man. No one else.”
“Did you know for absolute sure your now husband was it when you tried to heal him the first time?” This was wasting time she didn’t have. She needed information fast.
“No. I had a strong gut feeling about Nikolai, but you’re right. I didn’t know for sure. Guess you won’t know until you try. Then you get to live with the freak out of knowing for sure he’s probably your it if the healing does work. On the other hand, if it doesn’t work and he dies, then you know he wasn’t.”
“Merck’s down, unconscious, by what I think is some sort of magical poison. What do I do, Jen?” Panic clawed her throat, threatening a monster explosion.
“You’ve got to try it on him.”
“How?”
“This is ayou-must-believemoment. Ask the Goddess to help you. When I say goddess, I mean you think about your descendant goddess. Then you make circular motions over him. When the power revs in you, give in to it. Let it work through you.”
“That’s it?”
“It’s all I can say to describe what it felt like. Let your heart guide you. It knows what to do”
“That’s it?”
No answer. The call had been dropped. She didn’t have time to waste calling back.
Let the power rev? Let her heart guide her? She stroked hair back away from his forehead, not that she needed to since it was so short. The act calmed her. She was linked to this man. She didn’t have answers on why or how. She barely knew him or at least who he’d become. Yet all those years since she last saw him, living so far away, she’d never really looked for anything special from a relationship. Maybe she wasn’t so different from him. Both of them bounced from one person to the next. That didn’t mean they were meant for each other, nor that he’d been waiting for her or she him. Their lives intersecting now was too coincidental.
He was her it. That she believed. She had to save him.
“Pleiades goddess, help me. I don’t understand any of this, but help me. Please don’t let him die. Not now or in a few days.” She closed her eyes and made circles over his chest, feeling silly but wanting to do this the right way. Warmth tingled inside her and spread outward, down her arms. Energized. Electric. Good Lord was it draining.
She kept moving her arms until it’d been several minutes and she was so exhausted from the energy depletion that she the circular motion felt like she was pushing them through drying cement.
With a final silent plea to the goddesses, she rested her head on his chest. “Come back to me, Merck.”
***
Merck faded in and out for a while until he realized he still lay in the backyard. He blinked up at the orange-hued sky. Sunset. Near eight-thirtyish. A few pelicans flew overhead. Egrets squawked from the marshes. Waves beat against the dock in a steady rhythm, assuring him all was calm. The ocean called to him as it always did, but this time she wasn’t screaming for his help to fix something hidden in its depths. It communicated reassurance and a plea for him to recover.
He wasn’t dead. His side no longer hurt. The whacky, horror-filled dreams were gone. But he was so weak, he could barely move.
Pressure compressed his stomach as if something lay on top of him. A body?
He looked down his front.
Shannon. Not moving.
She couldn’t be dead on top of him. His breaths came labored until his brain registered the soft movement of her chest. Up and down. Regular. Consistent.
Her face looked peaceful, not pained. Had she done something to him? Something to save him?
He lifted a shaking hand to touch her golden hair. She was so beautiful with her flawless skin, now pale from too long spent up north and indoors. She would tan if she spent more time in the sun.
He used his index finger to trace her nose. He liked its slight sloping and how it crinkled at the top when she concentrated. Too tired to speak, he thought to her, even though she couldn’t hear. “You must survive. I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”
Her shampoo smelled good. It reminded him of fresh and clean, and all that was good.
There were so many things he should’ve said to her before now. He’d run from their connection, even though he’d recognized it as something unique. Staying away from her hadn’t been entirely about his worry of the Enforcer job spilling into her life, although he’d tried to convince himself of this over the years. It hadn’t been about her father intimidating him. His reaction to her panicked him. It still did.
