Page 80 of In Her Own Rite

“I start mental prep with Seb today,” I say, leaning against the counter. “What are you guys making?”

“Frittata. It should be done soon,” Gabe says.

I look down at my watch. “I have some time to practice my healer skills before lunch, if you want, Gabe.”

“You’re not too tired?”

“No. Actually, I feel like I have more energy from this morning. Come on, we can go to the living room so we don’t disturb Quinn.”

He nods and I follow him to the living room on his crutches. Once there, he positions himself over the couch and gently lowers himself down, and I take the crutches from him.

“Alright, let’s take a look at this,” I say, unfastening the clasps of his shirt to expose the scarring on his chest. “Oh, this is looking way better. It may not even scar at all.”

“That’s all you,” he says, leaning back a little as I put my hands over the scars. “I can’t believe you did this much for it in three weeks.”

“Well. It helps having someone to practice with every day.”

“Do you think your training is helping?”

I look up. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s normal for someone to be growing their skills so fast. Could your shifter training be helping, somehow?”

I shrug. “Maybe. I considered that for the physical training, but for shifting I didn’t really think about it.”

“Makes sense, right? You’re building your power in other ways, so…”

“Could be,” I say, nodding. “But okay. Give me a minute to focus.”

I close my eyes and pool my concentration, feeling in my mind’s eye for the wound. Most of the internal wound has healed, so I pull back a layer to look at the thick scar tissue that’s formed on his chest.

I’ve never trained to work on scarring, so I’m not quite sure what I’m doing. But I focus on the thick lines, which, in my mind’s eye, look puffy and have the color of a shadow—less dark than the deep gashes from before. Saga’s and Helen’s healing magic has been almost completely pushed out now, and I can only feel my own, swirling around his chest, around the bruising in his side. It makes his energy more open to me, now that mine is familiar to the wounds and muscle.

I spread out my fingers, trying to coax the scarring to ease, but that does nothing. I move my hand a little, as though smoothing the dark clouds of his scars, but they don’t respond to that, either. Hm.

“It’s weird not having Kieran here,” Gabe says.

I open my eyes. “Is it?”

“You don’t miss him?”

I suck my teeth, annoyed. “I don’t know. Shouldn’t I be working on your scars right now? Why are we talking about this?”

“Can I be real with you?” he asks.

I feel my inner wolf snap in defiance, but my mouth says, “Yeah, of course.”

Stupid people-pleasing brain.

“Stop wasting time.”

I give him a look.

“I’m serious,” Gabe continues. “Not everyone gets a chance to love someone like that.Youdo. Stop throwing away time you could be happy together.”

I swallow. “I don’t know, Gabe. It’s complicated.”

“I’ve seen the way you look at each other. How complicated can it be?”

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