“Is it not enough that you destroyed the book?”
The door creaked open, and Hunter peered inside. His blue eyes sparkled when he saw Gem and Niko on the bed, and he took that as his cue to run and jump right in.
“Well, hi there.” Gem smiled widely.
Hunter looked like he’d stepped out of the pages of a Peter Pan book with his unruly hair and mischievous blue eyes. He glanced between them but seemed especially curious about Niko. He hadn’t seen Niko but once since the spell was cast. Shepherd hadn’t wanted him in the room when he had no real explanation as to why Niko wouldn’t wake up.
Switch bustled into the room. “Sorry. He’s been distracted since the earthquake. Running here, running there. School’s canceled today.” Switch jerked his head and let out a short whistle to coax him down. “What’s all this tomfoolery? Can’t you see these people are trying to, uh, sleep?”
Niko stood up to greet him. Gem hated the way his white shirt hung loosely on him. All his shirts used to fit his body snugly.
Switch swaggered to the foot of the bed and swept back a strand of hair that had fallen out of his ponytail. He nodded at Niko. “It’s good to see you, man. Thought for a minute there you weren’t gonna make it.”
Niko clasped his hands in front of him. “It would seem that this world isn’t done with me yet.”
“So I see.”
Switch wasn’t good at masking his feelings. He obviously didn’t know that something had happened to Gem. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been casting such a critical stare at her lying between Niko’s sheets. He must have thought that there were some shenanigans going on behind Viktor’s back.
Gem would have giggled over the insinuation if she hadn’t been so sleepy. She could barely keep her eyes open in the dimly lit room.
Hunter reached up and grasped Niko’s hand, and the three of them walked into the hallway. While Switch and Niko conversed privately, Gem wondered if this was all a dream. A shiver ran up her spine when she remembered destroying the book. She’d truly thought she would die in that moment. Except instead of fear like she’d felt when Arcadius had drowned her, she’d embraced her death. That acceptance confused her. She’d done it for Niko, but even if he had been beyond saving, at least that deceitful spellbook would never harm anyone again. But here she was, still breathing.
Still alive.
Chapter 10
Something smelled delicious, and it wasn’t the sheets beneath her nose. When Gem lifted her head and looked around, she spotted a food cart next to the bed. Someone must have had a time pulling that up the stairs. A fire hissed and crackled in the hearth, but that wasn’t the noise that drew her attention. It was the heavy breathing in the center of the room where Niko was doing push-ups. His muscles quivered, and his back glistened with sweat.
“What time is it?” Gem propped the pillows behind her and sat up. “My internal clock is all screwy.”
When he rested on his forearms and turned toward her, he looked more like himself. He no longer had that strange beard, and his long hair was bound in a thin braid. “Time is irrelevant when your body requires healing. Rest all you need.”
“I don’t see you resting.”
“But I did. For over a month.”
Her eyes rounded when she looked down at her black shorts and turquoise shirt. Where did her dress go? These were her sleep clothes!
Niko stood up and approached the bed. “What troubles you?”
She blushed all over. How mortifying!
“Maybe you can’t see like everyone else, Niko, but that doesn’t mean you can just walk in on people in the bathroom or strip off their clothes. I was perfectly fine in that dress.”
Niko bowed. “My apologies for entering the bathroom.”
“And taking off my clothes?”
He strode to the food cart. “I will not apologize for that.”
She pulled the sheet up to her chin. “And why not?”
Niko poured some orange juice into a glass and held it out to her. “If you wish for an apology, you’ll have to ask Kira for one. She came in and dressed you hours ago. Then Switch lifted you while we changed the bedding.”
She took the orange juice. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so critical. I just have insecurities about people seeing me naked.”
A smile touched his lips. “Then you have nothing to worry about with me.” He lifted a silver dome on the cart and revealed a platter filled with sausages, bacon, hash browns, and freshly sliced tomatoes.
“Eat with me,” she insisted, still in disbelief that she’d slept through all that. “There’s a chair just behind you that Viktor brought in during your coma.”
While Niko retrieved the wooden chair from the corner, Gem fixed them both a plate before pushing the low cart out of the way.
Niko sat facing the cart, and she handed him his food.
“Thank you.”
Gem crossed her legs and put a cloth napkin over them. She decided it was time for a change in subject before she stuck her foot in her mouth again. “Where do you think Kira shifts? I’ve never seen her animal. It’s all very mysterious.”
“I assume she likes her privacy.”
“We all like privacy, but I don’t see how her animal can be happy inside a room. Maybe she’s a turtle.”
“Or a skunk.”
Gem smiled and decided that talking about someone else wasn’t the best topic either. She couldn’t help but be curious about people’s private affairs, and sometimes that crossed the line of intrusion. But why on earth would Kira stay inside when they had all that land? Poor thing. Maybe her animal was defective in some way. In any case, she was thankful that Kira had dressed her in something more comfortable.
She bit into the greasy sausage and then wiped her fingers on the napkin. “Why didn’t Switch just carry me back to my room?”
Niko devoured an entire sausage as if his life depended on it. A month was a long time to go without food. “I wouldn’t allow it.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “Why not? I feel like I’m hogging up your space and privacy.”
“I’m indebted to you. Therefore, it’s only right that I personally see to your recovery.”
“You don’t owe me anything. I wish you wouldn’t keep saying that.” She ate a few tomato slices, wishing they had brought jelly for her bacon. “I thought I was going to die. I really did. The light was so intense and hot. I’ve never experienced anything so powerful in my life. It filled me up and burned like fire.”
“Are you ready to talk about what happened?”
Gem needed to backtrack. Niko didn’t know the whole story. “When you first fell unconscious, I tried to find a reversal spell. I really did. But translating a language takes time, and I hit a roadblock. I went back to Pawn of the Dead to see if I’d missed anything. That’s when I found another book, one that had all sorts of details in it—random details. If I had just flipped through it, I would have missed the important pages. But I meticulously combed through each one. Viktor had only given me a week, and I couldn’t afford to overlook anything.” Unable to sit still while recounting the facts, she set her plate back on the cart. “Then I found a passage describing a book like yours. I wasn’t sure if it would help, but then I saw the ouroboros symbol. That same symbol was inside your book, in case you didn’t know.”