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“Are you sure?” Daphne asked. I looked down at her, catching the way her hair reflected the sunlight like fire.

Sebastian nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Power next, right?” she asked, the hesitation in her voice slicing through me.

“Yes,” Sebastian said. “I’ll pull your power center up so I can look at it. It will probably glow gold, maybe with a bit of blue from Poseidon.”

Daphne said, “Okay.”

“This one won’t hurt.” And when Sebastian fuckingwinkedat her, I almost kicked him out of his chair.

But Daphne’s eyes floated up to mine, catching for a beat before looking back at Sebastian and nodding.

He moved his hands back over her and a small sphere formed over her chest, glowing gold like he said, but with streaks of darker blue through it. From my perspective, and Daphne’s, everything looked fine. I would even venture to say it was beautiful. Like her.

But Sebastian’s eyebrows furrowed.

“What?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm lest I scare Daphne.

Sebastian rotated the sphere and Daphne gasped. Our hands connected, hers shooting up and mine curling over protectively. There was a dark, angry spot, swirling like a storm cloud.

“What is that?” Daphne asked and a painful jolt shot through my center at the strain in her voice.

“Think of it like a bruise,” Sebastian said, studying it with pinched brows. “It doesn’t appear to be spreading or chronic, but something is definitely damaged.”

“So it was my fault,” Daphne muttered.

My hand squeezed hers. “Hey, no. It might be happening to you but it's not your fault.” Then, to Sebastian. “How do we fix it?”

Sebastian rubbed the space between his brows. “First, I need to know what caused it. Any changes in routine, training, diet, anything like that?”

“Well, I wasn’t here for a year,” Daphne said and I hoped she couldn’t feel my body tensing.

“But you’ve been back for over a month. If it was distance, that should have fixed it,” I defended.

“Maybe,” Sebastian hedged. “Training any different?”

“No,” Daphne and I said at the same time.

“What about diet?”

My frustration and fear pushed my words right past my mental filter. “No. She eats the same thing for breakfast every day and I share anything she eats for lunch or dinner. If it was that, it would be happening to me too. She drinks Sicilian coffee from the same farm every morning. And no, that hasn’t changed either because the first shipment we’ve gotten in six months came in a week ago.”

Daphne had moved to a sitting position and was staring at me with a blank expression on her face.

“Well,” Sebastian said, moving my attention away from her, “I have to think it was caused by something more intangible. The physical distance might have been eliminated. Don’t hit me for saying this, but is there a more…personal rift between you two?”

I lifted Daphne and I’s intertwined hands and hoped that was a fucking good enough answer.

“Yes, there is,” Daphne said, still looking at me. My head whipped to her. She was going to talk about this in front of Sebastian when we’d barely broached the subject? “We have been really busy since I’ve gotten back and haven’t spent that much time together.”

“What about routines? Anything you two would do regularly that you don’t anymore?”

Daphne and I stared at each other. We knew the answer. Sleeping in the same bed.

Sebastian laughed. “I suggest you try whatever idea just popped into your heads. I’ll work on a tonic to speed up the healing process.”

“Thank you,” I grumbled, not taking my eyes off Daphne.