Page 67 of Elex

“You claimed his heart rate and breathing were fine. But you never checked those,” he said, advancing on me. “I’ve been in enough infirmaries to know those are checked using a stethoscope.” He eyed my neck accusingly, bare of anything except the collar the Elusians had placed on it.

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“I don’t suppose you’ll accept that I checked them before you woke up?” I rasped.

“Try again,” he growled, eyes flashing.

“Fine,” I huffed. “I don’t need a stethoscope to check his heart and lungs. I can hear them.”

“Yeah, right,” he scoffed.

“Seriously. I can hear them.” I said, tapping the side of my head. “Heightened senses are part of being a Soma.”

I hadn’t really expected them to know what a Soma was, but both looked at me in shocked surprise.

“A Somatophylakes?” Kat asked.

“How do you know the word?”

“How do we know you’re not lying?” Kat demanded skeptically.

“Why would I lie about it? If I really wanted you dead, I could have killed you back when you were using my chest for a pillow,” I said, and was rewarded by seeing a slight blush make Kat’s face glow. “And as far as my senses? Well, let’s just say, your brother’s right, you’re cute when you blush.”

I grinned wickedly at the little Mageia, despite the way I knew it pulled on the scars on one side of my face. I think I had smiled more in the last hour than I had in the last year. He glowered at me, and I saw him reach out and punch his brother’s shoulder without looking.

“Ow!” Vlakas exclaimed, rubbing his arm where Kat had punched him. “No fair taking advantage of the invalid!”

“Invalid, my ass,” Kat growled.

“You seem to have a thing about asses and assholes,” I quipped. “Is this a fetish I should be aware of?”

Vlakas barked out a laugh. Kat glared at his brother, and a flush glowed brighter over his cheeks. He really did look cute when he blushed. But hell, why was I bantering with him? All I needed was to get them into some semblance of health and help me convince the other Mageia who came with them to help.

I stood expectantly outside the Air bubble he had created. Kat watched me for a moment longer before the Air shield finally dropped. At last! Progress.

Chapter 14

Kat

This gorgeous asshole was a Soma. Fuck me.

I knew V was just as shocked as I was.

“Somas are real?” I heard myself asking, dropping my Air shield in shock. Bad mouth! No talking without permission!

Helios nodded, hastily brushing his hair back into place.

It wasn’t lost on me that when my blast of Air had thrown him back against the wall it had revealed horrible scarring on the left side of his face and neck. He had immediately seemed to turn away to try and hide the worst of it. The hoarseness of his voice made sense now. Maybe it had been injured when he got the scars.

“I didn’t expect that you had heard of us,” he said. “Most people outside Illyria haven’t nowadays. You know about Somas?”

Kat and I both nodded.

“Rumors, mostly. From an Illyrian eunuch medic.”

“An Illyrian medic? Are they human?” he asked, confused.

I nodded.