Page 29 of Tino
Niam rushed ahead of me to open our cabin; our familiars ran to greet us at the door. We’d wisely decided they would wait until we knew more about our magic before joining us at the training grounds. They couldn’t get truly hurt, but since they fed off our powers when they did, it was the best choice to leave them here.
I placed my unconscious bonded down on our bed, removing his dirty clothes before leaving him to grab a wet towel. I needed to clean him up a bit before tucking him down under the covers. Niam and Xari tended to our familiars in the front room, which I appreciated. I needed my full focus to be on Tair.
I knew Nujik and Willow would be here any minute, and Tair needed to be tucked away and clean when they arrived. I could wash up later if I felt comfortable enough to leave his side for a few minutes, although I seriously doubted it.
Kitty made a whimpering sound outside the closed bedroom door, not so silently begging to be let inside. He wanted to protect his master and I couldn’t refuse him. As soon as the covers were covering Tair, I opened the door to let Kitty inside. I’d removed all of Tair’sclothes sans boxers, and now that he was taken care off, I could feel my own exhaustion.
The hit I’d taken when I’d landed on my back had been horrible. I remember fearing I wouldn’t be able to even stand, but Niam’s cries about Xarius being hurt had been enough for me to force myself to move. I had no way of helping them, but I needed to be there with them. These men were my family. My brothers. My soul was hurting along with them.
The front door slammed open, startling both me and Kitty, who’d just gotten comfortable at Tair’s right side.
“What happened?!” Silver’s voice reached me through the door and I winced. They’d likely felt the earth shake.
“Protect him, okay?” I whispered to Kitty and offered him a head pat before facing the others, closing the door firmly behind me. I hated leaving Tair, but I needed to talk to the others.
Niam was sitting on the couch with Xarius beside him while Silver stood with his hands on his hips, looking both worried and mad. Wilston leaned against the wall, waiting for us to speak.
“Hey,” I said, ignoring the roughness of my voice. I was so tired, and I could tell Xarius was moments away from dozing off too.
“Hey?!Hey?!How about you tell us what happened instead of wasting it on niceties!” Silver snapped.
I sighed. I knew Silver worried, but he’d needed to grieve in peace and I felt awful for ruining that for him. I sat down on the chair next to the couch. “Tair made an earthquake with his earth magic, accidentally using too much power which caused us to fall into a deep pit in the ground. Xarius fell and hit his head hard on something, almost causing him to bleed to death,” I explained. Niam began sobbing quietly, clearly still shaken up from seeing his soulmatch almost die.
Silver seemed to lose his battle with himself as he sank to the floor, sitting down and looking at the air unfocused.
I decided to continue, “Then Tair healed him.”
Silver’s eyes snapped to mine, “He can heal?”
I nodded, “Healed me too.”
“You were hurt too?” Xarius asked worriedly. He was still moments away from falling asleep, his head resting on Niam’s shoulder.
“I fell hard on my back and something snapped. He used the rest of his powers healing me.” No one spoke for a while, we each seemed to need a moment to gather our thoughts.
“He’s going to blame himself for this,” Niam spoke softly. I nodded in agreement. Tair would without a doubt feel guilty, no matter what any of us said, he would blame himself fully for hurting us. Hurting himself.
“We just need to remind him it was an accident,” Wilston said, moving away from the wall to join Silver on the floor. I nodded along with the others, a silent agreement made between us. We wouldn’t allow Tair to blame himself.
“I fear he’s hurt too,” I said, remembering how he’d only used one arm to heal me, leaving the other limp by his side.
“He is,” Niam said, wiping away a tear. “His arm is broken.”
I cursed and began pacing, no longer able to sit still. Before I could ask if Wilston could get the healer, a knock came from the front door.
“That would be Willow and Nujik,” Xarius said. His eyes were closed now, but he was at least still with us enough to sense the others outside.
I hurried over to open the door and found the healer, Grethe, was with them. I exhaled a sigh of relief as Grethe entered first. Iignored Willow and Nujik for now and focused fully on her. “Altair’s arm is broken. Can you help him?”
She scoffed, already moving towards the closed bedroom door. “Of course I can help him!”
I followed behind her like a lost lamb, eager to see what would happen, hoping with all I had that Tair would be okay.
I closed the door behind us and let Grethe look over Tair’s body. Kitty stayed in place, not bothering to move even an inch away from his master. I smiled lovingly at the familiar, grateful we had him. I longed for Gilbert’s comforting presence, but he’d likely sensed I needed room to breathe right now. Our familiars truly were intelligent creatures.
“Hmm,” Grethe hummed. “I need to deal with his magic depletion, too. Otherwise I can’t even heal him. His magic is so depleted that his body is focusing fully on restoring that, not able to heal itself. I can offer some of my own magic and then heal him, but it will take days before the arm is back to normal. It might be best if I just offer him a bit of magic, and then he can heal himself when he wakes.” It seemed she was speaking to herself more than to me, so I let her be and remained quiet. Whatever she felt would be best. I somehowtrusted her completely. I wasn’t a healer, didn’t even know what my ability was, to be honest, so it was nice just letting others run the show for a while.
“Get Wilston and Silver,” she ordered, her eyes still fully on Tair as she spoke.