by Sarina Dorie
“I guess. How long have I been asleep?” I tried to sit up, but my diaphragm didn’t feel right, and it was difficult to breathe when I tried. My core muscles felt out of shape. Thatch’s expression remained grim.
Elric touched my shoulder. “Don’t try to move yet. Give yourself a moment to adjust.” He sat beside me on the bed. His hip touched mine, but I didn’t feel his warmth. There was no pressure.
This didn’t feel like a dream, but there were too many details that didn’t fit together. Thatch and Elric weren’t attacking each other for one.
“I’m done adjusting.” I lied. “What happened?”
Thatch said nothing. He and Elric exchanged a look, like they had decided something between themselves without me. I couldn’t decipher what that might be.
Elric turned back to me as if nothing was amiss. “It sounds like you had quite the adventure with the Raven Court. They’re perfectly barbaric if you ask me. And I’m sure you saw their fashion was at least three hundred years behind in the times.” He continued talking, the honey of his voice lulling me into a calm. Visions of watercolor projects filled my head. I would have liked to paint him about then. He was enchanting me.
Even knowing he was at it, I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted to lap up the familiar comfort of his muse magic.
“Pray tell, what did you dream about? Was it rainbows and fairies flitting in meadows?” He touched my chin to draw my attention. His green eyes reminded me of the forest, fresh with life in the spring. I could have sunk into those depths and rolled in the moss.
It was a distraction. I tore my gaze away from his, taking in Thatch’s rigid posture and stony expression. I squeezed his hand, trying to draw a response from him, but he didn’t react. He didn’t look in the least enchanted—he looked grumpier than ever—but he wasn’t complaining about Elric’s use of magic.
That in itself should have been a warning sign.
“Are you hungry?” As Elric sat on the bed facing me, he babbled on. “What shall I have the maids cook for you? Morty-friendly ingredients only—I promise. I’ll send for Vega to check it for Fae-grown residues to be certain it’s safe. She’ll do it right in front of you. That will make you feel more comfortable, won’t it?”
I observed his hand pat my foot behind him, but I didn’t feel it. His hand massaged up my leg. Thatch shifted and leaned forward as if to push Elric away, but he didn’t. He sat on the edge of his seat, ready to pounce at any moment.
I tried to wiggle my toes, but nothing happened. That was about the time the cold fingers of realization crept over me.
Panic lodged itself in my throat, making it difficult to speak. “Why can’t I feel my feet?” I tried to sit up again, but my muscles wouldn’t allow me.
Elric eased my shoulders back down against the pillows. “Listen to the sound of my voice. Look into my eyes, and let your worries wick away.”
I was not going to let him enchant me. I avoided his gaze and looked to Thatch instead. “Why can’t I move?” I placed a hand on my belly. I didn’t feel my affinity inside me, but maybe I was in too much of a panic to feel anything other than my fear. “Do I still have magic? Was I drained?”
Tears filled Thatch’s eyes. “Each time you wake, you’re worse.”
My heart raced like a hummingbird’s.
“Calm yourself.” Elric touched a finger to my heart and some of my panic died away. “Of course you still have magic,” Elric said cheerfully. “It’s just sleeping in you and needs to be awakened.”
Thatch drew his hand away from mine and turned away. His withdrawal at that moment couldn’t have hurt more if he’d made some cutting remark and stormed out. Perhaps it would have hurt less. That was more like the Thatch I knew. This silent, withdrawn man was someone else. The shaking in his hands grew worse. He folded his hands under his arms, perhaps to hide the tremors.
My breathing grew frantic as I gasped for air. “What happened? What kind of accident was I in? Was it the Raven Queen?”
“Hush, love. I need you to rest.” Elric smoothed my hair out of my face. “There’s my good little Witchkin. Lie back. I need to feel your spine.”
Thatch stood. “You said you would heal her. Our agreement isn’t binding unless you fix her.”
I looked from one to the other. “Will one of you just tell me what’s wrong with me?”
“The problem isn’t the body. It’s the spirit.” Elric peeled the thick blanket back from the edge of the bed, slipping his hands underneath my back.
He leaned close enough I could smell spring and trees, raindrops and earth on his skin. I knew from where his hands reached that he had slid them under my back and my hips, but there was no sensation other than a flutter of anxiety in my chest.
“There was trauma to your energy center,” Elric said. “Your magic has been . . . extinguished.”
“Do you mean I was drained? Who drained me? The Raven Queen?”
“Red Affinities are different from other affinities. You can never be completely drained, not like an Elementia or Amni Plandai. You can always recharge yourself if you’re given the correct fuel. Have I the correct way of it, Mr. Thatch?” Elric asked.
Thatch grunted. He pretended to examine the crystals inlaid in the walls.
Elric moved one hand out from under me and placed it on my belly. “You have experienced a physical and emotional trauma. We have attempted to revive you twelve different ways. None of them have lasted. Yet.”
Panic started up in me again, but he wicked it away before it had time to settle.
There was kindness in his eyes. “Don’t worry. We’ll get it right eventually.”
We’d been through this before. Twelve times? I didn’t remember waking. Then again . . . maybe I did. I vaguely remembered Vega. Now that I thought about it, there was something about Imani too. She had tried to heal me too.
“I need to use my affinity. Touch magic.”
Elric nodded encouragingly.
“Felix Thatch, you are my husband,” I said. “Stop acting so gloomy over there. Get in this bed right now and restore me with touch magic.”
Elric laughed. “Don’t you love it when she’s bossy?”
“This isn’t a Sleeping Beauty Curse,” Thatch said.
“Just so,” Elric agreed. “It’s something worse.” He drew back from me and slapped Thatch on the back. “This is just what the doctor ordered. For both of you.” He walked away.
Thatch stared at me, anguish in his eyes. “I can’t. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“When have you ever hurt me? Come here.” When he didn’t budge, I tried the “magic” words Elric had told me Thatch needed to hear from my lips the last time he’d been reluctant to cure me. “I need you.”
Tentatively, he shuffled closer. I saw a world of unspoken hurt in his eyes. More than anything, I wanted to take that pain away from him. He leaned down and kissed me.
I smoothed a hand over his jaw. “If I fall asleep again, you have to promise me you’ll wake me up with touch.”
“Anything for you.”
Half an hour later my husband and I were in the throes of lovemaking, but I couldn’t feel anything happening below the waist. Despite the lack of physical sensation, my affinity slowly charged in my core, fueled by touch. The magic we generated made me feel complete. Pleasure inside me slowly built. Tingling pulsed across my limbs. I was growing stronger. Energy swelled inside me.
Yet when Thatch pressed his lips to mine, I noticed how icy his flesh had become. Instead of growing flushed with heat, he grew paler than the white shirt he still wore. His eyes weren’t black like when he was overcome by pain magic. Sweat beaded up on his face, one cold drop plopping onto my forehead.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” he said through clenched teeth.
He didn’t sound fine. Red particles flashed under his skin, migrating down his arm and into his hand where he touched me. I dran
k him in, savoring the sensation. He tasted divine. His magic washed over me, sweet and enticing. Feeling was returning to my limbs. I didn’t want him to stop.
I had enough sense to realize what this meant.
“Are you giving me energy?” I asked.
“No. You’re depleted. Your affinity is taking.” He was so winded he could barely speak. “It’s fine. You need it.”
Pleasure rose higher in me, making it difficult to concentrate. “How do I stop draining you?”
His rhythm grew erratic. “Don’t worry about it.”
How could I not worry? I had turned into a succubus.
“We need to stop. You’re going to kill yourself.” I suspected I understood his unspoken reservations earlier.
“You need to heal. You need this.” He said it, but he couldn’t go on. His movements became uncoordinated, and his body spasmed.
He collapsed onto me, trembling with fatigue. “I can’t cure you. I’m not strong enough.” He buried his face in my hair and clutched me to him. “I’ve failed you.”
CHAPTER TWO
Thirteenth Time is a Charm
I squeezed Felix Thatch to me, suspecting his physical touch was the only thing anchoring me to this realm and keeping me from slipping off again. When I attempted to use my awareness, I couldn’t sense any magic in Felix Thatch. I prayed I hadn’t drained him.
Despair weighed heavy on my heart. Or it just might have been Thatch’s dead weight pressing against me.
Thatch shuddered against me. “I’m so sorry.”
The sound of Elric’s voice startled me. “Now, now, Romeo. Hope isn’t lost. No one is blaming you. It was a gallant attempt.”
Thatch rolled off me and flinched back. I glanced at the closed door. I hadn’t heard Elric come in.
“Have you no decency?” Thatch asked. “Am I not permitted one moment of privacy with my wife?”
I drew the blankets up to cover my chest. I didn’t appreciate the interruption either.
Elric wagged a finger at Thatch. “At any moment Clarissa might slip back into oblivion. Now is not the time for moping.” Elric looked to me. “Fear not, love. You just need the right touch to rekindle your flame. That’s all.” Elric winked at me as he said it, as if it was something sexual. Touch magic usually was for me.
Elric took one of my feet, massaging the sole. It was the sort of thing that usually would have made my eyes roll back in my head with ecstasy, but I didn’t feel anything. I tried to remain calm, to tell myself my foot was simply asleep, but I knew it wasn’t.
He sat on the edge of the bed. “Charging your affinity is something a powerful Fae such as myself can fix with ease.”
Thatch snorted.
I wasn’t so certain either. My body was broken. If I couldn’t feel him, I didn’t think even he could fix this problem.
Thatch slid off the bed, retreating from me. His old-fashioned shirt was just long enough to cover his tushy as he retrieved his clothes from the floor.
Elric frowned. “Try not to blame him. He’s having a hard time with this.”
Thatch didn’t even look at me as he ducked behind the dressing screen.
“Give him some time.” Elric leaned in closer, his tone conspiratorial. “He needs to work through his guilt.”
Thatch’s voice came out a growl from the other side of the dressing screen. “I can still hear you. I don’t appreciate your commentary about things that are none of your concern.”
Elric lowered his voice further. “He’s trying to protect you. From himself as much as anyone else. Now that it’s too late.”
Protect me from what? Pain magic?
“Close your mouth before I close it for you.” Thatch prowled from behind the dressing screen.
He wore his white trousers and shirt, though he had omitted the silver robes. From the murderous gleam in his eyes, it looked as though he was ready to punch Elric. All things being considered, I was surprised it hadn’t come to blows between them earlier.
Elric continued before I could inquire why Thatch would feel it necessary to protect me from himself. “He’s projecting his lack of self-confidence onto this situation because he knows I can cure your problem and he can’t. He’s jealous. We’ve tried every cure except the one I told him would work.”
I suspected I understood now.
Thatch shouted. “No. It’s because I don’t want you to take advantage of someone I love while she is unconscious and vulnerable and paralyzed.” He shoved Elric away from me.
It was that word. Paralyzed. The word I had been pretending I hadn’t been hearing in my head.
“She isn’t unconscious. She’s awake. She is perfectly able to give her consent.” Elric stumbled back and righted himself.
I burst into tears. “I don’t want to be paralyzed. I need to be able to walk.” I had no magic to electrocute my enemies and no way to run. How was I supposed to help my students if I couldn’t even protect myself?
Thatch wrapped his arms around himself, looking miserable. I wish he had returned to my side and wrapped his arms around me.
“There, there. You won’t be paralyzed for long. Hush.” Elric kissed my hand, his eyes pleading. “Just say the word, and I’ll make it all better.”
I sniffled and wiped my eyes with the white sleeve of the nightgown I wore.
“Here.” Thatch took out his pocket handkerchief and strode closer.
Elric removed his own before Thatch could reach me. Elric dabbed at my eyes and ignored Thatch’s proffered hand. Elric’s handkerchief was made from fancy lace embroidered with flowers. I took it from him and blew my nose on it.
When I handed it back to him, he stared at it, aghast. Maybe it was a faux pas to blow one’s nose on a lacy hankie belonging to royalty. A wicked smile tugged at Thatch’s lips. Elric tucked the handkerchief back into his breast pocket.
I held my hand out to my husband. He stared at it for a long moment, the gesture oddly reluctant. Perhaps he feared I would drain him.
“What should I do?” I asked.
It was another long moment before he took my hand. He spoke each word slowly, as though it injured his pride to do so. “You must be strong. And practical.”
I nodded. It made this less daunting knowing how pragmatic he was. “I will.”
“Elric might be a git, but I will concede he does care about you. Listen to his proposal, and consider it. For me.” Thatch touched his lips to mine, a ghost of a kiss more than the satisfaction I craved. “You need his magic to heal. We’ve attempted everything else.”
I tried to smile at him, despite anxiety gnawing at my confidence. I did my best to put up a strong front so he wouldn’t worry.
Thatch stroked the hair away from my face and stooped to kiss my forehead. His touch was a balm to my worries. I held his hand against my cheek, savoring the comfort he brought me. His Adam’s apple bobbed down and up in his throat as he swallowed.
“I love you,” I said.
His voice was thick with emotion. “You know I would do anything for you.”
I squeezed his hand. “I know.”
“I’m going to fetch you something to eat.” He kissed my cheek. “I trust your judgment to know what will best help you.”
Thatch’s eyes narrowed at Elric with an unspoken threat as he withdrew. He silently glided out of the room, his head held high despite his disheveled appearance. He quietly closed the door behind him.
Elric crossed his arms, tapping his fingers against his jaw in consideration. “He has a right to be concerned. He knows what the treatment entails.”
I swallowed. “Just tell me the cure, Elric.”
“Focus on your core.” The start of sensation returned to my feet and legs as Elric resumed massaging me. “If you want me to return your Witchkin powers and heal you, I must awaken your center of magic in the only way that would be appropriate for anyone with a touch affinity such as yours. I must touch you intimately.
” He waggled his eyebrows. “More precisely, I must reach your core energetically through physical means. . . . I must place my sword in your sheath and give you pleasure like you’ve never experienced before.”
There was Elric with one of his old-fashioned euphemisms. I might have rolled my eyes again if the situation hadn’t been so serious.
“I need to have sex with you in order for you to fix my affinity,” I said. “That’s your proposal that Felix wanted me to consider.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It just depends on whether you want to walk again.”
“And I can’t be healed by having sex with my husband?”
“Not in the shape he’s in. It is a shame you didn’t marry a powerful Fae with an abundance of magic, isn’t it?”
So there it was: I could remain paralyzed and true to the man I loved or be unfaithful but, in the process, cure myself.
END OF EXCERPT
For the rest of the novel, go to Sarina Dorie’s website for information about the next book in the series:
https://sarinadorie.com/writing/novels/wombys-school-for-wayward-witches
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