Home > Magical Midlife Invasion (Leveling Up #3)(13)

Magical Midlife Invasion (Leveling Up #3)(13)
Author: K.F. Breene

I started forward to meet him, wanting to look at his wounds again anyway. We’d practiced the tripwire spell before heading out, and it hadn’t gone well—or rather it had gone too well. Austin had insisted he was fine before we left for the mountain, but I knew for a fact that the guy could handle a great deal of pain. I’d attempted to heal him from the air, but I’d sensed it wasn’t working properly from that height, especially with my level of fatigue. If he was still in pain, I wanted to do whatever I could to help.

“It bears repeating that the basajaun might not have been on his mountain because he’s been here, robbing the flowers,” Edgar mumbled.

“If he’s been here so recently, Austin will smell him,” Niamh replied, “and so ye can shut it.”

“Amen,” Cedric said. “I still don’t understand why you are so worried about those flowers. You have a million of them. Only a small portion are being eaten in a place they shouldn’t even be planted. Why not just forget about it?”

“Why don’t I just…” Edgar scoffed indignantly, and I tuned him out. If Cedric didn’t know not to question Edgar’s idiosyncrasies, there was no help for him.

The flare of light from Austin’s shift back into human made me squint, and the searing heat coated my front. It only lasted a moment, and then he stood facing me, his chest rising and falling with fatigue. I’d made everyone fly slowly, and thanks to Ivy House magic, he had the stamina of a twenty-year-old. He shouldn’t be this winded, which meant…

I tore down my block on our magical connection, allowing me to check in with his emotions and, most importantly, his pain level. A swell of agony made me stagger. The speed and distance had clearly made Austin exponentially worse than when we’d set out, but he hadn’t cried uncle or slowed down.

Jasper was by my side in an instant, his hand on my arm, steadying me.

“You good?” Jasper asked, crowding my side, peering down into my face.

“Was the flight too long?” Ulric hurried over.

“I’m fine. It isn’t me. It’s Austin.” I shrugged Jasper off, reaching Austin a moment later. “You idiot. What were you doing? I could’ve stopped and healed—”

The words died on my lips. My dad stood twenty paces away, a daisy in one hand and his other hanging limp at his side. He stared at Austin, frozen, his face slack and his eyes wide. He’d seen him shift. He’d seen a polar bear where no polar bear should be, then watched as it changed into a man.

“Dad?” I said, stepping forward quickly, almost positive the blood was draining from my face.

He blinked rapidly a few times as I marched through the rows of clustered flowers, wondering how the hell I was going to talk my way out of this one. Someone else followed me, and a glance confirmed it was Ulric, who was great at spinning a tale out of thin air.

“Hey, Dad, whatcha doin’?” I stopped in front of him.

He cocked his head before swinging his face to me slowly. He cleared his throat. “I was just checking out the gardens. Why do you let him plant so many flowers? I can barely breathe through the smell back here. Up near the house, though, he has some really good-looking rosebushes. I’d like to get his secret on those. I can’t keep the deer from eating mine.”

“Yeah, totally. He loves talking about flowers. Say, listen, you looked a little shaken up a moment ago. You okay?” I reached back and touched Ulric’s arm, a silent cue to get ready.

“Well, I’ll tell you what.” Dad huffed. “You were all over me about airing out my begonias, but you don’t say boo to your friend there, doing the exact same thing. You see? I know what I’m about. If a young, fit man like that needs a little air on his nether regions, don’t you think I do, too?”

It was my turn to stare and then blink rapidly, my mouth hanging open and my eyebrows at my hairline. “His…begonias?”

“Yes. Look at him there, letting it all hang out. Sometimes a man just needs to air out the bells and tackle.”

“This is true, sir,” Ulric said, and I could’ve kicked him. My father didn’t need a green light to walk around naked.

“Anything…else on your mind?” I asked tentatively.

“Yeah, that butler is in charge of dinner, and I think it’ll actually be ready when your mother said it would. It’s a Christmas miracle.”

“Christmas miracle?” Ulric said.

“You kids better wash up.” My dad nodded, turned, and strode for the house as though nothing too crazy had gone on.

“Maybe he didn’t see,” I said, watching him go, the daisy still in his hand.

“Maybe…” Ulric said. “But he could see Austin standing in the trees, and a naked man is a lot less conspicuous than a polar bear.”

“But…wouldn’t he say something?”

“Jessie, we could use your help over here,” Niamh called.

“I’m good.” Not one ounce of pain made it into Austin’s words, and yet I could feel that he was nearly crippled with it. I’d really gotten him good with way more power than I’d known I possessed. Ivy House must’ve increased my access again, apparently under the impression I could handle it. And maybe I could, but Austin was another story. Thank God he’d been in his bear form when he tripped that magical wire.

“Hand me my clothes,” he said.

“Jessie,” Niamh said.

Forgetting about my dad for the time being, I jogged back to Austin, standing tall and proud, acting the part of the tough guy who didn’t feel pain. Even though I knew better.

“I got this.” I took Austin’s clothes from Niamh, who’d picked up the sack Ulric had dropped a moment ago. “Everyone else hit the showers. Oh…” I snapped and pointed at each of them in turn. “You can try the clam dip, but don’t eat much of it. It’s a hot commodity in my family. She didn’t make enough for this many people.”

“No, thanks.” Ulric made a face and started walking toward the house. Jasper and Cedric followed, with Niamh close behind.

“Jessie, did I hear correctly that your father wanted to speak with me?” I nodded, and Edgar edged closer. “I hadn’t intended to go in for dinner. Maybe I’ll just pop in afterward?”

“That’s fine, Edgar. Or chat with him tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Edgar smiled, his fangs tucked away, for once, and his teeth whiter than I remembered. He must’ve asked Agnes for an elixir that would help. He’d really been putting in an effort to pass for normal with the parents staying. “That’s a much better idea, yes. I think I’ll just grab a spot in the woods somewhere and watch what comes by.”

“You’ll want to mask your smell,” Austin said. He’d barely moved since he’d changed, each action probably radiating anguish through him.

“Yes. Great idea. A good old-fashioned mud bath ought to do the trick.” Edgar put up his thumb before hurrying away.

Austin’s eyes flicked to me. He didn’t say anything.

“You don’t have to play tough with me, Austin. I peeked. You’re—”

“Did you like what you saw?” His voice was low and thick, sending shivers across my body.

My face heated. “You’re in incredible pain,” I said, ignoring the sexual innuendo. He tended to relax when he was dealing with pain. His focus slipped, and his grip loosened on his usually iron-clad self-control. “Why didn’t you slow down or opt to find the basajaun another day?”

He shook his head, his eyes roaming my face. “I’m good.”

I laid my hands on his chest just above his pecs, his skin too hot. Heavy bruises marred his ribs. A gouge bled from the left side of his stomach and another gash dribbled blood down his thigh. Moving around him, I found scrapes and scores down one side of his back, the skin already black and blue around them.

“Okay,” I whispered, guilt tearing at me, thinking about how best to heal him. Thanks to Edgar’s diligent work with the book he’d found in the garden, I didn’t have to guess when it came to healing anymore. I had a few options at my disposal.

The fastest healing method would work quickly, but Austin would be in excruciating pain until the end. That one was best with large or near-fatal wounds. The second type masked the pain a little, like a localized numbing effect, making the patient more comfortable. The third and slowest method allowed me to make the patient feel however I wanted, completely cutting out the pain. This was dangerous in battle because the body would still be hindered by the slow-healing wound. The person would feel capable of moving like they normally did, without actually being in a condition to do so. But all he had to do was hang out and eat dinner. He’d be fine.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, erasing his pain while grazing my fingertips down his broad back. “I really thought I toned the magic way down. I shouldn’t have let you test the tripwire.”

“I offered to test it knowing this was a possibility. It’s fine, Jess. This is my job.”

A discolored area was just above his left butt cheek, and I curled my fingers around his hip before running my thumb over it. Dirt, not a bruise. My other palm flat on his spine, I closed my eyes and magically felt down into his body, sussing out the hurts and aches, of which there were plenty. If he’d been non-magical, or even in human form at the time of the incident, I probably would’ve killed him.

Fear welled up inside of me. I had to be more careful. I had to try harder. To learn faster. I couldn’t subject my people to this. I couldn’t ask them to wander into harm’s way, potentially being swatted down hard enough not to get back up.

I tried to move back around to his front, intending to delve down into the ribs and see if anything was broken—my magic could essentially act as an X-ray, which was pretty freaking amazing—but he tensed.

“Probably best if you stay back there,” he said softly. “Things are looking up on this side.”

   
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