“Really, I’m alright,” Ben started, putting himself bodily between Jac and Maxea. He’d only just gotten Max to settle into a growl so low it was nearly inaudible after Jac had hit Daivad.
“Sit,” Jac commanded him, shrugging off her hammer, which hit the cracked earth with a thunk. “Or I’ll sit you down the same way I did him.”
A snarl ripped out of Maxea once more, and Maxea’s jade colored eyes met Jac’s golden ones over Ben’s shoulder.
“Max.”
Without breaking her glare, Maxea’s snarl died out and she trotted off. Drauge, for his part, paced awkwardly around the uneven ground, unsure what to do with himself.
Jac repeated, “Sit.” And though Ben was sure it was directed at him, Drauge sat too.
Using his staff to support his weight, Ben lowered himself back to the ground. He might have argued, told her that Daivad had already done what he could to get Ben stable and there wasn’t much more to be done until they got back to Kadie, but he thought after everything that had happened tonight, maybe Jac didn’t need another person challenging her.
He’d seen it, from his place in the shadows of that alley, when Jac had lost her magic in front of Ubika, in front of everyone. He’d seen the way her golden eyes, flashing in the firelight, went wild and desperate. And afraid. And he’d seen the look she gave Belle when she had been the one to finally put Ubika down.
No, he thought, she needed to feel in control of something right now, and he was happy to let it be him. And it didn’t hurt that it meant she would be so close. That she would be touching him.
That being said, Jac had little in the way of a bedside manner and, magic or not, she didn’t seem to have a good sense of her own strength. As she grabbed his arm to lift it and inspect a bloody patch in his tunic, or shoved him forward to look at the slash across his back, he thought he might leave this examination with more bruises than he’d started it with. But he stayed quiet.
He watched her face—she didn’t have much of a mask, and he knew masks well. Daivad with his stony, expressionless one and Tobei with his animated, grinning one. But Jac wore her feelings all over her face—a scowl pulling down the corners of her two-toned lips, the bunching of the muscles in her jaw, a tiny wrinkle in her little nose, and a furrow between her golden-blonde brows.
Ben wanted to say something, offer a sympathetic ear or encouraging words, but he had the feeling she’d see it as pity and it would only hurt her worse. Heart aching, Ben realized that Tobei would know exactly what to say.
Stolen story; please report.
Jac stuck a potion in his face and said, “Drink this.”
He took it and softly said, “Thank you, Jac.”
It made her finally look him in the eye, and after a beat, her scowl faded. The edge in her tone had faded as well when she said, “You’re welcome.”
Then, she gestured to the stony tree a few yards off, branches and vines still twisted strangely from where they had held the fully-shifted Kure. “Your work?”
Ben took a swig of the potion, then nodded. “And Daivad’s.”
She doused a cloth in alcohol, then drew it roughly across the gash on his back, making him wince. “Meaning?”
He took a moment to decide how to explain something even he didn’t really understand—but that was magic, unknowable. “My magic guided it, and his magic strengthened it, so it could hold Ubika and all his edges.”
She squinted those beautiful eyes at him. “You can do that?”
Ben shrugged.
When she’d cleaned the wound, she tossed the bloody cloth aside and came out with a little case of fleshtape, and began pinching the edges of the wound together so she could tape them in place. It was not a pleasant experience.
In between pinching sessions, she asked, “And the vines we saw decorating the streets of Luvatha, guards snared in them like little rabbits?”
Ben shrugged again. “Those were mine.”
Jac gave a smug little hmph! and said, “How many heads did you claim tonight? While he couldn’t even claim one.”
Loyal, Ben said, “He was occupied. And I didn’t keep count.”
With the last bit of tape in place, Jac shifted around to sit right next to him, so her right thigh touched his left knee. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, her biceps straining against her gold arm cuffs. With a smirk, she asked, “What is it about the light that makes you so shy?”
A flush burned under his dark cheeks, thrown both by the question and the fact that her face was only about a foot from his. She blinked long, pale lashes at him, and that smirk didn’t let up.
“I work best in shadow.”
“Which is why you live in his?” she pressed. For a moment, he thought he caught irritation in her tone. Or maybe resentment.
His first instinct was defensive, to deny, but he took a moment to think on her words, and to choose ones he was sure of for himself. It took several uncomfortable moments under her burning stare, but finally, slowly, he replied, “I’m happy where I stand. In the forest, in my gardens. At his side, and Tobei’s.”
She blinked, and her bewilderment showed plain as day on her beautiful face.
He added, “I’d much rather spend time with my Wolf than trying to escape Daivad’s shadow. Speaking of...” He planted his staff again, and started to pull himself up with his good arm. “They need care too. Drauge!”