“Whoareyou?” Micah held the book tight, breathing too fast, and the glazed look in his eyes…
Sasha frowned. “Sasha,” he said. “And I know that look. You’re panicking. Want me to carry you?”
“You—you ran into a burning house and… you’re just— Why?”
Sasha coughed and spat on the ground, trying to subtly urge Micah to move. “You’re Zev’s friend. Zev’smyfriend. Friend of my friend, yeah? So, c’mon, hop on my back and—”
“No.” Micah shook his head wildly, hair going every which way. “You—you’re mated. Yes?”
“Uh, married, yeah. Same thing. Why?” Sasha took a step toward him, and Micah retreated, like Sasha was… well, a huge guy covered in soot and dirt and Micah was a twitchy, terrified dominant clutching an old leather book.
“Go home. To—to your person. I’ll go to Zev. I know the way.”
Sasha blinked. “You don’t want me to help you?”
“No,” Micah breathed, and then, before Sasha could say anything, he turned andran.
Sasha took a step toward him, then stopped. He was still coughing, and maybe… yeah, maybe he should just go home. It was quite a distance to the village, and if Micah knew the way…
Viv would worry, since she had some preternatural sense for when he was putting himself in situations that could hurt him. And the fire was starting to die, thankfully, as sheets of rain rolled over the forest. So, if Micah had his book and was headed to the village, Sasha could go home.
It would be fine. Hell, maybe fortune would smile a little longer and he’d find that deer he dropped. Stranger things had happened—like when he ran into a burning house to save an old book and didn’t die. Life sure was an adventure.
* * *
Vivian was waist-deep in a spell when her husband came home.
Literally waist-deep, because she was kneeling in a tub of lukewarm water with charcoal lines and arcs drawn over her arms and face, holding a squirming, deeply unhappy cat wrapped in a blanket.
It wasn’t even her cat. One of the girls from the Compound, a rabbity creature named Ella, had staggered into Viv and Sasha’s cave with the cat under one arm and a bag full of onions to trade with under the other, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Sunshine’s not eating,” she’d said, and Viv had looked at the one-eyed, ornery, bulky monster of a cat. Sunshine seemed to sense a kindred spirit in Viv, because she started yowling piteously, and Viv knew that was it for her afternoon.
People called Viv a healer… if they liked her. If they didn’t like her, they called her what she was: a witch, the only one in Lukos with enough inborn magic to cure a cough or heal a grumpy, pissed-off cat. There used to be more of them, but the ones who joined the Compound not-so-mysteriously dwindled in number pretty early on. Most of what Viv knew came from guesswork. Magic ran in her family’s line, but the ability skipped generations, so everything she knew was patched up at best.
But part of that knowledge was that magic tended to work better when it was amplified by something. Like water.
“Why the fuck did you feed your cat bird bones?” She held Sunshine up, drawing on the magic that ran through her blood. Using it was like spinning thread from wool, twisting the warm fibers of her magic into something she could grasp, and the sensation strengthened as Sunshine’s abdomen began to glow. “You know bones get lodged inside, right?”
“I didn’t,” Ella sobbed, wringing her hands together. “I swear. I thought cats loved eating birds. I even cooked it first.”
Viv looked into Sunshine’s only eye. Sunshine blinked at her, slowly, settling down as the healing force of Viv’s magic took root.
“You spoiled little princess,” Viv said, smiling at the beast. She didn’t smile often—only around Sasha or animals—and Ella looked taken aback when Viv glanced her way.
“Is that it?” Ella asked. “I thought maybe… people said you sacrificed things.”
Viv rolled her eyes. Of course they did. “Do you want me to? It won’t go well. Death causes death. A sacrifice just leads to trouble.”
“Oh.” Ella looked almost disappointed. “Okay.”
Viv didn’t bother hiding her frustrated sigh. Rumor was an insidious thing. It was why, when Sasha proposed to her, Viv went to the headman to demand they be allowed to live outside the tunnels and caves that made up the central portion of the Compound. In her own cave, with full control over who came and went, she didn’t have to worry about things like rumor. She could actually get work done.
She was still holding the cat when the wooden door blocking the mouth of the cave swung open and Sasha strode in. Viv wrinkled her nose at the scent of smoke and frowned at the smudges of soot on Sasha’s cheeks and arms. He stopped at the base of the stairs and looked at her, hands on his hips.
“Aw, baby, are you doing magic? That’s so fucking hot.”
Viv tossed her long blond hair out of her face and glared at him. “Why are you onfire?”
