Page 10 of Awariye

"Tell him it's all right with you," encouraged Ingeborg. "Permission and consent hold great power on the subtle planes."

Igor swallowed and scanned the area, clearly wishing he could see me but also believing Ingeborg and Wren that I was there.

"It's all right," Igor said. "You can have my...energy."

I grinned at him not understanding magic but trying so hard. His earnest effort warmed my heart.

Wren told Igor that I had smiled.

"Genauso, Awariye," said Igor, healing me with his kind words. "Alles okay. We'll have a good rest, and you can get better."

Then Wren reached up to me, both hands latching onto my arm. "Time to reenter your body. You can't stay out for too long or you might snip the string and leave."

Poor Igor's eyes filled with fear, but Wren just smiled and tugged on me. "Ready, Awariye? Let's go—come here."

"Komm," Igor said softly, and I smiled at him beckoning me too.

I was certainly wary of getting back inside a body that was so wrung out—that wasn't going to be fun whatsoever—but I had to admit...I wanted to feel Igor holding me like that. Ever since being left at the monastery by my mother, no one had held me, not aside from the men I'd quickly dallied with before giving up because it bruised my heart to have flings. I'd never had a partner...no one had ever held me like I mattered to them, not since I was very young.

I wanted to know what that felt like. I wanted to feel it again.

Summoning my will for the challenge ahead of me, I steeled my nerves and grabbed Wren's wrist, nodding at him to keep pulling.

Wren smiled. "Very well. Hang on, here we go."

He pulled me down.

CHAPTERSEVEN

IGOR

Feeble groans woke me with a start. By the light of the moon through the window slats I caught Awariye trying to get out of bed.

"Need a hand?" I asked so as to not startle him.

"Need to piss," he slurred with sleepy urgency.

I came around the bed in a flash and helped him down the hall to the lavatory, standing outside the door since the toilet stall was small enough that if he stumbled, he'd just hit the wall.

I helped him back into the room after washing his hands. "Now, time to drink more medicine. Both the doctor and Ingeborg said you should drink an entire glass every time you wake up."

Awariye growled in frustration. "That'll just make me have to piss every half hour."

I shook with quiet laughter at him being grumpy, when in truth it just came out cute.

"Laughing at me," he said with a playful huff.

"Maybe so," I agreed.

I sat beside him on the bed and made sure he wasn't trembling while he held the cup of tea mixed with medicine.

"Could we have some light?" he asked between sips. "I came out of a nightmare."

"Natürlich," I assured him, getting a candle and lighting it.

In the flickering light, I checked him more closely. He still looked exhausted and a bit haunted, but the clarity in his speech and the look in his eyes told me that he was mentally here, though that might get foggy again with more sleep and medicinal wine.

"Do you want to talk about the nightmare?" I offered gently.