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Goodness, the heat of that statement sends a warmth over my skin as powerful as the fire’s glow. He sounds sincere… and lonely. The last tugs at the same in me, only I’ve learned not to agree to things without understanding the requirements first. Saying yes to a contract I didn’t read got me into this mess. “How so?”
“We could try talking.” He waves a hand toward the chair by the fire where I’d been sitting, a nasty red burn crossing the brown of his palm.
I grab for his forearm. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s nothing.” His voice goes scratchy, and I wonder if I’ve made it worse.
“That’s the opposite of nothing.” I drag him toward the chair, or I should say he lets me haul him along, since I couldn’t move this mountain of muscle if he didn’t want me to. “What happened?” I don’t give him time to answer, pushing him into the chair and dumping Oggie into his lap. “Should I call Bess? Where’s the first aid kit? Do you have healing potions, like in games?”
He stares at me until I’m convinced he won’t answer, while Oggie stretches and settles in for a nap. It seems the kitten isn’t scared of him. “You…” He trails off, as if he doesn’t know how to finish the thought. “There’s usually healing salve in the cupboard.” When he tips his horns toward the cabinets and shelves along the far wall, the firelight glints on the ring in his nose, distracting me for a moment.
“Right.” I need to concentrate. Hurrying across the room, I search through well-organized plates, silverware, and cups that range in size from thimbles to buckets. A sewing kit with needles big enough to fit a giant’s hand and an impressive collection of daggers come next. Then I find the medical supplies with dried herbs in pill bottles, a few vile-smelling liquids, and finally, a jar of a yellowish balm.
I take a whiff, catching the scents of eucalyptus and arnica that remind me of an expensive holistic brand that Ava and Val use. Thinking of my friends makes my chest ache, and I push away the homesickness for now. First, I’ll mend what I can here, before I figure out a way back to my world to fix my failures there. Grabbing clean bandages and a pitcher of water, I make my way back to him.
He stretches his hand out for me to examine, and I hiss at how painful it looks. “Why didn’t you find someone to take care of this for you?” From what I’ve seen, the servants here seem happy to help. I haven’t cooked or cleaned since I arrived. Heck, I haven’t even picked out my clothes. “I’m sure you have staff with first aid training.” Since he seems to have everything else a rich king with his own realm could ask for.
“I was looking for you,” he says, as if that’s enough of a reason to endure suffering. First, he can’t wait to get away from me, and now he can’t bother with treatment in his hurry to see me? Talk about mixed messages.
Unsure how to respond, I hold his forearm to steady myself and pour the water over the wound in a slow trickle. He flinches, and the water sloshes on the floor as my heart gives a lurch. I can’t stand to see someone in pain. “Sorry.” I blow on the wound before I realize that human germs and minotaur ouchies might not mix. I glance up, but he’s looking at my face instead of his burn.
“Do it again,” he whispers.
“Spill water all over you?” Embarrassment fades to amusement with Oggie’s soft snores and the fire popping in the background.
“No, the other.”
Not overthinking, I purse my lips and blow again. The skin of his palm starts to knit together. “What the—”
“Magic.” He makes the word sound so solid, so real. “Normally, I could heal myself. But I used all my powers repairing the wards that keep us safe.”
Us. He’d gone wherever he had, and he’d stayed away, for a reason that included me—however indirectly. I try not to think about the word us and the fluttering feeling it causes in my belly. If I pretended we were in a video game, and he was a player alongside me instead of a myth come to life, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask pointed magic system questions. But this isn’t a game. I could get real-life hurt with real-life consequences. As I have before.
“So, sitting down for a minute by the fire with Oggie helped you recover?” I ask instead.
“You helped me recover. It’s proof that we’re a real match.”
The rest of what he said to Bess nags at me, sending the fluttering in my stomach to sink like a stone. He didn’t just call me a coward. His exact words, according to her, had been that he didn’t need a coward as a queen. I can’t be anyone’s queen. I’m not a leader or a ruler or someone who should be trusted with the lives of others. “Our matching contract…” I won’t say sex contract, even though it detailed intimate acts. Things like touches and kisses and orgasms. “It was for fourteen days. There are only five remaining.” Not enough to be a real anything.
“You know about the different ways that time passes in your world and in this realm?”
“Yeah, Bess and Darnell explained it. I spend two weeks with you here, without aging, and only three or four days should pass there. If I’m lucky, neither my mom nor my friends will freak out too much.” Talk about total sci-fi stuff, with alternative timelines, dimensional differences, and a freaky fountain of youth.
“I should have told you. When Theo sent you here, I didn’t stop to think about people waiting for you in your world. I wrongly believed he had made sure things were taken care of on your end.”
“Theo left out a lot of details.” I blow on Leander’s palm again, watching in amazement as the redness turns to pink.
“Which has been unfair to you. What did you want most in your world?”
“World peace.” The beauty pageant quip comes out so fast that I don’t consider an honest answer until he waits patiently, as though my truth means something to him. “I guess I never thought much about it,” I lie. It’s all I think about. My doubts spinning in my head until I can’t sleep, can’t think, can’t focus.
“Not for your world,” he says. “Just for you.”
“Not worrying so much about everything, figuring out how to do what I want, instead of simply working to be able to pay a few of the bills.” Because I can’t seem to make enough to pay them all. “Time to think through the options, to try and make a go of my art, to come up with backup plans that don’t suck, to find a job that’s not talking on the phone to people who don’t want to hear from me about a product I don’t care about.” Damn, he’d asked, but I had really gone there.
“When the magic returns, it would slow the passage of time here, and you would have all you need, should you choose to remain. Just give me the five days to court you as a match.”
“As if I have a choice? I signed the contract, remember?”
