Page 65 of The Mating Fire
He glanced up with a slight smile. Then his face went serious as he examined her injury.
Harper sucked down a breath. The burning pain intensified. Jared touched the wound. As she was about to make a feeble joke about antiseptic and maybe she’d need stitches, something happened.
Gold beams of pure energy poured from Jared’s hand, caressing her ragged, torn flesh. The energy pulsed as it covered her wound. The pain vanished at the same time the energy faded from Jared’s fingers.
Stunned, she glanced at her side. Instead of a gaping, ugly wound, a pink scar indicated the skin had knit together.
“You healed me.” Harper glanced down at him in wonder.
Jared blinked as he held up his right hand. “I can’t believe it. It seems impossible.”
“It is possible, because I was bleeding and now the wound is gone.”
“I’ve never been able to do that. My powers do not heal.”
But there was no denying his touch had performed this magick. It made her speculate.
Maybe there was another reason why Jared came into her life besides tutoring her in magick lessons.
Could it be she was here to help him as much as she needed his aid?
As he started to his feet, he suddenly staggered backward and nearly fell. Jared put a hand to his head. “Whoa. Dizzy spell.”
Hooking an arm around his waist, she helped him stand upright. His body, which always had been warm, now felt unusually cold.
“Hold onto me,” she urged.
He looked pale again, and shaken. Harper guided him over to a nearby chair. Jared plopped down upon it as if exhausted.
“I don’t know why I could do this. But damn, I feel drained of all energy. My legs and arms are weak…can’t even stand on my own.”
It was her turn to kneel down by him. Harper gathered his trembling hands in her own. “Take a minute. Take several.”
A bleak look came over him. “I don’t understand what the hell is happening to me.”
“I don’t either. All I know is you helped me and took away my pain. I wish… I wish I could take away yours.”
Blue coldfire flared on her fingertips. Closing her eyes, Harper went with her heart and wished she could infuse him with magick. Power, energizing him.
His breath hitched. Harper opened her eyes. Blue coldfire encased his hands. Suddenly Jared’s hands flamed red with his own powers. Blue coldfire licked at the flickering red fire on his hands. It merged with his magick, feeding it like a stream flowing into a river.
Feeding him life.
Marveling, she clutched his hands tighter, until the red glow of his magick equaled the strength of her own. Jared pulled back his magick and hers vanished as well.
He turned his hands around, his dark gaze wide as he stared at the backs, the faint dusting of black hair. “Whoa.”
“What’s happening to me?” She turned her own palms over. “To us?”
“I don’t know. Are you okay?”
He had expended his own magick to heal her, and it had drained her. Harper’s heart beat faster as she stroked a finger across the back of his hand. Try as he might, Jared wasn’t as indifferent or as bad as he declared.
“I’m fine,” she said softly. “More than fine. I feel like everything is changing, but for the first time, I’m not as terrified as I should be. My world has transformed, and there’s no going back, but it’s strange. I’m not scared, not like I was back in the meadow. Because you’re here, with me. I feel stronger when you’re around.”
To her dismay, he pulled his hands away and his expression shuttered. “Don’t rely on me, Harper. You need to stand on your own against the evil that wants to harm you. Your powers are your only defense.”
Somehow she doubted it. She, the pragmatic scientist who relied on logic and facts, had changed her mind. Harper held up her hands, watched the glow of power she put forth.
