Page 63 of Discovered Magic
“Why don’t you tell me about your time with her before she landed here while I seal your wound?” she suggested kindly.
“She’s my world,” he began. “From the moment I met her, I wanted nothing and no one else.”
“And she felt the same?”
The warmth from her hands on his back felt encouraging, as if maybe he’d heal completely.
“Not immediately, but eventually, yes. Thank the Goddess.” He recalled the day they’d met. “We were both attending the same college, and there she was, across the courtyard, laughing at something a friend of hers was saying. It was an arrow straight through the heart. Or as some would say, love at first sight.”
“I find it gratifying that men and women attend the same school in your time. Equality is important.”
“I’ve always believed so,” he agreed with a grunt as the heat turned up, entering the spinal cord. “We were introduced by mutual friends, but she was already dating another guy.”
“Did she leave him for you?” Evie asked, in what he assumed was a distraction maneuver.
“No. She married him.”
“Foolish girl.”
Wilder curbed the desire to laugh. “I won’t argue. He was a controlling ass, and she divorced him a few years later. But it made her gun-shy.”
“In what way? She doesn’t want to marry you?” Evie’s indignant tone was gratifying.
His and Abbie’s relationship had been defined early, but she’d eventually come around in the year before she disappeared. She’d stated she wanted to tie the knot and start a family if he was willing.
“It wasn’t just me. It was anyone at the time. Marriage isn’t the be-all, end-all anymore. Many people remain single their entire lives.” He sucked in a breath as a particularly painful burst of magic rocked him.
“I apologize for the discomfort, my dear. This particular section requires a lot of attention and finesse.”
“It’s all good,” he assured her, through gritted teeth. And it was. He’d take whatever she handed out if it meant restoring his spine to its pre-gunshot state and allowing him to walk again. “But to answer your question, she changed her mind and actually proposed to me.” He wiggled his pinky, displaying the promise ring Bart had overlooked. Over the last two years, he’d considered removing it, but doing so would feel like a broken vow. “Right before our last climb, she arranged an intimate dinner. In the center of my plate was a jewelry box.”
“How romantic!” Evie chuckled, then stepped away to wash the blood from her hands. After drying them, she poured more water into another bowl, dipped a cloth into it, and wrung it out. “All that’s left is to clean up your back,” she said. “But you’ll need to rest and mend.”
“Will I walk?” he choked out.
Before that instant, he hadn’t considered what it meant for him to be paralyzed. He hadn’t climbed since Abbie’s fateful day, but he didn’t want the ability taken away from him. His entire way of life would change, and what did it mean when it came to making love? They’d always had a healthy sex life. Could he give her what she needed?
“We’ll make sure of it,” she promised. “Now here, drink some water.”
He tilted his head back, but then recalled history class. “Um, is it purified?”
“Purified?”
“Yeah, boiled or whatever to remove the bacteria. Dysentery was a real issue in the West.”
“My boy, you’re a magical being. We don’t suffer the same diseases as mortals.” And damned if she didn’t sound remarkably like Alastair. Maybe she was where he’d gotten his droll tone. “Now, drink up.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
21
Abbie woke with a raging headache and an even angrier temperament. Following her initial fury came terror. Wilder had been shot in the back by that low-life bastard, Bart Mercer, and she had no idea if he was dead or alive. He’d come all this way for her, from their timeline. And if his actions didn’t make her love him more than she already did, she would’ve fallen hard because of his kindness to an injured outcast.
She gasped, nearly choking to death on the stinky material in her mouth as she angled to remove it.
“I remember,” she whispered. “Oh my God, Wilder, I remember.”
Could he read her mind from whatever distance separated them? She prayed his silence was only their parting and not the more dire explanation of his death.
