Page 102 of Traitor Witch
Nos stands, the motions slow and unhurried, his mouth opens, then snaps shut.
The change is so sudden that I freeze.
I watch as a stiffness overtakes his whole body. His eyes roll backwards. Then time seems to slow as he collapses to the floor.
"Nos!" I abandon the comb and dive for him. "Shit."
His limbs start jerking and I fall to my knees beside him,but my hands are frozen in the air. Should I try to restrain him?
What the fuck do I do?
I have no idea.
"Cas!"
No answer.
But for a second, Nos's movements slow. Only to start all over again. The jerking comes in clusters, cooling off for a second, only to come back worse than before.
"Shit. Shit. Shit."
Cas must be shifted, or he would have been here by now. If he was on the boat, he'd have heard me yell with his shifter hearing.
Scales flash across Nos' arms. Splashes of blotchy teal replacing human skin, then fading only to reappear seconds later.
No.
He can't shift here. He'll rip the boat apart.
In desperation, I call the one person who has to be able to hear me.
"VALOREAN!"
"I amtryingto sleep, witch!"
I've never been so glad to hear his snarky voice. "Nos needs you!"
The mage drops through the ceiling in the next breath. Shirtless, his hair ruffled, he takes one look at Nos and falls to the ground beside him. He drags a cushion off my bed and stuffs it under Nos's head, carefully avoiding his flailing limbs.
"Hey brother," his voice is oddly soft. The tone so even it actually starts to calm me. "It's me and your girl. We're not going anywhere, so don't fight it."
Valorean looks up at me, dark eyes oddly reassuring. "Say something. The quicker we can calm his beast, the faster it will be over."
His voice hasn't lost its softness, but the urgency is there.
"Hey," I say, awkwardly, reaching toward Nos's forehead, but stopping halfway. My breath hitches when Val takes my hand and closes that final distance. I gently stroke Nos's hair out of his face.
"I'm not very good at this," I admit. "But yeah, I'm fine. Val's, unfortunately, still alive, and you're going to get the ass-kicking of your life for scaring me like this later."
Val's glower tells me I'm probably not doing this right, but Nos's jerking seems to slow down. His jaw noticeably unclenches.
The scales disappear.
Only when Val's shoulders slump do I let myself relax.
"What the fuck was that?" I wonder, still stroking Nos's hair.
Val rolls his eyes. "You know very little about healing for a Solar witch. That was a seizure."
