Nightfall Curse

chapter 11

It was warmer than the day before. Still probably not too far above freezing, but the sun on his shoulders made Hyunjin feel much more comfortable as he walked along the shoreline after procuring the herbs that Felix had requested. There was hardly even a light breeze near the ocean, the water calm with only tiny lapping waves into the sand. Peaceful. There weren’t many tourists in the off season. Felix had mentioned that the crowds wouldn’t be back until the ski resorts opened after the first few snows, but for now it was the in between time after the leaves had changed and dropped and before the first real dig of winter weather.

Hyunjin stuffed his hands further into his jeans pockets and figured he’d like to see this place when it snowed. He sat down in the sand where it was dry above the tide line and stared out at the blue water in front of him. Peaceful enough to let his mind completely blank out for the first time in ages. Not a single thought snared itself in his brain, and he was grateful to ignore all of them for a while. And after he started to lose track of the time, he thought for a moment that he could understand Felix’s fascination with the view.

A warm hand on the nape of his neck nearly startled him, but his body recognized the shape and texture of the fingers against the short hair on the back of his neck before he could register a fully shocked response. “It’s time to go,” Felix said. Goosebumps rose on the back of Hyunjin’s neck.

“Yeah,” he said hoarsely. He climbed to his feet and brushed the sand off of his pants. “You sure?”

“I’m sure,” he answered, and in the next second, Hyunjin blinked and found himself inside Felix’s room in the bunker.

The angel stumbled and Hyunjin caught him by the lapels of his trench coat. “Easy, man,” he said worriedly, guiding him in a controlled fall to the bed. Felix went down onto his back gently with a long groan. “You said you’d be okay!” He was equally as shocked by Felix’s relapse as he was by his own reaction. The constant emotional numbness was beginning to fade. His heart rate had picked up a little bit with the minuscule amount of anxiety arcing through him. If he’d been himself, he probably wouldn’t have even noticed the change it was so small. That, in and of it itself, worried him a little more, too.

Felix coughed. He stretched back against the bed, face scrunching up as if it pained him. “I lied,” he answered.

“No shit. Dammit, Felix. We could have waited it out. Or had Jisung book us some plane tickets. You didn’t have to do this.” He undressed Felix while he talked, and Felix watched him silently the whole time. “There’s no point in you working yourself over like this until we’ve figured out how to get you better.” He unlaced the angel’s shoes and pulled them off. Removed the trench coat, loosened his tie, unbuttoned the top three buttons of his dress shirt, carefully avoiding touching more skin than he needed to. “It ain’t worth it.”

Felix grabbed his wrist tightly. “Hyunjin.”

Hyunjin froze at the quiet intensity of his voice. But he couldn’t bring himself to look Felix in the eyes. “What.”

“Hyunjin, it’s worth it. I think it is. I’ve always believed that.”

Hyunjin stood up straight, hands stuffed into the back pockets of his jeans. He felt a small, significant thrill of anger. “I’m tired of hearing shit like that from you. If you even think of dying for me or doing something stupid, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Hyunjin, I-”

“Forget it,” he snapped. “Don’t wanna hear it. Just stay here and rest. I’m gonna go find Minho, if he’s still up.” He made a show of stomping out of the room, but didn’t miss the way that Felix huffed behind him. Hyunjin wasn’t sure if it was a laugh or a sound of frustration, and he didn’t want to turn around to find out which it had been. He settled on closing the door firmly behind him.

He found Minho and Jisung pretty much where he’d left them, except Jisung sitting on Minho’s lap, different clothes on them the only indication that they’d moved from their spots at all in the last couple of days. And they looked well-rested for it being after midnight now. Minho jumped up from the table and pushed away the thick tome he’d been flipping through when he spotted his brother. “You’re back! How’d it go?”

Hyunjin reached into his pockets and pulled out the packets of herbs and fern clippings they’d acquired. “Pretty successful shopping trip. You can knock those off the list.”

“Where’s Felix?” Jisung asked.

Hyunjin nodded over his shoulder. “Resting. Zapping us that far away wore him out a little.” Jisung’s face clouded with concern and he opened his mouth, but Hyunjin cut him off. “He’ll be fine. He just needs to recharge. Tell me what we got.”

He didn’t miss the significant look between Jisung and Minho, but he dismissed it in favor of keeping them on track with their research. The sooner they figured this out, the sooner they could stop worrying about the accidental incubus and the exhausted angel in their midst.

Jisung turned back to his computer. “Well, we’ve got a lot, actually. Enough ingredients that we can start experimenting. I’m gonna compile some of the spells I’ve worked out and see what Felix thinks about ‘em. Should be fine.”

“Should be?” Hyunjin arched an eyebrow.

Minho spoke up. “From what we can find, none of these spells will backfire if we get them wrong. It’s not summoning or cursing or whatever; it’s curing. All the stuff we’ve researched says that it will either work, or it won’t. Meaning, you’ll either get better or stay the same. There’s nothing in the spells that’ll harm you if we don’t do them right.”

Hyunjin crossed his arms over his chest. “You sure about that?”

Jisung shook his head. “Not exactly. That’s why we’re having Felix check them out first. When he’s better.”

“Got it. ‘Til then, I’m gonna go take a nap. I might have been brought here the angel way, but I still feel like I got jet lag or something.”

Waving him off, Minho said, “no worries. We’ll keep you posted.”

Seeing as how that was taken care of, Hyunjin made his way back to the bedrooms. He paused briefly to glance into Felix’s room, and found the angel sleeping. It was an unpleasant scene. He was tucked under the dark blue comforter, laying on his back, hands folded over his chest, fingers entwined. He would have looked human if he’d needed to breathe. As it was, he simply looked dead. Hyunjin shut the door silently and went to his own room. Without undressing, he flopped onto his bed and closed his eyes. It was a long time before he was able to drift off to sleep.