Never Enough Time

Chapter Twenty-One: Nathan

Chapter Twenty-One: Nathan

" Reach out for her healing hands

There's a light, where the darkness ends..."

- Elton John, "Healing Hands"

NATHAN

“Is this going to hurt?” Rika asked, eyeing Gabriel warily.

I laughed, and saw Gabriel smile too, a quick flash of amusement across his face before he composed his features again.

“No,” he answered. “It won't be painful in the least.”

Rika's expression relaxed, looking noticeably relieved.

“Don't worry,” I reassured her. “Gabriel knows what he's doing. At least, I hope he does,” I added, grinning at my brother.

He rolled his eyes at me. “Of course,” he said curtly. “And what possessed you to climb in through my window, anyway?”

“Well, we couldn't exactly come through the main entrance, now could we?” Rika answered for me, with a hint of annoyance in her voice. I cast a sideways glance at her. I think the prospect of being healed through unnatural means was making her tense.

“Rika,” I said, going over to her. “Relax. It's going to be fine.” I put my hand on her shoulder in what I meant to be a comforting gesture.

She, of course, shrugged it off. Did she truly not see how much it hurt me when she did that? “Oh, just go put on a shirt. And dry mine,” she added as she gestured to her shirt in my hand.

I looked down at myself, surprised. I had forgotten that I had given my shirt to Rika to wear.

“Why?” I asked, grinning down at her. “Am I distracting you?” I raised an eyebrow.

She blushed scarlet and looked away, embarrassed. “Just go,” she said, speaking to the table.

I laughed. “Alright, whatever you want,” I said. I leaned in to kiss her cheek, which made her blush harder, and walked towards the door.

I put my hand on the doorknob, pausing. "Gabriel," I said, and he looked up silently, an unspoken question in his eyes. "Just...take care of her, alright?" I tried to mask the concern in my voice, for Rika's sake, but this had evidently failed because I caught Rika rolling her eyes at me.

 “I will,” he answered, and there was a hint of determination in his tone, a touch of steely resolve that I hadn't heard in a long time. I wondered at its meaning.

“Thank you,” I told him, and he nodded in acknowledgment. Before closing the door, I heard Rika sigh quietly. I smiled and headed to my bedchamber. 

RIKA

I watched Gabriel with increasing curiosity as he continued working on my injured hand (although how it was truly injured I failed to notice, seeing as I had managed to scale the side of a building with it). I was surprised - though perhaps I should not have been - when I came in through the window, to see that Gabriel was just as handsome as his brother, albeit in a subtler way. While Nathan's body was obviously muscular, Gabriel was of a leaner, more slender build. Dark-haired and silent, there was something about the way he held himself that reminded me of a  lone wolf: pensive, mysterious, and with a certain kind of grace. 

Gabriel looked up as I watched him, and I suddenly found myself looking into his eyes. He had the most startlingly blue eyes, the only bit of colour on his pale face. They stood out in stark contrast between his hair and his skin. His glance darted away as quickly as it had come, but the bright, vivid colour of his eyes remained imprinted on my mind. I blinked, clearing away my surprise at his intense blue gaze.

The room had been quiet since Nathan left, and since Gabriel seemed content to let it remain so, I took it upon myself to make casual conversation.

“So how long have you been practicing magic, Gabriel?” I asked, my voice sounding too loud in the heavy silence.

He merely glanced up at me once more, this time with a hint of hostility in his eyes. His quick, capable fingers didn't stop moving over mine, tracing intricate, complicated-looking patterns in the air. He stared at me for a long moment, then looked back down at his work.

Not much of a conversationalist, huh? I thought to myself as I looked away to the door, waiting for Nathan. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw the corner of Gabriel's mouth lift ever so slightly, as if he had heard what I was thinking. I tried to remember if I had accidentally spoken out loud, but I was fairly certain that I hadn't. I wondered if Gabriel's magic allowed him to read minds.

My distracted thoughts were interrupted by a sudden warm, tingling feeling in my injured hand. I looked back to the table and inhaled sharply, not quite a gasp. There was a golden dome of what appeared to be a yellow-white light over my hand, enveloping it in the glow of a little miniature sun. A faint glow seemed to emanate from the dome, pulsing every so often. With each pulse, I felt a flash of warmth in my hand that was almost pain, but also pleasure at the same time. It wasn't uncomfortable.

Gabriel ignored my reaction altogether, seemingly too focused on ensuring that his spell was satisfactory. After an intense stare into the sphere of light surrouding my hand, he seemed satisfied with his work and sat back in his chair, looking exhausted. It hadn't occurred to me the effect this might have had on him. A wave of sympathy and guilt washed over me. 

"Im sorry," I said quietly.

Gabriel looked up at me in surprise - the first real emotion I'd seen him express. "Why?" he asked.

I looked into my lap. "It's clear that you've spent a lot of energy fixing my hand, and you didn't have to do it since you barely know me and I don't mean anything to you, so...I'm sorry." 

"You shouldn't be," he said. "Do not think that I'm so noble that I would do this for anyone. Nathan cares about you; that makes you mean something."

His chair made a scraping noise as he stood up and walked to the door. 

"Your hand should be better in a quarter of an hour," he said, nodding at it. "You'll know it's healed when the light dies down. In the meantime, try not to do anything to worsen your condition." His tone was mocking and sardonic.

And with that, he left the room, leaving me alone to ponder his behaviour.