Healing Ties (Ties, Book 2) | ✓

Chapter 22

Fanner stood in the middle of a dark forest. He could see the shadowy outlines of the trees in front of him and nothing else. He threw up a ball of magelight, but no matter how big or bright he made it or where he sent it the light illuminated no more than a single candle would have.

There was a rustling sound from behind him and Fanner turned and squinted into the darkness. Glowing eyes watched him from the depths of the shadows. Fanner ran, somehow managing to keep a steady footing and not run headfirst into trees despite having almost no visibility. But maybe that wasn't so astounding, because he felt like even though he was running as fast as he could he wasn't moving very quickly at all. Whatever was chasing him was catching up.

Something leapt on Fanner and knocked him to the ground, but when he looked up it wasn't a monster that was pressing down on him. It was Whelan, a knife gripped in his hand. As Whelan struck out with the knife, Fanner grabbed hold of his wrist and pulled.

Fanner had pulled just enough energy from Whelan to get a taste of just how shallow a pool he was dipping into when he felt a sharp pain in his arm and released the grip he had on Whelan's wrist. Or... had it been Whelan's? Fanner's hand had easily encircled the wrist, and that energy...

Fanner lay in a bed, in a dark room now illuminated by magelight. A crying child was trying to scrabble over him to get to his father. Fanner's arm was bleeding. Jasper had bitten him.

Danya pulled his son into his arms and blinked as his eyes adjusted to his magelight. "Jasper, did you bite him?"

"He— he grabbed me!" Jasper said between gasping sobs.

"That's not a good reason to bite him. You'd be a bit confused too if you woke up to someone climbing over you, wouldn't you?" Danya leant in to get a closer look at Fanner's arm and drew a breath in through his teeth. "I'm sorry about this. He doesn't usually bite."

Simon appeared in the doorway, dressed only in his underwear and rubbing at his eye. "What happened?"

"Jasper tried to crawl over Fanner to get to me, that startled Fanner and I guess he grabbed Jas or something in his sleep, and Jas bit him," Danya explained. "Can you take him? I need to clean and bandage the bite."

"I'm fine," Fanner said, covering the bite mark with his hand.

"I'm sure you would heal on your own, but it's much nicer to take care of your wounds properly. Here, Jas, go to Simon."

Danya handed off Jasper and led Fanner out into the main room. He sat him down on the floor and went and got some bandages before sitting down next to him.

Fanner looked down at the bite mark on his arm. If Jasper hadn't bitten him...

Fanner would have killed him. He had no doubt about that. He had felt how shockingly shallow the pool of Jasper's energy was. It would have taken just a couple of seconds. Had biting Fanner just been an overreaction, or had Jasper known, on some level, that he was in genuine danger?

He had to tell Danya. He deserved to know and to have the opportunity to get Fanner as far away from his family as he felt necessary. But how did you just tell someone that you nearly killed their child? It didn't matter that it had been an accident.

Danya used his magic to clean out the wound and then gently bandaged it up. It was a minor enough wound that it would be healed by morning.

"I know you'll be fine, but I'm really sorry for this added drama," Danya told him. "You're already stressed enough."

"It's fine," Fanner murmured. He needed to tell Danya, but he simply couldn't. His brain refused to even come up with the words he needed to say.

"Let's go back to bed," Danya suggested. "You need the rest."