it’d be rude to point out that he was smelling me like a dog.
He snorted. “I’m not a fuckin’ dog.”
“Daddy, you said a bad word,” Rasha said.
He chuckled. “Sorry, peanut.”
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
“Yeah. I feel weird, but also… healthy? I dunno.”
“Do you need anything?”
“No, love, I’m okay.” He lifted his head to rest our temples together for a few seconds before he kissed the side of my head, then pulled Rasha out of my arms, saying, “You still want to do this?”
She nodded. “Did it hurt?”
“A little, but it was over quickly. It felt kinda tingly more than anything.”
“Okay.”
Hiro glanced over at Rebe and asked, “Can she sit in my lap while she drinks it?”
“Sure.” Rebe gave him a nod.
Hiro stepped closer to the edge of the water-sludge hole, and I took a step back toward Rebe, but my viramore grabbed my wrist and pulled me over with them. As he sat down, he pulled me down beside him, so I scooted close. Rasha stared at the water with a frown.
After several seconds, she nodded to herself, dipped her hand into it, then scooped some into her mouth. “Ulgh,” she muttered in disgust, but still swallowed it down.
Hiro hugged her tight and whispered, “Don’t be scared. I’m right here, and so is Basil.”
Watching Rasha freeze and tense, and seeing her skin ripple with pink and purple waves was even harder to watch than it had been with Hiro. The glow around her kept getting brighter and brighter until I had to hold my arm in front of my eyes to prevent being blinded by it. When it dimmed again, Rasha was breathing heavily, and Hiro was whispering encouraging words to her, but all I could do was stare at her with wide eyes.
Her skin had taken on a shimmery tone, not entirely unlike Rebe’s, only Rasha’s wasn’t as glittery. She was sweating and shaking, but had the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face.
“I can breathe,” she said in awe. “It doesn’t hurt, Daddy.”
A noise came out of Hiro’s throat as he squeezed her and tucked his head down onto her shoulder.
Rasha stared at me and whispered, “Am I really fixed?” The hopefulness in her voice almost broke my heart, and all I could do was pray that this had worked.
“I’m going to check, okay?” I placed my hand on her forehead and released my magic. As soon as it touched her, I gasped. She felt like a fae, like her body was thrumming with magic, like it ran through her very cells. Quickly, I used my shadow magic to scan her, searching for any issues in her lungs or anywhere else, and all I could feel was healthy organs, healthy everything. A huge smile spread across my lips as I whispered, “You feel healthy. I don’t detect any of the hex.”
She grinned at me, but it was Hiro’s reaction that caught my attention. He was hugging and rocking her, his eyes squeezed tight, but I didn’t miss the tears running down his cheeks. He was trying to stay quiet, probably so Rasha wouldn’t worry, but his tears of happiness and relief and all those years of stress were making my own eyes want to leak.
I got up on my knees and hugged them both to me, whispering, “I hope you know this means you’re never getting rid of me.”
Rasha giggled, and Hiro snorted. “Like we’d want to.”
That might’ve been the nicest thing he’d ever said to me.
We stayed in our tight hug for a long time, but once Hiro had his emotions under control, we stood up. He put Rasha on her feet, then marched straight over to Rebe and surprised the hell out of me when he pulled them into a huge hug. From the look on Rebe’s face, they weren’t expecting it either.
Hiro said, “Thank you, thank you,” over and over and over again until Rasha walked over to him and tapped him on the back. As soon as he released Rebe, he picked Rasha up and threw her in the air, caught her, then hugged her to his chest as he started crying again.
I gave them a few minutes before walking over and rubbing Hiro’s back. He managed to get an arm around me and pull me into their hug, so I relaxed into him and let him ride out his emotions.
He didn’t seem to be capable of speaking anything other than, “Thank you,” so after a while, Rebe silently led us back through