Mars Can't Die (Nebula Series, Book 1)

Chapter 2

I gently put him down on his own bed, but he protested, saying mine was much more comfortable. So, I helped him into mine instead.

"Did I bite you hard?" he asked and reached for my arm. I moved back so he couldn't touch it.

"It's alright. It'll heal."

"That's not what I asked." He frowned at me.

"It's the answer you'll get." I rose to my feet and went to the small basin, cleaning my skin with a soft cloth. "It's better you bite down on that rather than your tongue anyways."

"Not to you."

I shrugged and dried off my arm with a rag, pulling my sleeve down to cover up the bitemark. I went back to the bed, with another cloth and placed it on his forehead. He'd always get so hot after the visions.

"Aren't you going to ask?" His eyes met mine and I sighed.

"No, I know you'll tell me whether I ask or not."

"Will you write it down for me too?" He smiled innocently up at me.

I gently pressed the cloth to his cheek and nodded. Of course, I'd file his visions for him. I had done so since we were kids.

I fetched his leather-bound notebook and got ready to write.

"I saw trees again. Trees on fire. There were screams." He reached up and rubbed his eyes. "I hate this one. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

"Do you want me to brew you some tea?"

"Would you?" He smiled tiredly up at me.

"Of course."

He grabbed my shirt and brought me down, kissing my forehead. "Thank you, Mars."

I held my breath and closed my eyes as he kissed my skin again. His hand cupped my cheek as he tipped my head up slightly, pressing his lips to mine. I sighed against his lips and intensified the kiss. Deepened it.

"Mars," he murmured, pulling back.

"Right, the tea," I panted and straightened my back.

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologise." I smiled reassuringly and rose to my feet, filling the kettle with water from the pitcher on our small table. I hung the kettle over the fire and returned to my knackered friend.

"How are you feeling?" I asked softly and put the cloth back on his forehead.

"I'm tired. My body feels so heavy."

"Tea first and then we'll nap," I promised.

"You take such good care of me." He smiled tiredly and I smiled back.

"Someone has to when you fail at it."

"Ouch," he laughed and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze.

The kettle announced it was finished with a high-pitched sound and I went to retrieve the water. I mixed him some mint tea, an extraordinarily strong one, so he'd get the taste out of his mouth.

He drank it obediently and then settled back against the cushions. I laid down with him, making sure the furs covered him and myself. I wasn't particularly tired, but he'd fuss around if I weren't with him. And sometimes he'd get more visions, so I needed to be close in case I had to hold him down again.

"We need to find another way to get revenge," Astral said as he bit down into a loaf of bread.

I sighed deeply and looked a little harder into my cup of coffee. "It doesn't matter, Astral. Let them write on walls. It makes no difference to me."

"But it does to me." He frowned and put his bread down. "I'm offended when they say those things about you. They don't know the first thing about what you can do."

"I can't really do anything, Astral," I muttered and took a sip of my drink.

"Does that make you useless? Are all the non-mages in the world useless too?"

I shrugged, not feeling up for this conversation. He knew what they meant. I wasn't a mage. I was a cursed child.

The arch mage had said, "Mars, you are not a mage, but we will take you in despite of that. Someone with your gift cannot be left in the city or outside of these walls with no proper education. Maybe we can find a way to lift the curse, maybe your studies will find a way. Regardless, you will have to stay here."

I didn't mind. The arch mage had told me my family had been killed by bad mages and I was the only one left. Obviously. I couldn't be killed after all. And that was my only power. Immortality. We had tried for years to see if I had any other gifts, but it turned out the curse that had been laid upon me only made me immortal.

But that didn't matter to Astral. He was a proper mage. One of the very few who had The Sight too. He learned how to bend the elements to his wishes, how to lay a curse on someone too. He had promised he never would though.

Astral didn't mind the fact that I was cursed. Never had. When he showed up at the college at the age of five, he asked why I looked the way I did, and I told him I just did. He asked what I could do, and I said nothing. He shrugged and said, we were to share living quarters.

"I get really weird visions, so please catch me when it happens, because I fall," he said. And that was it. We were friends.

"I still think we should do something to that dumb fur," Astral said, staring daggers at Castus and his merry band of asshole friends.

"I think we should just let it go for now and focus on our studies, so our trip won't get delayed. No better revenge than outperforming them." I nodded towards their group and Astral smiled.

"Could you imagine if we got better marks than them?"

"It'd be funny, wouldn't it?"

He nodded and took a big bite of his lunch. Sometimes getting Astral to do what I wanted wasn't the hardest thing in the world. And I didn't feel bad for manipulating him like this when it was in his best interest anyways.