Salvage: Book 3 of the Magic Mutations Series

42: Lukas

June, 2019

In the end, I managed to convince her to follow me back to the car. With its body acting as a buffer to the outside world and creating our cocoon, I told her about the night I regret even to this day. Back when she asked me to dinner, and I said no.

I told her about the static that alerted me something was wrong, about running to find her, about how I found her...

She sat in silence the whole time as I recovered her lost memories through my words, listening as I explained how we went to the hospital after. That she moved in with me after. That I hunted the guy down and had my first instance of practising mind magic after I resolved to not kill him.

Then, as the world outside had grown dark as the sun slipped behind the buildings, all she said was, "That static... what did it feel like?"

I tried to swallow, though my throat felt too tight. Like the same static permeating this car right now, I thought. But instead I said, "Like a thickness to the air. Like a buzzing. It was this sensation that always told me where you were."

"I never had that with Ben," she mumbled.

"I've never had it with anyone else either," I admitted. Once I had learned she was a Terra Fairy, I had wondered for a while if it was linked to that—like my vampire senses were alerting me that someone who could kill me was nearby.

But it never rose with Emma.

And, despite our severed bond, it still clung to the air, thick and thundering, demanding something from me. Though I still refused to figure out what.

"Is... Is that all you're curious about?" I asked after several moments of stillness.

She forced a smile at me that was full of anything but joy before she said, "Of course not. But that's all I can handle right now."

I nodded and placed my hands on the steering wheel, staring ahead instead as I gave her time. Until I couldn't handle it any longer and found myself probing her with, "Do you remember it?"

Meeting my gaze, her eyes flickered around my face for several beats of my heart, her rhythm much steadier than mine. Then finally she whispered back, "The actual... no. But the parts around it that you told me about, yes. As you said it, it came flooding back. Though only the parts you told me. I can't remember anything in between, like leaving the library, or heading to the shops..."

"I see," I breathed back, feeling a touch of relief. Then I had to know, "Don't you want the rest back? I can give it to you."

Her lips pressed together as she broke our eye contact, looking out at the street ahead where the lights started to light up the path. "Can you give them to me without giving me that night?"

"I don't know."

So she sighed. "Then it will have to wait. Until I'm ready... For now, I'm satisfied with your recounts and the memories that come with them."

My hands gripped the steering wheel before I said, "How can you trust me to tell you the truth about it all though? What if I'm keeping something from you? What if—"

"You'd never do that."

I turned to meet her gaze that was already staring at me with warmth. Despite all I had just overwhelmed her with.

"I trust you, Lukas. I always will."

My mouth opened and closed several times, wanting to tell her she shouldn't. Wanting to push her away, like I did back when we first met.

Yet before I could bring myself to say anything, she inhaled a deep breath then hit me with, "So why are you so against me bringing Ben back? Or even finding out if it's possible or how to do it?"