Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Meic

The world is weird inside stone. It’s also kind of normal. I don’t know what I expected it to be like, but it’s not this. The only real difference is that I can’t move and interact with the world around me. At least Nati left the movie playing when she ran out of here so I’m not completely dying of boredom. But that’s only going to be the case for another ten minutes or so, I’m not sure what I’m going to do when it ends, and I’m left to my own thoughts.

I could think about our kiss. Though that’s probably going to make me hard in a different way.

The door opens and Nati reappears, a relieved expression on her face. “You’re still here. Sorry, what a dumb thing to say. Of course you’re still here.”

She sits down next to me and pulls a bottle out of her pocket. She pulls the stopper off it and lifts it over my head, letting the liquid drop down onto me. Her eyes are full of nerves as she watches me intently.

I have no idea what the potion is or what it’s done, but my whole body begins to tingle as it runs over me. The casing that’s around me drops away and I take a deep breath.

Her shoulders slump and she let out a sigh of relief. “It worked.”

“Was it not meant to?” I ask.

“Cethin had no idea if it would or not.”

I raise an eyebrow. “You got the potion from Cethin?”

“He made it for me,” she responds. “I messaged Anja and asked her if he was around. We broke into the Charms and Potions classroom so we could make it.”

“Well, I’m glad about that. I owe him one. How long would I have stayed like that without the potion?”

“I don’t know,” she admits.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter.” I wave out my arm to remove some of the lingering stiffness. “So, before all of that, where were we?”

She looks at me, a strange expression on her face. “What?”

“Before you turned me into stone, we were much closer than this.”

“Are you seriously thinking about that right now?” she asks, her voice cracking with emotion.

“Why wouldn’t I be thinking about it? That was a good kiss and I’ve just been sitting here with not much else to occupy myself, I’ve been thinking about it,” I point out.

“I turned you into stone, Meic.”

“Yes, I did notice that,” I respond. “What of it?”

“I thought you’d be mad about it,” she whispers.

“What? Why? It was an accident.”

“Because I’m dangerous.” Her whole face hardens as she says it, but I can tell it’s not aimed at me. She’s angry at herself for how the situation went down. “This is why I don’t want people to touch me.”

Understanding dawns on me. “So they don’t get close enough for your snakes to bite.”

She nods and wraps her arms around her knees, leaning back against the wall.

I want to go over and comfort her, to tell her that it’s okay and that I’m not angry about it, but I don’t think that’s what she needs right now.

“Look, I get that it’s scary,” I say slowly. “But we’ll work it out.”

“Work it out?” she squeaks. “Frank bit you.”

“It didn’t hurt,” I respond, reaching up to where the snake bite is and rubbing my fingers over it. I actually think the marks themselves have gone, probably healed over by the stone. Or maybe by the potion that undoes gorgon magic. I’m going to have to thank Ceithin for the part he played in helping me break out of that. As much as I’m not blaming Nati for anything, it wouldn’t have been fun if I’d been stuck here for hours.

“That’s not the point, Meic,” she counters. “What happens when he bites you again?”

“We’ll get Cethin to brew another potion. Or maybe there’s some kind of anti-venom. At least until Frank likes me and doesn’t decide to bite me.”

“Meic...”

“What?”

“Maybe this is a mistake.”

A strong surge of something that feels a bit like ghoul-hunger but isn’t rises within me. “ We are not a mistake .” The words come out as more of a growl than I intend them to.

Surprise fills Nati’s face. “I’ve never heard you talk like that before.”

I clear my throat. “Sorry.”

“You sounded so certain.”

“I am certain.” I get up and go over to her, sitting down beside her. I raise an arm.

She hesitates for a moment, but then leans in, putting her head against my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Frank is sulking because I milked him.”

“I have so many questions,” I murmur.

“It needed to be done for the potion.”

“I don’t even know how you’d milk him.”

“The same way you’d milk any other snake,” she responds, as if that actually answers the question.

Once I’m alone, I’m going to have to look up videos of snake milking so that I can understand, because there’s no way anything I’m imagining is remotely accurate.

“If he’s sulking then I’m probably safe,” I respond.

“And I have another vial of potion.” She pulls it out of her pocket to show me. “Cethin made two.”

“A spare is good. I’m not saying I don’t want you to make me rock hard again, but I’d rather it wasn’t this way.”

To my surprise, she snorts. “Anja said you’d make a joke.”

“I’m honoured she knows me so well,” he teases. “Are you okay?”

“Am I okay? Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re the one who turned into stone?”

It hurts my heart that she’s so angry at herself over it and unable to let it go for long enough to realise that we’re okay. But that just means I need to reassure her in a way that makes it clear we are. “I’m fine, Nati,” I assure her. “I’m not hurt. All I did was sit there and watch the movie.”

“So you could tell what was happening around you?”

“Yes.”

“I guess that answers a question I had about it,” she muses.

“You had no idea what would happen?”

She shook her head, a hiss coming in response. “Oh, shut it,” she says to the snakes, then lets out a loud sigh. “Where do we go from here?”

“Wherever we want,” I respond. “At whatever pace we want.”

“But how can we do anything if there’s a risk of tuning you into stone?” she asks. “It’s a bit of a mood killer.”

“Is it? Do you think about the fact that I have cravings to eat people?”

She frowns as if considering it. “I don’t think so. It’s just part of who you are.”

“And being a gorgon is part of who you are. I’d be a bad fated mate if I thought that part of you was something to be scared of.” Even as I say the words, I realise how much I mean them. Bad jokes aside, I’ve never thought that Nati being a gorgon was any kind of turn-off.

“I guess. Have you always been this mature?”

I snort. “Definitely not. And I’m still an immature idiot who makes bad jokes.”

For the first time since she came back, she genuinely smiles. “Are you sure you don’t want to put an end to this?”

“Over a mistake? Are you kidding me? Clearly I just need to try harder to impress Frank.”

She lets out a small laugh. “I wish I had some pointers on that. He does like the beef they put in the sandwiches.”

“Then I’ll make sure to bring him some beef next time we have a picnic,” I respond. “Maybe it’ll work. But if it doesn’t, it’s fine.”

“You sound so confident about this.”

“I am.” I reach out to take her hand in mine, threading our fingers together and enjoying how good it feels to touch her. “And we’ve got time to work this out. We don’t have to rush anything.”

“I’m surprised to hear you say that. Didn’t you get hard during Divination ?”

I groan. “Why would you remind me of that?”

“You’re the one who said we can go slow.”

“We can,” I respond. “I didn’t say it would be easy, just that we’d do it.”

She bites her bottom lip, drawing my attention there and making me hope that another kiss isn’t completely off the table tonight. “I don’t like the sound of that. But I also don’t like the idea of risking you turning into stone again.”

“Then we’ll come up with a way to do it safely.” Though I have no idea what that could be.

“Yeah, I need to do some research into that,” she says. “I can’t be the first gorgon to want to have sex.”

I chuckle. “The fact you exist says as much.”

She wrinkles her nose. “I’m going to try and erase thoughts of my family doing the deed from my mind forever. I more meant that I couldn’t be the first gorgon to want to have sex with someone who wasn’t a gorgon.”

“It’s doubtful,” I agree. “So are gorgons immune to other gorgons?”

“It depends on the type of snake we’ve got and if they’re the same species. Something in our blood is an anti-venom to the snakes we have, I think. It’s not like Frank’s never bitten me.”

“He’s a cheeky snake.”

“He’s got an attitude,” she agrees. “And one that’s going to get him into trouble.”

“We’ll work it out,” I promise her. I lean in without thinking and kiss her forehead.

Nati closes her eyes and lets out a satisfied hum, making me certain that she’s not going to give up on what we could have before it’s even truly begun.