“You do?” I looked up at him in surprise.
“I heard your roommates talking about it earlier.”
“It’s not the first one I’ve had.” I told him and hoped he believed me. I knew they weren’t dreams or reveries. They were different. I just didn’t know how to explain it.
“I know that too.”
“So, I do have foresight.”
“Of course you do.” It felt so good to have someone validate me, I wanted to hug him.
“Nobody else will believe me.”
“It’s just hard for them to accept. It’s an extremely rare ability,” he smiled down at me.
I propped myself up on my elbow. “Okay. How do you know so much about me? You knew I could breathe underwater and I’m pretty sure you’ve known I had foresight for a while too.”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Can’t,” his eyes pleaded with me, “but you can trust me, Stasia. I promise.” I was too tired to argue. I sighed and lay my head back down on his shoulder.
“Is there anything else you know about me that I should be aware of?” Maybe he could tell me about any other random abilities that were going to show themselves soon.
“How beautiful you are?” He looked down at me adoringly. If he thinks I’m beautiful right now, he might need his eyes checked.
“That’s old news,” I snickered at him and pain shot through my head again, “Ow.”
“That’s what you get.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead. My bedroom door opened.
“Stasia! You’re awake!” I immediately glanced over at Finn who had promptly disappeared.
It was going to take a while to get used to that.
“Hey Willow!” I was happy to see her, but a little distracted knowing Finn was somewhere in here without her knowledge. I felt like I should let her know. She came and sat beside me on the bed.
“I’m about to go to bed, but I wanted to come in and do a little magic on you. I didn’t want to do it until you were awake, so you wouldn’t freak out when you woke up completely healed. I did that to someone else. It wasn’t pretty.” She wiggled her fingers. “Now lay back and enjoy.”
“I have to admit, having a healer as one of my best friends is pretty awesome.” I’d honestly never had best friends before, but if I had to choose three to have in my life, it would be my roommates. They meant the world to me. I closed my eyes as I felt her hands cover my head. At the first touch, the knot on my head screamed, but then all I felt was tingling. I could actually discern the pain being taken from my head and neck, replaced by a slight numbness. She lifted her hands.
“Better?”
“Much.” I smiled up at her, suddenly lethargic. I felt like I’d just had a two hour massage in two minutes.
“Your body still needs to heal and regenerate its cells so don’t get any ideas about getting out of bed. Or going to classes tomorrow. Kira’s already talked to your teachers.”
“That all sounds good except for one thing. My stomach is eating my gall bladder as we speak.”
She laughed at me, “I thought you might be hungry.” She left and returned carrying a plate overflowing with pasta. “Its baked ziti and it’s hot, so give it a little time to cool down.”
“You rock.” I closed my eyes, exhaustion washing over me.
“Sleep good and yell if you need something.” She squeezed my hand, and then shut the door behind her. The baked ziti on my night stand was the best thing I’d seen all day (except for the definition of perfection laying beside me) and my stomach growled at the delicious aroma. Before I could even reach for the plate, the fork lifted on its own and dug into the cheesy pasta. Finn reappeared just as he took a big bite.
“Hey! That’s mine!” I grabbed the fork from him. He licked his lips and made a big production of swallowing, then crawled back under the covers with me. I devoured the rest of it like I hadn’t eaten in years. With my belly full and Finn’s arms around me, I couldn’t fight off sleep any longer.
“Sweet dreams Finn,” I whispered.
“Sweet dreams, Pasha.”
Chapter 25
A lullaby. It eased the drums pounding in my head. Not just one voice was singing to me though, it was more of a chorus made up of multiple voices. My eyes flew open. It was still dark.
Maybe it wasn’t too late.
“Finn! “ I whispered loudly as I shook him. “Finn, wake up!”
“Mmm?”
“Come on, I have to check on the turtles.” I shook him one more time and hopped out of bed.
My body felt heavy and sluggish, but it was moving better than it had earlier tonight. My head still felt like it was stuffed with cotton and my tongue had turned to sandpaper, but I couldn’t ignore the pull of the hatchlings. I could tell they were…waiting on me.
I pulled some sweatpants on over my boy shorts and a t-shirt over my tank top. The thought of Finn cloaked in my room while my roommates changed my clothes brought heat to my cheeks, but I tried to push the thought away.
“Please tell me the turtles are in the living room,” Finn rubbed his eyes sleepily.
“They’re on the beach and it’s time for them to go to the ocean. I need to be there.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the living room, then out the door.
He reluctantly followed after me. “Damn. I was really hoping for the living room. Much closer.”
I gave him a warning look and he grinned innocently at me. Down on the beach, I ran over to the nest and fell to my knees. My muscles were screaming and my head hurt, but that was the farthest thing from my mind. I placed my hands on the sand and felt the familiar electric spark in my fingers.
“They’re still here! I didn’t miss it!” Finn sat beside me as excitement pulsed through me.
“Is this where the nest is?” He peered at the undisturbed sand with doubt.
“Yep.” I was thrilled be to sharing this with him, “Just wait.” I scooted closer to him and rested up against him.
“The nests aren’t usually this close to campus,” he surmised.
“These weren’t either until a couple days ago. We moved them right before the hurricane hit so they’d be protected by the shield.” I told him about my vision and how we had relocated the eggs. I started to tell him about Phoebe’s almost-drowning fiasco but the look on his face stopped me. A mixture of overwhelming pride and astonishment sparkled in his eyes. Without a word, he reached up and rubbed my cheek. I closed my eyes and leaned into his hand. The feel of his lips suddenly on mine created a domino effect of sensations running down my neck, cascading over my body. I felt his arms wrap around me, but all I could think about was how soft his lips were and how they fit with mine so perfectly. I felt something nudge my leg and looked down. A smile spread across my face and an unexpected feeling of pure joy filled my heart.
“Hi there,” I greeted the squirming hatchling. I picked it up and set it on Finn’s palm, “This is Finn.” The hatchling tried to scurry back to my hand. “He won’t drop you. If he does I’ll kick his ass.”
“You shouldn’t use that kind of language around the baby,” Finn retorted in a parenting voice as I swatted at him.
“You just concentrate on not
“They’re so little,” he said as he marveled at the miniature creature in his palm. Movement in the sand drew our attention back to the nest and we watched as the rest of the hatchlings made their way out. Finn returned the hatchling to me and I kissed it gently on the head, before placing him back on the sand with his siblings. They were frantically crawling over each other and bumping into me. I stood, giving them a straight path to the ocean. The moon above was almost full and it shone down on the water, lighting the way. Their flippers working
