Restart Again: Volume 1 by Adam Scott (pocket ebook reader TXT) 📕

took an uncertain step backwards. “Great! That was...woah.” Lia’s eyelids fluttered as she staggered back another step, bumping up against her bed. “I’m sort of...tired now…” Holding her tightly I guided her down onto the mattress just in time for her to fall backwards, unconscious. That’s about right.

Laughing to myself I moved to the side of the bed and carefully shifted her up to the pillow, pulling the blanket up over her before lithely hopping to the adjacent open space beside her. Crawling under the covers myself, I marveled at all of the new avenues I had discovered. That was...completely bizarre. Was I sharing her senses? Were those really her natural mana barriers? And her mana...it was different than mine. Does everybody have their own unique energy?

I tried to put the thoughts aside for the moment, opting instead for sleep. I curled up next to Lia and wrapped an arm around her to pull her close. Although I had cleared my mind of the inquisitive thoughts, one thing remained as I drifted off to sleep: I’m not alone anymore.

***

15. WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

I lazily cracked an eye open to find the dim light of morning filtering in from beneath the door. Lia was still snoozing beside me, snuggled up warmly against my chest. Carefully pulling my arm back from around her waist, I rolled onto my back and stared up into the darkness. There was a feeling of disquiet that I couldn’t quite identify as my brain slowly spun up to full speed, until finally the flash of inspiration hit me: I didn’t dream last night.

The realization was deeply unsettling to me. Thinking back, I couldn’t recall a night that I hadn’t had vivid dreams of my past lives; even in my final years in Hedaat my dreams had been one of the few things I could count on. Whether or not they were pleasant dreams or nightmares was a coin flip, but they were always reliable. Regardless of the content it was the only steady link I had to my past lives, and now it seemed to be thrown into question.

So, I didn’t dream for one night. Nobody dreams every night; it shouldn’t be something to be worried about. The thoughts did little to dispel my discomfort. Even a tenuous threat to the brief time I could still spend with Amaya was enough to unsettle me. There’s nothing to be done about it. I’ll go to sleep tonight, and everything will be back to normal. I did my best to push the thoughts away, but they still nagged at the edge of my mind.

A small yawn from Lia snapped me out of my funk. She rolled over and, still asleep, threw an arm across my chest, resting her head against my shoulder. I rolled my head to the side to observe her through the near darkness, her face only inches from mine. She looked so peaceful sleeping with her eyes shut tight and the traces of a small smile on her face. For a moment I was able to completely forget my worries as I mirrored her smile. Regardless of the terrible things that have happened to me so far in this world, this is one thing I did right.

I fixed a small strand of hair that had fallen into Lia’s face, tucking it gently behind her ear. My fingers brushed against the side of her face, causing her eyes to flick open. She blinked at me slowly trying to come to terms with having woken up. Eventually, she seemed to realize where she was and smiled. “G’morning, Lux. I...don’t really remember falling asleep last night. We were talking about magic...and then…” She shot up abruptly, energized. “The magic! You gave me your mana, and I felt it just like you said, like a river, and then...”

“And then you passed out,” I finished for her, chuckling. “I probably should have warned you about that. It seems to be pretty common thing for people accessing their mana for the first time.”

Although it was dark, I could almost hear the pout Lia put on her face. “Yeah, you should’ve!” She twisted to punch me in the shoulder but stopped halfway through the motion, letting out a deep groan. “Oh Primes, my shoulders. Is this because of the mana, too?”

“No, that’s from your sword practice.” I sat up and slid behind her, putting a hand on each shoulder. Her skin was hot, and the muscles underneath were knotted tightly. “They probably hurt quite a bit now, but this should be the worst of it. We’ll have to add a stretching regimen to the beginning of our practice sessions.” I began to knead my thumbs into her tender shoulders, softly at first, which evoked a low hiss from Lia.

“Can’t you just...I don’t know, magic my arms back to normal?” She said, cautiously rolling her neck in a wide circle. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to do any more practice like this.”

I clicked my tongue at her in faux disappointment. “Nonsense. Now is the best time to keep working! It only hurts because you’re working muscles you normally don’t use. Every time you exert them, they come back stronger than before. Taking away the ache would make it a pretty hollow experience, don’t you think?” Continuing to massage her shoulders I gradually moved down to her back and shoulder blades. “Plus, I don’t know any magic that would help. I’m still new to it, you know.”

Lia let out a small yelp as I pressed into a particularly hard knot in her back. “I didn’t know it was going to be this hard.”

“Rethinking your decision to come with me now?” I teased, already knowing the answer.

“Not a chance! You aren’t getting rid of me that easily.” She laughed and gave her shoulders a tentative roll. With her massage finished, Lia hopped up and crossed the room to her dresser, changing quickly from her nightgown to a long light yellow dress. I followed suit,