Roman squats down in front of me and picks up the knife I dropped earlier, wiping my blood from it with his handkerchief. Still kneeling, he lightly grips the back of my calf. I jump at the softness of his touch. It sends my heart speeding like there’s another threat—but no, it’s not that type of fear that’s making my blood pulse. I’m overly aware of the brush of each of his fingers as he slides my knife back into the sheath in my boot. That’s scary in a different way, and I don’t know where this feeling comes from, but I need to focus on something else. Like Xander.

Standing, Roman grips my elbow, and I startle at that too. He gives me a worried look, like I’m more fragile than he thought, but at least he doesn’t know what I’m actually thinking as he leads me around the bench to sit.

He takes my clean hand in his first. My fingers still curl as if they’re holding a knife. He coaxes them open and examines the angry red indentations—the markers of my rage. He lays that hand in my lap and lifts the other, dabbing at the blood with his handkerchief.

“You’re still bleeding.” He sounds surprised.

“No shit.”

“Why aren’t you healing it?”

“I…” My hand leaks a steady flow.

“Xander didn’t teach you?”

“No.” I certainly didn’t ask. I don’t want to use blood magic.

He lets out a low hiss. “He didn’t teach you a lot of things.”

I’m sure he means earlier when I blew his whole show.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” He doesn’t have to specify who he thinks the fault belongs to. He cups my hand in one of his and loosely grips my wrist with the other. “You have to pull the magic to the spot you need healed. Focus on the blood you’ve released there—use all that power leaking out of you.”

“I won’t use blood magic. That’s for vampires.”

“But you want one of these?” He holds up the bloodred jewel in his cuff. “Do you know how they were made?”

“Blood magic. I know, but that was once a long time ago.”

He frowns, reaching out and touching my lip. I wince as he pulls his thumb back wet with blood. “Looks like you already used blood magic yourself. You were putting off a lot of magic for an apprentice. You’re telling me you did it on accident?”

My stomach lurches. Of course I bit my lip on accident. I would never… but it did feel like more power than I’d ever felt before.

“You’re stronger than I thought.” He looks at me, then past me, searching the waves.

“Um. Thanks.” My hand’s bleeding into his now. I need stitches.