Chapter 156 - First Sense

We learn to feel as our first sense before all others—in our mother's womb, we feel before we see. And that ability to touch and be touched—to feel a physical connection with another—has profound, unconscious effects.

Perhaps seeing the Veiled wasn't really just about seeing after all. August considered this possibility as she cradled Greta with her eyes closed, feeling the girl's being moving and pulsing with life under her touch.

When Sylvia performed the healing art of reiki, she did not use her eyes. She used other senses. She used movement. And she also used touch.

August didn't know how to perform reiki—they had never gotten that far in her meetings with Sylvia—but she remembered Sylvia saying how she imagined that August's gift of the Veiled was connected to what reiki practitioners did in some way.

August breathed out her own thoughts, her own preoccupations, and imagined a healing light entering through the crown of her head and spreading through her hands, which were now holding Greta. The healing light that August envisioned looked much like the moonlight that she had seen flooding the clearing on the night of the fertility ritual.

Keeping her eyes closed, she ran a hand over Greta's head—willing the light to enter Greta and flush out whatever illness was there. She repeated this with Greta's chest and abdomen before repeating the process. August's hands started to become warm as she did this, focusing all of her energy on this transfer of light from the universe into Greta with her as the conduit.

Graeme watched through the small opening as his mate appeared like a mother with a child in her arms, rocking and caressing Greta over and over with a continuous whisper spoken from her lips that he couldn't decipher. He was beginning to lose his patience in this process and the precious time it might be wasting when he noticed a soft glow orbiting the two girls.

"What the…" he whispered, squinting his eyes as if this would allow him to see it more clearly.

"Graeme! What's happening?" Sam called from his room. "Is she okay?" He pounded on the door of his cell again, letting his head fall helplessly against it.

"Shhh!" Graeme hushed him.

Augusts's whispering turned more urgent as she ran her hands over Greta, and the glow became brighter. And it was… warm. Graeme could feel the heat of it from where he was on the other side of the door.

August smiled as, in her mind, she saw this process working. She felt a change in the consistency of Greta's energy—it felt lighter, cleaner. The poisonous substance she had consumed was being flushed out into the air around them somehow. And August's head began to feel very light.

Her heart began fluttering quickly as the process sped up, and she felt Greta's do the same. It felt as if their hearts had become twin echoes, both spreading a profound gratefulness and joy at the realization that this healing was taking place between them.

August had to squint her eyes more tightly to keep focusing—to keep from being spirited away with this feeling that was quickly overtaking her… like she could flutter away with it. Like she could become a being made entirely of light and energy that could take flight on the wind. Instead, she tried to anchor herself and her energy to this connection with Greta.

As she concentrated harder, she suddenly became aware of two other small beings within Greta that she had not taken notice of before. Their hearts were also fluttering quickly in time with hers. August let out a soft chuckle as she saw them in her mind—these little twin beings that were safely enfolded within their mother. They were growing well. They were healthy.

Finally, the last of the light passed from August to Greta, and August felt it dissipate into the air around them along with the last of Greta's illness. "It is done," August breathed, and she opened her eyes to look upon Greta with her regular vision. How strange—to see the physical body now rather than to feel the energetic one. She bent down and kissed Greta on the forehead—a seal, keeping all of the healing in.

Greta stirred before gradually sitting up.

"Greta!" Graeme called from his side of the door.

"Graeme?" Greta replied, her eyebrows threaded together in confusion. She opened her eyes to find August sitting next to her.

"August? They got you, too?" she asked, her expression becoming fraught with worry. "We should have never split up with the pups… fucking Violet was distracting Finn…" she started rambling until she saw August's huge grin. "Why—why are you smiling?"

"I am just glad you are okay," August shook her head and leaned over to hug Greta close to her. "Thank the Goddess. You are okay."

"Of course I'm okay. It's just morning sickness," Greta chuckled.

Graeme let out a sigh of relief and let his head fall back on the stone floor of the hallway. His mate just did something extraordinary. Penelope had been right.

"Goddess, Sam? Are you okay? Why are you damn happy over there—this is hardly the time," Greta grumbled, feeling her mate's overwhelming happiness rise up in her chest as well. "How are we supposed to get out of here?"

Sam fell to his knees in relief and let out a chuckle. His mate was okay. She was back to her bossy self.

"When did you get here, Graeme? And why are you just lying there?" Greta asked, realizing now that her brother was on the floor of the hallway.

Graeme sputtered a laugh, remaining on his back as he gazed at the ceiling. "It's good to see you, too."

"Can I tell you something?" August asked, drawing Greta's attention back to her.

"What is it?" Greta asked, bewildered at the huge smile on August's face.

"I felt them—your babies. They are healthy," August's smile grew larger, and she grabbed Greta's hands in hers and squeezed them.

"What?" Greta breathed, her brows pinched together again.

"They are healthy. You have no reason to worry, momma," August repeated.

Greta felt a wave of relief and joy rush through her mate somewhere nearby. "They are? They… as in two of them?"

Graeme had turned sharply back on his side to watch the girls again. He saw August nod excitedly to Greta's question. His sister and Sam were having twins?

Greta let out a happy sob and leaned to hug August again. "Thank you," she whispered.. "I don't know how you know, but thank you."