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“How ill?” Leo asked.

“You could stay unwell long after you’d normally have recovered. I can’t tell you exactly how it would affect Nate, but it’s more than an unpleasant morning afterward.”

Leo looked at Nate.

“The headache is almost gone,” he said, as if that made everything okay.

“I can bring it back,” Leo threatened. “I will if you don’t start taking this seriously.”

“Look, I didn’t know it mattered this much.”

Well, that was obvious. Leo didn’t think Nate would have deliberately made himself ill just to avoid a conversation with his mother.

At least, he hoped he wouldn’t.

“Can you make the remedy?” he asked Noah.

“I don’t know what his mother put in the crossing tea. He needs the remedy that goes with her preparation, and she’ll know how much he should take.”

Nate rubbed his forehead. Leo watched him do it and felt his annoyance give way to worry.

Yesterday, he’d thought the headache was simply something they had to put up with if they wanted to touch each other. Nate had made it sound unpleasant but harmless, and Leo had believed him because he’d wanted to.

“What if he’s already hurt himself?”

Nate lowered his hand. “Leo.”

“Well, what if you have?” Leo remembered the way Nate had lain beside him the morning after their last night together, barely opening his eyes when Leo spoke.

“I’m fine,” Nate insisted.

“You may be,” Noah said. “But tell your mother about the headaches. She’ll know what to ask.”

Nate glanced from Noah to Leo. “I’ll call my mother, okay?”

“And you’ll tell her how much you’ve been taking?” Leo asked.

“Yes, I will.”

“All right.” Leo wanted to reach for him. It was frustrating that even now, while they were discussing what touching him might be doing to Nate, he still wanted it.

Nate moved his hand a little closer on the table. He didn’t try to take Leo’s, but Leo appreciated the gesture anyway.

Across from them, Noah finished his coffee. “I should let you get back to your afternoon.”

Nate glanced at him. “You still haven’t told us how you can see Leo.”

“No,” Noah admitted. “I haven’t.”

“Are you going to?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Leo watched Nate consider that. He looked as if he had several more questions, but he was probably beginning to realize that asking them wouldn’t get him very far.

“One thing, then,” Nate said. “You knew Leo had been torn. Do you know who did it?”

Leo looked at Noah at once.