54. Lenna
54
Lenna
T he panomquake had started like any other: the ground slightly shaking, things trembling, a background hum coming from underneath. Until the floor moved like a wave in the sea, and Lenna heard the crystal dome at the other side of the antechamber door fucking explode. She had also heard ripping noises coming from outside the Organ House, as if the actual land was breaking in half somewhere.
“If anyone had a doubt about that woman being the heir of the Organ House, that was a hell of a Fifth Ceremony.”
“Cardinals. We need to get the fuck out of here before my father rushes in,” Jake said. Since he was the only one that could moure them out, and there were too many of them in there. “Ladies.” He offered both hands to Ayla and Lenna so he could moure, and he winked. He fucking winked even though the island had probably parted in half and the Organ Mandor could catch them right now and kill them all.
His firm hand touched the back of Lenna’s neck softly, a shiver going down her spine that she knew it wasn’t only caused by the floor disappearing from underneath her feet. And that was his thumb stroking her skin for the few seconds the mouring lasted, before he left them in a barely illuminated alley and disappeared.
Ciaran and Hope were moured in shortly after, and Jake was gone again before Lenna had time to gasp. Ciaran was carrying a limp Hope in his arms. The moment he set foot in the alley, he bent his knee on the ground and Gave the floor a cushioned mat where he carefully placed Hope.
“Fuck, is she alive?”
“She better be, or I will kill that fucking Cardinal myself,” Ciaran said through his teeth, holding his breath.
His index and middle fingers were on Hope’s throat, checking for her pulse, and he must have found it because he inhaled sharply, closing his eyes for half a second. Then he proceeded to do circling Healing movements over her heart with his biological hand, the metallic one Healing the multiple small cuts on her face, hands and feet, and some of the transparent beads of her outfit were broken too, but they had kept the skin underneath safe from sharps. Ciaran himself was full of those cuts too, covering his face, neck, and his biological arm and hand. He didn’t seem to care one bit.
Lenna kneeled on the other side of Hope and started Healing her skin as well. Ciaran handed over the skin duty fully to her, as he was now circling over Hope’s heart with both hands, his blue eyes not leaving Hope’s closed ones.
Damn if it didn’t feel good to use her powers again. Damn if she hadn’t been born to do this, despite of whatever she had tried to convince herself. Lenna fully focused on the Healing, barely noticing that Jake kept mouring people in at lightning speed and Nina and Theon were already here until Nina kneeled next to Hope’s head, stroking her black hair.
“Hope! Hope, wake up!” Tears lined Nina’s blue eyes. “What happened to her?”
“What the land felt, her body must have suffered many times worse.” Ciaran’s circles became faster and more intense. Dark green sparks jumping from his fingers to Hope’s chest, that was raising and falling with very slow and shallow breaths. A couple of red sparks joined Ciaran’s ones, and they seemed to dance with each other before the red ones vanished.
Indianna and Sasha were moured in next. Indianna checked her pulse and said, “Her heart rate is too slow. We need someone Healing her brain immediately, or we risk her brain not receiving enough oxygen and having catastrophic consequences.” Jake was gone again before he could even listen to what Indianna had ordered. Fuck, when had they thought that bringing so many people was a good fucking idea?
Ayla kneeled between Nina and Ciaran. Her Northern majesty had finally cared to help the woman perishing in front of her. She took over the constant circling Healing motions hovering over Hope’s head. Lenna felt a long-standing hateful knot in her chest, easing.
Jake moured in the group's last, Carson and Brendon, and kneeled between Lenna and Nina.
“Three fucking panoms Healing you and you don’t wake the fuck up?” Anger lined Jake’s voice. “I don’t give a Cardinals-damned shit about who you are, but we haven’t risked our necks for nothing, so wake the fuck up .”
“You don’t talk to her like that,” Ciaran said, baring his teeth. “All of you, get the fuck out of here right now. This is clearly not working.”
“Out, as in, out, out ?” Lenna said. The cuts on Hope’s skin were mostly healed now, the skin sewn back together by magic.
“Just give me some space. Please,” Ciaran’s voice was tense, and the last word was definitely not in his usual vocabulary.
They all stood up, walking down the alley, giving him exactly what he had asked for.