61. Chapter 60
Stiff sheets rustled around her as she stirred. Every muscle in her body protested at the slightest movement, and she winced at the lancing pain shooting through her skull. But she wasn’t on the hard ground. She wasn’t freezing. And more importantly, she was breathing.
She blinked slowly, and the golden light of the sun pierced her eyes.
Maybe she was dead. Philosophers always theorized the afterlife would be impossibly bright, didn’t they?
As the rest of the room filled her hazy view—rows of medical beds, beeping machines—she figured the medical wing couldn’t be that.
“Holy shit, you’re awake!” Maeve cried out, tears instantly filling her eyes.
Ivy gasped, her hand coming to her ear as the sound echoed through her pounding head.
“Sorry,” she said, softer this time, as she choked back another sob. “I’ll get the doctor.”
The chair next to her bed slid along the tile floor and, with what could be maybe seconds, minutes, or an hour later, a pair of latex-gloved hands touched her arm. She opened her eyes again as one of the doctors living at the school rushed to her side, pulling the stethoscope off her neck.
After the doctor finished listening to her breath, Ivy cleared her dry throat, but it didn’t help. “How…” Her voice wasn’t her own. It was high-pitched, and her throat burned.
“No talking, you need to rest.” The doctor handed her a small cup of water with a straw bent over the lip. She took a sip, and tap water had never tasted any better. “You’ve been here a little over nine weeks. It’s currently April twenty-first.”
Her brows raised, and she tried to sit up, but the heart monitor’s beeping increased loudly, and every bone in her body protested against her moving. She flinched as a sharp pain radiated down her hand from the needle stuck in her skin.
“Bringing someone back from the brink of death isn’t easy,” the doctor scowled before turning to Maeve. “I’ll need to do some additional tests to check her condition, so we’ll need a little privacy.”
“Right, I’ll let the others know you’re awake,” Maeve said, reaching down and brushing her non-IV-laden hand before leaving.
As the doctor left to get help from the nurses to wheel over the curtain dividers, she relaxed against the pillow, letting her head fall to the right and her breath hitched.
Ezra was lying in the bed next to hers.
He was still. Frozen, except for the slight rise and fall of his chest. The monitor next to him beeped in a slow, even pattern.
The events of that night flowed to the front of her mind, and her eyes ached as they tried pulling tears from a dusty well.
She shifted back to stare at the ceiling, her chest heavy as her heart shattered all over again.
“So will you tell me what happened?” Ivy asked, her voice still hoarse even after another week of staying in the medical wing.
At least, she thought it was a week. She cycled between states of sleeping and being awake.
Her mind couldn’t tell the difference between either.
All she could see was the horrifying image of her brother’s face.
And when it wasn’t his, it was Briar’s dead body lying on the ground.
Or the distress of her friends—of Ezra—ringing in her ears.
Or she’d wake up to the brush of Silas’s cold magic along her skin, even though he was nowhere to be seen.
Maeve and Liam had brought her assignments, hoping it would help keep her busy.
But she left them stacked on the nightstand.
Now that her vision was a little clearer, she noticed the dark circles lining both of their eyes.
Maeve’s curls weren’t as neatly done as they usually were, and Liam had a full-grown beard covering his face.
Maeve sighed before she relayed the story.
How they chased her, found all the other missing students who were—by some miracle, still alive—and Rhea helped by joining in the fight and leading Thorne and Walsh through the halls below with the help of the ghost of Everard Grayson, who Walsh revitalized.
After everyone had been rescued, Dean Wren was fired, but she wasn’t arrested as there wasn’t enough evidence to charge her.
The school board banded together and sealed off the exam hall and, apparently, all the halls below.
Though the reason why remained a mystery to everyone besides those who knew.
And last, they confirmed what she already knew.
Briar was dead.
Her body was returned to her parents after the coroner’s exam was completed so they could plan a real funeral.
“If she died,” she had asked through her crying, “how am I still alive?”
“Ezra used his magic to save you,” Maeve told her, rubbing her cheeks with the back of her hand as she peeked over at him. “I’m not sure how he did it. I’ve never seen anything like it.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I didn’t see it coming either.”
“Most necromancy spells don’t bring a person back whole,” Liam mumbled. “Odd, innit?”
Was that what she was? She didn’t feel whole. She’d lost parts of herself down there, replaced with something…different. But familiar at the same time. Her dreams were waking nightmares, twisting and contorting every image when she closed her eyes.
Ivy glanced over at Liam, whose expression was laced with confusion and jealousy. She was sure all he could think about was his sister and why he couldn’t do the same for her.
“He’s been like that ever since,” Maeve added.
By the time the doctor discharged her, Ezra still hadn’t woken up.
She stood by his bed, dressed in her normal clothes and the jacket Maeve had brought her, and stared at him.
There were faint lines across his jaw from a healing injury.
His brows clenched together, as if he were trapped in some sort of nightmare.
A part of her wanted to smooth those lines and make whatever he was dreaming about go away.
But she couldn’t. Wouldn’t. He was the reason everyone treated her like she’d gone mad before coming to Arcania.
He was the reason Briar’s name disappeared from the headlines.
So many faces to vanished from the posters lining the bulletin boards in the school halls because of what he did. What he had to do.
She scanned the room. Almost every bed was full of students who had been trapped, including Callum, who was on the opposite side of the room eating a cup of green gelatin.
Some of the others were awake, and some were still comatose.
Would they be here if it hadn’t been for Ezra’s actions? Would she?
She studied his arms. His tattoos had extended further than when she first saw them earlier in the year.
More constellations dotted his bicep. How could she not have noticed?
How could she have been so blind? Was there any point at which he considered telling her?
Considered giving up whatever he was after?
A teardrop fell from her face onto his arm.
She brushed it away, and she sucked in a breath as the feel of his skin sent an ache radiating through her chest and bringing on a new cascade of tears.
She hated him.
She loved him.
Even worse…she hated that she loved him.
Despite everything that came to light, she still loved him. But she couldn’t allow herself to. She wouldn’t.
Her hand slipped off his arm as she backed away from the bed.
She gazed upon his face, knowing it wouldn’t be the last time she’d see it.
Life was too cruel to keep him away from her.
The Fates, or whoever held their powers, were too cruel not to torture her with his presence.
Though, if Fate did push him out of her life, she wasn’t sure if she’d accept it.
Her heart clenched, her breath staggering as she forced herself to leave his bedside. If she didn’t now, she would never leave. She pushed through the medical wing’s doors and went back to Embry, passing groups of students, who all seemed to have moved on. Or maybe never cared at all.