11. Chapter Eleven
Syndeth’s launch into the sky was so jarring that Linorra would have tumbled off if not for the horns protruding from his neck and spine. She held fast to him, bracing herself against the wind tugging at her cloak.
“Good thing these horns are here to hold onto,” she said, “and they aren’t too sharp.”
“Those aren’t horns,” the dragon said. “Those are my memories. They grow every time I make a new one. I think I can feel one coming on even now.”
My fury at the sight of Seleca flared like a newly lit match. She had killed my friends and had tried to kill my dog. The irrational temptation to lower my shield and attack her was nearly irresistible. She stared back at me with the same fury, as if what I had done to protect Aaron and myself from the same fate was an abhorrent sin.
She’s trying to delay you,Spirit thought. Ignore her. Try the healing.
Aaron jerked, looking around. This was the first time he was connected to me while Spirit communicated. Since I’d been listening to her, her voice had grown more distinct, sounding like her real voice instead of my own thoughts, as I had earlier thought they were. He looked at me with wide eyes.
“How?” I asked Spirit.
Kneel over him and place your hand on him somewhere where there is bare skin.
I did as instructed, taking his massive paw in mine. I touched the pad of his foot with my thumb. It was cold.
Spirit cursed. He’s already left his body and is trying to cross the death bridge. You’ll have to call to him before he gets too far away.
“What do you mean? Are you saying that I can bring him back from the dead?” I squeaked the question out, panicking. “What in the hell is happening? Can I heal a body back from death?” The idea sent a shiver down my spine, and I felt very unsure of whether I should be doing this—was it wrong for me to make a decision like this?
I looked to Aaron for direction, but he was as confused as I was. “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” he said.
Spirit hesitated. He’s already stepped away from us. Call to him. If he comes, then it will be okay to heal him. If he continues across the bridge, that’s his choice. Just try.
I nodded. “Okay.”
Okay,Spirit thought to me, to call him, think about your favorite memory of him.
I closed my eyes. Just like it had with Aaron, my own memory flashed through me in one piece.
It was my sixteenth birthday, but I couldn’t have a party because I knew nobody would come. It’s not really a party when it’s just you and your parents. My social troubles weighed on me, and I wanted to be alone. In fact, I wanted to go into those woods and never come out.
I never had trouble attracting boys, but friends were a different matter entirely. Back then, I thought there was something wrong with me. No matter how nice, accepting, funny, attractive, or any other good thing I tried to be, I just couldn’t make any close friends. People weren’t outright cruel to me, they just ignored or avoided me, as if they could sense some otherness that they found unconsciously unsettling. I just needed to accept the fact that if I wanted to keep living, I would have to do it alone. I never spoke that thought out loud, but somehow Rogue always knew when I felt depressed.
I stuffed my pack with some food and a blanket and set off to spend my birthday with my best and only friend. Rogue pressed against my legs as we walked. He did that a lot, but that day, it was even more pronounced than usual. We walked for a while until we found a sunny clearing that I knew well.
On the ground lay a flat stone, about the size of a single mattress, with an X carved into it. On top of the stone sat a small gift that looked like it might contain a piece of jewelry. It was wrapped in pink wrapping paper with a pattern of multicolored butterflies and a miniature purple bow. I recognized the paper. The gift was from my mother. I had always been drawn to that spot. I was calmer and happier when I was there. My mom knew that.
“X marks the spot,” I said, smiling down at what I hoped was a tiny treasure.
I picked up the gift, then laid my blanket on top of the X, set my bag down, and sat on the blanket. Rogue sat next to me.
“What do you think’s in it, Roogy-Roo?” I asked. He looked at me, panting a little, his tongue stuck out to one side. His tail thumped the ground rhythmically.
I decided that, before I opened the gift, I would sing “Happy Birthday” to myself. I was glad no one else was around, I told myself, so that I could do this. I sang loudly, getting halfway through the first line when Rogue shocked me with a burst of howling. I stopped in the middle of a word and stared at him. He looked back at me as if to say “What?”
I laughed, then started again, and again he howled, singing with me. When the song was over, he howled one more time as if to say “Cha, cha, cha. Ooh la la. Eat a lotta pizza.” I laughed again, harder this time. He was just so cute. I couldn’t take it. He barked once, which is the most he ever did.
“Fine, I’ll open it,” I said, ripping the paper from the package. Inside the box was a car key.
Aaron squeezed my hand, bringing me back to myself. I looked up at him, realizing that he had seen the memory with me. He didn’t know what a car key was, but he could feel my excitement when I saw it. I smiled at him briefly, then bowed my head.
Okay, now reach into that memory and pull him out.
Aaron made a choking sound. “That is disturbing,” he said.
I shushed him. “What do you mean?” I asked.
Picture him in that memory, then look at him in the memory as if he’s really there. Call to him from the memory. Make him look at you. Then imagine yourself physically reaching into the memory and pulling him out. Quickly, Lina, you have only seconds.
I did as she instructed and felt a vague movement inside my brain. Another reservoir that I hadn’t noticed yet hid in the background like a ghost. I looked hard at Rogue in the memory and saw him look in my mind’s direction. He barked once, and I understood him. He was saying my name.
Rogue, come back!
He barked again, but he sounded farther away this time. Calling to him wasn’t working.
Rogue!I didn’t know what this new reservoir was that I felt stirring, but it pulsed when I called Rogue’s name, almost an echo. I imagined taking a handful of fragment out of that reservoir, shoving my hand into the memory, and throwing it around Rogue like a net.
It clung to him like a spiderweb. I pulled on the net, dragging him out of that memory with all my strength. He didn’t struggle, allowing himself to flow out of the memory into my physical body.
Good, Lina! You’ve got him. Now use Protection to heal his body. Quickly!
I followed her directions again, drawing on my experience in healing Aaron. Through Connection, I felt that Rogue’s heart had stopped, but it had only been a minute or two and there was still time to get it going again. I pushed Protection into him as hard as I could, straining until my pulse pounded in my ears.
Aaron, help her!
Aaron jumped again, looking around. He cringed, then shook his head like a wet dog and knelt behind me. He wrapped me in his arms again, lending me what little strength he had left. My dizziness lessened but didn’t disappear. He kissed the back of my head, reassuring me, but he shook, as if on the edge of collapse. Right then, I could feel that exhaustion in my bones. My whole body trembled with it.
Seleca circled the shield now, watching with wide eyes. I kept pushing. It was like trying to push a car that had stalled in the road. It was hard to move at first, but once it got going, it rolled a little easier. As I did, Rogue’s spirit flowed into his body along with Protection fragment.
Once he got a grip on his body, he pulled the rest of himself in, causing a current that dragged Protection fragment along with it. Within seconds, I lost control over the flow. It gushed out of me like a wellspring, and I glowed so brightly that I started to heat up. It was as if I was in the portal again, feeling that excruciating light, except it came from me now. Pain stabbed me in the heart as the energy poured out of an energetic whirlpool in the center of my body.
Aaron tensed, then fell forward on top of me, losing consciousness. Somehow, I held on to his hand to prevent him from falling out of the shield, but his Evocation fragment vanished from the swirl of colors. That’s when I noticed that the shield itself was weakening, the colors all fading, as if Protection was being sucked out of it to flow into Rogue. What had previously been easy became an overwhelming task.
I redoubled my effort to hold it, gasping from the strain. My chest pain grew sharper and spread down my left arm to my pinkie, then across my back, up my neck and into my jaw and eyes. I cried out, but there was no one left to help me. I was alone with my enemy, and my defenses were about to crumble.
Seleca stopped to kneel beside us with her hands pressed against the shield, her mouth twisted into a snarl. Never before had I seen someone look at me with such pure hatred.
“I tried to warn you,” she said. “Your shield is about to fall. When it does, I’ll kill you with your father’s gun, just like I did to your girlfriend.”
Her comment was like a slap in the face, and a wave of rage rushed through my body. “I don’t think so, Seleca,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’m going to hold this shield until Rogue comes back to bite you in the ass again.”
Seleca’s face contorted with fury. She screamed her wrath out at me, then opened fire. It was the best response I could’ve hoped for, and I laughed. The gun clicked empty, and she banged the butt of it against the shield repeatedly. The vibrations from her blows hit me in the center of my chest, adding to the excruciating pain of healing Rogue.
Though I gasped, Evilina couldn’t help herself. “You were right, bitch,” I said. “I do like it here.”
With that, the pain ebbed, then vanished. I looked down at Rogue expectantly. Only, Rogue was no longer Rogue. In his place, lying face down, was an unconscious man. I stared at him, confused. His long, slender fingers were interlaced with mine.
“Rogue?” I whispered.
Seleca had stopped raving and watched me intently, breathing hard.
“His name isn’t Rogue,” she said, that unsettling smirk returning to her face. “It never was. I want to thank you for healing my most useful asset. I’ll just leave him to kill you while I go take care of your parents. I was going to let them live, but now I realize that was a mistake. You don’t deserve mercy.”
Seleca held out her hand, and a sphere of fluorescent orange-yellow lights appeared and expanded. As the bridge opened, she said “After that, I’ll find Aaron’s mother. I have a complaint to make about her little book.” The light of pure fragment radiating from the bridge entrance engulfed Seleca, and she disappeared.