Chapter 14 #3
They squeezed my hand hard, and I tried to send that warmth up through my arm and into their hand. They wrapped their other hand around my broken arm, making me jolt in pain.
“Keep going!”
I was running out of air, but I desperately focused on spooling out that warmth. Somebody yelled, but the hand tightened on mine.
“Keep! Going!”
I pushed my powers up through my arm and into the hand holding mine. Everything blurred and went dark around the edges, but Wolf still yelled at me to keep going, so I did, right up until everything faded away again.
—
I woke up in my bed in the soft light of morning.
A vague terror lurked on the edge of my mind, but I couldn’t figure out why.
I turned my head, my eyes automatically looking toward Trey’s bed across the room, but I was startled to see him right next to me.
He sat on the floor, half slumped over on my mattress like he’d accidentally fallen asleep there.
One of his hands rested on top of mine. I slowly sat up.
A slight noise caught my attention and I whipped my head around to see Mac sitting on a chair beside a cot, where someone else lay. Mac got to his feet and strode toward me with an expression I couldn’t read. I watched him warily as he crouched on the opposite side of where Trey still slept.
“Do you feel strong enough to get up?” he whispered, and something in his tone made dread slip through my veins.
I nodded, confused because I felt fine. I slid out of the bed, trying not to wake Trey, but paused when I noticed my clothes.
They were stiff with dried mud and blood, and now that I noticed, so was my hair.
I frowned, but then it all came roaring back to me.
Zip. Brimstone. The pit. The girl I’d tried to save. The pain.
My gaze snapped to my arm, remembering the jagged bone and blood, but it was perfectly whole, save for a new scar in the middle of my forearm. I prodded my ribs, remembering the struggle to breathe, but there was no pain. I looked up at Mac, eyes wide.
“How?” I demanded in a whisper.
He beckoned me to follow him to the other cot. For a long moment, I stared. Then I started shaking my head like I could deny what my eyes were seeing.
Sam lay on the cot with his eyes closed, his skin grey and face gaunt.
If I hadn’t seen his chest rise, I would have thought he was dead.
I stared horrified at him for a moment before my brain jerked into gear.
I dropped to his side and grabbed his bare arm.
My powers flowed, but instead of seeping into him, they hit a wall, and it hurt.
I couldn’t help gasping in pain as I let go, my hands shaking. Mac crouched beside me, his gaze sharp.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “It’s like I can’t…I can’t heal him.”
Mac’s eyes filled with pain, the most emotion I’d ever seen from him.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“He had you direct your power through him to heal yourself.”
I gaped at him, speechless. That wasn’t possible. I looked back down at Sam, noting how it looked like the very life had been drained from him. I had done that? Why had he…how could…
“Bones.” Mac brushed my upper arm, and I jumped. “It was his choice.”
Fuck that. I would not let this dumbass die.
I took Sam’s arm again, calling the warmth and directing it into Sam.
My power slammed into that invisible barrier, and I winced.
Mac called my name, but I ignored him. I tried pushing gently, then harder.
The healing power built in my hands with no outlet and burned from the inside out.
I gritted my teeth and kept pushing, even as tears of pain started spilling down my cheeks.
Then someone grabbed the back of my jacket and jerked me backward.
As soon as my fingers left Sam’s skin, light shot from my hands like a flamethrower, filling the clinic with a blinding golden blaze before vanishing. As I blinked, trying to rid my vision of white dots, I realized someone’s body was curled around mine like a shield.
“Bones!” The arms tightened around my waist. “Bones, you okay?”
It took my brain a second to register that it was Mac holding me. The pain had vanished as soon as the golden light shot from my hands.
“I’m okay,” I gasped. “Are you?”
“Yeah.” Mac sat up, pulling me with him, and we both sat huddled together, squinting and blinking. As soon as my vision cleared, I checked on Sam first. He still lay there like a corpse, but he didn’t seem to be hurt worse. I looked up at the loft next, terrified for the kids, but it seemed empty.
“We sent the kids to our bunkhouse,” Mac said, his gaze following mine. “They’re safe.”
“Bones?”
I swung my head around to see Trey sitting up and blinking at us.
“Trey, you alright?” Mac demanded.
“Yeah,” he said, sounding dazed.
Trey’s eyes focused on the thick bandage around his arm, and he started unwrapping it as Mac and I got to our feet. I moved to Trey’s side, concerned about the amount of blood staining the bandage, but when it fell off, all three of us stared at his uninjured arm. Mac swore.
“What?” I asked, confused.
Trey’s eyes were wide. “You healed me. You healed me without touching me.”
“What?”
“I had a big gash in my arm from the pit.” Trey looked as shocked as I felt. “And now it’s gone.”
The three of us stared at the faint scar. My mind whirled. I’d never thrown my power like that. I’d never healed someone from a distance. And I’d certainly never healed myself before.
“Sam?” Trey asked.
“She can’t heal him,” Mac answered before I could say anything.
Trey’s face creased with pain, and I felt that pain stab in my chest. I turned and marched back to Sam’s side, determined to try again, but Mac yanked me back.
“Bones, stop. You can’t heal him,” he said sharply.
“I can still try!” I tried to shake free, but he held tight.
“It was hurting you,” Mac argued.
“I don’t care!” I fired back.
“Bones,” Mac said in a soft voice I had never heard him use toward me before.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Stop,” I choked out, “just let me…I can do it.”
I opened my eyes as Mac pulled me into him. I stiffened, but as he hugged me, I sagged against his chest. His arms tightened around me as I cried into his shirt.
“Why did you let him—” I sobbed.
“Bones, he wanted to save you. You were dying,” Mac said.
“I don’t care,” I gasped. “He shouldn’t have—”
“Any of us would have done it,” Trey added, and I felt his hand rest on my shoulder.
“The fuck is everybody crying about?”
I jumped at the hoarse voice coming from the cot and pulled away from Mac to see Sam staring up at us. His eyes were glassy, but he smiled weakly.
“You! What the fuck were you thinking?” I dropped to my knees, grabbing his arm so I could take his pulse as I glared at him through my tears.
“Aww, Shortcake, you do care!” Sam’s grin widened.
“Don’t ever do that again, Sam!” I tried to snap, but a sob choked me halfway through.
“I knew all those mugs of broth were the key to your heart,” Sam rasped.
“Sam…” My throat closed.
“How do you feel, Sam?” Mac asked.
Sam made a face. “Not great.”
“I can’t heal you,” I whispered, and then my face crumpled again.
I buried my face in my arms on the side of his cot. I hated this. A dam had burst, and all this emotion was pouring out and drowning me. I should be taking care of him, not falling apart. Sam gave my head a feeble pat.
“C’mon, Shortcake,” he mumbled. “S’okay.”
I wanted to snap at him. I wanted to sit up and force my healing power to fix him.
I wanted to do a lot of things, but instead, I cried.
Sam’s hand found mine and I gripped it back without lifting my head.
I felt people move around us, whispering.
After I seemed to tire myself out, I raised my head, my breath coming in hiccupy gasps.
Sam had fallen asleep again, his hand still curled in mine.
I counted his breaths as I stayed there, kneeling beside his cot. He looked so sick.
“I’m gonna go check on Sky and Raven,” I heard Mac say.
The door shut behind him, and I turned to see Trey standing at the foot of the cot.
“Who’s Sky?” I whispered.
“The girl you jumped in the pit to save. You didn’t know who she was?”
I felt my cheeks warm and shook my head.
“She’s Raven’s cousin,” he said. “We thought you knew that and that’s why you saved her.”
I rested my cheek on my folded arms. “She’s a kid.”
Trey moved around the cot, crouching beside me to meet my eyes. The depth of emotion in his gaze made my own start to burn again.
“Bones,” he said, sounding exasperated and somehow fond at the same time.
“What?” I mumbled a little defensively.
His face grew serious. He started to say something and stopped, dragging a hand through his hair.
Then he reached out, asking for my hands without a word.
I surprised myself by giving them to him without hesitation, and he pulled me to my feet.
We stood facing each other for a moment.
He didn’t let go, and I didn’t pull away.
He took a deep breath and tried again. “When I saw you lying in that pit,” he said, low and rough, “I thought you were dead.”
I blinked, feeling shaky, and his hands tightened on mine.
“I swear my heart stopped,” he said, even quieter. “And then, when you were on the table and you couldn’t breathe and you looked at me like that, like you were sayin’ goodbye—”
He broke off, that muscle ticcing in his jaw as he studied my face. “Bones, why do you have to save everybody but yourself?”
My eyes closed. Those words wrapped a fist around my heart and squeezed. I didn’t know what to say.
“I want you to live,” he added, his voice hoarse with emotion. “And yeah, it’s partly ’cause I’m a selfish bastard. I just can’t stand the thought of livin’ in a world without you in it.”