Chapter 9
Wyatt
Pain.
That’s all I could feel.
Opening my eyes felt like lifting hundreds of pounds in a deadlift.
I squeezed them shut a moment later as a throbbing pain hammered at my brain. This room was too bright.
“Wyatt, its dark in here.” Rafe said flatly.
I must’ve made the bright comment out loud. Or…I shuddered. Or I was dead in hell, and Rafe was here with me.
“The fuck?”
Why? Why did I have to die with Rafe? And before I got to see Skye naked?
Someone laughed. It sounded like Aiden. Fuck. We were all dead together. This was my punishment. Eternal damnation with Aiden Brandt.
“Oh, what? Fuck you.”
“Open your fucking eyes,” Rafe snarled.
I slowly opened my eyes again, groaning.
I sucked in a sharp breath at the first thing I saw.
Skye.
Beautiful, stunning Skye right in front of me, her silver eyes looking over me assessingly. She was on the bed, straddled over me. My heart began to pound. Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulder like a dark waterfall…or glass…or–
“You asshole,” she hissed, then slapped me.
I choked out a rough laugh, then groaned at the stinging pain in my cheek, which quickly turned to a stabbing pain in my skull.
“What were you thinking?!” Skye cried, and I winced preemptively when I felt her rear back to slap me again.
It was definitely a wince. I definitely wasn’t holding my breath in anticipation.
It felt like a struggle broke out above me, and then Skye made a sound like a wildcat, twisting as she tried to fight someone off. I slowly opened my eyes, surprised to see it was Aiden wrestling Skye away.
Rafe leaned into my field of vision from where he stood beside the bed, blocking my view of Aiden and Skye.
“I would’ve expected you to pull her off me,” I croaked to Rafe.
“Except I agree with her,” Rafe replied easily, though his dark eyes looked me over carefully. “You deserve more than a second slap.”
“Probably,” I replied, furrowing my brow at how a shadow prodded at my thigh. I was surprised I didn’t feel any soreness there. “Why doesn’t that hurt?”
“Zephyr fixed you this time,” Rafe explained. “I brought Holmes to help him, and Skye set some of your bones for them.”
That…was a grim sentence. Zephyr was one of the strongest Healers I’d ever encountered. The fact that he needed Skye to assist him was scary. But…
I mean, a massive stone wall had fallen on me, right?
I gulped. Aiden held Skye around her middle, and she continued trying to pry his arms away from her while glaring at me, though she didn’t seem like she was really trying. She could’ve gotten away from Aiden using her affinity, if she really wanted to.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Her anger at me was completely justified, and I silently vowed I’d let her slap me ten times every day as long as she’d forgive me.
For anger purposes. Not because I wanted to be slapped.
“What is it going to take, Wyatt? Will you ever trust any of us?” Skye snarled.
My stomach churned. “I…of course I trust you.”
“Bad answer,” Rafe whispered. I swear a shadow on his shoulder seemed to shake back and forth disapprovingly.
“You don’t trust me!” Skye almost screeched. “I could’ve held that wall!”
“But you weren’t,” I whispered, hating that I was arguing. “You were on the ground.”
“I was getting up!” Skye cried. “I’d just moved half the building! I could’ve done it!”
I had nothing to say.
Skye dove for me again, and this time, Rafe turned his back to me to intercept her. She was halfway over his shoulder, tears in her eyes as she snarled, “I would’ve stopped a fucking volcano to save you!”
My heart leapt.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Aiden wrestled Skye back off of Rafe, looking conflicted. He probably wanted her to kick my ass, but realized she’d be upset about it later.
I should’ve trusted her.
She could’ve held the wall.
I’d just…panicked.
Skye was so pissed, her hair was lifting into the air while Aiden’s did the same. His warm brown eyes jumped from me, to Rafe, and when he opened his mouth to probably make things worse, Zephyr’s voice cut through the tension.
“Oh, God. He’s already pissed you off? How long has he been up?”
Skye and Aiden’s hair dropped, as well as an antique wooden dresser from behind them that no one had noticed in the air.
Zephyr came to the side of the bed, crossing his arms as he stared me down.
His curls were pulled into a poof at the top of his head.
He looked menacing while staring down at me, but his posture was different.
A little softer. He’d been getting over his hatred toward me when we went to Alaska, but I’d expected that hatred to come back tenfold now that I’d tried to sacrifice myself.
I was grateful he’d helped me, since he’d refused to heal my thigh after he’d been the one to break it originally. I’d been getting over my dislike for him, but he still fucked my sister, so I needed to stay at least a little mad at him.
“Hey,” I croaked.
“Hey,” Zephyr replied cheerily. “I fixed your femur.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“And your other femur. And your sternum. And seven of your ribs. And most of your spine. Your tailbone, your pelvis, your right shoulder, a few toes, like four fingers–”
“Zephyr,” Skye hissed with venom.
Zephyr’s mouth snapped shut so fast his teeth clacked together before he reached out, and I didn’t resist, didn’t even flinch as he touched me.
I let him run his hands along my forehead, neck, and chest. Aiden eventually let go of Skye, and she perched on the edge of the bed, watching her brother closely, her silver gaze missing nothing.
“It re-broke so easily,” I commented, looking at my thigh.
“Did it?” Zephyr asked, his attention fully on me. “Did it really?”
“Yeah,” I said. “At least, I think…” I trailed off, pointedly ignoring Skye’s glare as I looked to Rafe for confirmation.
Rafe nodded grimly. “Yeah. A few bricks came down and it was toast. I mean, it should’ve hurt, but I don’t think it should’ve completely snapped like that.”
Zephyr blinked, staring at my leg while I fidgeted. I didn’t like being the center of attention. Especially not Skye’s center of attention. Not when she was mad, at least.
“What?” She hissed suddenly, and my stomach dropped before I realized she was looking at her brother.
Zephyr furrowed his brow. “Don’t bite my head off,” he muttered to Skye, then looked to me. “I don’t…think Dani set the bone right.”
“What?” Rafe snapped, surprising both me and Skye.
“I know it was still bothering you in Alaska,” Zephyr said uneasily.
I stared at him, not knowing what to say. My thigh had been bothering me in Alaska.
Skye tilted her head to the side, looking like a predator. “How would you know that?”
“I felt it?” Zephyr replied as if we were stupid, elaborating when we all continued staring. “I don’t feel it, exactly. It’s just…sort of an annoying thing I can sense, if that makes sense.”
“I never knew that,” Skye muttered.
Zephyr ran a hand down his face, his jaw working like there was something else he wanted to say.
I watched him for a minute, and when his pale eyes met mine, I could tell there was something there.
He was debating on whether or not he should share something with everyone, and I saw the moment he decided not to.
“You’ll need to eat,” Zephyr said. “Eat, drink a lot of water. I want you pissing all night, that’s not a joke.”
“Sure thing,” I snarked as my Chain began to move about the room. Skye and Aiden disappeared through one door while Rafe went into another. A bathroom, I assumed.
Zephyr continued staring at me, and when Rafe came back into the room with a wet rag, Zephyr nodded toward the door.
Rafe raised his eyebrows in surprise, but a shadow closed the door softly as he made his way over to me. He ran the rag across my face, down my neck and onto my chest before anyone spoke.
“Well?” Rafe prompted.
Zephyr crossed his arms. “I don’t think Dani set that bone right.”
“You going to elaborate on that?” I muttered.
“It was healed incorrectly. I thought I was seeing things because the moment was so intense, but after your comment…” Zephyr shook his head. “I don’t like it. I gave you a clean break on purpose. It would’ve been easy to heal for even the weakest of Healers.”
“Wow. You’re too kind,” I said sarcastically.
Rafe rolled his eyes, then continued washing down my chest.
Zephyr shrugged. “I wanted you to hurt, not get arthritis. Our sisters don’t need to deal with that.”
I blinked several times as Rafe snorted.
Dick.
Both of them.
“So Dani’s a shitty Healer,” I started, but Zephyr shook his head.
“Wyatt…” he ran a hand down his face, narrowing his eyes toward the door.
“She’s gone to fetch food,” Rafe said as a shadow twirled near the door. “I felt her teleport a few minutes ago.”
“What is it?” I hedged.
Zephyr nodded, then looked up into the ceiling. “I think…Dani healed you wrong on purpose.”
“Why?” Rafe asked before I could. He’d paused my washing again, leaving the rag to drip onto the bed from where he held it still against my arm.
“Yes, why?”
“The break was too clean,” Zephyr insisted. “Straight through the weakest points. She has to be the shittiest Healer alive to not have done it correctly.”
“How do you know it was such a clean break?” I asked. “I mean, I know you could probably sense it, but–”
I stopped speaking as I realized Zephyr had gone very still, and Rafe had, too.
A shadow took the rag, placing it back in a bucket full of soapy water while Rafe straightened up to glare at Zephyr.
It was then that I noticed my best friend was hunched over me almost defensively.
My brain was still slow to catch onto details.
“What?” I nearly whispered.
“How’d you know it was such a clean break?” Rafe repeated my question.
“You already know, why make me say it?” Zephyr challenged.
“I feel like my brain’s going to bleed,” I said.
“It’s not,” they replied in unison.
“I discovered somewhat recently that…I can heal, but I can also…un-heal things.” Zephyr said slowly. “Sorry, Wyatt, but I tested my theory on you. I can break bones and…I assume other things.”