Only Riva matters.
Flashes of memory dart by behind my closed eyelids. The moments when we’d figure out the answer to a problem in the same moment, and she’d shoot a softly sly smile my way to match my own.
All the times when I’d be lost in a tangle of emotions after a session where the guardians pushed me to use my talents in ways I’d never have wanted to, and she’d come over to work patiently alongside me until I’d decided what I wanted to share.
The day when she begged one of them to put a wildflower from the outdoor training field into a pot for me so I could keep it in my room, because I’d commented on how it was going to get trampled before too long.
The time Andreas challenged me to run her all the way around the track piggyback style, and we collapsed at the end in a fit of laughter, the most ridiculous but also the most free I’d felt in ages.
And then there’s the moment when I healed her after the club night, when she talked about how much she wanted to fix things. The way she’s hesitated to ask for my help even when she was on the verge of collapsing, because she could tell I don’t like what my power costs me.
How could we not have realized sooner that the guardians were the ones who’d deceived us? How couldInot have realized sooner?
I was so concerned about my monstrousness, about the deformities sprouting from my back, but it wasn’t my physical strangeness she ran away from. No, it was my attitude, cold and silent while Jacob laid into her, shying away from her gestures of friendship.
I can’t even hate what I am right now, even if it was the guardians’ awful tests that grew most of this part of me, because my strangeness is what’s saving her.
The sapling dwindles completely, crumbling into deadened dust. The blood seeping from Riva’s body has slowed, but I can still feel it trickling out of her as both smoke and viscous liquid.
Shifting my position, I extend my appendage to the next nearest tree. Another surge of life energy, another being I’m consigning to death.
The woman beneath my hand is breathing now, in little spurts of air. Her pulse remains sluggish, but it beats stronger against my fingers even if it’s slow.
She’s coming back to us, bit by bit. Please let her make it all the way.
As the worst of her injuries bind back together, I become aware of the toll the healing has taken on me, even when I’m only acting as a conduit. Pain throbs at the base of my skull; my mouth tastes like ash as well as blood.
A tremor runs through my bones, and a hand rests on my back to steady me. “You’re doing good,” Andreas says raggedly. “You’re really doing it, Dom.”
The scuff of footsteps tells me Jacob is pacing. I don’t need Griffin’s talent for reading emotions to sense the tension rolling off of the guy.
Zian lets out another pained grunt. “Is there anything else you need? Anything we can do?”
I open my eyes and peer down at Riva, inhaling deeply as I do. The headache splinters right through my brain, and I’m not sure I can propel any more energy into her until I’ve rested at least a little.
“Does anyone… have any water?” I croak. Both she and I could probably use it.
Jake stops and makes a brusque gesture toward Zian. “You can get back to the house fastest. There are a few bottles in the bag that had the food.”
Zee dashes off without hesitation, and Jake stoops over Riva, staring down at her face. From his hard expression, I’d think he’s as coolly emotionless as usual if it weren’t for the anxious flexing of his hands.
His gaze jerks up to meet mine. “Why hasn’t she woken up? Did you fix everything inside?”
Drey frowns, his hand adding more reassuring pressure to my shoulder. “He’s obviously been doing everything he can, as well as he can.”
I cough and manage to speak a little clearer. I don’t want to tell him that I can’t say for sure whether shewillwake up.
“I think I healed all the most important parts. She seems to be stable.” Another thought jabs at me, too insistent for me to ignore. “I’m going to heal the poison out of her too.”
Jacob’s features twitch with what might be a suppressed flinch. “Of course,” he snaps. “Heal everything. Just get on with it.”
I try to swallow past the dryness of my throat. “I’ll—I’ll keep going, I just need a moment—”
“It’s fine, Dom. That was amazing.” Andreas gives my shoulder another squeeze, but when he looks down at Riva, there’s no mistaking the anguish that contorts his face.
“She ran right at that train,” he says in a low voice.
Jacob swipes his hand over his jaw. “She was running away from us. She wanted to get away from usthatbadly…”