“Thank you, Kieran.”
My eyes widened in surprise, my mouth parting briefly as my brain struggled to find words. “Of course, Steele.”
His words of gratitude shocked me, and with the way his brow dipped, as if in deep thought, I had a feeling he hadn’t fully expected to say them himself. I swallowed the warmth his words caused within me, trying my best to ignore how good it felt to have a softer moment between us when nearly everything before this had been so wrought with conflict.
“He’s not waking up—” One of the attendants growled and I turned in their direction, eyes taking in the heavy set to his shoulders. He ran a hand through his hair as his eyes swept over Niz, the blue orbs widening as his brows rose. His cheeks wereflushed as he stammered, “We can’t stop the bleeding either, no matter what we use. It’s like we can’t pierce his skin, and I can’t even begin to understand why his blood is black. What…what the hell is this guy?”
Surging toward the table, I trembled as I studied Niz, looking for signs of the vibrancy that normally accompanied the wyvern. His pale skin was tinged blue, and his breathing was even fainter than when I’d walked in mere minutes ago.
My hands shook as I took one of his in mine, relieved it was still warm to the touch. Then, my eyes found Ronan, who looked as if he hadn’t even heard the man, his gaze stuck on the wound that ran down one side of Niz’s entire body. I couldn’t blame him for falling into a stupor, but I had a feeling he was the only one here with enough knowledge on wyverns to help.
“Ronan.” My voice was sharp as he lifted his gaze to mine. “We need your help. Please. Why isn’t anything working? Do you know anything that could help him?—”
My plea seemed to kickstart his brain, but his voice was almost clinical and distant as he spoke. “The healing potions you’re using…they won’t work, he’ll metabolize them too fast.” His head shook as he seemed to come to a bit more. “He needs something stronger.”
The healer offered him a panicked look before admitting, “We don’t haveanythingstronger! And if we can’t use the potions and we can’t close up his wound...” His words teetered off as a tense silence grew between us. I could feel Steele and Gabe just behind me, their warmth on my back as they peered over my shoulder, both clearly having heard what the man said.
“The needle you’re trying to use, as well as the binding, isn’t suited for his skin.”
My hand rose to my chest as it tightened painfully with my fear. Desperation led me to look around the room, as if I would miraculously find something to fix this—to fixhim.
“Normally, I wouldn’t attempt to heal someone. I tend to…prefer theoppositeof healing, as you probably know by now.”
Bastian’s words left the entire room in shocked silence as we focused on him. I studied his face, finding that despite his controlled expression, his eyes were a deep, grief-filled sapphire. “But…for Nizuss, I will. After all, if he dies, he can’t beg me for my friendship, now can he?”
A smile that seemed far more normal for Bastian tilted his lips upward, but the joke seemed like a forced attempt to nullify the palpable distress filling the room. Tears of hope and relief burned my eyes as they bubbled up. The healers moved out of the way and Bastian closed in, examining the extensive wound on Niz’s side.
In the time we’d spent together, I had grown used to Bastian using his magic at random times. His power often seemed to act on its own accord, so I had only rarely seen Bastian use it with purpose. Nerves rolled in my stomach, wondering if he had enough control to attempt magic like this. It scared the hell out of me that he was trying to shove all that power into a manageable force, to be finite enough to save Niz’s life.
One small error could be fatal.
With a slow wave of his hand over Niz’s wound, Bastian’s entire body lit up like a lamp was right under his skin. His gaze turned from the sapphire blue to a bright blood-red that seemed to expand until it filled the whites of his eyes completely. His hair turned crimson on the ends, and the veins on his hand darkened to black, as if something was alive and shifting under his skin.
Suddenly, a red orb appeared in his palm and he turned his hand over, gently dropping the orb until it floated right above the gaping wound. I edged closer and watched with nervous anticipation, stomach fluttering and knees weak, as the orbsank into the wound and dispersed like water through the torn muscles and bones until it reached the edges of the raw flesh.
His power appeared to solidify once grabbing hold of the edges of the wound, pulling tightly on the skin, graphing and fusing itself until it perfectly fit the gaping wound. Like fresh flesh, somehow. If it hadn’t been so fascinating and amazing to watch, I might have felt a bit sick to my stomach, but instead, I only felt gratitude and awe.
A slight shifting to my left had me looking over to see that at some point, Noah had quietly entered the room and joined us at the table. His eyes were trained studiously on Bastian, his bushy eyebrows raised in surprise.
Looking back at the Caster, I found myself realizing that his magic truly exceeded the realm of normality.
3
RONAN
My body felt overruledby the paralysis of shock as I stood staring down at a man who was, physically, an absolute stranger to me.
By all rights, Niz should have felt like the farthest thing from a stranger—he had been a creature that I’d considered like a child of mine. Something that I now recognized was as far from the truth as possible. How was I supposed to come to terms withthisperson being the same wyvern that had, for years, spent every single day with me?
I existed in a dazed bubble of denial.
I hadn’t moved from my spot next to his hospital bed as I watched Bastian, of all people, try to heal the massive wound on one side of Niz’s body. My lack of action, only being able to support silently, left me feeling absolutely useless, unable to do anything but stand there and wait to see if Bastian’s powers worked.
“Is it working?” Kieran’s gentle voice drew my attention, the hitch in her breathing and the way she bit her lip as her eyes darted from Niz to Bastian giving away her nervous optimism.
Despite being streaked with blood and dirt from the battle, she stood out like a beacon—a light that cast all of us in her warmth. A light I desperately needed right now.
Noah’s gaze remained trained on Bastian from his place at the edge of the bed, the deep furrow of his brow belying the confusion the man felt. It was as if he’d never seen magic like this before, and considering his expansive knowledge on affinities, the confusion piqued my interest.
