I must have dozed off, then I heard a commotion in the main room of the suite. Next came a knock and the medic appeared.
“Tuvy.” He said my name with a gruff tone. “Sit up,” he barked.
I used my non-mangled hand to push up on the bed and did as he asked, a fire raging in my fingers.
He approached swiftly, lifting my damaged appendages without asking, surveying the appearance with a raised eyebrow.
Donovan spoke up from behind the medic. “Don’t you speak with her first? Ask her how she feels? Say you knew this could happen?”
“Silence, Donovan. I’m here to take care of Tuvy. And looking at this hand, it will be a few days or weeks until this trauma passes. It’s time for you to go back and deal with Magnum. Go.” Abraham turned and looked at the only person protecting me.
“I will not be banished.” I gazed up and saw Donovan staring down at the medic.
“Go, or I will leave. You put Magnum in his place and he is very unhappy. Something must be resolved with the human. Now.”
“Donovan, please, do as he says. He will help me now.” I willed the lone tear forming to retreat but it didn’t listen.
In that tiny moment where it filled my eye and everything looked as if I was underwater, only the glint of Donovan’s Rolex caught my gaze. Focusing, I saw he was pulling up his sleeve and looking at the time.
“I will be back” were the last words he spoke before he turned to leave.
As emotion clogged my throat, I tried to focus on what Abraham was saying.
“Let’s take a look at your vitals…” He stuck a thermometer in my mouth while checking my pulse. “No fever, which is in line with you being a little sluggish. Your body isn’t fighting this as aggressively as it should be.”
I wanted to jest.You don’t say?But I kept my sarcastic thoughts to myself.
He picked up my crippled hand and turned it over to see my fingers curling in, and asked, “How long did you hold the feelings in without allowing them to dissipate?”
Tension built in my forehead. “A few minutes. There was a lot of commotion, and Valerie knew what was coming so she was prepared to fight me. Not physically, but with some emotional walls. I had to really send it—you know?”
It was only lingo a true Rubian would understand—sending powers. These things didn’t just happen, they often took a lot of mental fortitude.
A tremor stilled my thoughts, my whole body shaking with the force of it.
Abraham glared at me, watching my limp form shivering. “You didn’t send it all, did you?”
I focused on the ceiling and didn’t answer.
“Tuvy, look at me,” the only person who had the knowledge to help me blurted out.
My head shook side to side, but I refused to make eye contact.
His chilly blue eyes piercing me, he gritted his teeth and spoke. “What did you do? Tell me, Tulya.”
It was the secret I thought I’d never have to share, but when I fainted or went unconscious, my plan backfired. “It doesn’t matter,” I stated.
He stood and paced. “The hell it doesn’t. What did you do? You were told to make the transfer. Am I wrong?”
My skin turned clammy, and I was reminded of how it used to feel when Donovan was near—the ice-cold ripples that would run down my spine. I missed them.
“I was at risk, no matter what, and my mother still sent me to do the transfer. That’s why it doesn’t matter what I did or didn’t do. She didn’t say what could or might happen to me. Neither did you.” My voice came out hoarse, a combination of emotion and tiredness.
“We are not meant to use our capabilities on humans. That doesn’t mean we haven’t. It doesn’t always go as planned, but when we force our powers to perform in a way they were not meant to—which you were already doing by holding them back for what should have been seconds, not minutes—it alerts something in our nervous system.”
A fresh batch of tears began to roll down my cheeks. “No one told me any of this.” I knew what I chose to do was putting myself in jeopardy, but I hadn’t even been made aware of the overall risk. “Like I mentioned, there was a lot of commotion with Cinder and Valerie and Blake being inside…and I had to make certain it was all going to plan.” I tried to find my voice. It was apparent that if I didn’t stand up for myself, no one would.
He ran an aged hand through his salt-and-pepper hair and gave me another look of death. “But what did you do?”
