Farras has stopped resisting, and when I turn to check on him, he’s limp, eyes closed, bangs soaked, face laced with sweat. He’s not moving, and I can’t even tell if he’s breathing.
“Matteo?” I ask before looking at the guys. “Is he okay?”
I can tell by the worried expressions on Brad’s and Luke’s faces that they don’t know, and Seth is too busy tending to Cody, who’s also unmoving on the floor, to hear me.
“Cody?” Seth says, pulling him close to his face, his cheek near Cody’s mouth, like this isn’t the first time he’s had to make sure his friend is still alive.
I do the same with Matteo, hoping I’ll get something, but he’s not breathing. I press my ear against his chest next, listening for a heartbeat.
Nothing.
“The fuck did you guys do?” I ask. “Put him down, put him down.”
Brad lets him go, and I position him on his back, interlocking my fingers and pressing them against his chest as I start pumping out compressions like I learned in CPR when I was in high school. With his wrists bound behind his back, this is less than ideal, but I keep my pace steady, out of sheer desperation. I haven’t pumped fifteen times before Matteo’s eyes pop open and he gasps, followed by a gurgling sound. Ilean down close to his face. “What’s wrong, Matteo? What’s happening?”
His gaze meets mine.
His hazel eyes have returned. He struggles like he has something lodged in his throat, then turns and coughs on the floor. A thick, dark liquid spreads on the cement. Blood? No, it’s black, not red. Matteo heaves before vomiting more and more of the tar-like fluid. It spills from him as if there’s a pipe shooting the stuff up, until he begins coughing again before taking what seems like his first real breath.
Gasping desperately for air, he says, “The…fucking…hell?”
“Cody’s okay,” Seth calls from the other side of the room.
Thank fuck everyone’s alive.
Matteo’s gaze shifts around frantically, his body trembling. He looks so vulnerable, so frightened. I haven’t ever seen him like this, and it makes me want to put my arms around him and protect him.
“Why can’t I move my arms?” he asks.
“It’s okay,” I assure him. “You’re tied up. We’ll get these off you. You’re fine, though. I got you, man.”
Brad and I untie Matteo, then help him to his feet and into a chair by a desk. I grab one of the blankets the guys keep here and throw it over Matteo, who’s still pale and shaking. Luke pulls a thermos from one of the bags and brings water over in the cap to Matteo.
Both Cody and Matteo are recovering from trauma, Matteo suffering from shock, while Cody lies limp, barely able to speak as Seth holds him in his arms, whispering tohim, “I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry.” Unlike the tension from before, this is more what I’d expect from Seth and Cody—unwavering loyalty.
Matteo takes a few sips from the thermos lid. As he sets it down, it trembles in his grip against the wooden desktop. He swallows, his gaze on the black goo pooled by the pentagram. Then he looks between Luke, Brad, and me.
“What the hell is going on?” he asks, looking slightly out of it still.
Throughout all this, I’ve been worried, but there’s also been a hint of guilt in the background. Now it’s switched, my guilt taking center stage because I know if he hadn’t helped me with that spell, none of this would have happened.
Brad tells him how he found him, and I explain that they brought him here and how Cody laid his hand on him and did something…not sure what.
“What did Cody do?” Matteo asks.
I look to Brad and Luke. If I say what I suspect, they’ll know just how much I’ve learned about the Sinners, but this is the least of my worries right now.
“Cody can reach into people’s minds,” Luke says. “Access memories. He did something like it to me when I first started here. He can activate these painful memories. I think he did that to this…Farras.”
Even with what I’ve shown him already, the way Matteo is glancing around makes it evident he thinks we’ve lost our minds, that this is a hard pill to swallow.
“So…I think now’s a good time to ask what you guys were doing with this spell,” Brad says, which catches Matteo’s attention.
“Really? Because Alexei and I are both curious to know what you guys are up to here.”
It’s clear by the way the accusation comes out that he’s not just upset about what went down. He’s hurt, I imagine because he considered himself and Brad friends.
“Well, maybe you and Alexei need to explain why you guys were spying on us,” Brad claps back.
