Closing my eyes, I dragged in a shaky breath and put my hands back on Luch’s prone body.
There was just so much damage.
Too much.
“Do we need to call for an ambulance?” Lia whispered, worry lacing her voice.
“I don’t know that they can help. I have to go … inside myself now.” I couldn’t talk to them and maintain a connection with Luch. The men shouted, the growls intensifying, and I went deeper inside myself, ignoring the clamor around me. If I couldn’t focus, I’d be useless to Luch.
He’s just a patient.
Do what you would for any patient.
“I’m here, Faelan. Use me.”Gloam’s words reached me, and instantly I understood what he was telling me. How many nights I’d sat with him by the window, overlooking the loch, picking his brain about how the animal magickal world worked.
He was a connection to the animal world, as well as the mystical one, and he was offering himself as a conduit to increase my powers of healing.
Blindly, I reached out, and Gloam slipped beneath one hand, his soft fur sliding between my fingers, as I kept my other hand on Luch. Reaching into my very core, I unlocked my healing, allowing it to flow through me. Gloam’s presence, enabling me to be connected both to the earth and the animal kingdom, intensified my strength. Power rippled from the ground up, through Gloam, and into me. We were all connected, a circle of energy, and I poured everything I had into Luch.
Even then, I could barely see his soul. It hovered at the edges of darkness, the last line of sunlight on a dying day, and I gasped, terrified to see him so far gone already. Pushing deeper,I reached for his light, twining my own through his, weaving as fast as I could. Tender gold threads mixed with silver, our souls entwining, and I pulled gently, dragging him away from the abyss that loomed, ready to welcome him home.
Not yet.
He had more time here.
We had more time here.
Desperate, I held on to his soul and splintered my thoughts, almost as though I was keeping one eye on his soul that inched toward the veil, and the other scanning his body, looking to where I could make a fast repair. I worked steadily, healing what I could as I raced through his body searching for the worst of it.
There was justsomuch.
It was hard to decide where to begin, so I just fixed as I went. Knitting broken bones, weaving blood vessels back together, tightening ligaments and tendons that had been stretched. Sweat dripped down my brow, and beneath my back, and my hands trembled as I held on to Gloam and Luch, desperate to heal.
But it was his femoral artery that scared me the most.
Healing I could do.
But loss of blood was an entirely different thing. I could repair, but I couldn’t replicate blood. He’d need a transfusion, and soon, and I wasn’t even sure where to begin explaining the need for one if the doctors wouldn’t be able to see where the blood loss had come from.
It was a catch-22.
If I healed his wounds, I’d give him a fighting chance, but then traditional medicine would have to take over.
And then there would be questions.
Too many questions.
The closest hospital was the one where Luch worked and there was no way they wouldn’t do a full inquest into what was happening here. Living without scrutiny in Loren Brae was one thing, but there would be a formal review if Luch went into emergency services with the need for a blood transfusion and very little evidence of trauma.
And yet.
There was no way around it. He’d have a fighting chance if he could get the help he needed, outside of what I could give.
Even if it meant I’d have to leave.
Decided, I turned toward Lia.
“He needs blood. Call 999.”
