Polina grimaced.“She is mortal.Suspending herself may have prolonged her life, but without food or water, she has fed on herself these months.She will die here if we don’t get her help.”
“Heeaaart.”The skeletal fingers clawed at Silas.
“Sorry.No.”Silas lifted the heart out of her reach.
Jason shook his head.“The fae hospital will never take her, not after what she’s done.”
“Then we bring her to Saint John’s.Grateful will help us,” Silas said.
“I must warn you, I’m not at all sure she’ll survive the journey.”Polina shrugged.
“Take her separately.Then come back for the two of us,” Silas said.
Polina scowled.“Me?Take her alone?Sure, send the witch along with the dragon woman.Make the witch do it.She won’t mind.It’s not as if the dragon is a killer or anything.Oh wait, she is, and the past lover of the man who almost murdered my husbandandmy familiar?—”
“Polina!”Silas raised his voice to stop her rambling.“She won’t hurt you.She’s… decimated.Besides, she can’t do magic as long as I have this.”He held up the heart.“And she’s not strong enough to do anything else.”
Nickelova’s distended eyes locked on the heart cradled in Silas’s hand.
“Fine,” Polina said bitterly.“Help me lift her out of this thing.”
Because Silas had the heart, Jason took the lead, lifting Nickelova from the silver scales.Even from a distance, Silas could see she was too light.She looked like a mummy, barely more than a skeleton.Nothing like the woman Silas had known.Nickelova’s body had once contained a dragon.Now it seemed barely capable of containing her life.
Polina wrapped an arm around Nickelova’s chest and glanced between the two brothers.“Don’t get comfortable.I don’t plan on staying with this one any longer than I have to.”She released a handful of gold dust over their heads.The two came apart and melded into the mountain.
“You know what this means?”Jason crossed his arms over his chest and blew out a deep breath.
“Huh?”
“Whoever attacked Laina wasn’t Nickelova.Which means our sister was duped and someone else is helping Alex.Someone who’s not even on our radar.”
By the timeSilas arrived in Carlton City with Polina, the others had transported Nickelova to the hospital.Grateful had her in isolation, hooked up to so many wires and tubes Silas wouldn’t have recognized her if he hadn’t known who she was.
“It doesn’t even look like her,” he said.
“It’s her.”Grateful hooked her finger inside the cuff of one of her rubber gloves and stripped both from her hands.“I’m disappointed Bojingles Fae Hospital wouldn’t take her.The woman doesn’t have a heartbeat.You have no idea the steps I had to take to keep her identity a secret.”
“Can I interrogate her?”
“You can try, but keep in mind she’s fragile.I’ve got magic and medicine propping her up.I’m not at all sure she’ll live through this.”
He quirked an eyebrow.“She could still die?You’ve got her pumped full of everything under the sun, and we still might lose her?”
“She put her mortal body in a magically induced coma meant for a supernatural creature.With no food or water, her body has fed on itself and the remains of magic in the single dragon scale she saved these past months.My guess is she wouldn’t have lasted much longer if you hadn’t woken her up.It’s touch and go.”
“I have questions, and she’s the only one with the answers.”
Grateful sighed.“She’s refusing to eat.”
“What?Why?”
“Says she’d rather be dead than help you.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic.”
“But she’s conscious and alive now.I’d make the most of it.”Grateful patted his shoulder supportively.“Who knows how long she’ll be with us.”With a nod, she padded down the hall to her next patient.
Adjusting his backpack, Silas stepped into the sterile scent and incessant beeping of Nickelova’s room.Only in movies had he seen a body as emaciated as hers.Death pressed up against her like a lover.A full tray of hospital food sat untouched on her bedside table—beef stew, Jell-O, a dinner roll, the works.It smelled appetizing enough.A bag of phosphorescent fluids dripped through an IV in her arm.
