My body acts on autopilot. I pull on Donovan’s discarded tee shirt and open his bedroom door. The living room is dark, but, in a shaft of moonlight, there’s Cosmo. He’s leaning against the kitchen counter, fists clenched, and when he turns and looks at me?
The agony in his eyes knocks every breath I’ve ever had from my body.
The unfathomable look of pain screams ‘danger’.
But instead of running away, I’m drawn closer like a mosquito to an ultraviolet light. “Cosmo?”
He clutches his face, and that’s when I see a ring of smoke circling his wrist.
Or am I hallucinating?
I blink and it’s gone. I put on a side lamp so there’s at least a little illumination in the room. “Cosmo, can you hold your arms out in front of you?”
I know I should be terrified, but something innate inside me has kicked in. I don’t know how or why, but there is something Ihaveto do. “Cosmo,” I say again.
“H-h-help m-me..” he croaks, weakly moving his arms out, like they weigh a million tons.
Oh. I didn’t imagine it; around Cosmo’s left wrist is a living, writhing ring of smoke. It changes from black to blood-red and back again, like a heartbeat.
Cosmo looks at me, and in his gaze I see a fear so intense, I can almost taste it.
And it’s not fear for himself.
“Can you see that, Cosmo?”
With bloodshot eyes, he tries to hold my gaze. “See what?”
“On your left wrist.”
He moves his head like it hurts. “Nothing there.” Cosmo looks at me again. “But I feel wrong. I don’t know how long…”
“How long, what?”
“How long I can fight it off.”
???
Alexis is fast asleep on the far side of campus, but my telepathy brings him awake immediately.
—Pulu! What’s wrong?—
—I need you. Cosmo’s apartment—
—On my way—
As Alexis runs towards the tower, the two of us keep communicating. I tell him what’s happening with Cosmo, and I can tell by the tenor of his thoughts how worried he is.
—Get Ludo too—he tells me. I don’t question why. It seems instinctively right to gather all my…my loves around me for this.
—Lu?—
—I’m on my way….felt you, Nymph—
Alright. Breathe.
I stay close to Cosmo. My presence seems to be calming him—or maybe numbing the pain—it’s hard to tell.
Ludo and Alexis arrive at the same time. I let them in, and Alexis goes to wake Max and Donovan.
