The strength drains from me. My vision blurs and darkens. Before I realize it, I’m collapsing. The pain in my abdomen flares, drowning out everything else.
“Skye!” someone shouts. Maybe more than one voice. I can’t tell.
Then I’m being cradled on the floor.
“Fuck,” someone says. “What should we do? Same as last time?”
“No,” another answers. Nathaniel, I think. “This isn’t metaphysical. She’s bleeding.”
Chaos. Worry. That’s what I hear in their voices.
And somewhere, in that soul-threaded place I could use to reach Cassian, I feel more now. All three of them, trembling for me. Fear and urgency wrapped tight around me.
Then, something else. A fourth presence steps in.
The kid.
“Let me through,” he says. “I need to touch her.”
“What are you going to do?” someone asks. The distrust is obvious. Cassian? No, still Nathaniel, I think.
“I’m going to help her. Move the fuck away.”
Silence follows. Just for a moment. Then, a few agonizing seconds later, the pain in my stomach begins to fade. It retreats slowly, like balm being rubbed into a wound, until it’s nearly gone.
My vision returns. Sounds sharpen. I can feel again.
“How the fuck…” someone mutters. I open my eyes and see Talon, holding his head, eyes wide and unblinking, staring at my stomach. I follow his gaze and see the boy’s hands glowing with silvery-blue light, the wound on my abdomen vanishing beneath them.
“This... you...” I manage.
I’ve never seen anything like it. And yeah, I should probably stop saying that, but it’s true. Every time I think I’ve seen it all, the world proves me wrong.
The glow from the boy’s hands flickers out as he pulls back. My skin is sealed. The blood is gone. The pain is just an echo now, more memory than sensation.
I inhale, sharp, grateful, and try to sit up.
“Easy,” Nathaniel says, steadying me with a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t push it.”
“I’m fine,” I say, and it’s not really a lie. My body feels like it was stitched back together with a rusty needle, but stitched regardless. “We’re wasting time.”
The boy slumps slightly, pulling away. That glow, whatever it was, clearly drained him. His cheeks are even more hollow now, dark shadows blooming under his eyes.
“You okay?” I ask quietly.
He nods once. “Doesn’t matter. Just don’t waste it.”
I nod back. We’ll talk later, him and I. There is alotwe should discuss. But right now, time is slipping through our fingers. Talking will have to wait.
Talon is pacing, muttering curses as he grabs weapons and buckles on holsters again. Cassian hasn’t moved.
“Cassian?” I push myself upright again, ignoring the dizziness that tries to drag me back down. “Say something.”
He blinks. Once. Then again. And whatever he saw in his mind, it burns away.
“What do you want to do?” he asks.
Isn’t it obvious? I want to save his mother. Doesn’t he?
