I took her fingers in my hand, giving them a slight squeeze. “Princess Gray,” I said, hoping she could hear me.
Gray didn’t respond, but her frown deepened at the sound of my voice. Her breathing sped up and grew uneven.
“Hey,” I said softly. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”
The princess released another groan, but there was still no movement except for her panicked breaths. I wasn’t sure if she was unconscious or not.
At last, her breaths turned to pants, which then morphed into cries of anguish. Moans and whimpers climbed louder as tears began to stream down her cheeks.
I jerked around to look at my mother for answers. She, too, looked just as shaken as I felt. “What’s happening? This isn’t part of the normal healing process, right?”
Mom stared at her in confusion and concern. With a shake of her head, she muttered, “No, honey. It’s not.”
“We can’t call on the healers. If they find out about this—”
“I know. There’s no telling what the king will do,” Mom finished for me.
All I could do was watch as the princess grew more agitated, until cries of pain ripped from her small body. She was too frail.
Gray’s head jerked to the side as her back arched from the couch, contorting at an odd angle.
“What the hell?”
My mom covered her mouth with a shaky hand, but I jumped to my feet, moving to help Gray stay anchored to the couch before she hurt herself. Just as I touched her heated and sweaty skin, she began to thrash about, arms flailing and shrieks slicing through my dad’s office.
I snatched my hand back and dodged a punch to the cheek.
“Slate!” Mom called out. “We have to hold her down before she hurts herself.”
“I’m trying!”
I forced myself to pause, turning my back on the tortured princess, pinching the bridge of my nose so I could think. I was the calm one—the rational one. This was what I did best.
Most Kinetics didn’t react like this to the redfern antidote. Chrome and I had been healed with it too many times to count, and this had never happened. Perhaps it had something to do with her being a hybrid? But if that were the case, then wouldn’t Chrome have reacted the same?
I gritted my teeth through the screams that raked jagged nails through my brain, forcing myself to barricade the sound long enough for a solution.
What if she was reacting like this because she was a hybrid that hadn’t awakened her other power yet? I wracked my mind with everything I’d learned about Elementals from Chrome. What if her Elemental side was blocked?
Black crystal.
Of course, Forest would keep her Elemental side suppressed with black crystal. I searched her wrists for a bracelet that might seem out of place. They were bare, although her blue currents winked in and out. I scanned her throat for a necklace. There,just below her clavicle, sat a thick black stone. Halfway pushed in the collar of her shirt and off to the side, it gleamed.
“Mom! Take off her necklace!” I cried out as I shifted to pin down Gray’s arms, pressing my knee across her thighs where she continued to buck from the couch.
“The necklace?” Mom asked, confused. “Why?”
“Just do it. Hurry.” Realizing how rude I acted, I added, “Please.”
Mom jumped to action as I wrestled to hold down Gray’s thrashing body without hurting her. If I was correct, her body was at war with itself in trying to purge the redfern from her system. With her Elemental magic being suppressed, her body fought a battle on two fronts.
As Gray tossed her head from side to side, my mom struggled to find the clasp of the leather strap at the back of her neck. My muscles grew tired, burning from restraining her enough so Mom could remove it. Pulling the necklace from her neck, she held the heavy, polished stone in her palm and backed away from the sofa.
Gray continued to flail beneath my hold while Mom set the necklace down on my dad’s desk. I breathed a sigh of relief when she rushed back to the couch, aiding me in holding down the princess’s arms so I could focus on containing her legs and hips. Neither of us spoke as the princess fought her internal battle. I held my breath, begging any of the mystical gods to hear my pleas to keep her alive. Gradually, Gray’s body began to settle. The thrashing simmered into mild jerks until she was limp at last.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d been there with her, but my arms shook by the end. Gray’s clothes were drenched in sweat, presumably in her body’s attempts to purge the redfern from her bloodstream. Her breathing had finally leveled out, and afterchecking the pulse on her wrist, I noted that her heartbeat had returned to a normal pace.
I heaved a breath and slid to the floor from the couch. The adrenaline had officially fled my body, and I just sat there, exhausted and in shock as my vision glassed over while I stared at nothing. Running a hand through my hair, I propped my elbows on my knees, trying to process everything that had just happened. How close the Kinetic Princess had come to dying.
