A mage and a witch were already crouched beside him when I got there, likely ordered to check him out by my cousin. I ignored them, too. I sank to my knees on his other side, and stared at his closed eyes and half-broken, deathly pale face.
I reached out tentatively, afraid to touch him, but needing to know.
When my fingers pressed lightly against his throat, I choked on a sob when I felt the hard pulse of blood beneath my fingers.
“We already did that,” the mage grumbled. “We could’ve told you he’s alive.”
I touched his face, tears blurring my vision. “Why aren’t you helping him? Why are you just fucking sitting here? Help him!”
I saw the witch and the mage exchange a look.
My magic geared up without warning as fury exploded through me, making my hands shake. I could barely force out words.
“Helphim!” I demanded, glaring between them. “Are you magiphysicians? Are you field medics? Why are you here, if you can’t help him?”
The mage blinked at me, as if nervous at what he saw in my face.
Then he nodded, once. I watched like a hawk as he moved carefully closer to Bones, and I had to struggle to keep my mouth shut when I saw him place his hand on Bones’s chest. In the end, as soon as he began casting diagnostic spells over him, I couldn’t.
“If you hurt him, I’ll kill you,” I said thickly.
I saw the mage stiffen, then exchange a wide-eyed look with his witch partner.
I felt their alarm, but they were both helping now, so I didn’t care. I watched them cast diagnostics over different parts of Bones’s body, frustrated I couldn’t read them. I felt part of their attention still on me, but they never stopped their work, so again, I didn’t care. I felt their concern whisper around me, mixed with wariness. I heard their attempts to calm me when I continued to kneel there, shaking as I watched them work.
Nothing they said really penetrated.
I needed them to stop him from dying. I didn’t care about anything else.
I tried to explain what happened, hoping the details might help. I described just how large the spell had been that hit him, how far he’d flown. I had no idea know if the words I used were coherent, or if anything I said made sense.
Something I did or said must have gone too far, because at some point, I felt a spell wash over me from one of the Magical agents who appeared behind the two medics. Whatever it was, it felt like a thick blanket being thrown over my head.
Everything went quiet and soft and dark.
Sometime after that, I couldn’t feel or see anything at all.
38
One Week Later
Present Day
December 5th
Faculty Office of Prof. Gideon Forsooth
Malcroix Bones Academy
“How did your finals go, my dear?” a voice asked, pulling me out of my reverie.
I turned to meet his dark, star-filled eyes, kind under his brown, bushy hair, and saw him studying me with a mixture of concern and patience.
The patience part of that made me wonder how many times he’d tried to get my attention before I finally looked at him.
I fought to clear my mind, to pull my thoughts back into straight lines so I could answer, and still found it a struggle.
“Fine,” I said after that long pause.
