“What?” Panic turns my voice shrill.
“Scorpion,” Brady says. He pushes aside the rocks with his shoe, displacing them until we see it. Small, its stinger curled, poised to defend itself.
Finn brings his shoe down onto it, smashing and twisting until there couldn't possibly be much of it left.
“It was defending, not attacking.” My admonishment is soft.
“It hurt you,” Finn growls.
Brady ignores all this, placing his hands on my shoulders and looking into my eyes. Despite the pain and my fear, I feel safe with his hands on me. “Everything is going to be okay.”
I nod, and hope to hell he’s right.
“What do we do?” Finn’s voice is shaking. He wraps an arm around my waist and leads me over to the table. The fire in my palm rages on.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Finn repeats, incredulous.
Brady glances at me, his eyes unsure.
“Just say it,” I instruct. I’d rather know the worst.
“We’re looking for drooling and eyes that won’t focus. That would be the worst-case scenario.”
“Get my book out of my bag.” I nod my head at my backpack lying on the table. “Read to me.”
Finn’s eyebrows raise. “Read to you?”
“Distraction,” I explain.
Finn grabs my bag and drags it over. He reaches in and pulls out my copy ofTo Kill A Mockingbird.
“We read this last year,” he complains.
“Give it to me,” Brady says, swiping the book from Finn’s hand. He opens the book and begins to read.
The rhythm of his voice lulls me. His voice breaks once, and I smile. Finn laughs and Brady shakes his head.
“How are you feeling?” Brady asks after a while.
I flex my fingers and realize it doesn’t hurt, because I’mnumb.
“I can’t feel my hand.” I poke at my right forearm. “Or my arm.”
“Shit,” Finn mutters, his hands running through his hair.
“Calm down,” Brady says to him. “Numbness is okay.”
He reopens the book and keeps reading. Tipping my chin, I look up at the sky. When we got here, it was bright blue, but pink and orange have made space for themselves around the few wispy clouds.
I’m glad Brady’s with me. If this happened and I was alone, I don’t know what I’d do. I look down at my hand and see Finn’s fingertips gliding over the top of it.
How weird that I didn’t feel someone touching me. Obviously it’s because I’m numb, but still, it’s weird.
Finn glances up at me, and his fingers keep going, even though he knows I can’t feel it.
Brady closes the book and reaches over, knocking away Finn’s hand.
