I reached forward, pressing my hands to the wound. Abi reached over and added her hands. In seconds, our fingers were slick with blood. Luis and Felipe came limping out of the crowd. I glanced up to see the grin of victory on Luis’s face shatter and his steps falter.
Felipe took it even worse. He hit his knees and began openly crying, then, his voice ragged and begging, shouted, “Help! We need help.”
“Shift, Sebastian,” Nico hissed in his ear. “Shift, and you can heal faster. Can you hear me? You need to shift.”
If Sebastian heard, he wasn’t able to do what Nico asked. His chest rose and fell beneath my hands, but it was getting slower and shallower every second. He was slipping away. I could see it in the deathly pallor of his face. Sebastian was dying. The realization made me want to throw up.
I turned and shouted into the crowd. “Where’s Sinthy? Where is she?”
The pack who had surrounded us were all whimpering, human and wolf sounds of sadness and despair. Nico’s voice was beginning to crack as he screamed at his friend to fight an unwinnable battle. Then, like a ghost, Sinthy pushed her way through the pack. My breath whooshed out of me when I saw her.
She looked closer to death than Sebastian did. Her face was so pale that I could see all the veins beneath her skin. The whites of her eyes had turned red from the burst blood vessels inside them, making her look like some kind of fallen angel or demon. Sinthy stumbled forward and fell to the ground at Sebastian’sfeet, looking for all the world like she was about to lie on Sebastian’s lap and die with him.
She turned her inhuman-looking red-ringed eyes on me, and through her exhaustion, she raised a shaking hand to someone behind me. I spun and saw Maxwell right behind me, standing beside Gabriella. He looked terrified.
“I… need… him,” Sinthy croaked, sounding for all the world like she was a hundred years old.
Her eyes were focused and determined, but her body wavered and shook. Whatever final spell she’d done had almost killed her. I could see that, and again, I wondered what kind of strength this girl had within her. The drive and determination were beyond what I could imagine.
Sinthy waved a hand and groaned with pain as the magical bangles she’d placed on Maxwell’s arms clicked apart and fell to the ground at his feet.
“I need your… magic… I have… barely anything left,” Sinthy said, speaking directly to Maxwell.
Sebastian’s breathing became markedly more labored, and his heart was doing odd things below my hands. He was fading fast. We had to hurry. If there was anything the two witches could do, they needed to do it soon.
Maxwell took several hesitant steps forward before kneeling beside Sinthy. He looked at his hands and shook his head. “I can’t control it. I don’t know how to heal anyone.”
Sinthy reached a weak and shaking hand out and put it into his. “You have my family’s magic running in your veins. It will flow through me, and I will guide it. I need you. This only works if you allow me to access the magic deep inside you.” She nodded toward Sebastian. “His life is vanishing. He’ll be gone in thirty seconds if we don’t do something now.”
Nico had lost all control. He was openly weeping over his friend, his tears pattering down on Sebastian’s chest and face.Luis and Felipe had crawled forward, and each of them had a hand on Sebastian as though they could somehow summon magic to save him themselves.
Maxwell nodded eagerly. “I want to help. There’s been enough death. Do what you need to.”
Sinthy gave him a thin, tired smile and wrapped her fingers tightly around his hand. Maxwell gasped, and his eyes rolled back in his head. Sinthy leaned forward and placed her free hand on Sebastian’s forehead. There was a surge of power as Maxwell’s magical energy flowed through Sinthy. Static crackled in the air, and the shifters all took several steps back, expanding the circle around us.
Sebastian’s eyes fluttered open, and he groaned, but blood was still seeping from his wound. Sinthy slid her hand down, pushing mine and Abi’s hands away from the wound. Her fingers became slick with blood, and she pressed her hand hard on his chest. Her teeth clenched, and the hand that held Maxwell’s shook with the effort. For his part, Maxwell looked nearly comatose. All I could see were the whites of his eyes as his energy fed Sinthy—his body tense as she used his power.
He must have still been aware, though, as Sinthy spoke to him in a low, whispered voice. “Concentrate. Think of healing. Focus all your thoughts on life.”
“I… don’t… know how. I’m scared,” Maxwell murmured through his strange trance.
“If you fear your magic, you’ll never command it,” Sinthy hissed with renewed strength. “You can’t be scared. This man is scared. He is dying, Maxwell. Your fears don’t matters. Help me save him.”
Sebastian’s eyes fluttered closed. Sinthy looked pained as she watched him sag back onto Nico’s legs.
“It’s not enough,” Sinthy said as tears started to trickle down her cheeks. “He’s too far gone. I’m too weak, and Maxwell’s power isn’t flowing fast enough. I don’t know what else to do.”
Like a lightning bolt, Nico’s hand shot out and clamped onto Sinthy’s arm.
“These are my lands. I’m connected to them. Use me. Pull from me. From all of us.”
Sebastian shuddered one final time, then his final breath hissed out of his lips, and he went still.
Ignoring that his friend had died, Nico shouted to everyone. “Lean in. Open your minds to Sinthy. Give her everything.”
Sinthy shook her head sadly. “Nico, it’s over?— ”
“Not yet,” he screamed. “Everyone, come on. Hurry.” He looked into Sinthy’s eyes pleadingly. “Try. Please. One last time. Try.”
