Or maybe… he hung onto it for himself.
A shadow falls across the doorframe. It’s Jaeger. “He’s waking up,” he says. I stuff everything back in the box and head back to Kaiser. The room’s cleared out except for me, Jaeger, and one nurse monitoring the machines.
“Bella,” Kaiser rasps in a raw voice. Under the bandages, his skin is horribly blistered; I need to get some salve on it.
“Shhh, don’t try to talk,” I say.
“I’m here, brother,” Jaeger rumbles.
Kaiser lets his head rest on the pillow. They shaved off his hair to clean him up, and the crumpled edge of his misshapen ears peeks out above the bandages. “Vesuvios?”
“Dead,” Jaeger confirms. “We’re dealing with the bodies. Final count is forty-three. You did good.” He looks down at me. “So did she.” I move closer to Kaiser, wishing with all my might that I could heal him. Why do I just have to poison people? Why can’t I fix him?
I thought the only thing that mattered was being a supervillain. But I was wrong.
Kaiser reaches for me. I retreat before he touches me—my skin is still poison—and his hand falls on the box.
“What’s this?” he asks. His voice sounds like his throat is sliced to ribbons. Just hearing him is painful, and I wish he would stop trying to talk.
I wrap my hands in the blanket so my skin won’t touch his and cradle his hand between them. “It’s from my father. He’s… he’s gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. He wanted this.” My father may not be dead, but he’s gone from my life. He finally left me. He’s finally free. After making sure that Kaiser would keep me safe from blowback, he was finally able to get his revenge.
It hurts knowing he’s gone, but I’m glad he finally fought for the vengeance my mother deserved.
“Dominus will pay,” Kaiser vows.
“He already lost two sons in one night,” Jaeger says. “He’s hurting. We’ll end this soon.”
I want to close my eyes and sleep. I don’t want to be a supervillain right now. That was a bloody battle and it was epic, but it came at too high a cost.
I never want Kaiser to be hurt. Never, ever. Everyone expects him to fight for them. But who will fight for him?
Atticus returns to speak to Kaiser. “We wrapped your ribs. You had a stab wound in your back that we treated, but we couldn’t find a bullet hole. It looks like the vest protected you.”
That’s right, that’s where all the blood came from. The stab wound. The bullet he took for me didn’t penetrate.
It hits me: if Kaiser dies, it won’t be from Sal’s shot. It will be because of the poison.
Because of me.
“My eyes,” Kaiser says. His hand raises a few inches, like he wants to touch the bandages but thinks better of it.
“Do they hurt?”
Kaiser flicks a few fingers, which I take to mean, yes, they hurt. “Manicheel sap can cause acute keratoconjunctivitis.” Atticus glances at me, and I nod. “The damage may only be temporary. You weren’t exposed to the full force of the sap, just a compound that included it. It seems to be specially formulated to be more toxic?—”
“It was,” I say. “Ten times more toxic. A hundred times.” Papa made sure it would be instantly painful if not deadly.
“You may recover fully,” Atticus says. “We just don’t know.”
We’re all silent, probably imagining all the terrible ways Kaiser could die or be permanently maimed. At least, I am.
My eyes are wet again.
“Now what?” Kaiser asks.
