“Forget him andhelpme! God, there’s so much blood!”
She heard the words, but they slid away without making an impression. Breathing was agony.
Hartgrave gripped her shoulders. “Daggett, youmustcalm down. I need to get you out of here. Daggett, can you understand me?”
She moaned.“Hurts.”
“I know, love.” His voice quavered. “I know. I can’t get you to hospital with all this anti-magic. Help me? Please?”
She tried to piece together the meaning of this. Then he took one of her hands in his. It didn’t seem possible the pain could get worse, but it did. She shrieked.
He jerked back, eyes welling with tears. “Willi, what can I do? Tell me what I can do! I don’t think she’ll survive a teleport in this state—not if her molecules are fighting against me—”
“We must call 911.” Willi sounded oddly flat.
“There’s not enoughtimefor that! Is this what you wanted? Isthishow I make it up to you?”
She closed her eyes.
“Oh God.” Hartgrave’s voice slid to a whisper. “Please, Daggett,please, I need you to live.Daggett!”
She felt so dreadful. What a relief it would be not to feel anything.
When oblivion came like a rushing flood, she went willingly.
22
Elsewhere
“Emmy?”
She blinked at the vision above her. It looked like her mother. She blinked again, trying to focus her mind as well as her eyes and finding it much harder than usual. Her attempt at an answer came out as an unintelligible croak, so she cleared her throat and tried again.
“Mom?”
Another face appeared. Her father’s. “Em!”
Memory asserted itself: Kincaid, knife, nothingness. She was dead. They were here. Therefore, they were dead. Somehow, the Organization got to them. “No! Not youtoo...”
Her father shot an anxious glance at her mother. “Delirious?”
Her mother cocked her head, her expressive face twisted halfway between apprehension and hope. “Do you know where we are, sweetheart?”
Fingers crossed that there wasn’t a circle in hell for the terminally foolish. Well, her parents wouldn’t end up there, so ... “Limbo?”
Her mother giggled. It had the tinge of great strain to it, but it was definitely a giggle.
“You’re alive.Alive,” she repeated, stroking Emily’s cheek with fingers that certainly felt real. “You’re lying in a hospital bed, and you’re going to be all right. The doctors say you’re very, very lucky.”
Emily closed her eyes for a moment to wait out a dizzy spell. When she managed a careful glance around, she saw what did appear to be a hospital-ish sort of room.
Her parents pressed closer, practically luminous with joy, and she tried to arrange her dry lips in a smile.
Her father kissed her forehead. “My God, Em, we’ve been so worried.”
Her mother’s voice: “You were unconscious for nearly twenty-four hours.”
“Everyone insisted it would be okay—”
