ChapterTwenty-Five
Ethan was too slow.It was worse than being stuck in treacle. He could only watch as Kay got hurt, again and again, while he was too far away from her to help.
She knelt, arms flung wide, head bowed, as the cloud of Shadows churned wildly, and then, suddenly, exploded outward, rending the air in a massive explosion of silent darkness. Ethan pushed harder, jumping fallen chairs, ignoring the crunching shards of broken pottery, ignoring James and his threats. He didn’t care about his own heart, only Kay’s.
The color drained from her face, her eyes rolled back, and she started to slump. And then he was there to catch her body as she crumpled into his arms, taking them both down to the floor. “Please, Kay. Please,” he whispered as he felt along her neck, searching roughly for a pulse.
God. Please let her be alive.
His callouses scraped along the soft delicacy of her skin, his fingers trembling as he fought for control. There it was. A tiny fluttering pulse—faint and almost imperceptible—she was alive.
Alive, but somehow, not.
Ethan looked up to see Zach standing, white-faced, beside them. He was alone, the waiting room empty behind him. James was gone.
Ethan pulled Kay fully into his lap and took a slow breath, battling the rising panic. He forced himself to concentrate as he marshaled his Shadows and sent them gently, so very carefully, into Kay as she lay limp in his arms.
It was as if he was holding a hollow shell, fragile, dry, and empty.
He could sense her body’s bone-deep weariness, the ache of her muscles, the pounding of her head from where it had crashed against the wall, and a host of scrapes and bruises. But he couldn’t feelher. The essence of Kay. The vivacious, complex, loyal woman who had broken down all his defenses. It was as if her soul was gone. There was no warm rush of Shadows tingling and entwining with his. Just a vast, lonely void.
He looked to Zach, his voice rasping with panic. “Where is she?”
Zach looked down at them, his face bleak and grim. “I don’t know. I’m not sure, but I think that she exploded her Shadows out too far, and now they’re too fragmented. I don’t think she can find her way back.”
God. This was what she’d warned him about. Little wisps of her soul were floating, only barely tethered, unable to return. And she’d done it to save him.
He lifted her higher, cradling her against his chest. “What do we do? Come on. Anything!”
“I don’t know,” Zach bit out, tendons straining in his neck. “I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never actually seen this before!”
“For fuck’s sake. You’re the Guardian. Give me something!”
Police sirens wailed outside—any minute they would be surrounded—as Ethan looked frantically around the devastated waiting room. “Where’s James? He did this, he has to fix it.”
“As soon as she fell, he ran.” Zach looked as desperate as Ethan felt. He glanced back at the wide A&E door. “We have to go. Right now.”
Ethan stood, cradling Kay as Zach pulled together a soft Shadow and settled it over the three of them. It was dark enough to hide them in the twilight of the waiting room as they fled out of the hospital—escaping seconds before the police stormed the entrance—and through the parking lot.
Zach took the driver’s seat while Ethan climbed in the back with Kay and then passed him the keys. “You’ll have to drive. We have to get to Wales.”
“No, we should take her back to Highgate,” Zach said urgently. “There’ll be Healers, someone there can help—”
Ethan turned Kay to hold her safely, winding a seatbelt over them both as he replied, “Absolutely not. James is working with Oracle, and we don’t know who else is involved. Shadow Weavers did this and we have no idea who we can trust. We don’t even know for sure that he hasn’t gone back there himself—we have to take her to Elizabeth.”
Zach scowled at him in the rearview mirror. “It’s too far. We can’t leave her like that; she needs a Healer.”
Ethan scowled back. He understood this problem. Kay had explained it and he could figure out how to solve it. Nothing had ever been as important. “I’ma Healer.”
Zach shook his head. “I mean a real Healer. Someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Fuck this.“I’ma real Healer.”
“Look, I’m not trying to insult you, I just don’t think—”
God. Ethan had to make Zach understand. He finally knew exactly who he was, and exactly what he was capable of. “I’m not insulted. I won’t risk Kay with people we don’t trust, and right now, the only person outside this car that I have any kind of faith in is Elizabeth.”
He looked at Zach, holding his gaze in the dim light. “I swear to you, I can do this.”
