“You’re being daft. You saw her fall from the sky like a struck bird. She needs healing. I can heal her. If nothing else compels you to open this bloody door, let it be that.”
He wouldn’t open the door under threat of death, but if Taven had found them, the others soon would too, and though he couldn’t prove it, they were responsible for Elloven’s lapse in focus. No one would ever convince him otherwise.
“I don’t need healing.” Elloven’s head creased in pain as she tried to sit on her own. “Ow. Ow. What happened?”
“You fell.”
Elloven tumbling through the fire-filled darkness was crystal clear in his mind. In the heat of the moment, he’d been too astounded to think beyond getting to her, but now that she was safe, his fear was an open wound. “A tent broke your fall.”
Elloven shook her head. “No, no, no. I was fine, feeling the movements, just as they said, and then... No, I didn’t break the chain. I didn’t...” Her hands moved as they had in the show, retracing the memory. “Oh no, the others...”
“They’ll live,” Jesstin said, though he couldn’t know if they would. The bleeding man might not for long. None of it was her concern.
“I...” Elloven was starved for breath. “Everything was fine. It was fine. I don’t know what happened, why I...”
Jesstin reached for one of her hands, still suspended away from her body. He wrapped it in his palms and leaned in so she could see him. “Count, El.”
Her bloodshot eyes met his.
“Count. Count on my hand.” He demonstrated with his own fingers. “Count with me.”
At first she shook her head, but it slowly became a dazed nod. Her fingers stirred against his hand. One twitch, then another, until there was a cadence.
“Five, six, seven.” He whispered the count to keep her focused. “Nine, ten, eleven, yes. Twelve.”
“She’s awake?” Taven yelled. “Ellie!”
Her breath faltered as she glanced toward the door.
Jesstin turned her face back toward him. “Thirteen. Fourteen. No, look at me. Fifteen. Say it with me.”
“Seventeen.” Her voice was shaky. “Eighteen.”
“I can hear you both!” Taven banged on the door.
“Forget him, Elloven.” He listened for her counting, waited to make sure her fingers were still moving. “Forget all of them. Two things, that’s all you need to do right now. Breathe and count. Breathe and count.”
“Twenty... eight, twenty-nine, thirty.”
“Thirty-one,” he said. “Thirty-two.”
At fifty, Elloven withdrew her hand and settled back with a slow breath. “Okay. I’m okay now.”
“It’s all right if you’re not.”
“I just... I don’t understand how it happened.”
“It’s not your fault.” He had to physically bite his tongue to keep from saying more. “It’s theirs. All of theirs.”
“I could feel them, feel the moves, and then it was so fast. It happened so fast.”
“Ellie, tell him to let me in right now!” Taven banged on the door with an exasperated shriek.
She shook her head.
“She says no,” Jesstin called. “Make yourself useful and tell the others she doesn’t need them either.”
“I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth, Skylark.”
