Page 41 of Cheating Fate

Lenora hesitantly poked her head in, then walked in when all seemed well.

“I figured I could help with the melted armor,” she said sheepishly.

“Yes, that would be fantastic,” I replied gratefully.

She smiled and walked with determined steps towards the medical bed. My father glanced at Gavin, and a troubled expression crossed his features. I couldn’t say if the extent of his injuries had prompted that reaction or if it was the haunting memory of his own ordeal nearly two decades ago. During a rescue mission gone wrong, he had burned alive. Without my Papa—his Geminate—sharing his pain and holding his soul, he would have died.

He kissed my forehead again, caressed my cheek, then left the room.

When I approached the medical bed to resume healing Gavin, Skye stepped in front of me, blocking my path.

“We need to heal you first before you work on your mate,” she said disapprovingly.

“But—”

The argument died on my tongue as she sternly glared at me. It was part of the basic training every healer received. Unless any delay would result in the death or irreversible damage to a patient, we were to heal ourselves first so that we could be optimal when tending to others.

I scrunched my face and allowed her to take my hands in hers. Her beautiful green eyes went out of focus as she started peering into me. Skye’s hands felt wonderfully warm against mine as her powers began their work. Not wanting to remain idle, I used my own healing abilities to speed up the process, focusing on areas other than the ones she was working on.

We quickly completed our task, and she once again gave me a stern look.

“You will need to eat and rest. And those ribs will need a second round of healing once you have replenished your reserves.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I said, slightly annoyed.

“Don’t yeah, yeah, me before I tell Maheva how you didn’t follow our most basic rule,” she said tauntingly before turning back towards the medical bed.

“Bully,” I playfully mumbled in her back as I also approached the bed.

Lenora was doing a phenomenal job using her kinetic abilities. She could control and reshape any inert material. Surgically, it would have taken an insane amount of time to remove all the reinforced leather armor that had fused with his skin. With a simple touch, my cousin had the burnt material just melting away so that she could effortlessly pull it off.

As much as we wanted to proceed with healing him, Gavin didn’t have enough spare resources for us to use. We couldn’t make flesh, muscles, and tissue grow out of thin air. Something needed to be consumed in exchange. With his species naturally being extremely lean, there wasn’t much fat to work with. We gave him a few injections filled with protein and nutrients that we could leverage once his body had assimilated them.

Moments later, Rhadames returned, fully healed, with a look of concern on his face.

“How is he?” he asked as he entered the room.

“He’s a mess, but he’s stable,” I said in a slightly shaky voice, annoyed with myself for starting to get emotional again.

“You’ll fix him,” he replied with a confidence that touched me deeply.

“Thanks to you, I’ll be able to,” I said with gratitude.

“Anytime,” he said affectionately before scrunching his face in almost the same fashion I had done with Skye. “Well, let’s try not to do that in such an inhospitable environment next time.”

I chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”

“If you’re ready, I can take all of you home. Nana is ready and waiting,” he said in a more serious tone.

I nodded. “Let’s do it.”

Although he left Skye on the ship to look after the rest of the team and crew, Rhadames teleported Gavin, Lenora, and me directly to Veredia’s general hospital. Nana Maheva—the greatest healer of our times—was already waiting for us. Nalia, another fantastic healer, also stood by.

They didn’t require a single word or explanation to jump into action as soon as Gavin appeared. But the shock on their faces spoke volumes about the fact that his injuries were even greater than they had expected based on the description my brother likely gave them.

The determination in their eyes filled me with pride and gratitude. For the first hour, Lenora continued to assist with removing all the melted armor. Simultaneously, Nana, Nalia, and I worked diligently on mending vital organs and expelling toxins in between giving him protein injections and plenty of fluids and other nutrients intravenously. After my cousin completed her task, we continued for a few minutes longer before being forced to stop.

“That’s enough for today,” my Nana said in a firm tone. “He must rest, be fed, and rebuild his strength until the next pass. You know that,” she added in a slightly reproving tone when I looked like I wanted to argue.