Page 171 of Bones
I moved without thinking, grabbing Jax and yanking him down beside Griz.
“Jax first,” Griz groaned, but I ignored him.
I put one hand on Jax's neck and the other on Griz's stomach. I'd never tried to heal two people at the same time before, but I didn't have time to second-guess myself. My healing power flowed differently, thinner, as I directed it into both of them. It hurt—a dull ache that grew sharper as I continued. Blood started trickling over my lips from my nose again.
“Bones!” Griz tried to pull away.
“Griz, don’t move!” I snapped at him, then out of desperation added, “Please!”
Thank the gods he listened. The bullet wound in his stomach began to close, but slowly. The wound in Jax’s neck did the same, but as I looked at his blue lips, I had another surge of panic. It wasn’t fast enough. He would run out of air before I could finish healing him, but I couldn’t stop healing Griz to focus on Jax because Griz would die in the time it took for me to heal Jax.
I clenched my jaw, determination flooding through me. I wouldnotchoose one to sacrifice. I could do this. I would do this. And if it killed me, so be it.
“You gotta start trying to save yourself too.”
I pushed Trey’s soft voice somewhere far, far away where I couldn’t hear it anymore, but it did nothing to stop the tears welling up in my eyes.
I closed my eyes, focusing on the healing power inside of me, and instead of just letting it flow, Ipulled.It fucking hurt, but I just yanked up handful after handful of that power, forcing it to flow faster. I heard Griz gasp a curse and I opened my eyes to see nothing but blinding golden light like the sun had fallen to earth in front of us. I couldn’t see Griz or Jax, but I could still feel them under my hands. I could still sense their injuries healing, their bodies knitting themselves back together faster. Tears of pain rolled down my face, but I didn’t stop until I reached for more and grasped nothing but wisps of smoke.
It had to be enough because I couldn’t live in a world where I failed to save another person I loved.
I stopped pulling, and the pain vanished, but an icy cold rushed in to take its place. My body seized.
I remembered Trey saying my healing power felt like sunshine. I remembered the warm honey of his eyes in the light of my golden skin. I remembered him touching me gently, murmuring that I was beautiful. I heard shouting, but as the golden light began to fade, darkness roared up and swallowed me whole.
28
Istared blankly at the clinic ceiling.
I lay on my bed as soft morning light streamed in the windows. I couldn’t remember how I got here. Did Trey?—
Pain lanced through my chest and I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth. Immediately a familiar face appeared above mine.
“Bones?” Griz asked with a strange desperation. “Hey, how you feelin’?”
I remembered Griz bleeding. In a panic, I struggled to sit up, my eyes dropping down to his stomach. He reached out and gripped my shoulder, halting me.
“I’m ok,” he said. “Jax is ok too. You healed us both.”
I let out a shaky breath and relaxed back down onto the mattress, the panic fading.
“When you’re feelin’ better I’m gonna yell at you for scarin’ the shit out of me.” Griz’s large hand released my shoulder and took my limp one. “You’ve been unconscious for almost four days.”
He waited for a reaction, but I had none.
“Madame is behind bars,” Griz added.
That should have made me feelsomething,but it didn’t.
“We got all the kids into homes after you left. They’re all safe.”
I was sinking underwater and drowning on dry ground. I’d been called heartless before but now it was true. A giant hole gaped in my chest where my heart used to be.
“Things are gonna be different now.” He squeezed my hand. “Nemo’s in charge. He’s makin’ changes, big changes. We’re gonna make this place better.” He paused, his voice growing gruffer with emotion. “We’re gonna make it what Trey wanted it to be.”
That awful pain shot through my chest again, and I had to focus on breathing in and out. The silence stretched on, waiting, but I had nothing left to give.
“Bones,” Griz said soft and pained, “please talk to me.”
