Page 173 of Bones
I shook my head.
“Did Griz tell you that you healed fifteen people at once with that burst of power?”
Fifteen people, but not Trey. Not Dune.
The silence stretched as we stood there, watching people move about the hold. The bodies had been removed and people moved about cleaning up debris and patching the damaged buildings. The clinic had already been put back together, and the wooden building resembled Trey’s quilt with its many patches of different colored wood and materials.
“I loved him too,” Mac’s voice sounded low and rough. “I miss him every damn day.”
Unshed tears ached in my throat.
"We buried him," he added, releasing my arm to gently wrap my cold hand in his. "Took a long time to get through the ground ’cause it's still a little frozen, but I can take you to his grave whenever you're ready. If you want."
His grave.
I pulled my hand free. When I turned and limped back inside the clinic, he let me go.
* * *
The next day I sent Griz on a fake errand and went straight to the watchtower. None of Nemo’s men questioned me when I said I’d been sent to see Madame. One of the guards, a big burly man named Smith, took me down to the cells.
“Never got to properly thank you for healing my family from the sickness,” he said as we walked. “Thank you.”
I mumbled a response, hoping he wouldn’t keep talking. He seemed to pick up on that and stayed quiet until we reached the cells. Madame sat against the wall, her cold eyes glinting with anger. Her grey dreads were covered in blood, her face bruised, and her lip split open. Someone had wrapped a bloody bandage around her upper thigh.
Smith unlocked the door and let me in, locking it behind me. “Just holler when you’re done,” he said.
I stood just inside the door, listening to Smith’s footsteps fade away.
"Come to heal me?" Madame sneered. "Of course, Nemowouldsend you. He was always soft.”
I stared down at her, feeling so damn hollow. I remembered Trey saying that when Madame's lover died it broke something in her, and I wondered if the same thing had happened to me. I sure as hell felt broken. I moved forward and knelt at her side, looking directly into her icy blue eyes. Desperation lurked behind her glare, like an animal caught in a trap. I could still smell that sugary scent that always surrounded her, partially hidden under sweat, dirt, and blood.
I leaned forward, resting one of my hands on her shoulder. “Nemo didn’t send me.”
Madame’s eyes narrowed. “Then what?—”
I brought my other hand up and slashed the knife Trey had given me into her throat.
Everything slowed, just like it had when I’d stabbed that knife into Juck’s chest. My mind seemed to go somewhere else as the sharp little knife cut deep. Dark red blood began to run down her neck.
Jugular.My brain supplied.
I kept going, pressing harder as she tried to jerk away, her head thudding into the wall. She let out a horrible gasping noise.
Trachea.
Warm bright red blood sprayed with such force I felt it hit my face. I didn’t even flinch.
Carotid.
I pulled the knife free. Her eyes widened in panic and fear as she began to suffocate on the blood pouring into her airway, but I just knelt there and watched her die like I’d promised. Her wide eyes stayed locked on mine until they glazed over and her body slumped to the side. Madame was dead.
I wasn’t sure if her death made me feel any better, but it sure as hell wasn’t gonna make me feel any worse.
I turned and sat against the wall next to her body, tilting my head back to lean against the cool stones. I tried not to think about anything at all, but I just kept hearing Trey’s last words.I love you, Bones.When the guards came back to check on me, all hell broke loose.
A flurry of noise and activity exploded. They hauled me to my feet and wrestled my knife from my clenched fist. The others knelt beside Madame’s body, examining her. They stared up at me wide-eyed when they saw the bloody slash in her throat.
