Page 38 of Avelina

It clung to him like a spiderweb. I pulled on the net, dragging him out of that memory with all my strength. He didn’t struggle, allowing himself to flow out of the memory into my physical body.

Good, Lina! You’ve got him. Now use Protection to heal his body. Quickly!

I followed her directions again, drawing on my experience in healing Aaron. Through Connection, I felt that Rogue’s heart had stopped, but it had only been a minute or two and there was still time to get it going again. I pushed Protection into him as hard as I could, straining until my pulse pounded in my ears.

Aaron, help her!

Aaron jumped again, looking around. He cringed, then shook his head like a wet dog and knelt behind me. He wrapped me in his arms again, lending me what little strength he had left. My dizziness lessened but didn’t disappear. He kissed the back of my head, reassuring me, but he shook, as if on the edge of collapse. Right then, I could feel that exhaustion in my bones. My whole body trembled with it.

Seleca circled the shield now, watching with wide eyes. I kept pushing. It was like trying to push a car that had stalled in the road. It was hard to move at first, but once it got going, it rolled a little easier. As I did, Rogue’s spirit flowed into his body along with Protection fragment.

Once he got a grip on his body, he pulled the rest of himself in, causing a current that dragged Protection fragment along with it. Within seconds, I lost control over the flow. It gushed out of me like a wellspring, and I glowed so brightly that I started to heat up. It was as if I was in the portal again, feeling that excruciating light, except it came from me now. Pain stabbed me in the heart as the energy poured out of an energetic whirlpool in the center of my body.

Aaron tensed, then fell forward on top of me, losing consciousness. Somehow, I held on to his hand to prevent him from falling out of the shield, but his Evocation fragment vanished from the swirl of colors. That’s when I noticed that the shield itself was weakening, the colors all fading, as if Protection was being sucked out of it to flow into Rogue. What had previously been easy became an overwhelming task.

I redoubled my effort to hold it, gasping from the strain. My chest pain grew sharper and spread down my left arm to my pinkie, then across my back, up my neck and into my jaw and eyes. I cried out, but there was no one left to help me. I was alone with my enemy, and my defenses were about to crumble.

Seleca stopped to kneel beside us with her hands pressed against the shield, her mouth twisted into a snarl. Never before had I seen someone look at me with such pure hatred.

“I tried to warn you,” she said. “Your shield is about to fall. When it does, I’ll kill you with your father’s gun, just like I did to your girlfriend.”

Her comment was like a slap in the face, and a wave of rage rushed through my body. “I don’t think so, Seleca,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’m going to hold this shield until Rogue comes back to bite you in the ass again.”

Seleca’s face contorted with fury. She screamed her wrath out at me, then opened fire. It was the best response I could’ve hoped for, and I laughed. The gun clicked empty, and she banged the butt of it against the shield repeatedly. The vibrations from her blows hit me in the center of my chest, adding to the excruciating pain of healing Rogue.

Though I gasped, Evilina couldn’t help herself. “You were right, bitch,” I said. “I do like it here.”

With that, the pain ebbed, then vanished. I looked down at Rogue expectantly. Only, Rogue was no longer Rogue. In his place, lying face down, was an unconscious man. I stared at him, confused. His long, slender fingers were interlaced with mine.

“Rogue?” I whispered.

Seleca had stopped raving and watched me intently, breathing hard.

“His name isn’t Rogue,” she said, that unsettling smirk returning to her face. “It never was. I want to thank you for healing my most useful asset. I’ll just leave him to kill you while I go take care of your parents. I was going to let them live, but now I realize that was a mistake. You don’t deserve mercy.”

Seleca held out her hand, and a sphere of fluorescent orange-yellow lights appeared and expanded. As the bridge opened, she said “After that, I’ll find Aaron’s mother. I have a complaint to make about her little book.” The light of pure fragment radiating from the bridge entrance engulfed Seleca, and she disappeared.

Chapter Twelve

Syndeth curled his tail around Linorra, shielding her from the misty rain with his warm body. He flattened the scales at the narrow end of his tail to make a smooth pillow for her head. Though she was just a little thing, she had such a big heart, a heart that let him connect to the world around him in vivid sound and color. Their bond let him feel her exhilaration and joy when they were in the air together in a way he never felt when he flew alone. With her astride his broad shoulders, the world was more real and beautiful.

A deep, cold fear erupted in my chest. I released the shield, and it dissipated just like the portal had. My mind raced.

“Spirit,” I called. This was the first time I had called to her on purpose. “Spirit, I need you.” The words felt like a prayer.

I’m here, Lina.

“Seleca is going to kill my parents. Is there anything you can do?”

I don’t know. I will go to them.

“Thank you.”

Then, she was gone. I was getting a feel for her presence, and I wondered if hearing was all there would ever be. My poor Spirit. My friend. She had been one of those people who, when you meet them, you feel like you’ve known them forever. I had so few people like that in my life, and now she was dead because of me. I didn’t know how I could get over this.

Aaron opened his eyes slowly, then bolted upright as if waking up from a nightmare.

“What happened?” he asked.

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