Page 88 of An Invocation of Monsters

I straightened her leg, ripping the skin open again and washing my fingers in warm blood as I moved the femur back into place.

It wasn’t a perfect match, but it would be when my healing had moved everything to where it should be. I did the same for her arm, though fortunately I was spared having to put my hands inside her body for that.

I put my hand on her leg and stomach again, sending the power back into her.

The bone began to knit itself back together, her arm making a crackling sound as it straightened.

It was the most damage I’d ever healed on a human being. I shouldn’t have been surprised by the backlash of the feeling, the stomach-churning nausea of it.

When the power began to ebb, the major hurts healed, I knew she was going to live. She would be in a good deal of pain for a while, and she might never walk without a limp again, but by God, she was going to be alive for it.

I finally broke contact, hunched over and breathing heavily, the acrid taste of bile in the back of my throat.

Not even Kiraxis’s injuries had made me feel like that.

I wondered if it was because he was a monster, and she was a human. Maybe one was easier than the other for me.

I spit once or twice in the grass, sure my stomach was going to turn itself inside out, but nothing came up.

It wasn’t until I heard the sound of breathing, and the call of birds overhead, that I finally looked up.

Kase knelt by Willow’s side once more. His fingers moved over her arm, where ten minutes ago it had been cleanly snapped in half. He touched the ribs that had collapsed and been remade, and the skull that was no longer mush.

I didn’t like the look he wore.

It was that look.

The touched-by-a-beam-of-light-from-Heaven look.

He finally looked up and met my gaze, his eyes swimming with unshed tears.

“She’s alive,” he said hoarsely. “She’s whole.”

“Yeah. So now you know what I can do,” I said bitterly, wiping my mouth. Even though I hadn’t puked, that bitter sick-taste hadn’t left my mouth.

I wondered how much of the bitterness was from the fact that Willow had been as close to death as a human being could be, and I’d still brought her back… but my own mother had been beyond me.

“They were right,” he whispered. The tears were now flowing in silent streams over his cheeks. “You’re one of them.”

“One of who?” I asked. I managed to crawl over to Willow.

My limbs felt shaky, but I peeled one of her eyes open. Her pupil focused as the light touched it.

Kase didn’t answer right away. He just gave me that worshipful look, then slid his arms under Willow’s shoulders and thighs, carefully heaving her up.

I followed suit, grabbing the basket of cherries just for something to do—then, seeing the blood that covered my fingers, I dropped it again just as quickly.

We started back towards the Lodge. I watched Willow’s blonde curls catch at the meadow grass, the underside of her hair stained a deep red.

I couldn’t put the blood back into her body; I could only make more.

Kase was silent until the Lodge was in sight. His tears had dried up as we walked, and the expression left on his face was shell-shocked and pale, but alive with a frenzied, exalted light.

I saw Mary on the porch, saw the look on her face change when she caught a glimpse of Willow in Kase’s arms. She got up and moved towards us, breaking into a run.

Well before she reached us, Kase had dropped to his knees before me.

Maybe it was because carrying a limp Willow had exhausted him, but I doubted it, even though I hoped it was true.

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