Page 109 of The Devil and His Sparrow

My heart stopped, and my mind emptied. I was sure I’d misunderstood.

“Just get down here,” Noya repeated. “You’ll see what I mean.”

There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation. I sprang from my bed and fumbled to pull on my shoes. I was still in my leggings and sweatshirt from the day before, but I didn’t give a damn. I didn’t stop to brush my hair or do any basic morning care. I called for Zagan as I ran through the house, but when he didn’t immediately appear, I just kept going and ran for his car.

I couldn’t seem to catch my breath as I drove, and my hands shook against the steering wheel. I called Zagan as I drove, but when he didn’t answer, I left him a message, letting him know what Noya said. Though, I still didn’t understand what she was trying to say. Was she offering me hope in knowing that, for now, Gemma lived? Or was she stressing something else to me? I didn’t know, and that confusion had me pressing harder on the gas pedal.

I got to Bloomings in record time, and it was only from muscle memory that I had enough sense to put the car in park and turn it off before barreling for the doors. In the back of my mind, I remembered that Mom had dismissed me from the approved guest list, but I couldn’t be bothered with that right now. Not when something was happening with Gemma.

I ran through the halls, looking every which way for Noya, and I finally spotted her coming down the hall from the sunroom.

Her brown eyes brightened when she saw me, and her pace quickened to meet me. “You’re here! She’s in the sunroom. Your—”

I didn’t stop to listen. I couldn’t. I ran with my heart in my throat and dread in my veins. What could be happening?

Even when I saw Mom and Dr. Seward standing just outside the partly closed sunroom doors, I kept going. When they both swiveled their heads at my fast approach, I shot past them, only stopping at the cracked door. I worked to catch my breath, but the moment I peered beyond the door, I froze instead.

Gemma laughed as she spun in a wide circle in the center of the room, throwing her stuffed dragon into the air and leaping around to catch it. The gray of her complexion had all but vanished, giving way to skin that looked like it spent everyday being kissed by the sun. Her hair, which hung flat and lifeless just yesterday, looked like freshly melted chocolate and bounced with volume as she spun. Even her wiry frame had filled out overnight with definition in muscles and power that hadn’t been there in years.

My hands shook as they covered my trembling lips. Once again, I was sure I was dreaming.

“Iyla.”

I looked back at Dr. Seward and Mom at the sound of the doctor’s whisper. He passed a hesitant and nervous look at Mom, no doubt recalling her outburst from yesterday.

Mom stared at me with some cold, bitter expression. She looked past me through the cracked door where Gemma seemed none the wiser to our presence as she did a cartwheel—a fucking cartwheel. When Mom turned back to me, her face had gone blank. She nodded to Dr. Seward and grumbled, “It’s fine. Keep going. How did this happen?”

I took Mom’s indifference as a sign that I was okay to drift closer and hear the doctor’s response, which was exactly what I did. I stared at Dr. Seward and hung on his every word as he passed a bewildered look between Mom and I.

“As I was saying,” Dr. Seward explained, “she was on a fast decline this past week, with yesterday spelling out the worst. We were preparing for that when this morning, she woke up, and—” He stopped and looked through the doors behind us in awe. “I-I don’t like to use the ‘M’ word, because there’s always a medical explanation, but right now, all I can say is it’s … a miracle.”

Dr. Seward immediately launched into reassuring Mom that he was going to be doing plenty of tests and keeping Gemma under careful observation for the time being, but I’d tuned him out, my eyes trained on Gemma through the door again.

Miracle? No.

This wasn’t a miracle.

This was Zagan. I knew it was. I didn’t know how he’d done it, but it didn’t matter.

My demon had saved my sister’s life.

I broke away from Mom and the doctor to drift into the sunroom. Gemma saw me, and my shattered heart began to reassemble when I saw the brightness in her eyes and smile. She ran toward me, and I fell to my knees with my arms open wide, letting her crash into me. I clenched my jaw in an effort to keep from crying, and for the first time in so, so long, I hugged her. I squeezed and pulled her into me as hard as I could, clutching onto her with every bit of fear, hope, grief, relief, and love that I had in me.

“I can’t believe you’re okay,” I sniffled against her hair. I squeezed again.

She pulled back to look at me, and her smile never faltered as she wiped my tears away. “Isn’t it amazing? It’s like magic, Iyla! I’ve never felt so strong and good before!”

I bit my lip, trying not to let my growing glee slip out as thankful sobs. “It is like magic, huh?”

She took my hands. “I hope now that I’m all better, you can be happier, too. I know you’ve had a hard time because of my being sick. So be happy now, okay? With piano and with Zagan.”

At the mention of his name, something hot and intense filled my chest. It bubbled inside me like carbonation rising up in a soda bottle. It was light, fierce, and all-consuming, and the urge to release the building emotion became impossible to ignore.

I took one long hard look at Gemma, memorizing her lively features. I thought she was lost. I thought yesterday would be it. But she’d been saved, and those features I thought were gone were ones I could see everyday now. She wasn’t going anywhere.

With a smile, I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I need to go find Zagan, but I’ll be back, okay?”

She nodded. “Bring him with you when you come back! I want him to see all I can do now!”

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