Page 85 of Perilous Healing

Warmth trickles from my lip. I smile through it. Never in my life have I felt such calmness in the face of a storm. Such peace in the midst of what should be fear. Is this what faith is? Knowing that my fate is in the hands of the One who created everything? And if that’s so, what do I have to fear?

Yarrow hits me again.

Again.

Striking me with such ferocity I can feel his growing anger with each and every blow. Bianca begs for him to stop, but I say nothing.

I take my licks. Letting each of them connect because soon?—

“Fire in the hole!” Bradyn yells in my ear.

Boom.

The explosion rocks the house we’re in.

Windows shatter, and Yarrow pales. “What was that?” he demands, turning toward his father, who’s staring at me with palpable rage.

“Ask your friend.”

Yarrow whirls on me. “What was that?” he demands again.

I meet his gaze, even though my vision is a bit blurry from the hits, and smile. “The cavalry.”

Chapter26

Bianca

“We have to get you out of here,” Frank yells to Herman as he leaves me and rushes around to grab his boss.

“Let’s go, Yarrow,” Herman orders. “Leave them!”

“No! I’m not leaving things unfinished!” Yarrow screams, then slams his fist into Silas’s gut. He withdraws his weapon, and I sprint forward, slamming my body into him. He goes down with the force of my hit, and pain shoots through my shoulder, straight up into my neck. “No!” he yells, rearing back his fist.

I prepare for the hit, but seconds later, he’s ripped off of me and flung across the room. Silas comes into view above me.

“Are you okay?” He reaches for me, pulling me to my feet.

“I think I dislocated my shoulder.” I cradle my arm against my body, the pain familiar, but that doesn’t make it any easier to bear. “Otherwise, I’m okay.”

“Want me to reset it?”

I groan. “Yes.”

He grips my arm. “Breathe.”

I do.

He slams it back into its socket and I scream, my head falling back as my body jerks. But the seconds tick by and the pain resides, becoming a bearable ache. An ache I can deal with, but trying to run with a dislocated shoulder? Not good.

“Don’t move!”

Silas stops and turns toward Yarrow, who’s holding a grenade in his hand. Terror ices the pain as I stare what could very well be my death straight in the face.

“You had a job to do,” Yarrow snarls, his eyes wide and wild. “And you failed. It’s okay though. I was going to kill you when I was done playing with you anyway.”

At one point, Yarrow served as my own personal nightmare. A boy I’d trusted who’d tried to force himself on me, then laid on the floor, promising to do terrible things to me should he ever see me again. I think I’d built him up in my mind over the years, telling myself he was far more terrifying than he actually was.

“You don’t have to do this,” I tell him, putting up both hands. “It’s not too late for you to come around.”

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