Page 26 of Catalyst

Again, I tried to pretend I wasn’t worried, but he made that impossible.

“What happened then?”

His expression tightened as he refused to look away from those damn cats. I swore to God that I was going to bring one inside one day just to see what he did.

“I turned it off and emailed her professors pretending to be her—which is probably going to piss her off.” A wry laugh punctuated his sentence. “I just… should we take her to the hospital again?”

The mention of a hospital snapped me out of my thoughts. If we took her to the emergency room again, that would be like admitting Callie was sick—which she wasn’t. Someone like Callie didn’t deserve to be sick. She was too nice, and bad things weren’t supposed to happen to good people.

“She’s probably just a little worn out and caught a cold… plus, she has an appointment on Wednesday.” I said, placing the bag with Callie’s breakfast beside Kane. “I’ve seen enoughSymptom Zeroto know how to fight off a cold.”

His gaze slid to me as an insulting level of skepticism crossed his face. “This isn’t one of your medical dramas.”

“Oh, come on!” I groaned, a smug grin crossing my face. “Give her some fluids, a little rest, and maybe a dash of love, and she’ll be better than before.”

But again, Kane didn’t laugh. He just kept staring at me with an expression that I knew meant he was overthinking. Or maybe he was just doubting the abilities of Dr. Jace.

“I’m serious. Give me a day. I’ll get her to eat, force her to stay in bed, and if she’s not any better tonight, we can consider alternative routes of treatment.” I did my best to sound like Dr. Hall, the main doctor inSymptom Zero.

Kane’s jaw tensed as he finally gifted me with his full attention. That’s when I noticed just how exhausted he looked. Usually, he was an honest man, but instantly, I knew he wasn’t up because of Callie’s alarm.

“If she’s not better by tonight, I’m dragging her to the hospital. No ifs, ands, or buts,” he warned.

I gave him a lazy salute. “I swear on my Ph.D. fromSymptom ZeroUniversity that I, Dr. Jace Rossi, will have our girl on her feet by sundown.”

He rolled his eyes, but the small twitch in the corner of his lips told me I’d helped lighten his mood. So, I blew him a kiss and grabbed the bag before heading into Callie’s room.

I slipped in as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake the princess if I didn’t have to. The room was dark, thanks to the blackout curtains Sulien had invested in just before he died. Still, even in the low lighting, I could see her nestled in a mound of blankets. Sweat caused her forehead to glisten; the whole thing was heartwarming in some weird fucked up way.

I sat the bag on the nightstand before kneeling beside her. Her cheeks were flushed, and even from here, I could feel heat radiating from her. For a moment, I considered telling Kane I was wrong, that this was definitely hospital territory. But… she didn’t smell sick.

Normally, someone’s blood would turn rancid when they were under the weather, but Callie just smelled spicy, kind of like Sulien and Shin.

I ran a finger along her forehead. Her sweat stuck to my skin as her eyes slowly fluttered open. Her gaze was hazy, a far cry fromthe normal, intelligent glint in her eyes. But, seeing as her skin felt hot enough to fry an egg, that tracked.

“Jace?” She croaked my name, and I fought a frown.

“I hate to disappoint you–but I’m actually a hallucination.” I wiggled my fingers in her direction, trying to hide my mounting anxiety under humor.

She let out a soft sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper before burrowing deeper into her cloth cocoon, and that simply wouldn’t do. But… I also didn’t want to yank the blankets off of her. That felt rude.

“You’re late for class.”

Instantly, the nest shifted. Although I was sure if I had shown her just how sluggish her movements were, she wouldn’t have fought like she did. With the blankets off, she did her best to sit up, but between her violent shaking and apparent lack of energy, all she could do was allow her body to sag back down to the sweat-saturated mattress.

Just as I prepared to tease her again, she let out another whimper. Tears followed this one. She desperately tried to cover her face as my eyes widened in shock.

What the fuck was I supposed to do now? I knew from our Saturday hospital adventure that she liked to be held. But I also wasn’t super into the idea of being drenched in her sweat.

Slowly, I reached out, softly patting her on the head. “There, there.”

That felt like an appropriate reaction.

But apparently, it wasn’t. Because if it were, she would have stopped crying. Her hands muffled her sobs, but they didn’t even slow down. Why the fuck was she even crying? All she did was wake up. Like, listen, sister, I understood that feeling, but there are real things to cry over.

“I need to go to school.” She croaked.

My brow furrowed. “... School has you bent out of shape?”

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