Page 73 of Revenant

This time, I’m in complete agreement with him.

I grin back, my smile sinister as I rock back and forth on my feet, practically rubbing my hands together as the plan comes together in my head. “We’re going to rescue our princess and bring this place down while we do it.”

Their grins are slow to come and more than a little feral as we work out the details of our plan. By morning, Rue will be back in our arms, and the good doctor will finally get what he deserves.

Chapter Twenty-seven

RUE

My legs tremble as I stand next to the neighboring bed. While putting a soul back into the body sounds like a good idea, I don’t have a fucking clue how to achieve it. “I might need a minute.”

I step away, twisting my head side to side, the bones of my neck cracking, unconsciously mimicking Gunner when he heads into battle. As I stretch my arms, I wander near the other beds. The room is at full capacity, the six beds occupied with a single patient each. Two young boys no more than ten or eleven are gone. The machines hooked up to them are the only thing keeping them alive.

One man looks young, late teens or early twenties. He’s alive, but I swear I can hear him screaming in pain, begging to die. Not a single bone in his body isn’t torqued, his muscles trembling and jerking in protest, his insides twisting him into a shape a human body isn’t meant to bend.

Bile rises in my throat as I approach him, and I reluctantly slip my hand over his wrist. His hand is so gnarled that a few ofhis fingers are twisted backward, a few of the joints at a ninety-degree angle…the wrong way.

His legs and arms are so curved that he will never walk or function again. His spine is contorted so badly that it resembles a snake. Even as I watch, I swear I hear one of his ribs snap and bend.

Maybe I should be focusing on Mabel, but I can’t unsee this new horror.

He deserves better.

We all do.

And, as callous as it sounds, the more I practice, the better it will be for Mabel.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to help you.” Tears blur my eyes at the cruelty of what the doctor did to him, but I refuse to look away. He deserves to have his torture witnessed. He’s not invisible. He will not suffer alone. Taking a deep breath, I tighten my grip on his arm, then purse my lips as I offer him a choice.

“The best I can do is pull you out of your body and take away the pain,” I offer hesitantly. “I think I can do it in a way where you will have a choice on whether to stay and fight…or cut the tether to your body and move onto the afterlife.”

I refuse to think of it as murder.

I grimace at the rash promise, then dismiss my trepidation. If I was able to launch Crystal out of her body by accident, I should be able to do the same thing on purpose.

Right?

It’s all will and intent.

With trembling hands, I rest my palm against the center of his chest…or where I imagine it to be with his torso so twisted. When I close my eyes, the chill of the afterlife immediately floods my body, almost like it’s outraged by what was done to the poor man and eagerly waits to call him home.

I allow the chill to leak into his body slowly, concentrating on what I hope to achieve. To my shock, the spirit of the man sobs in relief and reaches for me. As I grip his hand and pull, my eyes snap open, and I gasp when his ghostly shape is dragged free from his flesh.

He straightens from the bed, his spirit twisting and uncoiling from his unnatural pose. He inhales deeply, his chest expanding, his back arching until he’s standing to his full height. After a moment of pause, he looks down at me with a gorgeous, carefree smile.

Torris?Mabel gasps behind me, and the man looks over my head toward her. Tears fill her eyes, then they’re hugging.

I check the body on the bed, note that he’s still alive, and release a quiet sigh that I didn’t fuck it up. To give them some privacy, I switch my attention to the two remaining beds, ignoring their soft murmurs to each other.

My jaw drops open in shock when I see fucking Crystal lying in the far bed, looking almost innocent. Though she isn’t hooked up to any machines, she is still breathing.

I’m uncertain if I’m relieved or not that I didn’t murder her.

While I would like to think I’m a moral person, I believe some people are too evil to be allowed around others. I’m spared what to do about her when I don’t sense her spirit anywhere.

She has a heartbeat, which means she is still around here somewhere.

Unfortunately.

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