Page 51 of Midnight Kingdom

“Mr. Flumph, be Noni friend. Please. Please. Please. Please.”

“All right!” I at the end o’ my straw when I shouts that, ‘bout ready to kill her. She let out this piercin’ sound o’ happiness that just make my balls itch an’ try to crawl back inside my body. “Shut up! You gotta be quiet if youze gonna be spy with me. Let’s go.”

She grab my hand an’ make us invisible, like when we was sneakin’ in the Unseelie Kingdom. We slips inside the Mother Heifer’s room an’ hear her whisperin’ to the damn mirror.

Everyone ‘round here goin’ batshit crazy.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

EILISH

The Veil

My hands are covered in blood, but the glow never fades. Pyre grips my wrist and I stare into the sightless depth of his eyes.

“Take with one and give with the other,” he instructs calmly, gentling his hold. I look down at my hands and focus on matching my breathing with Kolvar’s until we synchronize.

“Very good,” Pyre praises. My heartbeat begins to match the rhythm of the satyr’s, and for a moment it feels as if we’re linked by more than the glow I cast on his flesh. Pyre instructs the others to remove their energies.

“Eilish,” he addresses me directly. “Take with one and give with the other.”

Then I feel it, a shift in myself, and I reach for it. The glow on my left hand changes, morphing into a red shadow, more than a light. “Pyre…”

“You know how to feed, Eilish. Take his pain into your body the same way you would feed off the life force of another. And with your other hand, pool your healing energy into his body.” He moves to stand behind me, but he’s careful not to touch me.

“I don’t know,” I start.

Pyre leans in and whispers, “You can do this. I’ve seen both sides exist in you at once. It doesn’t have to be either or. You can be both.”

Take with one and give with the other.

I repeat those words in my head like a mantra, willing myself to obey the command. The red smoke leeches into Kolvar’s chest and I close my eyes. “What am I looking for?” I ask. “What does pain look like?”

“Stop looking.Feel, Eilish. You know what pain feels like—you’ve experienced a world of suffering. Find it in Kolvar and take it.” Pyre pauses. “Do it now or he dies.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I feel a sensation that’s not entirely cold but is more like the damp chill that lingers after coming in from the rain. It’s sadness and worry. Beneath it is something that…

My eyes blink open as I sense too much and the pain is overwhelming. I force myself to concentrate on the rhythm of Kolvar’s heart again, using it to anchor me as the pain burns my soul. That red smoke chases after it, devouring it, and I pull it back into my hand and into my body as if the pain’s my own.

My legs buckle but I don’t fall.

“Good, Eilish. Now, envision yourself standing between two doors that are very close together, closing in on you. Put one hand against the door on your left to keep it from opening and use your right hand to turn the knob on the other door. You’ll feel some resistance, but fight it.”

I try to do as he says, but I’m afraid to reach for the handle. My entire body begins to tremble as if we’re back in the mountains. I fight the fear.

Do it now or else he dies.

Kolvar risked his life to buy us time. I owe it to the satyr to save his. In my vision, I see my fingers around the handle of the doorknob and I push. The door on the left, the one with the pain, begins to open. I battle between my own fear of tapping into that energy and keeping the other at bay. The pain only lessens when I accept that both must be done.

Kolvar takes a deep breath as the purifying white light fills him. I watch the wounds on his body stitch themselves back together as the others look on with identical expressions of surprise. When the transition is complete, I feel beyond exhausted.

I’m panting and dizzy. I start to fall against Pyre and he lifts me into his arms, before carrying me outside. He sets me on the ground and instructs me to close my eyes and envision both the doors again. Once I see them, he instructs me to open both.

“Push all of that energy into the soil, Eilish. Expel it from your body.”

I let go, allowing the control to snap as I channel it into the earth. The scent of moss and dirt fills my lungs and I allow it to soothe me. Pyre removes his hands from my body and I let myself doze off, but only for a second. When I wake, there’s a new sense of peace in my heart. The pain is gone.

“It’s done,” I say.

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