Page 200 of Alchemised
Stay awake. You have to stay awake.
Her vision lengthened. Her legs seemed far away, all the way down a tunnel, and then everything faded away.
“What are you doing?”
Helena started, her leg jerking reflexively, pain bursting through her.
Kaine was standing over her, seemingly having appeared out of thin air.
At least, she thought it was Kaine. Her vision was blurry, and his presence seemed to swallow the space. As his face swam into focus, he was glaring at her icily.
Her heart lurched at the sight of it.
“It’s Martiday,” she managed to say.
“What happened?”
She gestured limply at the metal spike still running through her calf.
He barely glanced at it. “Yes, I noticed. I’ll admit, your commitment to the bit is impressive. I can’t say I expected you to go this far.”
She stared at him, not understanding.
“Tell Crowther I have no time for his tricks. Pull something like this again, and he can consider the deal off.” Kaine turned, walking away.
Her chest felt hollow as she watched him leave, realising that he thought she’d injured herself on purpose.
He paused at the top of the stairs, staring at the trail of blood before looking back at her.
“Get up.” He was speaking through clenched teeth.
She shook her head. “I’m waiting for my resonance to come back.”
His head jerked sharply. “What?”
She looked down. “The fires … there were a lot—I was too tired today. I didn’t realise—never burned out before. So I’m—waiting.”
Kaine walked back over and crouched in front of her, his eyes narrowed. His hair was so much more silver now.
“Marino, what kind of vivimancy do they have you doing in the hospital?”
“Depends who’s injured.” Her head was very light; her consciousness was threatening to rise through the top of her head and float away.
Fingers snapped sharply in front of her face.
“Focus,” he said. “Describe the healing you do. Are you just transmuting physical injuries away or are you using your vitality to keep people alive?”
“Depends …” she said again. She was having trouble making her eyes focus. His own eyes shone, and she stared at them, mesmerised. “We use triage protocol. Can’t afford to lose our combatants. Especially not alchemists.”
His jaw tensed. “I assumed they’d save that for the likes of Holdfast.”
The corridor had stretched into a tunnel once more.
“Luc can’t win by himself,” she said.
Ferron was suddenly very close, reaching towards her. He pulled her up off the ground, sending an inferno of pain through her body. She screamed and fainted.
When her eyes opened again, she was in the tenement unit, lying on her back, her injured leg elevated with a chair. She felt simultaneously better and worse.
