Page 128 of Fangs
“But it hurt Dune,” Wolf finally said roughly.
I nodded, but then Lee spoke.
“Did it hurt when she tried to heal you?” he asked Sam.
“It didn’t hurt me, but it hurther,”Sam answered quietly.
“I healed Dune lots of times before,” I added, surprising myself. “Anytime he had a scrape or a cut… I never had a problem healing him.”
Not until it really mattered, anyway.
“Will you tell me what happened?” Wolf asked.
I glanced up at him, familiar fear twisting in my gut, but there wasn’t rage or anger lurking in his eyes like every time he’d questioned me before. His expression was calm, though all the muscles in his face were pulled tight.
“With Dune?” he added, even quieter.
Maybe it was because he was clearly trying, or because this wasn’t planned and I didn’t have time to work myself up about it, or because we were outside under the budding apple trees in the fresh air. Whatever the reason, the words came. They were shaky, but they came.
“He wanted me to try healing bigger wounds, but I was scared. We’d been arguin’ about it for weeks. He came and found me after you left to go hunting and was… was being so strange. He wouldn’t let it go. He’d never been so… intense.” I hesitated briefly, then decided to be honest. “He reminded me ofyou.”
Wolf winced.
“It made me mad. I told him to leave me alone, and I started walking away. He yelled my name, and when I turned back, he had the knife.” My voice grew shakier. “I didn’t think he’d hurt himself, but he said somethin’ about how he was doin’ this for me. I started runnin’ back, but before I reached him, hestabbedhimself. I panicked and tried to heal him, but it just…did nothing. And he started screamin’ that I was hurtin’ him, but I couldn’t stop tryin’ to heal him ’cause there was so much…so much blood, and I knew if I didn’t save him with my power, he’d d-die.”
Wolf’s expression looked like it’d been carved from solid rock while my eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I started screamin’ for you, but Dune grabbed my arm and…snarledat me to keep my promise and not tell you about my powers. And then you came, but you looked at me like… like I’ddoneit…”
My voice trailed off as I struggled to control myself. Sam stepped closer and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
“When you asked me what I’d done… I knew… I knew there was nothin’ I could say. Not without breakin’ my promise to Dune. You were lookin’ at me like you didn’t even know me. An’ I just… just panicked and ran.”
Wolf closed his eyes, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed. When he opened his eyes again, they looked wet.
“Thank you for tellin’ me,” he said, monotone, before turning and striding back to the clinic.
Lee hesitated briefly, then followed. Sam and I watched them go, standing together under the tree. I took a deep, shaky breath and tried to calm down.
“Good job,” Sam said, his voice serious. He smiled when I glanced at him, but he looked sad. “See, you’re gettin’ better at talkin’ already.”
I scoffed and looked away.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Clarity,” Sam continued. “I wanted to… so many times. We all did, but she kept making us promise we wouldn’t, and Mac said unless it was an emergency, we needed to respect her wishes.” He paused. “It’s probably good you found out, though, ’cause I think Raven was about a day away from exploding.”
“Is that why she’s been so mad?” I asked, still trying to blink away tears.
“Yeah,” he huffed, “I thought she was gonna kill Mac when he told us they were bein’ sent out.”
That made sense.
“Well, she was also pissed about leaving you here with your brother’s whole crew.”
I looked at him in surprise.
“I know she doesn’t always show it, but Raven might be the most loyal person I’ve ever met. Once you’re in, you’re in. And unless you do something despicable like Lana, you’ll be in with her forever.”
A group of chickens moved slowly down the path, clucking softly.
