Page 52 of Queen Takes King
“I couldn’t wake Rik and Guillaume. Rik moved and groaned, but he couldn’t wake up. I heard Daire and Xin coming, but the thing grabbedme.”
Dr. Borcht touched my ankle, which bore an ugly ring of bruises. “The skeleton had quite a grip onyou.”
I shuddered and nodded. “I kicked it two or three times and broke something in it, but it still wouldn’t let go of me. It pulled me off the bed. I grabbed the leg of the bed and held on for dear life, and that’s when it hurt my knee tugging on me. I tried blasting it with fire, and it definitely howled, but still wouldn’t let go of me. By then, Daire came through the door and attacked it. Xin dragged me to safety, and Rik and Guillaume were finally able to wake up and join thefight.”
Dr. Borcht lifted the largest case up on the bed and opened it up. Inside was some kind of medical equipment. She lifted up an inside shelf and the whole thing lit up. “This isn’t quite as good as the full-body MRI, but it’ll at least let me see what exactly is torn inside. I think your ACL is okay, but you’ve torn at least the meniscus.” She looked over at Rik on the other side of the bed. “If you can help me lift and support her injured knee, I need to get it underneath thescanner.”
Daire moved out of the way and Rik crawled across the mattress to kneel beside me. One big hand cradled my calf, while the other slid beneath my thigh. He lifted my knee up smoothly and Dr. Borcht moved the scanner into place. I winced a bit, but it didn’t hurt too badly. “I should be able to heal that,right?”
“Oh yes. You could heal an ACL too or a broken bone. I just believe it’ll be easier for you to heal it if you know exactly what the injury is. There’s no sense in you trying to mend back a bone if all you have is ligament damage. It’ll take a few minutes to get a good image. Try to hold still and let Rik support yourleg.”
“The first skeleton was probably a high priest,” Gina said, drawing my attention back to her. “He knocked out the Blood, making it safe for them to come through. How did you finally close theportal?”
I forgot that Gina had been around Aima courts her entire life. She probably knew almost as much as the guys, even though she wasn’t full Aima. “I couldn’t close it. The harder I pushed on it, the stronger itgot.”
She nodded, her gaze locked on me. Her intensity started to freak me out a bit. Nothing had managed to rattle my consiliarius yet. So if she was worried, or goddess forbid, scared, we were fucked worse than I’d already imagined. And I had a damned goodimagination.
“Xin had pulled me over to the side,” I continued slowly, watching her reaction. “It looked like a bubble. Kind of shiny and floating, moving like the surface of a bubble. So… I poppedit.”
“From theback?”
I nodded and she sat back, stunned. She opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again, but couldn’t seem to find thewords.
“You do realize who was behind the attack, yes?” Dr. Borchtasked.
“The guys explained it to me,” I said vaguely, not sure how much supernatural shit I wanted to discuss in front of my human security guard. Though he hadn’t bolted for the door yet, even as he heard mystory.
“You did the impossible,” Gina finally whispered hoarsely, shaking her head. “A portal can only be closed by the one who opened it. When Daire attacked the high priest, he freed Rik and Guillaume from the spell, but the portal stayed open. So the first skeleton hadn’t opened it. Someone on the other side did.Hedid. The god himself. And you shut it right in hisface.”
“Goddess,” Dr. Borcht whispered, her eyeswidened.
“Holy fuck,” Gina said, startling a laugh out of me. I’d never heard her cursebefore.
Suddenly we were all laughing like we’d heard the funniest joke evertold.
Gasping for breath, I lay back against the pillows. Tears filled my eyes but I didn’t cry. It was just too much, too sudden, too overwhelming. They sensed my changing mood and quieted too. Rik kept my knee steady. Gina held my hand. Daire started purring, even though he wasn’t touching me. Always the knight, Guillaume started piling up the weapons and shields, testing out each sword to see if he wanted to keep any of them. Silent Xin only watched me, his eyes shimmering, crackling ice. If I hadn’t takenhim…
I didn’t think I’d bealive.
But I had to wonder… If Rik and Daire hadn’t found me, how much longer would I have lasted on my own? Had the king started to wake up before I came into my power? Was I even on the patriarchal god’s radar when I was living on the run and powerless? Certainly Marne and Keisha hadn’t known who I was. I’d never have found Gina. I’d never have needed Dr. Borcht’s care, either. I’d have never seen skeletons climbing out of a golden window to another plane or world. Or dreamed of a massive snake-dragon creature who’d been chained for thousands ofyears.
Or stroked a warcat, or a ghostly silverwolf.
Or been held by a massive rocktroll.
Or loved the last Templarknight.
The machine dinged and Dr. Borcht said, “Okay, let me slide the scanner out of place, and you can set her knee back down. A pillow underneath to support would be best. Yes, that’sit.”
I heard the clacking of a keyboard and she hummed beneath her breath. “All right. Yes. Meniscus tear and some MCL damage it looks like. The joint itself is undamaged and the ACL isintact.”
I opened my eyes and sat up a little. Gina stuffed another pillow under me so I could still rest but remain upright. “So what does thatmean?”
Dr. Borcht pulled up the gray and white scan of my knee. She pointed to some white blobs and rattled off some more medical words but all I really caught was fluid, swelling, and tear. I waited until she paused and said, “I guess I should have asked how do I fixit?”
She touched my knee with her index finger in the center, the outside, and the inside of my knee. “You have some damage in these places. If you flood that area with power, and concentrate on removing the swelling and knitting things back together, you should be up and walkingtomorrow.”
Frank made a low sound under his breath, making us all look at him. He blushed and stammered, “Sorry, my friend’s daughter tore her meniscus a couple of years ago playing basketball and they recommended surgery. She had pain and swelling forweeks.”
