“I need you to take me to Felix,” I say to Kieran, and he glances down at me, shellshocked.
He's covered in mud and blood from where he has been moving through the camps and transporting people out. There's a weariness in him, a kind of defeated nature that comes with fighting a losing battle.
“Fallows… I don't think there's anything that Felix can do for him now,” he says in the most gentle tone, one that makes my chin wobble all over again even though the tears still haven't stopped streaming down my face.
“Do it for me. Please,” I say, my voice cracking. He swallows roughly, heartbreak in his eyes for me as he nods.
He grabs Gabe as he walks over to me, holding an arm out for Gryphon and North to grab as he plants a hand on Nox’s chest.
I grab his wrist, the closest I've gotten to actually touching Nox at this point, and I stare down into his sightless eyes as we pop back out of existence.
I hold onto Nox’s soul with an unbreakable death grip.
Chapter Two
Oli
Kieran is smart enough to transport us directly to the medical center, bypassing our usual spot at North's offices completely. When we arrive, we find Felix sitting at his desk filling out paperwork and Sage in the corner working on some schoolwork that I didn't even know she was still taking seriously as the world comes down around us.
The moment that we appear, Felix shoots to his feet in shock, lurching towards Sage as if to shield her. When he realizes who has appeared in the room, he visibly relaxes, only for as long as it takes him to see Nox.
“Holy fuck.”
North stumbles away from Kieran, hitting the wall and sliding down it. I hear the motion and see some of it from the corner of my eye, but I force my eyes to stay on Nox.
Gabe attempts to coax me away from him, but even after I let Kieran's wrist go, I stay in the same position, kneeling at Nox’s side.
This is going to be the difficult part.
My voice is nothing more than a rasp. “Felix… I need you to heal him.”
Felix looks around at the rest of my Bonded as though he’s looking for some injuries, but when he finds them all perfectly intact, he glances back down to me and says, “Who, Oli? Who do I need to heal for you?”
Sage stands up from her own chair, walking around the table as she approaches me, tears brimming in her eyes at the sight of me. I also get the feeling that she knows what impossible task I’m about to ask of her Bonded, and wants to show her unwavering support.
Deep breath. “I need you to heal Nox.”
The room goes eerily quiet, the type of silence that comes from everyone not knowing what the fuck to say back to the crazy lady.
I understand it. If there were any way to explain it to them without getting their hopes up, I would tell them, but I am acutely aware of the breakdown that North is having right now. I also think I might just crack under the pressure if North finds out there's a chance his brother could be saved, and I need my wits about me.
I don't want to lose Nox, and I don’t want to compound the grief of his brother by giving him a glimpse of hope only to disappoint us all by failing at this.
I can't fail him any more than I can look at him right now.
“Oli, I can't heal someone who’s already died. I would do anything I can for you, but that’s… impossible,” Felix says, and I open my mouth right as the door opens again, another man in a white coat walking through.
I recognize him from around the Sanctuary, but it's only when Gryphon's body fills with tension that I know that he isn’t somebody we want in the room during this moment.
“You can't just transport into the medical center. There’s a protocol that should be followed,” he snaps. Gryphon rises up onto his feet, stepping over Nox to plant himself between the man and the rest of the room.
There’s no one that can get past him when he’s like this, and I feel a swell of pride for my Bonded, the strength and determination to take up for us all and to lead when it’s required.
North doesn’t move away from the wall.
He’s as empty as the void eyes we share.
Both of Gryphon’s hands flex into fists at his sides, and I know he’s teetering on the edge of control. He’s not someone who wants to talk shit out with people. If he gives a command, he expects it to be followed without question. Politics is not his strong suit and having to do it now, with Nox dead at his feet… this man might not make it out of here alive.
“Get out of here, Payne. You don’t make the decisions around here, and this is a private matter.”
As much as I’d like to, I don't have time to listen to watch Gryphon deal with this man.
I turn back to Nox’s body and let my hand hover over his chest, careful to not make contact but still feeling the chill that’s taken over his body.
I want to scream, but my voice stays level as I murmur, “Felix, I need you to listen to me. I need you to heal him. I can’t explain how or the specifics but… please.”
Sage comes around Nox’s body to sit at my side, careful not to touch either of us but staying close as she mirrors Atlas’ pose as he flanks my other side. Both of them are offering me what comfort they can right now, which is admittedly very little.
I appreciate it anyway.
Felix kneels down at Nox’s other side, looking over his body with the sort of detached calculation that a Healer has to have even when staring at somebody they considered their friend. The type where he’s separated himself entirely so that he can be objective about this and run the numbers.
It occurs to me that I don't actually know if these two have ever exchanged words.
Nox had once said that he trusted him, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they’d had a good rapport or had even really spoken to each other. All of this is useless information that doesn't matter at the moment, but my brain just can't stop filtering through the facts and stats of things I know, focusing on things that it can process and conceptualize.
My Bonded being dead is not one of those things.
Felix shakes his head, his eyes still scanning Nox’s body. “I can't heal a corpse. I know that already, and Oli… I also know my Gift won't even attempt to heal a corpse, so I can’t just… try it for you. I’m so sorry.”
I want to vomit.
I want to empty what little is in my stomach at his blunt but gentle words, but my bond seems to think it's possible, and I can’t ignore it. I can’t, even if I wanted to, because Nox’s life might just depend on it.
I have to push.
I eye Felix for a minute and make a quick decision. He’s always kept my secrets, even before we’d known that he was Sage’s Bond. He’d healed me a dozen times before anybody knew what my Gift was or about the bond that lives inside of me. He knew the depths of my powers and what was growing inside of me long before anyone else, and he’d never said a word to anyone.
I take a deep breath and then I make the leap to trust him to act the way that he always has before, to trust that he’s going to believe me no matter how freaking insane this all is. I reach out and take his hand, ignoring the way that every eye in the room shifts to us both. Felix frowns at me for a moment, especially when my grip tightens, but when I nod at him encouragingly, his eyes flash white and his Gift floods me.