I tumbled back into awareness like rain being spit from the clouds to slam against my window. Taking that first gasp of air and opening my eyes to my room was painful.
Both Raidyn and Zuhra sat beside me, her hand on top of his. She looked at me for less than the space of a breath and then her eyes rolled back in her head and she crumpled. Raidyn barely caught her before she fell to the floor, cradling her tenderly against his body as he carefully lowered himself to the ground.
“W-what’s wrong?” My voice trembled and even though the terrifying darkness that had nearly taken me away again was gone, I was still too weak to do much more than just push myself up to my elbows.
“As the enhancer, it drains her more than me to do a healing that intense together. She’ll recover, but it might take some time.” Raidyn didn’t look up when he spoke, his whole focus bent on Zuhra. He kept one arm around her, holding her against him, and using his other hand to softly brush her sweaty hair back from her face. The connection between us was even stronger than before. After healing me a second time, I could feel his emotions so strongly, they nearly overwhelmed me.
He loved my sister.
So completely, it actually hurt.
I knew it as clearly and undeniably as I knew that I loved Zuhra.
“She’ll be fine,” he repeated, barely more than a whisper, perhaps more to himself than me.
I had to blink back unexpected tears. “Is there anything I can do?”
“No,” he murmured. “We just have to wait.”
After a long pause, I asked, “Why did you have to heal me again?”
Raidyn exhaled. “What we did the first time wasn’t enough. I was panicked. I’d never encountered something like that before, so I did the best I could—or so I thought. This time, I did quite a bit more. It should last longer.”
“Longer? What do you mean ‘longer’? This is going to happen again?”
He glanced up at me, his eyes dulled from the expenditure on his power. “I don’t know. But I’m afraid it might.”
“But … you healed me. Didn’t you?”
Raidyn looked back down at Zuhra. Her hair fanned out over his arm, a thick, dark waterfall that gathered on the floor beside him. “No one has ever survived what happened to you before. What we did—it’s unprecedented. I’ve never seen someone’s healing fail, but then again, I’ve never seen anyone whose power was taken from them survive at all. This is new territory—for everyone.”
I wanted to keep asking him questions, but Zuhra stirred then fell limp again, and we both went silent, his words ringing in my mind. I’d heard them say no one had ever survived what Barloc had done to me before … but I’d never realized how truly unique my situation was until that moment, as I stared at my unconscious sister and wondered how many more times she and Raidyn would have to do this for me.
If it would even continue to work.
Perhaps they’d only bought me time, delaying the inevitable.
Perhaps I really was going to die after all.