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“Your grid,” Blade whispered with wonder.
The embrace that followed happened naturally, the both of them stepping in together, and as Xhexwrapped her arms around Blade’s heavy shoulders, she felt as though they were cocooned in a peace that was tangible. Protective.
Healing.
A journey coming to a peaceful end.
They stayed together for the longest time, the cold air not touching them, the moon bathing them in soft light. And when they finally parted, they each stared at the other. Then she laughed a little.
“Well. That happened.”
Blade laughed as well, then looked around—and recoiled.
“She’s not there anymore,” he said, pointing to the spot in the trees where the ghostly gray wolf had been.
Xhex went back to the night she had come up the trail for the first time, and had found the old woman. She had never thought it would lead here, to her… beginnings. But maybe that was the thing with healing. If only the surface of a wound reknits, the injury festers as an infection. Only by going deep, to the very source, and clearing the base of it all, could health be restored.
Family had betrayed her… but family hadahvengedher, too.
“I guess her job with us is done.” Xhex glanced down at her body, then patted at herself to make sure this wasn’t a dream. “With me… with you.”
When she looked back up, she had to know. “Blade… about my grid…”
There was a long moment. And then her brother slowly smiled. “The rebuilding is happening, as we speak. I can see it plainly, so no, you are not deluding yourself.”
“I can feel it.” She touched her ribs again and her head. “I swear I can.”
“Good. I am glad.”
As a smile stretched her mouth—it didn’t stay put. Just as he could read her grid… his was obvious to her, and the stress remained.
Only this time, it was unhappiness, not regret.
And she knew what it was about.
“You’ve got to leave Lydia alone,” Xhex said roughly. “If not for her own good, for yours. You don’t know the hell where I’ve been in my head, my soul—and we don’t need two people in the family there.”
Blade took a deep breath. “Family.”
“Yeah. Family who looks out for each other. And if you keep holding on to the thing with that wolven, what happened to me… is going to happen to you.”
THIRTY-FIVE
THINGS WENT DOWNHILLso fast, Lydia thought as she sat at the bedside.
Daniel had been fine in the library, and then he’d gotten to their room, collapsed on the bed, and started coughing up all that bright red blood. And now, as she found herself in the midst of a throng of medical staff, with all kinds of drugs being pumped into him and vitals monitoring that was going badly, she couldn’t grapple with where they were. How was it possible that he’d been doing so well—hell, they had had sex,twice, for godsakes—but then all of a sudden, he was slipping into a coma?
But come on, like making love was a physical fitness test.
“I’m right here,” she said roughly as she stroked his dusting of hair. “I need you to stay with me—”
“Lydia.”
The sound of her name, so close by, and spoken so insistently—like she hadn’t heard it a couple of times—made her jump and glance up. “Gus…?”
“Hey, honey.” The doctor got down on his knees in front of her, his bruised and swollen face a reminder of how much other people were suffering right now. “Can you focus on me for a sec?”
She nodded, even though she wasn’t sure she could look away from Daniel for even that long. “What can we do?” she asked. “Please…”
