Page 76 of Bone Year

“I have a demon patient who throws things and a vampire teenager with a fissure wound from a twisted creature that won’t heal.” I shrug.

“You got a demon?” Ellavee raises an eyebrow.

“He’s three hundred years old and wants to die.” I reach over and give Poppy another slice of bread. She’s sitting on the bench next to me like a little human, watching everyone talk with those round black eyes. “But Poppy cheered him up. She has that effect on people.”

Poppy chirps and shoves the entire piece of bread in her mouth at once. Lux snorts.

“Your eidolon is a menace, and I love her,” Lux says.

I say, “She’s a perfect angel who can do no wrong.”

Poppy chooses that moment to reach across the table and steal a roasted carrot off Ellavee’s plate. Sighing, Ellavee slides her entire plate closer to Poppy.

“What about the vampire?” Jace asks. “The teenager?”

Nella’s face flashes in my mind. The wings pinned open, the corruption spreading. The fear she’s trying so hard to hide beneath sarcasm and walls she’s built up so high.

“She’s fourteen.” I stare at my plate. “Her name is Nella. She got slashed by a riftling three weeks ago, and no one can figure out how to stop the corruption. If they can’t fix it, they’re going to have to take her wing, but so far she’s refused to let them amputate.”

I see their grim faces.

“She’s just a kid,” I continue, not sure why I can’t stop talking. “She should be worried about school and boys and whatever vampire teenagers worry about, not whether she’s ever going to fly again or if the corruption is going to reach her heart before anyone figures out how to stop it.”

Jace’s hand tightens on my knee.

“Mae,” he says softly, “you can’t save everyone.”

“I know.” I push my plate away. “But I want to save her.”

The table is quiet. Even Lux doesn’t have a joke to fill the silence.

“I should go.” I push back from the table. “I need to check something in the library.”

“The library?” Lux stares at me. “We finished a long shift in the patient wards, and you want to go to the library?”

“I need to look something up.”

“You’re insane.”

“Probably.”

Jace catches my wrist as I stand. “I can come with you.”

I look down at his warm blue eyes and the worry creasing his forehead. The way he looks at me should be illegal, like I’m precious, like I’m his, when I know deep in my bones that I am neither.

“No, it’s okay.” I lean down and kiss his cheek, letting my lips linger. “I need some quiet time. I’ll see you later.”

He searches my face for a moment. “Don’t stay too late.”

“I won’t.”

It’s a lie, and we both know it.

I grab my bag and head for the door, feeling their eyes on my back. Lux says something, and Ellavee laughs, and the conversation picks up again behind me, filling the space I left.

Poppy hurries beside me, her little paws pattering against the stone floor. I reach down and scoop her up, pulling her against my chest. She’s so plump and furry and warm. I want to go back to my room and curl up with her and not think about anything, but I can’t.

As I pass through the doorway, I feel that prickle on the back of my neck. I glance over my shoulder without meaning to.