AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Will nods and I hold Javi’s leg a little tighter, but he doesn’t react at all when the needle goes in. Suyin draws blood into the vial, and I notice a strange, shimmery sheen to it. I frown.
“Is that normal?”
Suyin frowns. “Shit…I think I know what this is.”
“That sounds bad,” I breathe.
Akari squeezes my shoulder.
“It’s something that appeared after the Convergence,” Suyin says. “Usually in coastal cities. They call it kraken, but its real name is amphoria…did he tell you much about his history?”
I bite my lip and stare down at him.
“I don’t actually know him that well,” I whisper.
Please wake up so you can tell me all your stories.
“I have something for this,” Suyin says. “Just…give me a second.”
She busies herself in the medicine cabinet and I stay with Javi, idly stroking his fur. Charlotte comes in with hot tea and a muffin and somehow convinces me to sit down and eat while I watch Suyin work. She gets a new syringe and pulls clear fluid into it, then goes back to Javi.
“This was used to help people detox before the Convergence,” she says. “It will enhance his body’s ability to filter out foreign substances. Amphoria can be used as a party drug in small doses, but if it’s overused, it’s also a potent neurotoxin, and it makes your body do strange things—your adrenaline and serotonin spike. We need to bring those levels down, at least so we can get him back to his human form so he’s easier to treat.”
“I don’t know what that means,” I say.
“All you need to know is that this should help,” she says. “He’s alive and that’s what counts.”
I start to tear up again and swallow a big mouthful of muffin to keep myself from crying.
“Go ahead,” I say.
She puts another needle into his leg and I wince as something twinges in my right arm. I realize a second later that it’s the bond—a whisper where it was a roar before, but it’s there and that’s what matters. I reach out to him through our connection, but all I feel is the pain…then a cool, soothing sensation that runs from my elbow up to my heart.
“I think it’s working,” I say. “I can feel him.”
“Good,” Suyin says. “And if it is, we can…oh!”
She stands back and I get to my feet, my eyes wide. He’s changing back right in front of us, his muscles clenching and shifting. I’ve never seen someone do this without initiating it themselves, and it’s a little scary to see how much it seems to hurt.
But his hand is there, human, his fingers curled and shaking.
I wrap my hand around his.
“Come back, Javi,” I whisper.
He groans…and that’s enough.
“Now we wait,” Suyin says.
I’ve had enough of waiting…waiting for rescue, for a sign that things were going to get better.
But for Javi? I’d wait forever.
CHAPTER THIRTY
?
PEACHES
