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“What could I say? I mean, would you have actually believed it without seeing it? And why didn't she tell you? Fuck, she didn't even tell me.” I slide my hand down and press it against her stomach. “When she healed you, we were all covered in blood. Her T-shirt was soaked with it, or so I thought. I didn’t realize until she was already mostly healed that she had a stomach wound exactly where you had been impaled.”
He looks like he wants to throw up. “I can’t.” He blows out a breath before looking down at her. “No more.”
“That’s not your call to make,” I tell him.
“Like fuck, it isn’t. I can’t watch her go through this every time.”
“Tough fucking shit, Oz,” I snap back. “I get that it’s hard for you. Now imagine what it’s like for her.”
“Then why doesn’t she stop?”
“You know her, Oz, and you have the nerve to ask that?” I huff and move my hand to Salem’s, taking her smaller one in mine. “Her body heals, Oz. Sure, it hurts like hell every time, but it heals. Now tell me, what would happen to her if she walked away? If she let me die just then? Trust me when I tell you there are some things even Salem can’t heal from.
“I don’t know why she has this gift. But knowing what I do, I know she might be the only person strong enough to bear it. She is strong enough to carry the burden. Moral enough to make the tough choices and smart enough to know her limits. Look at what she just did, Oz. She’s already been a prisoner once. Don’t let your fear shackle her once more.”
He bows his head as I smooth my thumb over the back of her hand.
“I love her,” he whispers before looking up at me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my brother look more vulnerable than he does right now.
“I know you do. I do too. But that doesn’t give us the right to change her. Healing is a part of her identity in the same way being a twin is part of ours.”
He nods and takes a deep breath. “One thing I do know is that I’ll kill every motherfucker who tries to take her from us.”
“We need to think about where we want to go next. We can’t stay here forever.”
“You say that, but the last six months have been the best of my life. Minus the multiple scrapes with death.”
“And there’s the brother I know and love,” I say, making him smirk.
I glance down at Salem, then back to Oz. “We’ll let her rest, and we’ll talk. I just have this feeling that something is off.”
“Sixth sense?” He says it with a serious expression. I’ve had feelings like this before, and they’ve never been wrong. And because of that, we never ignore them.
“Maybe. I’m not saying I feel like we’re in danger. I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly. It’s like a kind of…” I search for the right word.
“Restlessness,” he finishes for me.
“Yeah. And the snake was a reminder that we can’t afford to let our guard down. Not when we have so much at stake.”
“If the government gets its hands on her, all this will become her norm, healing until she passes out or worse. It will be a cold day in hell before I let that happen. But if we try to return to our real lives, they’ll find her in a heartbeat.”
“We’re ghosts, Oz. All we have to do is disappear.”
“Easy as that, huh?”
I think of Luna and Ruby and the guys back at Apex. “For her? Yeah, it’s that easy.”
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Salem
Ifeel like ass when I wake up. My head swims, and my mouth feels like it’s filled with cotton balls. I groan and try to sit up, but I’m pinned in place. Cracking my eyes open, I wince, the light making the pain in my head throb. I glance down and find my inability to move due to strong arms banded around me, holding me in place.
Oz and Zig are on either side of me as usual, but there is something about the way they are holding me that feels more desperate. What happened while I was out? Or maybe it’s how long I was out. I lick my cracked lips and moan, my dry throat and empty stomach reminding me I need more than just sleep.
Oz jolts awake at the sound, which in turn wakes Zig. They look at me with such relief that it makes my chest clench.
“That never gets any easier to watch,” Zig admits, burying his head in my hair and breathing me in.
