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Why does everyone else get to be happy while all I know is pain and loss?
Why do good people have to die while the wicked live?
Why can’t I live a peaceful, happy life? Why does it hurt too much to be alive?
“I can’t,” I repeat. “I won’t.”
I beg the wind, I plead with this world, and I hand over my soul.
For the first time, something listens, only it isn’t another person—it’s that power under my skin I have yet to explore.
It crawls through me and flows down my arms, the glow brightening so fast, I can barely stand to look at it, so I keep my eyes focused on Kaito beneath me. I gasp as I feel the power push into Kaito as it searches. He jerks with a groan, his eyes widening, and I pull away and glance down. My hands glow so brightly, they almost blind me, my eyes watering from the effort it takes to focus on them.
“Kaito,” I whisper, an old instinct guiding me as my powers flow through me and into him.
I’mhealinghim.
His color returns, the blood stops running, and under my hands, I feel the wound begin to stitch itself together and finally close. When the glow lessens and finally stops, I lift my bloodstained hands to see his perfectly unmarred stomach. All that remains is a thin, glowing scar.
Lifting my eyes to Kaito’s astonished gaze, my heart stills.
I healed him.
“Kai.” He grabs me, lurching up and pressing his lips to mine. I taste his desperation and love, and I have no doubt he tastes my tears and hope, and when we break apart, he presses his forehead to mine. “You saved me.”
“It’s only fair,” I croak, happiness filling my heart.
He wraps me up in his arms, holding me.
Here, on the bloodstained Dead Lands, held by my monster, I start to believe in this world again.
In right and wrong.
In happiness and hope.
In myself.
Chapter
Forty-Four
KAI
“We need to leave,” Dade growls later. He’s pacing inside the door of the cabin, his eyes constantly looking out the windows in case the hunters return. “We can’t stay here.”
Rook nods from his own position at the back of the cabin, making sure none appear from the back. They fall into the roles easily, their eyes hard and bodies almost vibrating. “The warhorse is correct. They know our location. Next time they come, they’ll bring more hunters with them.”
I don’t answer, not right away. My eyes are on Kaito where he sits at the table, his head in his hands. Every so often, his eyes meet mine and linger, and we’re reminded again that he almost died. Hewouldhave died had my power not chosen to wake up. I hold my hand out in front of me, staring at it. Right now, it looks normal, like a very human hand, but whatever power I’ve been blessed with, whatever power that has decided to awaken now of all times, makes me look decidedly less human. Human but not. Monster but not. What exactly am I if I can heal a mortal wound?
What does that make me?
I’m not sure, but I can’t be anything but grateful that it saved Kaito.
Even as I watch the new shapes dance across the arm of my skin. The ink appears like magic not moments after healing him and it moves across my arm as if with a mind of its own.
A tattoo.
“Where can we go that’s safe?” Weyland asks. He runs a hand through his hair in agitation. There are scratches and small wounds on his skin that he refused to let me heal for fear I’d use too much of my power. It’s true I was exhausted after healing Kaito, but now, I’m only rife with anxiety.
