Extras

Cinders: Chapter 14

"No," I breathe, despair falling on me like an anvil.

"No, no, don't go! Stay with me, stay with me - " her name, her name, I've only just found out her name - "Lee - Lee, Lee, stay with me, come back!"

But she doesn't move.

My mind races.

Not an option: watching her die.

Options: taking her to the palace myself. Or - calling in medics. Waiting for help to arrive.

"Too slow," I say aloud, picking her up. She - Lee - shudders into my arms, her broken hand resting weakly in her lap.

Jackson must have followed me with backup. He is downstairs, a fleet of wolves with him, speaking with the girl.  The boy stands behind her, his hand on her shoulder.

"Is that her?" Jackson asks as I rush towards the door. "Is - is she . . ."

"Lee!" the girl screams. The boy grips her shoulder.

I tighten my hold on Lee.

"Upstairs," I reply tightly, already half out the door. "He's probably still alive."

"Yes, sir."

And then, even as the girl cries out, I take Lee to the Palace.

I had thought the worst thing was her leaving me. I had thought that the fear drowning her eyes, that hopeless wanting, was the cruelest trick the universe could play on me.

But now, holding her, feeling the strength seep out of her body - I was wrong. This is the worst. This is the worst things that has ever - that could ever happen.

"You can hate me," I whisper into the air, "you can hate me, and you can leave, just, please, live."

Everything blurs. The forest flies by, and then I'm screaming at a medic in the cold white of the Med wing, desperate, angry, hopeless.

"Sir - Sir, you have to put her down."

My hands tighten on her. This happened to her the last time I let her go.

"Of course," I finally grit out, setting her out on the gurney.

The doctors swarm.

Her leg, her hand, her head.

They touch her and it hurts, it hurts, everything hurts.

They seem to be so rough and callous to her, jolting her body and ignoring the weak painful protests she makes. They aren't - how do they not understand that she is the most valuable thing on the planet? One of the doctors jostles her side with the broken leg. My vision burns silver and red, and if it weren't for Jackson - when did he arrive? - holding me back, I would do myself the favor of severing the doctor's head from his shoulders.

"Orion!" Jackson shouts at me, pushing against my shoulders, "You need to calm down!"

I snap at him, all the frustration and pain broiling to the top. But he's right. He's right.

So all I can do is watch as they pick her apart.

-

She needs surgery. She needs a lot of things, but that's the first. It will save her hand. I saw her hand, before, so bloody and broken. There is nothing I can do.

Eventually, the doctors have patched her up enough that they leave her alone. They're preparing for the surgery, I think. I stand over her still body.

Her leg and hand have been wrapped up with bandages. Her cheek is bruising into a deep budding of green and purple. My fingers twitch; I don't touch her.