Cinders [Completed]

Chapter 54: Homesickness

I can hear the wolves arriving at the far end of the corridor. They must have been alerted by my fight with Dad. I'm still crying, but I force myself to shout as loud as I can. It takes several tries before I make it above an empty rasp.

"Help! He's in here! He's in here! Orion!"

-

They have to drag me away so that the medic can examine him. They shoot him full of something that burns in his veins, then something that falls soft and sticky and makes the pain ebb into static. Using large, industrial cutters, they break the chains on his wrists.

And then they lift him, place his unmoving body on a gurney, and I rush forward, running beside as they take him through the concrete halls still blinking white and red.

"Lee," Orion calls, desperate and afraid under the disorienting lights, his eyes closed tightly.

His fear punctures my lungs, making it hard to breathe.

"Orion," I say, tightening my grip on his hand, "I'm here. I'm here."

"You found me," he says, his voice garbled in pain. The next moment, his shoulders relax, exhaustion overcoming him.

When we renter the sunlight, it is more startling than the red flaring inside. The sky is still blue with morning. Has it only been hours? Less?

The team of doctors rush Orion towards an ambulance.

"Princess Lee," a medic says to me, "we need to take him away. You won't want to watch this."

My knuckles turn white on Orion's gurney.

"I'm staying," I tell her, "I'll stay out of the way. But I'm staying."

"Yes, your highness."

I climb into the ambulance with them, keeping contact with Orion. As they turn on the bright, surgical lights inside the ambulance, Orion exclaims in pain.

"Too bright, too bright," he rasps, trying to cover his eyes with his red, burning hands. One of the doctors stops him quickly, scrubbing away the residue of the wolfsbane on his skin before he can spread it to his face.

There are too many doctors. I press myself into one of the corners, giving them room to navigate around Orion. They have so much work to do. His hands are twitching uncontrollably. There is a new wound on his abdomen that is still bleeding, and this is much of their concern, but there are also infections that have been festering for days, wounds on his legs, burns on his forearms, and open, violent slashes on his back. Even with the painkillers, the medics hurt.

"Where's Lee?" Orion calls, his voice weak, "Lee?"

"I'm right here!" I say from my corner. "I'm right here!"

He weakly reaches for me, but then he pulls his hand back, shoving the butt of his palms into his eyes. "A dream," he mumbles, "a dream, a dream."

He once thought I was a dream, when I came to him after Elia's death.

"I'm here," I plead, wishing I could take his hand, "I'm here, you're safe."

"It - " he tenses, his shoulder hunching towards me, and I know the doctors jabbed another needle in his arm. "Dark," he mumbles senselessly, "dark, cold, but the moon - the worst - alone - my head!" Before I can stop him, he takes a fistful of his hair, pulling at it, his eyes cinched closed and tears streaming down his face. "It hurts," he cries, "it hurts, stop, stop, Lee - "

"Orion! Orion," I say, "you're okay, I'm here!"

I don't know what I can even say to comfort him. I don't know if there is any comfort. But he calms down, when he hears my voice, first freezing and then, slowly, slowly, his fingers relax their hold on his scalp.