Raising a Hero

Chapter 13

"—CAN'T, YOU CAN'T! Please, don't die, don't die, don't leave me, no-no-nonono HELP! Someone help! PLEASE! Help me please!!"

He had gone white. Whiter than he had been when I'd found him, dying in an alley. But, then, he'd been much dirtier then too.

His hands, which had been on the sides of my head the last time I checked, had twisted up tightly against my sides, right under my armpits and above the firm line of the leather waistcoat of my dress. I could feel the faint burn of scratches I hadn't had there before.

I blinked as he continued to shriek at me, utterly thrown back by this violent reaction.

The door swung back with a bang on the wall as Milly and Hal rushed in.

"Gracious, what's going on?" asked Milly. Her face was still red and sweaty from working over the ovens of the kitchen.

"I-I don't know," I tried to say above Gus's continuing hysterics, which were not breaking into half-muffled wails. "I was just-just a little depressed and I told him to go away and then he—" I snapped my mouth closed.

Mind magic. Those threads of heat I'd felt and what they did to my mind must have been mind magic. And if that was so, I couldn't be careless in blabbing about it to Hal and Milly.

Hal, however, seemed to read something in my expression, for he made the first unpleasant frown I'd seen him make yet. It turned a face I'd always equated with a kind, steady grandfather into someone much angrier and aggressive.

His frown deepened when Gus unstuck his face from where he'd buried it in my lap to wail, "No! She's dying! She's trying to die—stop her! She's already done it before, you have to stop her! Please, please!"

"Calm down, Gus," cried Milly, crouching down at his side. She looked to both me and him with alarm. "No one's dying."

"YES SHE IS!! STOP! Lilly, please, I'm sorry, don't do it, just stop, please, don't do it, don't do it!"

He dropped his face into my lap in another choked wail, as though he were fighting to stop it from occurring, but couldn't help himself. His hands had fallen down to my hips, where his knuckles and tendons showed brilliant white against the skirts that he clenched. His back spasmed up and down with his quick, short breaths, and every other part of him trembled in time.

"Lillian," said Hal grimly, "did he put his hands near your head?"

I sucked in my lower lip. But that seemed answer enough for him.

He let out a puff of air and wagged his head. "I should have known this would happen sooner or later."

Milly did her best to try and calm Gus. "Gus, dearie, breathe, you're going to pass out. Everything is okay, you're okay."

But Gus only moaned another chorus of 'no's and dug his face deeper into my lap.

"Probably for the best," said Hal, who then kneeled down on the other side of my lap. "Boy, if you can't calm down, we'll have to do it for you."

Gus's narrow shoulders seized up, but the trembling only seemed to increase.

"No-no-no-die, she'll die! Help her, help her!"

"I'm not going to die," I said, more loudly than I intended to. "Please, Gus, just breathe! Deep breath, with me."

After several failed attempts to do just that, Gus gave a high keen and dug harder into my lap, twisting his fists about my hips so I couldn't have moved even if I wanted to.

Hal seemed to think Gus wouldn't be getting out of this on his own, for he drew his mouth into a thin line and pulled Gus's head up by the back of his neck. Then, before Gus could even register what was going on in his crazed state, Hal put his hand against his face and there was a soft spray from his palm, followed by a sharp scent, like salt or bleach.