Beach Day

55: Tesseract

Or maybe she just wan't paying attention. The reason for her not noticing how hurt he was doesn't change the fact that he is hurt, he is unconscious, and there's no real way to get him out of the cave in this state.

"We don't have a lot of options." Matt discards the leather. "Are we going to lift him up the ladder?"

Tiff goes pale at the thought of it. "I guess we could? I guess it's— it's possible—"

"Sure sounds like it isn't."

"No, it is, it is—"

"Let me see your arm."

"I don't know if that's necessary—"

"Tiff. I'm not asking. Let me see your arm."

She holds it out to him, though it hurts to bend and she can't really move her fingers. The one virtue of being Tiff Sheirdan is being able to move through pain— like when you get stomped by a flying horse and keep climbing the mountain. Matt turns her hand over; unfortunately, she whimpers when he does it, her fingers move painfully when he presses her palm, and that's all the confirmation he needs.

"We're not going to be able to get him up the ladder. Your arm might be broken."

"My arm isn't broken. I've never broken anything before."

"That doesn't disqualify you from having broken it now. I figured it was. You'd have to be made of steel for it not to be. We just need to get back to the car, I think." He looks up, over the body of their fallen cousin, to meet her gaze. "A portal."

"Are you sure? With all the— you know, the..." She gestures to the gun like he knows that it means their grandfather.

"If I'm going to make my peace with magic and start working against him, I might as well start now. We can get to the mouth of the cave to get Andy and Kepler, then do the same to get back to the car. I can splint your arm there, too. For now, I think we need to focus on getting out of here."

"We do."

"Can you do two portals?

"Two portals? In such quick succession? Matt, it's like you want me to kill myself."

"That's the opposite of what I want."

"I'm aware. I'm well aware. I can do it. I promise. It's more efficient than dragging him through the woods, anyway. But, first—" She reaches into her bag and rummages around for one of the syringes. She holds it up. "I want to see if we can stabilize him first. Or at least start the process."

"If you make this worse for him, so help me—"

"I'm not going to make it worse. This is going to help." She uncaps it with her teeth. "Pull his arm up."

Matt does as he's told; Tiff plunges the metal into his arm and pushes the plunger until there's nothing left. The wound starts to close almost immediately, but not enough to be entirely healed. Not in the slightest.

Matt lets Drew's arm fall gently and nods to her. "Next step. What do you want me to do so you can get us out of here?"

She winces. "I could use some help with the runes. I definitely have a sword to cut the air with, but— you know."

"Do you have them written down somewhere or did you just memorize them?"

"Both." She hands him her notebook before she turns to the relevant page. She taps the grid-lined paper. "That's them. I found them in an old Order of The Way Through manual an associate lent to me. He wasn't supposed to. It's supposed to be on extreme lockdown, but whatever. I get what I want, sometimes. It's a more brute-force way of doing things, adapted for the modern on-the-go action teen."