New World

Chapter Five

But she knew as well as everyone else that this could be the last time Will would come home from the hospital wing.

The next time... he might not come home. They might be going to his planting.

Savi looked away. "You can go collect Will without me."

"Savi... you know that every time we go to collect Will, he asks where you are and if you forgot about him, right?" Sophie asked softly.

"I'm always there waiting for him when he comes home."

"Yes, but he wants you there. At the hospital. The day I dropped him off, he asked me, 'Mom, can you remind Savi about me every day so she won't forget me this time?'"

"I never forget him," Savi said forcefully.

Sophie shook her head. "It doesn't seem that way to him."

Savi sighed. "Fine, I'll go. But I'm not going anywhere near Seri."

Sophie smiled. "Deal."

Elwin's hospital wing had been redecorated with lots of sparkles since the last time Savi had been there, and now even his medicine vials were extra sparkly. Savi was pretty sure Bullhorn was wearing a sparkly outfit, too, and the banshee looked quite disgruntled and kept shooting looks at Elwin that almost had Savi laughing until she saw the figure in the last cot.

Will looked worse than when he'd been dropped off. And considering Elwin said he was healthy enough to go home...

"Savi? Savi!" Will woke up and tried to get out of bed but didn't have the strength to. Savi rushed over to his bedside and scooped him out of bed into a huge bear hug, but she didn't squeeze him too tightly, especially once she noticed that his arms didn't have much strength. She put him back down on the covers as his twin came to tackle him.

"Will! I made Savi SUPER ANNOYED!" Seri babbled away.

Will's features contorted into a frown. "You shouldn't do that, Seri."

"But it's SUPER FUN! And Savi was SUPER ANNOYED! And SUPER MAD!" Seri said, practically bouncing on Will's bed.

"Careful, Serena," Elwin called and Seri stuck out her tongue at me.

"Ugh! Will! You failed your mission! You promised me you'd get him to stop calling me Serena!" Seri pouted.

"There's nothing wrong with your full name," Savi said with a yawn.

"YES, THERE IS! IT'S SUPER LONG AND SUPER ANNOYING TO SAY AND IT'S LITERALLY THREE WHOLE SYLLABLES!!!" Seri yelled.

Will covered his ears weakly. "Seri, stop..."

"Seri," Sophie said sternly and scooped up her daughter before taking her away, leaving Savi alone with Will. Elwin and Keefe had moved to Elwin's study and were speaking in such hushed voices that Savi couldn't hear them.

Savi moved closer to Will and whispered, "Guess what, Will?"

"What?" he asked in his cute voice.

"I manifested!"

"Cool!" He actually looked kind of enthusiastic even though he looked fatigued. "What did you manifest as?"

"Guess."

"An Empath!" he said with vigor.

"Nope!"