Legacy of Fire (The Blaze Trilogy - Book #1)

Chapter 26

“Ava.”

Hale’s voice. Calm, soft and comforting. 

I try to call back to him, but my throat is scratchy. 

“Ava, open your eyes…” I try force my eyes open but they’re refusing to move, instead lying leaden. I feel heavy and weightless at the same time, but that dull throb is pounding through my brain. 

Suddenly I feel a piercing jab at my side, and my eyes snap open. 

I’m on a bed in the Everwood hospital, the room white and clinical around us. Adrian stands above me, a metal fork in his hands. The one he just stabbed me with. 

“The only thing that seems to bring people out of the Drifting drain is sharp pain. Sorry,” he grimaces. He doesn’t look sorry at all. 

I feel someone take hold of my hand, and I turn my head. Hale sits on the opposite side of the bed, relieved to see me conscious.

I manage to find my voice, but it’s croaky and rough. “What happened?” 

Hale closes his eyes. “You ran back to help a certain dumbass,“ He glares at Adrian. “But we didn’t realise they had a second denoblast and-“

“They set it off.” I remember. “But why didn’t it kill us? I mean, he barely has a scratch!” I gesture to Adrian, who is remarkably intact.  

But Adrian’s staring at me, his expression an odd, unreadable mixture. “You absorbed the explosion.”

I stare flatly back at him, but the effect is dulled by my drowsiness. “‘Scuse me?”

“We don’t really understand it ourselves,” Hale tells me hurriedly. “But it looks as though you have the ability not only augment a flame… but to absorb it.”

“What, like a sponge?”

Adrian rolls his eyes. “Not quite. More like a flamethrower in reverse. You managed to take in the energy from the fire, and then you directed it towards the Consium hovercraft, releasing it in one giant Push.”

The memories bombard into me. The fire ripping towards the aircraft, the soldiers screaming and clawing to escape as the plane around them exploded into oblivion. 

My chest feels hollowed. 

And then I remember something else. “Keeta!” Her name comes out a strangled gasp, and I lurch forward, trying to push myself from the hospital bed. 

Hale quickly wraps his arms around me, easing me back down to the mattress. “It’s okay! It’s alright - she’s alive, she’s alive.” Those two words seem to melt my body, and I fall into his chest. She’s alive. He’s rocking me gently, whispering them to me slowly, and I can hear his voice is thick with emotion. Yet tinged with sadness. 

I turn my face towards him. “Your leg?” I whisper.

He smiles at me, and swings his leg around, flexing it. “Healed.” 

I stare down at it in shock, my mouth hanging open. “How long have I been asleep?” 

“Only two days,” Adrian snorts. “I think you’re underestimating the power of modern medicine. A few stitches, a couple applications of muscle regenerator, and Hale was good to go.” 

I look down at the starch white sheets around me. “Then why am I still here?”

Hale’s face falls. “Because there’s no stolen Aeonian cure for Drifter drain.”

“Drifter drain?”

“Your body is in shock,” Adrian explains. “You’ve used a massive amount of elemental power, and it’s taking it’s toll. The only way to fix this is to sleep it off.”