I fell back on the ground, breathing hard. I grasped the grass underneath me. I was so glad that I could feel it.
"Get her to the infirmary" I heard someone yell. I was lifted into someone's arms.
"She's awake" I heard the familiar voice. I lifted my hand and I put it on the person carrying me. I could feel their heartbeat. I started to cry for some reason.
It was an overwhelming feeling that I couldn't control.
I was laid onto something soft and I couldn't let go.
"Iris" Byron whispered in my ear.
"I'm alive" I replied.
"Yes" he breathed in my ear. "You are okay....let me go"
He pried my hands off of him. I fell back. Something was thrusted into my mouth. My head was tilted back and I was out.
I had a dreamless sleep. It was nice and relaxing. I was glad that I didn't dream about Dr. Nan's gift.
When I woke up, Ezra and Thomas were with me. It looked like they had pulled some comfortable arm chairs into the infirmary. My curtain was slightly drawn but I could hear Nurse Gail.
"Her hand was severely burned, Dr. Nan" she scolded. I could hear the displeasure in her voice. I could see her short curly blonde hair.
I lifted my hand, surprised. It was bandaged thickly. I tried to move my fingers but I wouldn't be able to with the thick lining.
"She got scared" Dr. Nan replied. I couldn't see him but I could make out his shape. "It was a defense mechanism"
"I don't care" Nurse Gail raised her voice. "I do not want a half dead Guardian in my infirmary ever again"
"She wasn't near death" Rima replied. "She had a shock"
"You know how I feel about you using your ability with the students" Nurse Gail was almost yelling.
"Gail...shhh" Rima quieted her.
"Gail" I could make out the Headmistress voice. "Calm down, you'll wake them up"
Nurse Gail breathed heavily.
"It was a training tool" Dr. Nan replied.
"She reacted well" I heard Rupert.
I rolled my eyes.
"Half the west wing was almost burned down" Dr. Langston chuckled. I couldn't believe he was laughing. "We knew it was expected. Nobody has ever reacted differently"
"I wasn't expecting anything different. George did burn down half the forest. She did great"
"Dear..." Nurse Gail huffed. "I have seen too many things, I want nothing to do with your training tools. They are too young.....cutting someone sensations is not a pleasant way to die"
"You know perfectly well that my gift doesn't cause them to die. They drive themselves with madness that leads to their death"
"Nevertheless" Nurse Gail took a deep breath. "I do not want to see that again. I warned you the last time you used it on George. He would be furious and so would her mother. I do not want to hear Andrea"
"She was aware" Rupert replied quickly. "She knew of the consequences and she agreed"
Nurse Gail stalked off. I could hear heals leaving.
"I'll speak with her" the Headmistress shook her head. I heard her heels as she went after her.
"I think it went rather well" Rupert cleared his throat. "I was a little shocked though"
"By what" Dr. Langston asked. I couldn't see anybody. They had to be right in front of the bed. I lifted my head.
Thomas and Ezra were awake. They both smiled at me. I settled back into the warm bed.
"She has unusual control over Fire" Rupert said thoughtfully. "George wasn't able to control it. She reacted most differently, she was scared by you Dr. Nan"
"I did find that curious. It took a while for her to realize what was happening and then it clicked. I think she absorbed it and accidently used it on herself"
"I do too" I heard someone shuffling. "The effect shouldn't have lasted that long"
"Her great grandmother was a Muse. Do you think she remembers her?"
"My sister did die shortly after her birth, she might remember her" Dr. Nan replied. I blinked in surprise. I was somehow related to Dr. Nan. I hadn't known that.
"It wouldn't surprise me, but why the sudden fear"
"Where is my grand-daughter" my grandmother demanded.
I clapped my hand to my mouth. I had almost made a sound.
"Sleeping" Dr. Langston replied. "She is okay"
"Good" my grandmother sighed. "Is she hurt?"
"She has a burnt hand" Dr. Nan replied. "We were just discussing the events"
"'What happened" my grandmother sounded annoyed. It sounded like my grandmother had been pulled aside because I couldn't make out what they were saying.
"Cassandra absolutely loved Iris" my grandmother replied. "She was thrilled that we would have a woman in our family."
"Yes but Iris was scared...genuinely scared when she felt his power."
"I should have mentioned that I'm not a full Immortal, I'm also a Muse" Dr. Nan laughed. I could hear Dr. Langston joining him. "Muses have red eyes"
My eyebrows shot up. I looked at Ezra. He was staring open mouthed at the shadows. Thomas was still lying in the armchair. He didn't look so surprised.
"You should have told her" a voice spoke up. I heard a bed creak. It was Byron. I could see a shadow on my other side. "Especially since she can absorb gifts."
"Probably" Dr. Nan chuckled. "My gift isn't something that you forget about especially when you lose your senses."
"You did a good job, raising her, Andrea" Dr. Langston acknowledged. "She is a bright powerful young lady. She will make us proud."
"I know that" my grandmothers' voice quivered. "I'm worried about the rest of the world"
I blinked in surprise, my grandmother had mentioned it before. I knew she was concerned about me. That's why she was so involved with my training. I just didn't realize that she was genuinely worried.
There was a moment of silence.
"Where are the boys?" my grandmother asked. I sighed with relief. She was back to normal.
"They have not left her side" I saw a hand on the shade. I closed my eyes as it was pulled back. "They even brought in the armchairs from the library. Ezra wanted to bring in his bed"
"Oh dear" my grandmother laughed. "How are they doing?"
"Good...good. They are getting along wonderfully, they bonded quickly" Dr. Langston chuckled. I tried to keep a passive face.
"Ezra and Thomas suffered some minor burns" the shade was pulled back. I opened my eyes and looked at them. "They were trying to get to her...."
Ezra shrugged with an eyeroll. Thomas slowly smiled at me.
I felt my heart in my throat. I was overcome with emotion. I couldn't believe they had tried to help me. They all walked away.
"We freaked out" Ezra admitted in a low voice. He sounded a little embarrassed. "Really freaked out"
"Yeah, it was scary" Thomas nodded. He sat up and came over to me. He sat down at the edge of the bed. He took my good hand, squeezing it.
"I was a little scared that we would lose you" Ezra sat on my other side. "You are a Guardian and you know we can't lose each other"
I wiped my face with my bandaged hand. I grabbed both of them and I hugged them.
"Thanks guys" I said tearfully. I felt Thomas's lips on my cheek. The shade was pulled back and in front of me stood Byron.
"You are all finally up" Bryon smiled. I released them.
I wiped my face clean.
"Yeah"
I heard heels coming back. Nurse Gail popped in.
"My patient is up" she smiled at me. It was rather strained, she was probably still irritated.
"When can I go?" I asked her sitting up.
"Not so soon" she smiled sweetly at me. "Let me look you over"
She pulled back the blankets. I was nearly half-naked. I tried to pull them back.
"Stop being so sheepish...." Nurse Gail rolled her eyes. I had a bandage across my breasts and black boy shorts on. "You will be in worse situations than this, the boys are like your brothers"
I made a disgusted look. I couldn't look at any of them. Ares appeared next to me on the bed.
"I haven't seen the bird in centuries, how are you Ares" she stroked his head. "I do remember he likes his apple treats"
Ares chirped, brightening the room.
I had accidently burned my side.
"It will heal properly" she put something thick on it. "As for your hand, it will take awhile but we will be able to take care of it"
"How bad is it?" I grimaced.
"I've seen worse" she lifted her eyebrows. "You burned your skin off"
My stomach turned. I shuddered.
"I have had worse" she patted my cheek. "I don't want you to use any Fire until your hand heals properly. I will tell you when, you will also lay off the training. I do not want anymore mishaps with that hand. Healing and regrowing skin is messy..... messy business.....especially from a severe burn."
"What about us" Ezra asked. He sat down on my bed. "Do we lay off the training too"
"You and Thomas can resume training on Tuesday. That should be plenty of time to heal" Nurse Gail laughed.
Byron chuckled.
"You look healthy, I will keep you for tonight. You can go in the morning"
I groaned sitting back on the bed.
"Can I put on a shirt" I asked her.
"Nope, keep that wound out in the open. If you don't listen, you'll stay here with me"
"Oh...no clothing it is" I smiled at her. She nodded at us and she left.
"You guys should go get some rest" I told them. They sat back down in their arm chairs.
"We can rest tomorrow" Thomas threw his legs back over the arm. I pulled my covers to my waist.
"So what happened?" I asked them. "I don't remember anything"
"I'll be right back" Ezra got up. Byron took his seat.
"You kind of panicked.....you had a massive panic attack" Thomas wrapped himself with a blanket. "It was weird, is Dr. Nan's power that terrible"
"Not so much" Byron looked at both of us. "Like you said people panic because they know something is wrong....they will go to extreme lengths to get their feeling back. People have killed themselves in different ways"
"I didn't know Dr. Nan wasn't a full Immortal" I turned to Byron this time.
"And from the looks of it your great Uncle"
We turned to Ezra, he had food in his arms.
"A little gift from our good friends in the kitchen" he put the treats on my bed.
"So you are part Muse" Ezra stared into my eyes. I leaned away from him. "I knew you couldn't' be full Immortal"
"Why not?" I blinked at him.
"She also has some Siren in her" my grandmother smiled behind him. "My side of the family" her smile slowly widened.
"How else can you explain your really good looks" Ezra winked at me. My face flushed suddenly. "Immortals do not look like you"
"Don't be silly" I grumbled. I smoothed out my covers. I grabbed some chocolate.
"Don't be so embarrassed" my grandmother touched my head. "Sirens rule the ocean and Muses the land. They are inspirations for many men to create art...music"
"I don't want to be anybody's inspiration" I grumbled. I lifted my eyes, Byron met mine. He shifted in his seat and he turned away.
"If it makes you any better there might be a midget in your family, since you are kind of short" Ezra teased.
"Her great-great-great-grandmother was kind of short if I recall" my grandmother said thoughtfully. This time I laughed. Ezra threw his hands up in frustration.
"At least you aren't a Nymph" Thomas sighed lovingly.
"That can be put up for discussion" my grandmother grimaced.
"What" Ezra sat down at the foot of my bed.
"I'm certain that one of Iris's ancestors was a Nymph during the time they were prosecuted. She had silver-blonde hair...otherwise how can you explain that"
"Wow a lot of variety in one family" Thomas leaned back in his chair. I turned surprised to my grandmother.
"The men in the family always married beautiful woman" my grandmother grabbed a chair. "The most powerful of their kind. I do hope though that Iris marries an Immortal, it would bring back some normalcy"
"I do not plan to get married" I rolled my eyes. "I will be too busy"
"We eventually get to retire" Thomas yawned. "It would be nice to have a family...some normalcy"
"Sounds boring" Ezra picked up some truffles. "I want to stay in the Guard as long as I can or maybe have my own post"
"I like that idea too" I nodded. Ezra tossed me some truffles. My grandmother laughed, she kissed the top of my head.
"You are too young, wait until you are my age. You will miss your family" my grandmother stroked my head. "You will miss everything you used to have. I must get going, I have to go see my old friend, Rupert" she kissed my head one last time. "Boys, I will see you around."
"Bye" they said in unison rising to their feet when she left.
"I like your grandma" Ezra eyed her. "How old is she?"
"I don't even know but she said she has seen two Guardian selections besides ours" I looked at each of them. "She is at least 800 years old"
"So probably a stupid question" Thomas cleared his throat. "What about your parents"
"My parents died when I was 3 years old" I cringed trying to remember when my grandmother had told me. "My dad was a Guardian, he was the second oldest George Burke"
"That's cool" Thomas nodded.
"Yeah he was powerful" I cleared my throat. "Ares was his" Ares settled down next to me. He was eyeing Byron with interest. "What about your families?"
"I have a younger sister, she is at a private school" Ezra rolled his eyes. "She wants to be a normal Immortal or I guess mortal-like. It works out for her I guess since she wasn't gifted. Both my parents are in the trade business. You'll get to meet my parents, they are coming during Visiting Day."
"We didn't exactly become friends when we found out we were Guardians" Thomas laughed. "My folks are coming too, I'm an only kid. My mom is a doctor and my dad works with Ezra's father. We basically grew up together"
"Yeah our parents liked to send us with the other family whenever they could. What about you Byron?" Ezra asked him. Ezra was eyeing me with a smirk.
"I'm an only child too" Byron answered. He looked uncomfortable talking about himself. "My mom runs a museum and my dad is a retired professor"
"No wonder you are a boy genius" Ezra grunted. Byron laughed, he got to his feet.
"I will come back and visit. I'll let you guys finish your conversation" Byron tilted his head at me.
"Thanks for coming" I smiled at him. He nodded at Ezra and Thomas and he left.
"I didn't know he had stayed" Ezra said in a low voice. He suddenly turned to me and he smiled. "Interesting isn't it"
"What is?" I lifted my eyebrows. I looked down at my bed. I wanted some more chocolate.
"Nothing" Ezra cleared his throat.
"So anyway go on tell me what happened" I settled back into my pillows. I pulled more chocolate truffles onto my lap.
"Oh yeah" Thomas got up. He sat down at the foot of my bed. Ezra got in beside me moving Ares.
"You are really friendly aren't you" I couldn't help telling Ezra. He was pulling some blankets onto his lap.
"You get used to it" Thomas responded. "He's like that" Thomas shrugged.
"Part of my many qualities" Ezra laughed, taking some of my chocolate. "Anyway, so yeah you panicked....it was weird." He stuffed some chocolate into his mouth.
"You did this thing where you sort of pressed your hands on the ground and suddenly fire exploded out of you" Thomas was looking through the goodies on the bed. "It wasn't a small bon-fire it was a ten feet blazing fire. Dr. Langston tried to use his shield to get to you but it didn't work"
"Was he hurt?" I gasped.
"No, then Ezra and I" Thomas laughed. "We tried to get to you, we should have known not to but we didn't know what to do." Ezra snorted, he was shaking his head.
"We didn't get all that burned, the fire didn't last very long. You absorbed it again, I think I saw Ares but I wasn't so sure"
"He was annoyed with me" I rubbed his back. Ares opened his eyes sleepily at me. "He didn't like that I was using Fire" I bit back my lip. "Thank you guys"
"Don't mention it" Ezra waved his hand.
"We are in this together. We know you would do the same for either of us" Thomas smiled. "I can only imagine how many more times we'll end up on one of these beds"
"My money is on Iris, she already ended up here first"
We talked into the night. Nurse Gail had to come out and tell us to be quiet a couple of times. Even though I told them to go to their room they didn't leave. Ezra ended up falling asleep next to me. Thomas pulled another bed and he slept on my other side.
In the morning, Nurse Gail woke us up.
"Well" she was glaring down at us. "This is not a party all night room. I hope you clean up your mess"
The three of us sat up, there were wrappers and some food all over both beds. We had rearranged some furniture to make sure the other bed was next to mine.
"We'll clean it up" I lifted my arm.
"Is it sore sweetheart" her voice softened but she held her glare.
"Kind of" I grimaced trying to move my fingers. My side was also aching. Ezra got up stretching Thomas got up with a yawn. They both moved the furniture back into place. Nurse Gail touched my forehead.
"You are burning up" she gasped.
"No wonder, I slept like a baby last night" Ezra chuckled. Thomas nodded, as he eyed me.
"Let me look at the wound" she took my hand, gently. She slowly unwrapped it.
"It is doing much better"
I gave her a look. My hand looked awful. It looked revolting, there was blood and from the looks of it a few pieces of skin.
"That's better" Ezra scoffed. "It is disgusting, is that going to heal properly"
"It is much better than it was last night." Nurse Gail was eyeing Ares. Ares was innocently looking up at her. "We want to take our time with the healing, we don't want any scars" she smiled at Ares. Ares sank back into the bed.
"I don't see why I should keep you longer" Nurse Gail started to re-wrap my hand. "Remember to take it easy, and" she looked around her infirmary. "Please clean up this mess"
"Cool let's go" Ezra grinned. The boys picked and put everything back where it belonged. I was given some sweat pants. We slowly walked back up to my room. Ares was squirming around on my leg which made it even more difficult to walk.
We weren't even half way to my room when we met up with Byron.
"I was just coming to see you" Byron smiled at us.
"Nurse Gail let us go" Ezra responded.
"How are the burns"
"Nurse Gail said they were much better" I answered. Thomas had his arm around my waist. Ezra was carrying some of my things.
"Can you walk?" Byron asked me.
"Yeah, I'm okay" I nodded. I felt Ares move around on my leg. I stumbled trying to take a step.
"Let me help" Byron lifted my arm from Thomas's neck. He swept me up in his arms. My eyes locked with Ezra. He had a mischievous smirk on his face.
I couldn't help frowning at him.
Byron took me up to my room. Thomas and Ezra put my things away.
I leaned on my bed, Byron helped me get into it.
"Well" Ezra cleared his throat. His eyes flickered over to Byron. "We will be going" he looked at me. Thomas gave him a confused look. "Iris needs to rest" he grabbed Thomas pulling him out.
"Did you need something else" Byron asked not noticing Thomas or Ezra.
"No I'm okay" I muttered, confused. Ezra was acting even weirder than usual. "I think I'm going to sleep"
I extended my arm, Ares appeared next to me.
"Nice bird" Byron held out his hand. Ares lifted his head up to his fingertips.
"Yeah, everything I know is from him" I leaned back on my bed. Ares laid across my lap. I could tell he was looking at Byron.
"Alright I let you'll rest. I need you to be rested for class" Byron smiled at me. I couldn't help smiling up at him. "I'm not going to go easy on you once you are better"
"I didn't think so" I laughed.
"Bye" Byron smiled at me. He touched my hand slightly. I put my hand over Ares who was looking at me, now.
Ares let out a low chirp and I wanted to throw him off of me.
Stupid fire bird, I gave him a dirty look.
Byron closed the door behind him.
"He's nice" I responded. Ares put his head on my burned hand. I met his black eyes and I rolled my eyes at him. "No, I don't like him like that"