The iron bar began to glow. A sullen red at first, it started to give off heat, like a just turned-on stove. Jennet’s palms tingled, then stung, but she didn’t dare shift the bar from hand to hand. She couldn’t risk dropping it.
The metal got brighter, and with it the heat. She gritted her teeth and held on, despite the scorching in her hands. Despite the pain, the blisters forming on her skin. Her breath came in little pants, dry and shallow. Hold on.
The bar flared crimson. Too. Hot. Each breath carried a sob with it now, a high, keening noise she barely recognized as coming from her. She couldn’t… hold on. Dammit. Hold on.
It was like clutching a piece of the sun. So bright she couldn’t look at it, a pulsing gold-red that seared itself against her eyes. She couldn’t take her hands away - it felt as though the molten metal had fused itself to her body.
Agony burned into her bones. Her throat hurt, and it took a moment for her to realize it was because she was screaming. There was nothing left. Only pain.
And then it was over.
She bent, dry-heaving, tasting nothing but sour bile. She couldn’t feel her hands.
“Jennet?” It was Tam’s voice, shaky and close. “Hey, Jen. Look at me. Right here.”
She straightened, met his worried green eyes. All traces of his elaborate costume were gone. He knelt before her, naked.
“The cloak,” she gasped, fumbling at the ties. “We have to cover you.” Her fingers weren’t working - there was something wet and slick getting in her way.
Tam reached out and helped loosen the cloak, and together they spread it over him. When she drew the hood over his face, her hands left dark blotches on the cloth. Blood.
The Dark Queen swept up to them. Her eyes held hurricanes.
“Ill met, Fair Jennet,” she said, her voice cold with rage. “You have stolen the fairest knight in all my company.”
Jennet scraped in a breath. “You stole him first. I just took him back.”
She had, hadn’t she? A tremble started, low in the pit of her stomach, the first unbelieving stirrings of triumph. They had won.
“Brave Tamlin.” The queen turned to Tam, her voice changing to smoke and sorrow. “If I had seen what would pass this night, I would not have stayed my hand. Your mortal heart betrayed us. Better by far if I had taken it and given you one of stone.”
“I’d rather be mortal,” Tam said, “than sacrificed so the faeries could rampage through the human realm. You lost.”
The air grew chill. Frost sparkled in the Dark Queen’s hair. “The gateway remains closed, ‘tis true. For now.”
“Forever,” Jennet said.
God, she hoped so. She couldn’t go through this again. Her hands felt like lumps of wood attached to her wrists. If she looked at them, she knew she’d be sick.
The queen lifted her fingers and traced a silvery symbol in the air. “Begone from here, mortals. Be gone!”
The eerie starlight brightened to gold, and a wind began to whirl about Jennet and Tam. The edges of the cloak he was wearing lifted and spun.
“Wait!” Jennet reached for him. “Tam—”
Too late. Her words were lost in a flare of swirling light as she was hurtled back into her own world.
She fell into the sim chair with a whimper. Somehow her helmet and gloves had come off - and the chair next to her was empty. Where was Tam?
The door to the game room banged open.
“Jennet!” her dad yelled, running to the chair and thumbing off the jammer. “What the hell are you doing? I told you the system was dangerous and - oh my god.” He was staring at her hands. “What happened to you? HANA! Call George - and get me an emergency kit, right away.”
“Of course. Here you are, sir.” A cupboard door popped open from the wall. Dad pulled a medi-pack out and ripped it open.
“Jennet, your hands…”
Finally, she looked down. Bile rose in her throat, and she wished she hadn’t. Her hands looked like raw meat. The skin was gone, and blood oozed to the surface. They had hurt before, but seeing the damage made the pain blaze up. Hot tears pricked her eyes.
“Sorry, Dad,” she whispered, then tried not to cry out as he laid plas-skin bandages over her palms. “I had to save Tam.”
Face set, Dad just shook his head. “I’m taking you to the ER.”
“Central Hospital?” She had to find out if Tam was ok. What had happened to him when the Dark Queen flung them back into the mortal world?
She was probably grounded for life. But as long as Tam was all right, she didn’t care.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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