by Sammie Joyce
One look at Dane’s face told Rose that it was a very slim chance.
“Don’t give up.” Mace’s voice was steady, even though his mind was a riot of fear and doubt. “We won’t stop trying. As long as he’s alive, there’s hope.”
“That’s right.” Asher visibly tried to pull himself together. He was still a wreck, but Rose appreciated the effort. “Dane has only just begun to work on him. He’s been our healer for many years. He’s made some incredible saves. Don’t count him out just yet.”
“Asher, I’m not sure I can—”
“Just try, Dane.”
Dane nodded, one hand on Jagger’s neck, measuring his pulse.
“Dane isn’t the only option. The witches could heal him. If he gets worse, we may have to take him back.”
Asher glared at Gavin, but Rose couldn’t blame him for saying aloud what they were all already thinking.
“You know they’re not just going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts.” Asher put a protective hand over Rose’s belly. “The only thing they want from us is for Rose to get an abortion. We are NOT letting our child die before it has the chance to live. Jagger wouldn’t want that.”
“Agreed.” Jagger’s voice was weak, and his eyes were still closed, but he was clearly conscious. “Rose, you can’t do it, no matter how bad I get.”
How could she not? The thought of losing her child was agonizing, but the thought of losing Jagger was equally so. Rose could have another baby. She couldn’t have another Jagger.
“Don’t even think about it,” Asher snarled.
“It’s my body, Asher! My body, my choice.”
“Don’t you dare make that choice for me!” Jagger tried to push himself up on an elbow, but failed and lay panting on the bathroom floor. “I know you don’t really want an abortion. Our child’s life is not something we are going to trade.”
Mace looked equally outraged by the idea, but when Rose met Gavin’s eyes, she could tell that he was thinking the same thing. As much as they fought, Gavin loved Jagger fiercely, in a way Rose suspected only twins could understand.
Asher growled as he looked between the two of them.
“Enough!” Dane shoved Asher back. “Jagger doesn’t need this right now. He needs to conserve his strength and not be distressed. Let’s move him to the bed.”
Asher and Mace got themselves under control for Jagger’s sake, but the moment he was in bed, he reached for Rose’s hand. “Promise me, Rose. No matter what happens, don’t sacrifice our child for me.”
“Maybe there’s another way. Maybe the witches will be willing to trade something else.”
Rose knew there was little chance of that, and by his grimace, Jagger did too.
“Promise me. Please.”
Dane was giving her a stern look, clearly indicating that she was not to deny Jagger anything in his current fragile state.
“I promise, Jagger.”
Rose felt him searching her mind, and she knew he would see the lie as clearly as day. She shoved it back into the darkest recesses of her thoughts. She didn’t know if it would be enough. Jagger was questing deep, trying to ascertain her truthfulness.
Suddenly, Gavin was there, helping her. He had a lifetime of experience trying to keep some of his thoughts from Jagger. It was usually silly stuff that he simply wanted to keep from his twin to avoid being teased, but his skills could be used for more serious things too.
Gavin took her thoughts and buried them deep within the recesses of others, where no one but they would ever find them.
Jagger was too weak and ill to realize what was happening, and Asher and Mace were too distracted by Jagger’s condition.
Rose felt horrible for lying, but she couldn’t allow him to get sicker because of stress.
Jagger nodded, smiling in relief as he found nothing to indicate she was lying. “I think I need to sleep…”
“Do that, Jagger. I will watch over you.” Dane took a seat next to the bed, his eyes trained on Jagger the whole time.
“Dane… how long do you need with him? To be sure that you can’t help him?”
Dane’s eyes flared with suspicion. “You heard Asher. You’re not offering to abort that baby in exchange for Jagger’s life.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” The lie fell easily from her lips, and it made Rose feel dirty. “If you don’t make any progress, I think we should take him to a human hospital. It may risk revealing our secret, but there’s a chance the human doctors can do something, even if they don’t know the exact cause.”
Dane nodded, glancing to Asher. Asher didn’t hesitate. “It’s worth a shot. How long, Dane?”
“Give me a couple of hours. I swear, I’ll try everything I know.”
Those hours were some of the longest of Rose’s life. Toward the end, whatever Dane did started to wear off, and Jagger was bent over the toilet again, vomiting up blood. Dane tried to get him to drink, but Rose wasn’t sure how much good it did when he just brought it all up anyway.
Dane tried a number of things, most of which had no visible effect. Rose could occasionally see sparks flying from his fingertips as he tried again and again to heal Jagger.
At the very least, a hospital could give him IV fluids and a blood transfusion if he needed it. Gavin and Dane stayed beside Jagger at the toilet, helping to hold him steady. Rose sat in Asher’s lap a few feet away, squeezing his hand so hard it had to hurt, but he wasn’t complaining.
“Right, that’s it. We’re taking him to the hospital.” Dane stood up. “I’ll go call an ambulance.”
Mace leapt to his feet. “I’ll do it. You stay with him.”
Even though Jagger was still sick, Rose felt some modicum of relief that they were taking an option that at least had a chance of helping him.
Chapter Nine
The ambulance only allowed two people inside. Rose and Gavin got in without any argument from the others. Asher was already hailing a taxi by the time the ambulance was screeching off.
The hospital was a hive of activity. Nurses and doctors swarmed around Jagger, blocking Rose’s view of him. Gavin was practically vibrating with tension.
Rose let her hand curl around his wrist. “We just need to let them do their jobs.” She could tell that Gavin was moments from pushing his way in and demanding to know what was happening to his twin. At her words, he sighed and nodded, though he didn’t relax at all.
By the time Asher, Mace, Annabelle, and Dane arrived, one of the nurses had directed Rose and Gavin to the waiting room.
Asher was not good at waiting. He was used to being in the thick of things and making decisions. Rose well understood just how helpless he was feeling.
“Asher, no,” she hissed as he got up and strode over to the help desk. Asher ignored her.
“I want to see my brother. Now.”
“The doctors are still working on him, sir.” The nurse remained calm, which didn’t seem to improve Asher’s temper in the least.
“He might be dying, and I don’t know anything! I want to see him NOW!” He slammed his fist onto the desk, splintering it.
“Security!”
Rose leapt up, knowing this could get bad very quickly. Asher was far stronger than any human, and he could seriously hurt them if he lost his temper while they were trying to restrain him.
“Asher, come on, let’s sit down. Please, Asher, I don’t want them to kick us out.”
Mace and Gavin rushed forward and grabbed Asher’s arms, practically wrestling him back to the chairs. Rose promptly sat down on his lap, knowing he would be hesitant to get up again if it meant dumping her onto the floor.
“Calm,” she pleaded. It was difficult when she was so far from calm, but finally, Asher managed to get control of himself. Security hovered threateningly in the background, but they didn’t make a move to remove Asher, as long as he sat quietly.
After what felt like several lifetimes, a doctor finally came to speak to them.
Gavin shot
to his feet. “How is he?”
“I’m Dr. Richards, and I’m in charge of your brother’s case. It looks like a part of his stomach lining has perforated; that’s why he’s vomiting blood. I’m not sure what caused the tear; we’re waiting on more tests.”
“You can fix it, though? Will he need surgery to repair the tear?” Rose had been in medical school, and knew a little bit about human medicine.
“Right now he’s too unstable, but yes, once he stabilizes, we’ll take him in for surgery. We’ve got him on powerful medication to slow the bleeding and prevent vomiting, but that’s just a temporary measure. He’s being admitted now. He was asleep when I left him, but you are free to sit with him.”
Rose clutched Gavin’s hand as they all hurried to the ward. Jagger looked so pale. Rose bit her lip, trying her best not to burst into tears.
After assuring himself that Gavin was okay, Asher left to ask the doctor more questions. Dane followed him. Mace and Gavin sat on either side of Rose. None of them talked, but they didn’t need to. There was nothing for them to do but wait.
The sun was rising by the time anything changed. Monitors around Jagger started beeping wildly, and he started convulsing.
Before Rose could call for anyone, Dr. Richards was already running in. He turned Jagger onto his side just in time. Jagger vomited again, the stream of blood splattering all over the floor.
“What’s wrong with him?” Rose’s voice was shrill to her own ears, or maybe that was just because they were ringing so loudly.
“No, that’s impossible,” Dr. Richards muttered as he ran an ultrasound over Jagger’s belly.
“What? What?” Gavin looked on the verge of throttling the doctor if he didn’t answer soon.
“There’s another perforation. How? We’ve been controlling everything in his environment. This part of his stomach was fine when I last checked on it. I don’t…”
Rose exchanged a look with Dane. It was whatever magic was in that dart. Of course, human doctors wouldn’t understand it.
“What do we do?” Asher growled.
“I’ll have to send him up to surgery immediately. This second tear is too much for his body. They need to be repaired now.”
“I thought you said he was too unstable!” Rose was clutching Jagger’s hand. He moaned, his head rolling from side to side. She wasn’t even sure if he knew where he was.
“It’s riskier to wait at this point.” Dr. Richards left and came back a few minutes later with forms for Asher to sign. Asher scrawled his signature hurriedly before turning back to Jagger.
Rose didn’t want to let go of his hand when the nurses came to wheel Jagger up for surgery, but she knew that she had to. She stared after him, wondering if she’d ever see him alive again.
“Rose. Rose, focus.” Dane was talking to her.
“Dane?”
“I need an invisibility spell. I have to be in that operating room. The doctors don’t know magic is at play here. If something goes wrong, I may be the only one who can save Jagger.”
Rose put a hand on his shoulder, intending to cast her most powerful invisibility spell, but Annabelle stopped her.
“No, Rose, don’t do it like that. The surgery could last for hours. You won’t be able to maintain the spell that long if the necklace’s power doesn’t support it, and we all know how unreliable it can be.”
“What choice do I have? Dane said he needs to be in there.”
“We’ll invest something.”
“Annabelle, we haven’t done those spells yet!”
“We haven’t practiced them, but we know the incantations.”
Rose nodded. Her brain was all over the place. She didn’t know if she was thinking rationally enough to make good decisions. She would have to take Annabelle’s advice on this.
“Here.” Dane handed over a woven bracelet he was wearing. Rose and Annabelle both touched it. Please, let the necklace work.
The bracelet and necklace glowed in tandem as they spoke the incantation. Rose knew by the gasps around the rest of the room that it had worked. She and Annabelle had vanished from sight. Annabelle handed the bracelet over to Dane. The moment he took it, he vanished.
“How long will this last?” Dane’s voice asked, seeming to come out of thin air.
“Objects invested with magic should last indefinitely, but Annabelle and I have never done this before. Be ready to run if the spell fails.”
“I’ll be ready.”
Dane didn’t say anything else, so Rose assumed he had gone.
Then they were stuck with another waiting game. Asher led the way to the waiting room, which at least had chairs. The surgery did take hours. Rose drifted off, leaning against Mace’s shoulder. She woke when he jostled her slightly. Blinking blearily, she saw Dr. Richards standing in front of her.
Rose sat up straight, her heart in her throat. What if Jagger was…?
“He’s out of surgery.” Dr. Richards ran his hand through his hair. He looked exhausted. “We managed to repair the tears, but even while we were working, another one appeared, this time in his liver. If this keeps up, his body will go into shock. We’ve got him in the ICU for now.”
“But he’s going to be okay? You can fix him?” Gavin was trembling, his hand clenched into a fist on his knee.
“I wish I could tell you more, but unless we can figure out what is causing this and reverse it… well, we won’t stop trying.”
Stop the cause. That meant curing him with magic, something the doctors couldn’t do.
“How long?” Asher’s voice was hard, almost cold, but Rose could feel the turmoil in his mind. “How long does he have?”
“At this rate, unless something changes, no more than a few days.”
The world around Rose went fuzzy. She focused all of her efforts on not fainting. That wouldn’t help Jagger.
Only she could help Jagger now.
She couldn’t do it alone, though.
Rose opened a private connection in her mind, making sure to shield her thoughts from Mace and Asher. Gavin. Come with me.
“I need coffee,” Rose muttered.
“I’ll come with you.” Gavin put an arm around her waist, and the two of them quickly made their way to the hospital shop. Fortunately, Asher, Annabelle, and Mace let them go, giving them the space they needed.
If Asher or Mace had any idea what Rose was planning, they wouldn’t have let her go so easily. Neither she nor Gavin talked until they were well out of earshot.
“Are you sure, Rose?” Of course, he knew exactly what she was thinking.
“What other option do we have? The necklace can’t bring Jagger back to life. I… I can have another baby.” Tears spilled over her eyelids. How could she even consider giving up her child? Rose had only been pregnant for a couple of weeks, but she loved her baby already. To imagine it gone…
But Jagger being gone wasn’t any better. Rose remembered how she’d felt when Gavin had died. She couldn’t go through that again. She had no idea what kind of grieving process she’d go through after an abortion she didn’t want, but it couldn’t possibly be worse than having one of her dragons die.
“Jagger wouldn’t want it.”
Rose nodded. “I know. He’d go crazy.”
“But we can’t let him die.” Gavin covered his face in his hand. “The others will never forgive me for this, you know. I’ll be exiled from the clan.”
“No, you won’t. Asher wouldn’t do anything that would put me in more pain than I’d already be in after our child is—is dead.”
Rose stepped into Gavin’s arms, and he hugged her tightly. She checked that her mental barriers were still up. If Asher or Mace got any hint of this, they would be down here in moments. They would hold Rose and Gavin down if they had to.
Gavin poked at Rose’s mental barriers, reinforcing them. “If we’re going to do this, it should be now. We may not be able to get away again.”
Now? Rose wasn’t ready. If they left now, they would
be at the coven in a matter of hours. Maria would no doubt want to do the abortion immediately. By tonight, the little life growing inside of Rose would no longer be there.
The thought nearly took her off her feet, and probably would have if Gavin wasn’t holding her. “You’re right, we can’t risk waiting. Let’s go.”
The two of them walked as quickly as they could without running. How long did they have until Asher decided they were taking too long? Would he look for them first, or would he realize immediately what Rose and Gavin had done and fly after them?
They took a taxi to the outskirts of the city, where it would be safe to shift. As soon as they were out of sight of any humans, Gavin turned into his dragon form. His purple scales blended perfectly into the night.
Rose tried to move forward to climb onto his back, but her legs didn’t want to work. She felt like everything was moving too fast. She just wanted it to stop, but there was no way to stop it. Jagger would continue to get worse. Asher and Mace would come after them.
“You don’t have to do this,” Gavin said quietly, but Rose was in his mind. The desperation he felt was the same as hers. She knew that if she wanted to turn back, Gavin would understand and not hate her for it, but that wouldn’t ease his grief over his brother’s life.
If she hesitated, it could mean Jagger’s death. Every day as long as she lived, she’d be regretting the decision not to save him.
Rose climbed onto Gavin’s back, holding the scale in front of her so hard it hurt her hands.
Gavin didn’t wait. He propelled himself into the air. Rose closed her eyes, trying not to see Jagger’s pale face resting on his pillows.
Chapter Ten
The only sound was the rushing of the wind through her ears, though Rose knew that wouldn’t be the case for long.
They knew at once when Asher discovered they were missing.
Gavin! Rose! What are you doing?
I’m sorry, Asher. Please understand. We will send help for Jagger soon.
