Sarah brought up Ella’s clothes and hiking boots from Norma’s car. All helpful and friendly, but Ella couldn’t forget she’d threatened to kill Finn.
If she knew...
Ella tied the laces, trying not to worry about it. She had no choice but to accept Sarah’s help. Hey, nobody else was offering.
“Have you found anything on your boss?” Sarah was checking a painted fingernail for any chipping. “This Bran Hoodvild or whatever his name was, is it really David Holborn? And have you managed to get a DNA sample?”
“No, I...” Ella started toward the stairs. She had to get back to Finn, make sure he was awake. “I saw it, though.”
“Saw what?” Sarah hurried along, her heels clicking.
“The seam. The cogs and spirals.” Ella climbed the steps, her legs heavy. “He’s a Guardian alright, a stinking robot.”
“Are you serious?”
From the incredulity in Sarah’s voice, Ella realized the woman had been playing along without really believing any of it.
Probably still didn’t.
“Look, I know what I saw,” she said as she reached the landing. Her head swam. “Believe what you want.”
“Well, if you’re right, your boss is protecting the Gates, and if he shot Finn, that would mean Finn is helping open the Gates.”
“No,” Ella bit out the word, hurrying along the corridor. “Dave’s an idiot and this is all a misunderstanding.” Damn, she had to change the topic.
Then a woman screamed from the direction of Finn’s room, and Ella ran, drawing her gun.
She burst inside, gun pointed. Familiar darkness writhed in one side of the room, and the coppery smell of fresh blood hit her before she saw the body. A bleeding nurse, a goblin bent over her, while a troll was pulling Finn from the bed. She shot the creature in the head and bared her teeth in a savage grin when it shook and petered out, leaving Finn to fall back on the bed.
Mike had backed into a corner, holding out a chair as if that would stop the Shades, his eyes flicking around at the sounds of creatures he couldn’t see.
A Shade stirred on the floor, and she put a bullet through it, waited until it vanished back into the Veil. Iron, my man. Rusts your insides. When she was sure nothing else was lurking, she returned to Finn’s side.
He was hanging over the bed, his eyes wild. She holstered the gun and hauled him back against the pillows.
“Are you all right?” She checked that the needle hadn’t come out and that he wasn’t bleeding. He wasn’t looking at her; though. He was staring at something over her shoulder, his hands twisting in the covers.
She turned her head. The air rippled like glittering glass. A form floated in it, familiar by now — an elven lady with flowing silver hair, beckoning. White moths flitted around her, catching in her hair, and as Ella watched, three butterflies flew out of the Gate and danced in circles in the room. They glowed like stars.
“Faen,” Finn swore with feeling and his hands twitched, as if seeking his knives.
He’d fallen asleep. She knew it might happen, and hadn’t been there, and now...
“Holy shit,” Sarah said from behind and Ella whirled, drawing her gun, but too late, always too late — Sarah had her semi-automatic trained on Finn.
Freaking hell.
“Drop your gun,” Sarah said coolly. “I told you I’d kill him if he worked for the other side, and this... goddamn, that’s a Gate, isn’t it?”
Ella’s finger shivered on the trigger. No way could she shoot Sarah before she shot Finn, and she really didn’t think Finn could survive another bullet. Her mouth was dry with fear. “Don’t,” she whispered. “I have a plan. There’s no need for this.”
The Gate flickered but didn’t fade. The lady in its shining mirror reached out a hand, beckoning. “Isthelfinn,” she called, her voice like music.
Finn grimaced. White, glowing patterns writhed on his skin, and the air around him shimmered. Fear caused the lines; fear caused the Gates. Remove the fear and maybe the Gates would close.
Or make a mistake and get Finn killed.
“I have a plan,” Ella repeated, desperate. “Please, don’t shoot him.”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said, and the terrible thing was that she did look contrite. “I like your cutie-pie. But he’s John Grey and I can’t let him destroy the world.”
She sighted down the barrel.
“No!” Ella threw herself at Sarah, sure she’d die and not caring. Finn was yelling her name, and the room spun as she crashed into the other woman, sending her stumbling backward.
But no shot cracked.
They both staggered to a stop, Ella pressing her gun into Sarah’s side.
Sarah lifted her hands, her eyes round. A blade shone, pressed flat to her neck. One of Finn’s Bowie knives, Ella realized — but the man behind her wasn’t Finn.
“If you as much as twitch your finger on the trigger,” Mike said, face white and voice shaky but his hand steady on the grip of the knife, “I’ll kill you, I swear to god.”
Ella gaped as she pulled back, although she had the presence of mind to reach up and pluck the semi-automatic from Sarah’s fingers. She cocked the safety back on and breathed a long sigh of relief, scanning the room.
The Gate had vanished, thank god. The butterflies had perched on the white bed sheets, wings fluttering.
“Right, and what will you do now?” Sarah snapped. “Let him bring the elves into our world and make us their slaves? Is he worth it?”
“I said I have a plan,” Ella said. She’d underestimated Mike, but so had Sarah, thank god. “Nobody needs to die.”
In the descending silence, she heard wheezing breaths behind her. She whipped around.
Finn knelt on the floor next to the bed, his face a mask of pain. He had trouble breathing, his gasps loud in the small room. His lips had a blue tinge.
Shit.
Heart hammering in her chest, she gave Mike the gun. “Take Sarah to another room, bind her and gag her, for Christ’s sake. I’ll find the doctor.”
***
Finn was back on the bed, his face drawn, his breathing shallow but even. A hollow needle attached to a tube had been inserted between his ribs, and that seemed to help him breathe again.
“What happened?” Ella asked the doctor, her fingers tight around Finn’s. She brushed a strand of silky hair off his cheek, then tucked the bandana more securely over his ears.
“He must have made a sudden movement,” Dr. Evans said as he removed the needle from Finn’s side. “One of the broken ribs shifted and punctured the lung. He was lucky it happened here. The air leaking in the chest cavity was crushing his lung, not letting him breathe. We have aspirated the air, so he should be all right.”
Ella took all this in without lifting her eyes off Finn’s sweaty face. Her plans of moving him out of there immediately were useless, unless she kidnapped nurses to carry him on a stretcher and an ambulance.
Dammit.
“Where’s Miss Williams?” The doctor took a note on his clipboard and glanced around the room. The ichor had stained the linoleum floor and the doctor frowned, clearly wondering what had happened.
“Sarah?” Ella licked her lips. “She had some phone calls to make. She went out for a moment.”
The young doctor’s lips pressed together in a flat line. Ella tightened her hold on Finn’s hand, hoping he was relaxed and that no Gate would be opening with the doctor there to see it.
“I’ll stay here while he rests,” she said, her voice strangely firm and authoritative despite the dread churning inside. Finn needed her to be strong. She could do this.
“Fine. I’ll come back later to check on him.” He tapped the pen on his clipboard, still frowning, and left.
Ella sank into the chair by the bed and bent over Finn’s hand, resting her forehead on his fingers.
“Ella?” Finn rasped.
“Shush, everything’s okay,” she whispered and pulled on a smile for him as she raised h
er head. “Rest.”
“I fell asleep,” he murmured.
“Yeah. I know you’re tired. At least you didn’t dream of dragons this time.”
“Is that how he opens the Gates?” Mike asked, entering and closing the door behind him.
Finn stiffened and glanced up.
“With his nightmares,” Ella said. Her fault this had happened. She should have told Mike everything from the start. “His memories.”
“So what’s this plan of yours?” Mike approached the bed. “Maybe it’s time to start implementing it.”
Ella swallowed a sigh. “Thanks for taking care of Sarah. You saved our lives.”
“I told you you’re family to me,” Mike said. No winking, no teasing. Serious and somber. “Although I’m not sure what help that is if Dave finds us, and I doubt it’ll take him long to sniff us out.”
“And Scott?”
“The less he knows the better.” Mike avoided her eyes. He obviously felt guilty for leaving Scott out, for temporarily abandoning him, but he was right to keep him away from this mess. “He should be out of hospital later today.” He looked down at the knife he still held and put it down carefully on the metal table by the bed. He had Sarah’s gun tucked in his belt. “Ella, you do have a plan, right?”
“I said I do.” Fear made her palms clammy but she refused to wipe them and give herself away. Think, Ella, dammit, use that grey matter. Some hours of sleep would have helped clear her mind, but that wasn’t an option. She had to scrape up a plan, right here, right now, before Sarah freed herself and finished off what Dave had started.
Before she finished off Finn. She looked at him, lying there defenseless, trusting her to find a way out of this hell.
Mike cleared his throat.
Oh right. The plan.
“The Gates open when Finn has nightmares.” Ella licked dry lips. “When he’s afraid.”
Finn glared at her, his sharp cheekbones coloring.
That was how it worked, right? Though, a small voice in the back of her head piped in, he crossed over when he’d been wide awake — and what about the first time she’d found him with a Gate wide open, his mother talking to him?
“The dreams are old memories,” Ella forged on, “from when he was little.” Well, mostly. “Stress makes the nightmares worse.” She thought about it. “Emotional pain plays a role.” She frowned. “Finn, when I met you, you said you left Blackwater because the Shades were after you. When did the attacks start?”
Finn shook his head on the pillow. “Maybe two months ago,” he rasped. “It was after...”
“After Norma left?” Ella saw him grimace.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“What does this mean?” Mike frowned.
“What it means, Mike... is that I need to work on the details,” Ella hedged. “I have to talk some things over with you.”
“Details, huh?”
“I’ll find a way to fix this. Give me some time.”
“Time’s the one thing we don’t have,” Mike said, his face twisted in sympathy. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
***
Finn lay still, staring at the ceiling. His hands were fisted in the covers. She wanted to comfort him, to tell him everything would turn out okay, but why lie? She still hadn’t figured out how to save him. Clues, Ella. She had so many clues. Now she only had to find the answer.
Only that. Right.
“Ella?” Mike stood at the door, waiting.
Just the thought of moving, of thinking, made her want to weep with exhaustion. “Coming.”
She didn’t look at the bed as she got up and stepped outside, didn’t want to see the uncertainty and questions in Finn’s eyes. She felt uncertain enough on her own.
“What’s going on?” Mike hissed when she drew him out into the corridor, toward the window where she’d talked with Sarah not too long ago. “Is what Sarah says true? Is Finn this John Grey creature?”
Ella winced. ‘Creature’ sounded bad. “Yes, and I need your help to find a way to stop him from opening Gates.” She paused. “Killing him is not a solution in my book, okay?”
Mike scowled, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Look, I have the mother of all headaches, and this hasn’t been my best week so far. But don’t insult me by insinuating I would stoop down to killing my friends because of some magic mumbo-jumbo.”
Ella realized her jaw was hanging slack. “Magic mumbo-jumbo? You’re an oracle. You know what’s going to happen if the Gates stabilize.” Then his words sank in. Mike considered Finn his friend.
Damn elf had won some hearts over, despite his dark glares and monosyllabic answers. It made Ella want to smile. “He’s not doing it on purpose,” she whispered. “Opening the Gates.”
“I know.”
“You really mean it?”
“Dude, honestly?” Mike muttered. “Finn saved my life quite a few times. Scott’s, too. He doesn’t strike me as someone hell-bent on destroying our world.” He hesitated. “Although all the good intentions in the world won’t help unless you know a way to cancel his magic.”
Didn’t Ella know it. If only it was that easy.
“What have you got?” Mike asked. “Where do we start?”
“Pain,” Ella said. It had to be the focal point of everything. “Fear. Instability and danger.”
“Come again?” Mike blinked.
“These feelings seem connected to Finn’s magic.” Ella slid down the wall to sit on the floor. She thunked her head back — gently. Her headache didn’t need any encouragement. “They lurk in the memories from his childhood, and are affected by the stress of running from the Shades and the white animals, the threat of the elves invading, and Dave coming after him. It’s a vicious cycle.”
“Then break the cycle.”
“Yeah, great idea. But how?” She massaged her temples. “The elves knew it, centuries ago. They said they caused him pain to feed his magic. But they also wed him to King Sirurd’s daughter, the Stabilizer, to increase his power.” She moved her hands over her face, to hide it. “I thought sending Finn away from me might be the solution. Maybe if I didn’t stabilize his portals, we’d all be safe.” Her eyes stung. Dammit. “But Dave said there are more Stabilizers in the world, and besides, there’s no guarantee it would work.”
“If you can’t remove the Stabilizer, remove the pain.” Mike was looking outside, at the garden. He did sound like an oracle, mysterious and giving useless advice.
“Yeah. Any ideas on how?” She wanted to scream and pound the floor with her fists. “How do I remove pain so deeply rooted? How do I remove the memories of all that’s happened to him?”
Mike sat down next to her. His jeans were ripped at the knees. Fashion statement, no doubt, not the result of a fight with Shades.
How the hell had she gotten him involved in this mess when she’d vowed to keep him out of it? She eyed him between her fingers, considered his determined expression.
She’d always thought of him as a little brother, ever since they’d become neighbors two years back, but the man she saw now was someone of great strength, taking disaster in his stride, and never unsure about the important stuff.
Like the people he cared about. What to be angry about and what to ignore. What to do. She was so lucky to be his friend. She lowered her hands from her face, reached out and squeezed his shoulder.
He patted her hand. “You’re important, you know. In all this.”
She scrunched up her face. “I know. Stabilizing and shit.”
“No, I don’t mean that.” He gave her an earnest look. “I mean for Finn. He doesn’t seem sad when he’s around you. He seems happy.”
Cheeks growing warm, Ella dropped her hand. “I’m glad.”
“And I’m serious. His magic seems to be wild right now. He cannot control it. When he’s in pain, he lashes out with it and opens Gates. What if you take away that pain by making him happy?” Mike shrugged. “Well, happier. If he feels happy and safe with you
, his magic won’t work.”
“The times he sleeps next to me, he sleeps well, but then he has nightmares and...” She fisted her hands. “And then the Gates open all the way and let through all those animals. In his dreams, he’s not safe, or happy.”
“But you could change that.”
“How can I change his dreams? They’re memories.”
“Memories aren’t set in stone. They’re malleable. Haven’t you followed any of the recent research on the topic?”
Now she was starting to feel like a scolded schoolgirl. She shook her head. “I thought I shared his dreams for a reason, but so far I can’t figure it out.”
Silence descended, thick and tense. Mike gaped at her.
Oh. Oh. “I didn’t tell you this, did I?”
“That you share Finn’s dreams?” Mike cursed softly. “People usually share bank accounts, a car, a house. Aren’t you overdoing it a little?”
Ella tried hard not to snort. The world was ending, Finn was recovering from a bullet in the chest, and she was about to go into hysterics. “You know everything I know. Any ideas?”
“You share Finn’s dreams. Wow...” Mike sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. He scratched at the dark stubble on his cheeks. “Well, I don’t think that the Shades trying to kill you, or Finn and you sharing dreams, is a coincidence.”
Oh good. Ella groaned.
“The Shades said you’re a Stabilizer,” Mike said, “and obviously the elves believe, like you do, that your role is to make the Gates functional. But what if it’s not the Gates you’re supposed to be stabilizing but Finn’s dreams?
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Not at all.” Mike glanced at Finn’s door. “Fix his dreams, his memories, so that they don’t give him so much pain.”
Could Finn hear them talking? Ella swallowed hard. “I wish I could. And wouldn’t it be wrong, changing his memories? Won’t that be like robbing him of his past?”
“I don’t mean to erase them or take them away from him. But you can... mild them down.”
Ella thought about that. “I tried to be there for him when the bad stuff happens. But I can’t even talk to him in his dreams, or touch him.”
Boreal and John Grey Season 1 Page 38
