Had I been on the ground when he’d struck, I’d be finished. Suddenly, Oden shot through the dust, nearly reaching me several yards above the rocky terrain. I shot back, barely missing his blows. How was he getting this high up? His momentum cleared some of the dust, and I saw his gift gather energy in his legs as he leapt once more, swinging his fist to kill.
I narrowly slipped it when I noticed my advantage. We were no longer in an empty zone. The shattered rock was ripe for my gift and I felt a few that had hit me in the explosion still in my range. I shot myself back toward the surface, touching as much of the surface as I could before Oden charged me. I felt some large sharp stones enter my range. Oden sprinted at me and I sent one boulder after the next at him, hoping one might slow his speed. He punched through one after the other—each crash like a bomb growing closer and closer. Dust flew, but through it I saw Oden’s bloody fist blast toward me, a dark streak of blood across his face. I pulled myself back through the air, but I was too slow—his hand collided with my cheek with a crack and everything went black.
The next thing I remember was a bloodcurdling scream, but the voice was not mine, it was Reina's.
21
Reina
I clutched the sheets of my hospital bed and screamed my throat raw. Professor Greene had not exaggerated the agony. All those years of bottled up grief were coming out with a vengeance. I writhed through a cycle of screaming and vomiting, my body unable to handle the avalanche of emotion, as one memory after the next tore through me. My parents were dead. My parents were dead. My heart ached as I fought to come to grips with this new sensation.
I’d been there when it happened. I watched them die—their blood froze and their faces settled into this...empty expression that told me their souls had fled . It was just a touch to the backs of their necks in a crowded street. I hadn’t seen who did it, just saw the life drain from them as they quietly slipped away. They were both Commons and law enforcement officers with gifts that wouldn’t have saved them even if they had seen their attacker coming. I too was helpless. I held their hands and screamed for help, too afraid to let go, and I rarely brought forth the memory since I’d taken that grief confection. I certainly hadn’t felt it. Now it looped through my thoughts endlessly as if in punishment for denying the heartbreak due.
They were gone. I felt selfish as I choked on the thought that I still needed them. I still longed for their guidance, the warm sound of their voices. There were so many things I never got to ask. My shoulders shook as a wave of fresh pain cut through my chest. “I’m so alone,” I whispered into my pillow.
My eyes burned from all the tears I shed, my chest so tight I couldn’t breathe. The pain and loneliness were overwhelming in the intensity. Dr. Azul stood over me, trying to look encouraging. “You’ll make it through this,” he said, “You are not alone.” But his healing gift did not extend to emotional pain, and all he could do was say soothing words and hope I pulled through it whole. In my haze, I heard the door slam open and another student rolled in on a gurney with a squeaky wheel. But it didn’t register.
My mind was trapped on a hamster wheel. My parents were gone. My parents were dead. I am alone. Just when my body finally relaxed, a new wave of grief crashed over me. I curled into a tight ball as the pain swept through me in an emotional torrent so brutal that it was like a sharp electrical current shooting through me. The pain was unrelenting, draining me to a point I thought I just might die. I reached for the doctor, but Dr. Azul was no longer beside me. He had moved on to another student with injuries more pressing than mine.
Mom. Dad. I sobbed quietly into my pillow, knowing this pain was never going to end,, and it was almost enough to make me regret the bitter morsel Professor Greene had given me. Almost.
Dr. Azul’s voice cracked through the room. “Who is it?” he asked.
“Kaito Nakamaru,” I heard a voice say. That seized my attention as I clenched my teeth to hold in the tears. Why didn’t he know it was Kai? Dr. Azul knew Kaito. He’d seen him just yesterday. I couldn’t imagine what could cause him not to recognize him.
“Is he alive?” someone asked.
“Just barely.”
I held my breath, hoping to bottle up the emotional assault that awaited my next breath. But it finally broke through and my heart seized up until, inevitably, my consciousness blinked out.
I awoke slowly, my tears breaching my eyes before I could even remember why. My gaze lifted to the empty end table beside me, and then to the bed on the other side. Kaito lay bruised and bloodied on his back, his eyes open as he stared at the ceiling.
I sat up quickly, dizziness seizing hold of me. "Just like old times," I said, my throat burning with pain. It had been a few years, but back in middle school we spent a good amount of time together in an infirmary just like this one. He looked beat to hell, but that was the kind of joke he usually jumped at. He must've been in pain. “Kaito, what happened? Are you okay?”
His eyes moved to me before his head. “You were the one screaming.”
I lay back down, biting my bottom lip to keep from crying.
He asked, “Are you going to tell me what happened?”
I shook my head, turning my gaze to the ceiling as I fought to suppress the sound of my sobs.
“It’s about your parents, isn’t it?” he asked. “I heard you call for them.”
I pulled my blanket up to my shoulders as if it could somehow shield me.
“What I don’t get is, you’ve been so calm about what happened all this time. What happened? Is it the new school?”
I took a steadying breath but it caught in my throat. “I took something,” I wheezed through my sore throat. “A...” I cupped my face in my hands. “A grief-numbing confection.”
Kaito was so silent I couldn’t hear him breathe.
“I s-spent my inheritance,” I said, the sadness overtaking my words. “So I could stop hurting.”
“Veranda felt it.”
I nodded and we fell into silence as I turned to muffle my cry in my pillow.
“Why did you have them undo it?”
A slew of reasons popped into my head. Because I’d be kicked out of school if I didn’t. Because I regretted that decision. But only the most prominent reason came to my lips. “Because...” I sniffed, “the inability to mourn their loss felt like they were never here.” I fell apart again, but as bad as the last few days had been, I was happy to finally mourn. I was happy to feel my parents’ connection to me. Every wave of grief reinforced how much I loved them and, if I survived it, I'd be able to carry them forward with me.
I dared a glance at Kaito and I thought I saw his eyes get glossy. He reached out a trembling hand marred with purple flesh and lay it out across the end table. "Are you going to tell me what happened to you?" I asked. He didn't bother to answer but, knowing him, he probably picked a fight with the wrong person. His palm rested on the edge of my bed. I buried my face in it as a new wave of grief rolled over as Kai rubbed his thumb up and down the side of my face.
When I awoke again, my body felt heavy and stiff. My gaze moved to Kaito’s empty bed, and a panic flashed through me before I felt his warmth along my back. My head was resting on his right arm, his left arm draped around my waist. I traced my fingers over it to find that what was purple the last I’d seen was now a blotchy yellow. I wasn’t sure if I’d been sleeping for a long time or if Dr. Azul had been every bit the healer as reported by his reputation. I wondered what he’d gotten himself into to get so battered or why the bully who tormented me relentlessly not three days before had rushed to hold me when I needed it most. I would have faked sleep for the next ten years to be held like this for a little while longer, but I had to pee. So I slipped out of bed, cupping a hand over my mouth as Professor Greene’s morsel kicked back in, reminding me once again that my parents were dead and, even if Kai was here today, tomorrow I’d again be alone.
22
Kaito
I never felt more helpless in my
life. Reina had always been strong. It was one of the reasons I’d been friends with her in middle school and one of the reasons I tormented her when we got a little older. When I looked back on this past year, I suppose I always thought it was weird how casually she spoke about her parents, but I couldn't have imagined that she'd be desperate enough to blow her inheritance on a grief curber. How did she even find one that powerful? That was some deep black market shit. I shuddered to think of Reina in the kinds of places that sold that sort of thing, and all the time she was going through that, I was trying to teach her a lesson. I sighed. Now she was in the infirmary, a place I'd once taken pleasure in sending her, but I took no pleasure seeing her here now, so broken and fragile.
The infirmary was well lit and cozy with no more than ten recovery beds. I’d looked out the window to find myself across campus, somewhere in the building Carter called the student center. The past few days Dr. Azul had worked wonders on healing me, his gift like ice pushed into each cell, numbing the pain as they thawed into regenerated flesh and bone. He ran out of stamina after a while and needed long rests between treatments, but I couldn’t deny that his gift was both fast and effective, so I was not surprised that Reina and I were the only patients he had. I stifled a laugh. We’d both made a hell of an impression.
I listened for the doctor’s footsteps while I put together the sequence of events from the last few days. I was pretty out of it when I’d first been wheeled in and only remembered flashes of pain and voices. Enzo had rushed me here using his speed gift. I felt a pang of embarrassment about my defeat. I should have listened to Carter. I reached to search through another blurred memory, one of Oden getting his arm patched up, but I couldn’t be sure if those were real or something I dreamed up in my recovery. When I came to, I found a text from my parents.
Dad:
I heard you were defeated in combat and are in the school’s infirmary. This was not the kind of fresh start we were hoping for. Your mother and I have decided to leave town for a while.
I considered smashing my phone in frustration over my parents when Reina screamed out for hers. What different lives we led.
It was difficult to watch my wounds heal drastically day after day while Reina seemed to suffer to no end. I knew Reina’s condition couldn’t be fixed with the doctor’s gift, but the worst part was his attempts to comfort her. He kept telling her that she wasn't alone which only made it more apparent that she was. She even cried when she slept as if even her dreams wouldn’t allow her peace. On my third night, there she was shaking so violently that I leapt out of bed, forgetting about the doctor’s orders to rest my newly healed bones, and lay down beside her. But as I pulled her in, I found myself repeating the doctor’s soothing mantra to her. "You'll make it through this," I said. "You're not alone." She calmed a little and, before I had time to think better of it, I fell asleep beside her.
I awoke to find Reina had moved to my bed on the other side of the bedside table and I worried that my attempts to comfort her had only freaked her out. What was I doing? Even I had to admit I was all over the place lately. I'd bullied her so hard we got expelled from school, then I kissed her, now this. Why had she become such an obstacle all of a sudden? Reina rolled toward me and I noticed she was awake.
"You seem a little better today," I said.
"So do you. Your bruises are healing."
"Bruises." I scoffed. "I broke like fifteen bones."
Her eyes widened. "Oh my God, Kai. How are you even alive?"
Dr. Azul pushed open the curtain that separated the recovery beds from the rest of the infirmary. "That would be me."
"It's true," I said. "He's pretty strong."
Dr. Azul scoffed and froze suddenly. "Did you two switch beds?"
Heat rushed my face.
"Alright, Mr. Nakamaru, you're good to go. Focus on your classes for a while and try not to pick another fight."
I didn't like the idea of leaving Reina by herself, but if I spent any more time with her, she was going to continue to infect me with her woman magic. Still, I considered asking him to let me stay, but he'd just announced I was fine to leave, in front of her. It would look weird. I was just trying to be a good friend. Right? Fae helped people. It was nothing more than that.
I gathered my tattered clothes, grabbed my cell phone that somehow wasn't cracked, and changed from my hospital clothes to a school uniform Dr. Azul had laid out for me.
"Kai," Reina said before I could slip out. "Thanks… you know. For last night."
I half smiled. "See you around, Rei."
I felt flustered and couldn't get out of the hospital fast enough. I took an elevator to the first floor and stepped out into the hallway which passed by a bustling cafeteria with glass walls. I felt the sting of a hundred pairs of eyes on my face as I focused desperately on the door ahead. Finally, I stepped out into the cool autumn air and inhaled a mouthful of it. GFA had already proved to be a little more than I'd expected. I probably should have laid low.
"Hey," a voice shouted from behind me, drawing my attention. "Kaito Nakamaru." I turned to see Oden Gates and his three backup dancers approaching. Fuck. I had half a mind to flee into the infirmary until I remembered he couldn't hit me outside the combat zone.
The foursome walked over and I felt the soreness of my bruised ego flair. Behind him, I could see the prying eyes of the other students pressed against the glass.
"Have you come to gloat?" I asked.
He reached his hand out, the antiquated gesture I’d previously offered him more frightening than anything else, but I shook it without hesitation. I felt him move into my magical range and considered tossing him over the wall. It would almost be worth the expulsion. "That was one hell of a fight," he said. "I misjudged you."
I nodded, turning my face away with discomfort.
“When you get settled in, come find me. I’ll show you the ropes.”
Quan said, “The Noble Five. Sounds badass.”
I smiled and the four guys patted me on the back before they turned back the way they came.
23
Reina
By the time I was cleared to leave the infirmary at the end of the week, I barely recognized myself. My eyes had dark circles around them, I’d grown pale, my cheeks were a little sunken in, but the biggest change was the glossy sheen of defeat in my eyes. My parents were dead. I couldn’t bear the repetition of it. My heart ached and I clenched my stomach to keep from crying. A year of grief packed into one week had left me with an emotional hangover complete with a splitting headache. Dr. Azul had said he was proud of me for enduring it so well, but I hadn’t felt proud of any of it. I was broken and I deserved every bit of it.
I put on my plaid pants, collared shirt, and blazer. I’d always imagined how I’d feel the first time I put on those burgundy uniforms, but it wasn’t this. I never thought I’d feel like such an imposter. I hadn’t even been strong enough to face my parents’ deaths, so how could I become Fae? It felt like the entire week I’d been there was some kind of nightmare; the only reprieve from the agony was Kai. One familiar face. In the moment, I didn’t care how badly he’d treated me in the past. He was there when I needed him, even if it was by pure coincidence.
As I stepped out of the elevator on the first floor, I realized I didn’t know where I was or where I was going. There was a large cafeteria to the left of the hallway where students chatted and ate on maroon trays. It was separated by a glass wall that reminded me a little of a zoo or a fishbowl. Then, from inside the fishbowl, someone saw me and, like a viral disease spreading to each cluster of prying eyes, the cafeteria fell silent. I pressed my tongue on the roof of my mouth, willing myself to hold it together when I was rescued by the person I least expected.
“Good, you’re here,” Miranda said. “I’m supposed to show you to your— Woah! You look like absolute shit.”
“Thanks,” I said, wiping my nose with the back of my hand.
Her eyes lit. “Did you hear the news?”
she asked, but she didn’t wait for my response before she gushed on. “Kaito Nakamaru challenged Oden Gates and, like, he lost obvi, but apparently the fight was crazy and like now Oden let him into his group and they’re calling them the Noble Five.” She thrust her chest out. “Gah, I can’t believe I brushed him off the other day. I mean, he was obviously gorgeous but I didn’t know his gift was that strong. I mean, didn’t he fail the entrance exam twice?”
I envied her energy. “You were showing me somewhere?”
“Right,” she said, flipping her rose-gold hair over her shoulder. “Your dorm.” I followed her out and the students returned to their lunches.
“So,” Miranda said over her shoulder, “is Kaito like single? You’re not together or anything, right?”
My mind flickered to the past few days. The kiss. Waking up in Kaito’s arms. He was the biggest train wreck I knew and my fractured heart was not ready to take a risk like that. Part of me wished the world was different. That my parents were still alive. That I was as gifted as Kaito so we could explore whatever was going on with us without the outside world using the gap to end it. If what Miranda said was true, and Kaito had become Elite at GFA, I could guarantee I was about to get middle school deja vu. Now that Kaito fit in again, he didn’t need me to be his safety net. “No, we’re not together,” I said. “I don’t think he’s seeing anyone.”
I wish I could say the pep my reply put in Miranda’s step didn’t bother me, or her giddy grin, or her confident gait. I wish I didn’t notice her daydreaming as she twirled her silky hair around her polished finger. I wanted to lay down and forget I ever knew Kaito Nakamaru. I wanted to sleep until I remembered why I wanted to go to this stupid school to begin with.
The Fae & The Fallen: Gifted Fae Academy - Year One Page 8
