burn of it, but there is no pain.
I pull it back inside of me, and hold it, like holding my breath, until my skin burns with the need for it to be released. I push the power out of me, and it’s like I’m the epicenter of a bomb site. The power explodes out of me in a 360. I redirect the blast from the manor meaning the tree line gets an extra hit. The sizzle and pop of the flame as the trees turn to ash before my eyes are so loud.
Another pop sounds and I stagger backwards before I feel the burn in my shoulder. Blood runs out of the hole in my shoulder, and I feel a little lightheaded. The wound isn’t healing, and it occurs to me I’m still here out in the open. I have no idea which direction the shot came from. Another pop rings out and I fall to my knees as I struggle to breathe as blood pours from another hole, this time, in the chest. A lung hit.
I try to breathe in, but its barely more than a wheeze.
Why the fuck am I not healing?
“Remy!” Roman’s cry reaches me, and I turn, seeing him start to run towards me, but the ground at his feet is ripped apart as bullets continue to fly. I shake my head to stop him from coming to me. I try to speak, but blood splutters from my mouth as I attempt it.
My vision goes blurry, but I don’t understand. It can’t be angel glass, it doesn’t burn like angel glass did. But I’m not healing. At least, not as quickly as I should.
A body falls to the ground a few feet from me, and then I see boots before I fall back, my ass hiding the ground with a thud.
“Why isn’t she healing?” Roman roars as he drops behind me and pulls me into his lap.
“It must be because she was reborn in the Shadow Realm. She has different strengths and different weaknesses,” Serafina tells him as I struggle to hold onto consciousness.
“I’ve got Fallon, she’ll be here in less than thirty seconds.” Creek’s voice reaches me, seconds before I see his face in front of mine. “Just hold on, Remy. What the fuck did he shoot her with?”
“Smells like salted iron. It’s almost lethal to demons, definitely fatal if you get them with enough of it. It must be because of the Shadow Realm. There’s no other explanation.”
“None of this makes any fucking sense,” Roman curses violently behind me.
“Out of the way,” Fallon says calmly, as she glows softly before us.
“Can you heal her?” Creek asks, his panic hurts my heart.
“I’m going to try, but I need you all to get out of the way.” Her calm makes me smile. She might have been distant, but she is always there when I need her.
“Fal...” I croak.
“Oh Remy,” she sighs as she drops to her knees beside me. “Look at the mess you got yourself into now.”
“This is what I get for trying to exercise,” I laugh, blood sputtering from me again.
“No more talking,” she says, as I try to breath, and I just nod as she places her hands on me. The heat from her hands stings, like a hundred needles pricking my skin, but I seal my lips against the cry that rises and hope like fuck she can heal me.
I’m not ready to die.
I creep up the stairs and into the nursery. He’s so very little, but just the sight of him fills my heart with so much joy that I think I might burst. I never imagined that I’d be here. It took so long for us to be able to have a child that I’d almost given up hope, but Luca always had faith. Faith that the gods wouldn’t forsake us like that.
And he was right.
Two weeks ago, the light of my life was placed into my arms, and my world righted itself. It didn’t matter that I’d lost my parents and brother to a fire. It didn’t matter that I’d spent most of my childhood homeless, living on the streets, protecting myself from the dangers that plague this land.
Luca saved me. He was my salvation when I thought all was lost.
I went to the arches, prepared to beg the gods for a sign. A sign that things would get better. A sign not to give up and just let myself wash out with the tide. To give me a