relief.
Near the dying fire, Cara was still speaking rapidly into her father’s cell phone. Reverend Pryce was holding Nell firmly, but she was muttering still, casting baleful glances of hate and spite toward the rest of us.
I could now hear the minds of the approaching police and EMT’s, and a few moments later their footsteps and voices were audible to all. Suddenly the adrenaline that had kept me upright was gone, and the world began to spin. Once again I surrendered to the dark of nothingness. But this time, I wasn’t alone. This time, strong arms circled me.
When I opened my eyes again, the world was white. Replacing the filtered light of the forest was a harsh glare of institutional lamps. Someone was holding my wrist with cool fingers.
I blinked and moaned softly as the pain that had been held at bay rolled back over me. My head was pounding.
A warm and compassionate face filled my line of vision. She was dressed in pink hospital scrubs, and she was smiling.
“Hi, there,” she murmured, just loud enough for me to hear her without hurting my head any more than it was. “Welcome back. Are you in pain?”
I opened my mouth to speak but found my throat was so dry I could only rasp. “Yes, a little.”
“Well, let’s get you some water, okay, and maybe something nice for that head. No need for anyone to suffer.” She was cheerful without being obnoxious. I heard the clink of ice and then she was holding a cup to my lips. “Can you get this down?”
I gulped the water awkwardly, feeling the relief of it spill over my lips and down my throat. She took the cup away, and then I saw her inject something into a clear tube above my head. I realized that the tube must be attached to me. I moved my hand and could feel the discomfort of the intravenous line.
“There.” There was a squeak of something being opened, then the sound of metal upon metal, and I assumed that she had discarded the syringe. “That should help a lot.”
I could speak a little more clearly now. “Where am I?”
“Lake County Memorial Hospital. Do you remember how you got here?”
I frowned, and a vague pain moved through me again. It was softened now somehow; the medicine was doing its job.
“You had quite the adventure, I understand. Lots of rumors flying around about what happened out there in the woods by Lake Rosu.”
It came back to me in full force then. I tried to sit up, looking about wildly. “Michael?”
“Is that your boyfriend? Well, don’t worry. He’s fine. He was here all night. We just now convinced him to have that cut on his face seen by our plastic surgery resident. It’s not an emergency, but since it’s on his face…” Her words trailed off as tears began to flow down my cheeks. “Now, sweetie, none of that. It’s okay. Everyone is fine. I know you’ve been through a terrible time, but it’s over now.”
She bustled around my bed a few minutes more in silence. I drew a shuddering breath.
“You said—all night? What time is it? How long was I out?”
“It’s nearly noon. Thursday. You started to come around in the ER, but you were kind of out of control—yelling about all sorts of things, thrashing around—so they knocked you out again. Safer for you that way, and you missed the worst of getting stitched up and so on.”
I raised my hand to my neck to feel the bandages. “No, don’t touch those. They’re going to be tender for a bit. But you’re fine. You can relax. It’s going to be all right.”
I closed my eyes. I could hear similar comforting thoughts in her mind, so I knew she wasn’t lying to me.
“Nell?” I asked, with my eyes still shut.
There was a surge of conflicted emotion in this woman’s mind. “Nell… is somewhere safe. A place where she can’t hurt herself or others. She’s fine.” There was indecision, then resolution. “You shouldn’t think… well, Nell is a sick person. Her mother was a sick person. What they did… that’s not what all witches are about.”
I sucked in air and opened my eyes wide. She was looking out the window thoughtfully, fingering a charm that hung from her neck.
“It’s all about elemental magic. White magic. Doing good. The vow is that it must hurt none. What Nell did—it was as far away from that as it could be.” Her attention seemed to snap