Phoenix Flame - Sara Holland Page 0,91

of dizziness hits me and I stagger, coming heavily back down on my knees. I belatedly realize the blow to the head I took must have been pretty hard.

A few yards away, Graylin is bent over Nahteran, healing magic shimmering between his hands. Mom is kneeling by his side, oblivious to Sal’s attempts to bandage her up as Willow tends to Taya.

But I can’t stop myself from staring at Nahteran, that horrible, heartbroken void in my chest yawning open again. He was telling the truth before. He didn’t betray us. He did what he had to do to get Mom back. And now we have her. But he might not get to be with her again.

Somehow, we’re moving, Marcus helping me stagger over to join the huddle at my brother’s side. I can see the magic swirling through Graylin’s fingers. But it’s not working, or not working fast enough.

I fall down on my knees, reaching out to put pressure on the wound, and something falls out of the neck of my sweater. The jack necklace.

Taya notices it too. “What’s that?”

I take it off with trembling hands and show it to Taya. “Soul-silver. I think it’s a piece … a piece of his soul.”

Taya, Graylin, everyone goes very still. For a moment, everything is quiet.

Then Taya says, “Give it to me.”

My mouth dries up. I’d completely forgotten about the jack after Nahteran and I discussed it at Winterkill.

I’d need another Solarian, he had said. Another Solarian to restore that fragment of his soul.

Taya takes the necklace in her hands. I’m focused on Nahteran, but out of the corner of my eye I see her lips part and shock and awe register on her face.

“Maddie, it’s a piece of his soul.”

“What?” Focused as I am on Nahteran, making sure that his chest is still rising and falling, her words don’t sink in at first. Then they do. I look up, my breath snagging. “What do you mean?”

She doesn’t answer. Just takes a ragged breath. “Maddie …”

For a moment, everything else in the world fades away except Nahteran and Taya and me. I watch, not daring to breathe as she pulls the chain from the jack and tosses the former aside. She holds the jack carefully in cupped, bloodstained hands. She squeezes her eyes shut, her face creasing in concentration. And …

Something floats up from the metal. Something scarcely visible, hardly more than a shimmer in the air.

I hear myself make some indistinct noise of exclamation, words being far out of my grasp at this point. Taya’s eyes fly open and fix on the same thing, the shimmering bit of something in the air.

Selu, I think. Soul.

Taya lets the jack, its shine duller now, fall through her fingers to the floor. She lifts her hand and catches the selu, wrapping it around her fingers like the palest, most translucent thread. She lowers it to Nahteran’s face. She tips her hand down over his mouth, and the translucent light slips from her fingers and between his lips.

My heartbeat fills my hearing, slow and erratic. I’m spent, as exhausted as I’ve ever been in my life, but also as alert as I’ve ever been, waiting, hoping for Nahteran to wake up.

His chest reaches the top of its arc and stops.

My heart threatens to break all the way open.

But then he breathes in deeply. His eyes flutter. He shifts beneath my hands, and turns his head to the side and coughs out a mouthful of blood.

I snatch my hands back from his chest, still scarcely breathing. Taya, Mom, Marcus, Graylin, Sal, Willow, and I watch in wonder as the wound from the dagger slowly closes up, his skin repairing itself like new. Bloodied, but unbroken.

Muscle memory from first aid classes at school finally kicks in, and I hastily but gently roll Nahteran over on his side, positioning one arm under his head and one extended outward, holding him up. Then Graylin and Marcus are on either side of me, Willow and Sal standing by with hesitant smiles. And hope starts to trickle back into my heart.

Soon, I’m in the covered porch that serves as an infirmary, lying on one of the narrow white-sheeted beds. Nahteran is sleeping in the one next to me. Early morning sun from an eggshell blue sky pours into the room. Half an hour ago, the room felt crowded with Mom, Taya, Marcus, and Graylin all clustered around us. The anxiousness in the air was palpable as they monitored us for signs