More gauze there too, although at least it wasn't an inch thick like it was on the rest of me. I felt like a mummy. Give me a pyramid and some dusty treasure to guard, and I'd be right at home in a horror movie. I looked like a monster too, given all the gauze and the ointment that I could feel underneath it soaking into my skin-or what was left of it.
But I wasn't too worried. I was still alive, still breathing when I shouldn't be. That was a victory in and of itself. Jo-Jo could fix the rest, no matter how long it took.
The small, slow movements took every bit of nonexistent energy that I had, but I struggled against the blackness that threatened to swallow me. I wasn't going back down the rabbit hole-not until I told Owen how I felt about him. So I lay there and watched my love sleep. Seeing him here, knowing how much he cared, was the best medicine for me. Just his presence alone soothed me.
Time went by. Eventually, I heard others moving in the house. Doors opened and closed softly, and footsteps tread lightly, as my friends and family crept around so as not to wake whoever else was still sleeping. But I didn't call out to whoever was already up. Instead, I just lay there in bed and looked at Owen, grateful that I'd survived Mab's Fire-and more than grateful that Owen was here when I'd woken up.
I didn't know how long he slept or how long I watched him, but eventually his snores slurred, softened, and faded away. His head listed to one side, and I could sense that he was rising up out of the black void of exhaustion.
Owen's eyes fluttered open-his beautiful, beautiful violet eyes. The ones that never held anything but warmth and understanding and love and respect whenever he looked at me.
Owen rubbed his eyes, then ran his hands through his black hair, making it stand straight up. He let out a soft, tired sigh and looked over at me. Apparently he still expected me to be asleep because he frowned and blinked a few times, as if he wasn't quite sure whether I was really awake.
"Gin?" he asked, tremulous hope making his voice crack.
"Back from the dead, again."
I meant for my tone to be light, playful even, but my voice came out as a harsh rasp. I sounded-I sounded exactly like Sophia. Like I'd spent my life smoking, snorting, and drinking everything I could get my hands on. For a moment, I wondered why; why my voice would be this way, and then I remembered what Jo-Jo had told me. How the younger Goth dwarf had been forced to breathe in elemental Fire-just like I had.
My voice didn't bother Owen, though. He closed his eyes and let out a long breath. All the tension that had been coiled around him fell away, like chains being lifted off his arms and legs. Owen shuddered out another breath, and a tear tracked down one of his cheeks.
"Hey now," I rasped again. "Tears are a waste of time, energy, and resources. That's what Fletcher always used to tell me and Finn."
Owen gave me a crooked grin, although I could tell that it was an effort to be cheerful on his part. "That may be what you think. You gave us all quite a scare, you know."
"How much of a scare?"
He wouldn't meet my eyes. "From the fast and furious rumors that are going around Ashland, you could see the elemental flames from your battle with Mab from a half mile away. After you stabbed Mab, the two of you were just lying there in the courtyard. Just-burning. Bria used her Ice magic to try to smother the flames, and Jo-Jo and Sophia did the same thing with their Air power, but it took so long. By the time that we put them out, most of your skin was just-melted. Gone. Down to the bones. We didn't even think that you were still alive until you opened your eyes and spoke to Finn."
Memories of my conversation with Fletcher filled my mind. I didn't know if what I'd seen at the Pork Pit had been a dream, a vision, or just wishful thinking. Didn't much matter. I'd gotten to see the old man again, gotten some of the answers to my questions, even if it was only in my head, and that was what really mattered.
"I asked for Fletcher, didn't I?"
Owen nodded. "You did."
We didn't say anything. Owen moved over to the bed, sat down, and put his arm around me, as gentle and easy with me as if I were made of the most delicate crystal. Even then, I could tell that he was making an effort to touch me, to be close to me, though his every instinct must be screaming at him to get as far away from me as possible. I wasn't a pretty sight right now, which is why his devotion touched me all the more.
Even though I was still exhausted and close to sinking back down into the blackness, I forced myself to sit up and move deeper into his embrace. Then I leaned forward, put my head against his chest, and sighed.
"Is something wrong?" Owen stiffened in alarmed. "Am I hurting you?"
I laughed, although it wasn't a pleasant sound, given my ruined voice. "Of course not. I was just thinking that there was nowhere else I'd rather be than right here with you, right now."
"Me too," he murmured. "Me too."
"I'm glad that you were here when I woke up. More than you'll ever know."
His arms tightened around me. "I'm just glad that you woke up, Gin. More than you'll ever know. Because I just can't imagine my life without you in it."
This time, my eyes were the ones that filled with tears. The salty drops slid down my cheeks and soaked through the gauze covering my face, stinging my new, healing skin, but I didn't care.
"You know," I murmured. "You said something to me the night we made love before I went after Mab. Before all that crazy stuff happened in the courtyard. And I think it's past time that I told you I feel the same way. I love you, Owen. Completely, totally, irrevocably. I have for a while now. It's just that I've lost so many people in my life so brutally. My mother, my older sister, Fletcher. It's hard for me-to let people in. To let people-get close. I wanted to tell you how I felt before, but I couldn't. I just-couldn't..."
Emotion clogged my throat, cutting off my words. But it was okay, because this time, I'd finally said all the things I'd needed to, that I'd wanted to for so long now.
Owen's arms tightened around me that much more. Underneath my ear, I could hear his heart beating in his chest, keeping perfect time with mine.
"I know, Gin," Owen rumbled in a soft voice. "I know. And I love you too. And now that I've got my arms around you, I'm never going to let you go."
"Good," I said. "Because I don't ever want you to."
Chapter 31
I went back to sleep, safe and warm in Owen's arms. And when I woke up again, he was still there, still holding me. And I knew that he always would be.
It turned out that I'd given everyone more than just a little scare-I'd been unconscious for the better part of three weeks. I slept through most of the next few days, only waking up long enough to endure round after round of healing from Jo-Jo.
Slowly, the gauze was unwrapped from my body and replaced by new layers of shiny pink skin. My voice lost its harsh, grating rasp and went back to its normal tone once more. I could have left my voice the way it was, like Sophia had done after Harley Grimes had tortured her. But I had my spider rune scars to remind me of Mab-I didn't need anything else.
And that wasn't all that Jo-Jo did. I also got longer, thicker eyelashes and a new set of perfectly sculpted eyebrows, since my old ones had been singed off. Jo-Jo even grew out my hair an extra inch so she could layer it into a stylish shag.
"No reason not to do a little maintenance while we're at it," Jo-Jo chirped before letting loose with her Air magic again.
Once the dwarf had fixed the majority of the damage, I started receiving visitors. Of course, my friends and family had all been in and out of Jo-Jo's house ever since the night that they'd first brought me here. Still, I hadn't wanted them to see me weak, helpless, and disfigured. They'd seen the horror show the night I'd killed Mab. I imagined that one time would have been plenty for them to stomach-forever.
To my relief, everyone had survived the battle in the courtyard. Xavier had broken several bones in his hands, pounding on the other giants and bounty hunters, while Finn had taken a bullet in the shoulder from another sniper during the melee. Owen had been bruised and banged up, with two black eyes, several sprains, and a dislocated shoulder from swinging his hammer. Eva, Violet, Warren, Roslyn, and Jo-Jo had all been hanging back, out of range of the courtyard, so they'd been out of the frenzied fray. Sophia had come through without a scratch, and Jo-Jo had eventually healed everyone else.
Bria, well, Bria had been burned, of course. Although her wounds hadn't been as bad as mine, Mab had still horribly tortured my sister with her elemental Fire. Jo-Jo had healed all the outside damage. How much damage there was on the inside, only time would tell. But I thought that Bria would be okay. We'd survived the death of our mother and older sister, our long separation, and everything else. We'd get through this too-together. It would just take time, the way it always did.
Knowing that everyone else was okay was another burden off my shoulders. I didn't think that I could have lived with the guilt if one of my friends had been killed. But all was well that had ended well, I supposed. For once, luck had smiled on me and mine. About time that capricious bitch finally came through for me.
One sunny afternoon, Owen carried me downstairs, since I was still too weak to stand on my own. Jo-Jo, Finn, and Bria waited for us in the kitchen. Sophia would have been here too, but the Goth dwarf was busy keeping an eye on the Pork Pit until I could get back on my feet.
Since I was still under the weather, Jo-Jo cooked, whipping up homemade tomato soup loaded with sour cream and cilantro, along with ooey, gooey grilled cheese sandwiches on some of Sophia's soft, thick sourdough bread. It was one of my favorite comfort-food meals, and I felt my strength pick back up with every warm, cheesy bite.
While I stuffed my face, the others filled me in on what had happened on their end during the fight in the courtyard. I'd heard bits and pieces of it before, but Finn launched into a blow-by-blow account. My foster brother told me in bombastic, exquisite, and somewhat excruciating detail how Xavier, Sophia, and Owen had managed to heroically fight their way through the swarm of giants and bounty hunters and make it to Bria's side, while Finn and Warren had laid down cover fire for them.
"I, of course, never had any doubt that we'd rescue fair Bria, but I thought we'd have to go through Gentry to do it," Finn said. "But she handed Bria off to Xavier without a word, then vanished into the snow. She didn't put up any fight at all. I was still going to put a couple of bullets through her head, though, just for all the trouble she'd caused, but that's when I got winged in the shoulder by some sniper fire."
Even though Jo-Jo had healed his injury too, Finn rotated his arm, wincing with imaginary pain. He looked at Bria to see if she'd noticed, but she hadn't. Instead, my baby sister stared down into her half-eaten soup, a distant look in her eyes.
"I imagine it was Sydney who shot you, protecting the old woman's back just as usual," I said. "She might be young, but that girl knows what she's doing when it comes to guns."
"Why do you think Gentry helped us, Gin?" Owen asked. "Why do you think that she killed Mab's giant and turned on the Fire elemental?"
I thought of what the bounty hunter had said to me that night in the woods outside Fletcher's house. How she'd promised to take care of Bria for me until I could rescue my sister. And then how Gentry had nodded to me when I'd stepped into the courtyard. For whatever reason, the bounty hunter had felt she'd owed me something-
"She said it was because Gin gave the girl some cookies," Bria said in a soft voice. "That's why she helped me, not just in the courtyard, but with Mab too."
I stared at my baby sister, waiting, just waiting. After a moment, she looked up, meeting my eyes. Pain flickered in her blue gaze-pain at everything Mab had done to her that long, long night. Once again, my heart ached for my sister, for everything that she'd endured because of my failure to keep her safe. But there was no blame in her eyes, no angry accusation directed at me, which made it hurt all the worse.
"Mab tortured me, you know," Bria said. "She tied me down to a chair and used her magic on me-used her elemental Fire to burn my skin. She said she wanted to practice and make sure that she was ready to take on the Spider. And, of course, she enjoyed every second of it."
Bria stopped and stared down into her soup for several seconds. Finally, she continued with her story. "But Gentry was there too, the whole time, all through the night. And when Mab was really hurting me, when she was getting close to killing me, when I thought that I couldn't take any more, Gentry would distract her. Come up with some excuse to get the Fire elemental to back off, even if it was just for a few minutes. Mab left the room once, and I was able to ask her why she was still here. After all, Mab had paid her the bounty on me by that point. Gentry just looked at me. And then she said that she owed you for some cookies you'd given to her apprentice, Sydney. I didn't really understand what she meant. Do you, Gin?"
I thought of the hunger and the delight that had filled Sydney's eyes when I'd handed her the cookies-and the sadness that had etched Gentry's face at my small act of kindness. Whatever had happened to Sydney or maybe even to Gentry herself, I'd helped alleviate it, just for that brief moment at the Pork Pit. It had meant enough to the bounty hunter for her to return the favor.
"Yeah," I said. "I know exactly what Gentry meant."
We were all silent for a moment, before Finn launched into the second half of his grandiose story, which focused on watching the end of the elemental duel between Mab and me from a safe distance. According to Finn, several of the bounty hunters and giants hadn't been so smart. They'd gotten caught up in the elemental crossfire and had been killed instantly. Finn wrapped up his tale by telling how he and the others had retrieved my burned, melted body from the rubble and whisked me off to safety. He didn't linger on that part. Couldn't blame him for that. I didn't want to think too much about it myself.
