Angelfire
Page 93

His pul ed his face away from my hands and shivered.
"Don't--"
"Let me see," I said.
His wings shook and shuddered. "I don't want--"
I laid my hand over his and pul ed it away from the wound.
"Let. Me. See."
He closed his eyes in agony and al owed me to move his hand. It was worse than I thought. Blood leaked from a wound in his chest. I panicked and rol ed his shirt up. He grimaced and let out a choked oath. My lips went numb when I got a good look at the extent of his injuries. A hole bigger than my fist had been punched right through the center of his chest. I forced my eyes away when nausea boiled in my gut. He gasped and gagged as if he couldn't breathe.
"My lungs--" he sputtered.
I looked at him frantical y, touching his face. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to help you!"
He grabbed my hand and clenched it tight. "Can't breathe
--just wait--"
The glow in his eyes dimmed, and my worst fear whispered in the back of my mind. Was this one of those wounds too severe to heal? "You can't die," I told him. "I can't do this without you!"
"Just wait--" he repeated, closing his eyes and grimacing.
The hole in his chest began to fil in, and his skin started to cover it over. His breathing became less ragged and his hold on my hand loosened. "I said . . . to just wait. . . ."
My smile widened, and relief overwhelmed me. I had completely forgotten about the sarcophagus. I smoothed Wil 's shirt back down and took a deep breath. "You're okay,"
I sighed, elated.
"Of course I am," he said in a weak voice. "But I didn't want you to see me like this. I didn't want you to see them--
not before you remembered."
There was no time for any questions. Another shadow loomed over us, and I craned my neck back to see Bastian perched on top of the cabin, silently watching Wil and me with a blank expression. I heard a great splash behind me as I helped Wil to his feet. His wings vanished, and we turned around. Ivar surfaced without the sarcophagus, her soakingwet hair matted and stringy but one arm hanging limply at an odd angle. I looked more closely, and as Ivar dropped her head back and screeched in fury, I saw why her arm looked so strange. Her shoulder blade was exposed, her arm ripped from its socket, her body torn wide open, and her col arbone stabbing out in plain sight. She held her uninjured hand wrapped across her chest and pul ed her ripped-off shoulder back to her body. The muscles and veins strung back together, weaving in and out, pushing out dead flesh and sealing up what was left until she was perfectly healed. Her throat was a deep red, as if someone had grabbed hold of it savagely in order to tear her arm off, but that injury too was fading.
I stared in horror. My eyes found Wil , whose hands were covered in blood. An icy-cold feeling rushed through my body. Had he done that?
"Surrender, Preliator!" Bastian cal ed from the top of the cabin.
I looked back up, and he stepped off the edge, landing light as a feather on the deck, his wings folding into his back.
"You've lost, Bastian!" I shouted. "Geir is dead and the Enshi is at the bottom of the ocean!"
Bastian ignored me and looked at Wil . A cruel and subtle smile spread across his face. "So good to see you again, Wil iam. I see you're pleased to be reunited with your charge, though it appears to me things have changed between you."
Wil stared back, his gaze dark and defiant.
Ivar stepped forward, her face twisted with wrath, but Bastian's power lashed her across the chest. She staggered back, her wings shivering around her in pain and not because of her ice-cold, drenched clothes.
"Leave them," Bastian warned.
Ivar snarled and bared her teeth. "But why?"
"If you kil her now, she wil just return. We must wait. Be patient." Bastian's cerulean eyes met mine. "Have no doubt, Preliator, this isn't the end, not yet. The Enshi wil awaken and consume your soul."
Ivar's head cocked to one side like a bird's, her soaked, pale hair pouring over her shoulders. "Have you ever watched a soul die?" she asked. "Just wait until you feel your own soul dying."
I stared back at her boldly, but my bravado began to waver when I considered what the Enshi might be able to accomplish.
From the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of silver-gray wings. I staggered and backed into Wil as another vir descended to the deck.
Cadan. His opal eyes were on fire as he looked from Bastian to me and back again. His leathery wings gave a shake and folded to his back but didn't disappear.
"A little late, aren't you?" Bastian asked calmly. Cadan straightened and brushed off the front of his shirt.
"Better late than never."
Bastian vanished and reappeared directly in front of Cadan and grabbed hold of his chin. "The repercussions of your . . . act of defiance wil be great," he hissed very close to Cadan's face. "I would feel nothing if I kil ed you."
Their gazes locked until Bastian shoved him away and strode up to Ivar. She stared at Cadan with a strange, hardened expression. Bastian's blinding white feathered wings spread wide, and he took off into the air and vanished. Cadan looked away from her as if her gaze hurt him, his pale-gold hair whipping in the air, his fists clenched tightly. Ivar stretched her wings to take flight and fol ow Bastian.
"The sarcophagus," Cadan began as he started toward me. "Where is it?"