“Maybe listen to my insights this time?”
He narrowed his eyes and then he climbed to his feet as if I hadn’t sewn his skin together. He put the flashlight in his mouth and reached down to lift me up.
“Do I have to? Can I just crawl over to him?”
He huffed. “Crawling will hurt more, trust me. Just make it quick and the pain will come and go before you realize it’s there.”
Yeah, right. “Who are you trying to fool?”
I let him drag me up and the flash of pain poured through every nerve ending. I let out a stream of curses and limped toward Fin.
We crouched on one side of him, and then I listed over onto my ass and stayed down. The captain checked the pulse at Fin’s wrist and let out a sigh of relief. Fin must be stable enough. My shoulders relaxed a little.
The captain took his time searching for wounds, but only found a few scratches on Fin’s calves.
“Why won’t he wake up, if he’s all right?” I asked.
The captain glanced my way from under his brows.
I leaned in. “Do you know what to do here? How can I give the magic back and help him?”
The captain gently took my hands and placed one on top of Fin’s forehead and the other over his sternum. Fin’s heavily beating heart comforted me.
Anger, at myself for the way I’d been stumbling around not learning when I should have been, followed.
“Focus on these two points, and sort of nuzzle your magic back into him. It’ll go because the bond is a two-way street.”
I glanced up and searched his gaze. “Could he have blocked me from doing this? Did he let me take everything?”
The way the captain’s gaze slid away from mine told me everything I needed to know. Why would Fin let me do this? If he could have stopped it?
I took a long breath and closed my eyes. Pain swamped me, but I shoved it back and pinpointed that tether between us I had noticed earlier. It hummed there, the same as it had before but where it had been bright and shining earlier, now it stretched gray and fallow.
As gently as I could, I slid magic down the line. As it travelled, the tether brightened and lit up between us. The urge to throw it all back nudged my brain, but I feared hurting him, so I continued as slowly and steadily as possible.
“You’re doing great, Zoey. Keep doing that. You’re almost there,” the captain whispered.
It took time to put ba
ck enough for Fin’s eyes to flutter. When they shot open, I jerked my hands away. His arms flapped out, and the captain and I both jumped up to ease him back down. He fought, thrashed between us, until fresh blood seeped down my stitches and I knew I would have to endure another round under the captain’s embroidery skills.
“Fin, calm down,” the captain said, his voice even and strong. That calm poured over Fin, and he dropped his arms but kept his hands tightly bound in each of our grasps.
“Are you okay?” he asked, shifting his gaze between us.
We both nodded, and he let out a shuddered exhale and sank back onto the ground.
I pressed his hair back from his forehead and eased a tiny bit more magic into him.
“No, it’s okay.” He nudged me away.
The captain helped him to his feet then used both his hands to pull me up too. We stood in a circle and surveyed the bodies, and the fire.
I spotted the glint of the fire across my black steel blades on the ground nearby and went to retrieve them. It took me three tries to dip down and grab them. Then I shoved them back in the sheaths. I would clean them later when breathing didn’t hurt so much.
“Can either of you fly in this condition?” I asked, waving at them.
The captain shook his head. “I already called for a ride. They will be here soon. It’ll suck, but we’ll ride back, and the doctor will be waiting when we get to the house.”