Igniting Spirit (Gathering Water Book 3) (13 page)

My uncle stood, too, seeming to realize exactly what it could mean. “It’s how she would always say it. ‘A Shield against Death.’ Della, where’s the key? Do you have it with you?”

I instantly reached for my neck before remembering that I’d taken the key necklace off when Cash had been injured.

“I used the chain to make a tourniquet when Cash was injured,” I said with a hollow feeling in my stomach. Connor immediately rushed from the room, probably to get a doctor to find out what happened to the stuff Cash came in with — stuff which might literally hold the key to protecting ourselves from Kaylus’ insidious use of power.

“Wait. Why is that important?” Cash sat upright in his bed. Apparently, he hadn’t heard about Kaylus’ ability.

“There’s an element that’s opposite Spirit. It’s a sixth element: Death. That’s why all his people have that tarnished quality to their aura’s, we think. He’s infected them, somehow, with his power. He lets them live, though. It’s the reason you only just woke up. You were infected, too. Your Spirit was being eaten away, and if Clara hadn’t been anchoring you, you’d be a goner. There was hardly any of your Spirit left for her to weave more onto when we got here yesterday.”

“What? When I asked ‘what else happened,’
this
is the type of stuff you tell me!”

Aunt Ellis was suddenly up, as well. She’d been so quiet, I’d forgotten she was there. She rushed around the bed to the little table that was next to Cash, and opened the drawer. Inside was a plastic bag with a few things inside.

“I should have known. Connor!” she shouted out for him while upending the bag on the bed near Cash’s foot.

A wallet, Cash’s car keys, a thing of chapstick… and my key.

“Mom, you’re a genius!” Cash said.

“Well, it just seemed like a logical place for the staff to put your belongings.” She was smiling, though.

Connor got back in the room right as I picked the key up. “Uncle Connor, I don’t see the chain anywhere.”

He’d already crossed the room to stand by me, looking at the key that I held in my open palm.

“The chain was new. Dad got it for Gabby when she turned sixteen. She had the key on a piece of ribbon that belonged to our mother before that.”

“Do you think it could really protect someone from Kaylus’ ability?” Ellis asked, I looked up at her, and realized the four of us had circled the key, staring down at it in my hand.

I closed my fist around it and let the metal dig into my fingers. “I don’t know, but I can find out.”

I walked over to the door, and peered my head out. “Alexander!” I shouted. We were probably driving the hospital staff crazy, but oh well. I looked out the door for him, while turning the stone in my armlet yellow. Alexander was keyed into my armlet, and one of his would change to match when I turned the colors in my own. He was nowhere to be seen, but he never told me he was leaving, which is unusual for him. Soon, I saw him running down the hall towards the room, bags of food swinging awkwardly from his hands.

“Della? Is everything okay? I posted guards to watch every entrance, including the windows to the rooms in this hallway. I assumed you would be ready to eat soon.” He sounded so apologetic.

“That’s great, Alexander. Just, come here please.”

Once he was inside the door, I handed him my key. “Do you know what this is?”

“It’s the key from your necklace,” he said plainly.

“Is it possible that it’s a protection rune?” Connor asked, turning his body so that he was facing us, but not turning his back towards Cash and Ellis.

Alexander’s eyes crinkled as he turned the key over in his hand. “I don’t recognize it as one, but my forte has always been combat and strategy, Dux. Etta is the strongest rune-worker among the Elfennol, but the Clades might know things that are unknown even to her.”

“Uncle Connor just told me the story of Delilah again. The family version leaves out the fact that her lover was a Clade, but has an interesting addition. Delilah had visions of Kaylus murdering Ethan using his ability. She made him create an amulet for protection against it. The story says it’s a ‘Shield against Death.’ That sounds like our cup of tea now, doesn’t it?” I asked Alexander.

“I’m not thirsty. But I am intrigued by this. If it is a rune that can give protection from Kaylus’ power, then we may be able to duplicate it for all our people to wear,” he said, a hint of excitement in his voice. Even a hint was a lot for Alexander, so I chose to not rib him about the “not thirsty” comment. He, like most other Elfennol, tended to take things too literally. Laurel had filled multiple wallets full of cards made of real gold when I’d mentioned getting a “gold card” for my first trip to Bermuda.

“Ethan? Was that the name of Delilah’s slain love? Did you say he was a Clade? Is that true?” Uncle Connor asked.

“According to the Clade Elders. He was their best rune-worker. I believe they were under the impression that Delilah killed him after tricking him into falling in love with her, since after he died she joined with the Elfennol. It never occurred to them to look inside their own ranks for the murderer,” I told him.

“It seems both factions of Ethnos are guilty of this type of shortsightedness,” Alexander piped in.

The room was silent as we all thought about how true those words were. I know enemies aren’t supposed to chat, or anything, but they could have solved their problems centuries ago if only some line of communication had been open between them. If the Elfennol hadn’t been so stubborn and certain about their purity and the Clades’ corruption.

Of course, there was more wrong with the Elfennol than just their dislike of Clades. Like their dislike of half-Dunamis Ethnos. They had been so consumed with being the good guys — with preventing their fall from light — that they had let their fear taint them just as surely as they thought the Clades were tainted.

And now look where they were.

Aunt Ellis waved her hands at us all, and when she caught our attention, she pointed to Cash who was nodding off. He wasn’t quite asleep, but was so close to it that he didn’t notice when we all tiptoed out of the room to let him rest.

The four of us huddled in the hallway, and I saw Alexander immediately take a position facing the nearest exit.

“Uncle Connor, Aunt Ellis, why don’t you two head home while Cash is sleeping? I can stick around for a few hours.” I was sure there was something else I could be doing, but nothing that couldn’t wait until later in the day — if not the following one.

My uncle looked at his wife, gauging her silent response to my suggestion, then looked at me and nodded his head. “I think we will, Della. Thank you.”

They each gave me a warm hug, said their goodbyes, and started walking away.

“Della,” Alexander said quietly, before my aunt and uncle were more than a foot away.

“Yes, Alexander?”

“I believe it may be prudent to ask your Uncle to address the Dunamis in the area concerning the current happenings. We do not want an uncomfortable situation to arise if they happen upon one of the Clades, and until Kaylus is apprehended, your family is still at risk for being taken by him to fulfill his needs.” Holy cow, I forgot how much danger they were all in. We were all in danger with a maniac like Kaylus on the loose, but my family, specifically, held the key to something he needed.

“Uncle Connor, wait.”

They had only made it past the door to the room next to Cash’s when I called out to them.

“Yes, Della?” Connor asked.

“We need to let everyone else in the family know exactly what’s going on. Can you set up a meeting so I can explain to them?”

“I’ll do you one better. I’ll let them know, myself. You have enough to handle in the upcoming days. We can handle the humans, you take care of the Ethnos,” he gave me an exhausted smile.

“One more thing. Uh, there’s a good chance that our entire family may be targeted by Kaylus —”

“Your father already filled me in on that one. We have all the family we can muster at Dad’s place, or ours. And about a dozen or more guards watching us. Even Luke was rousted out of his place this morning. He’ll be staying with us, obviously, but it’s been interesting.” It must have been a good “interesting” because he looked pretty happy about it.

“Everyone will be so happy to hear that Cash is awake! It’s taken a lot of convincing to keep them all away from the hospital. It can be overwhelming in places like this, and we didn’t want Cash to wake up with that type of activity surrounding him.” Aunt Ellis was beaming. I could see that she was beyond exhausted, but also happy. Her son was okay.

We said our goodbyes again, and I went back into the room with Cash while Alexander did bodyguard things. I sat down on the couch in the room and ate one of the sandwiches that Alexander had picked up for us. Hospitals are boring, and it wasn’t long before I was considering being an awful person and waking Cash back up.

Before I made the move to do so, a nurse walked in to take his vitals. She got to be the mean one to wake him up. I made my way to the bed while she asked him a few questions about his pain level, and whether there was anything else he needed to be comfortable. I stifled a laugh when he winked at her when she finally said she was done and turned to leave.

“Cash, she’s easily twice your age.”

“As long as she’s not half my age, I don’t see how it matters,” he said, stifling a yawn.

“Are you still tired? Do you think that’s normal? Clara should be by sometime today, I can call and tell her to hurry up if something’s wrong. Or Dove?”

“Della, I’m fine. I’m sure it’s normal for… whatever happened to me. When did Mom and Dad leave?” he asked, reaching around his back and readjusting the pillow which had been placed behind him.

“Only about a half-hour or so ago. Why, do you want me to call them?”

“No, just wondering. What I do want is a soda. Think you can go grab one for me? They have vending machines, right?”

I wasn’t sure you were supposed to give people in a hospital soda without talking to a doctor about it first, but I didn’t see the harm so I went to ask where I could grab one. Alexander was outside the door still, but when I told him I’d come get him if I left the floor, he stayed where he was. A man sitting behind the nurses station pointed me in the direction of the vending machines in a small waiting area. I spent a few minutes frantically looking for change in my pockets, knowing I didn’t have any, before seeing that there was a credit card slot on the drink machine. When I got back to the room with two Dr. Peppers in hand, I felt like I walked in on a private moment. Cash had pulled his right leg out from under the blanket. There was a pool of gauze around him, falling to the floor, where he’d unwrapped what used to be a complete leg, and now was not. His leg was lifted, and he was bending his knee over and over, experimentally, until he saw me come in and threw the blanket back over himself.

I walked closer and studied his face. It was pale, and I could see he was trying to control his expression.

“Can I see it?” I asked. I would not feel pity. I would not feel guilt. I repeated those words over and over, because I didn’t want Cash to feel those things from me.

But I had to feel something about it, and that something might as well be curiousity.

“Uh, sure,” he said, not looking at me as he pulled his leg back out. They had made the cut about four inches below his knee, and because of Doves healing, there wasn’t even a scar. No evidence that it hadn’t always been that way, other than our memory.

“Does it hurt?” I asked him. It seemed like it should hurt, even though there was no wound any longer.

“No, but — are you Tempering Fire?” he asked me. I was, because I always did, but once he asked if I was, I noticed something strange about where his lower leg used to be with my Tempered sight.

There was still a calf and foot shaped aura there. His aura had not changed at all, even though there was nothing physically there for it to be connected to like that. That’s why I didn’t notice anything strange, because his aura looked as it always did.

“Is it supposed to be like that? Can you feel your foot there?”

He lifted his leg again and bent his knee to give himself a closer look. “No, but kind of. It’s weird. I can’t feel my foot, but I can still sense what my aura is feeling where my foot used to be.”

“That is so weird,” I said. We both sat there, staring at his stub for a few minutes.

“How bad was it before?” Cash asked, quietly. I thought back to our fight with Kaylus’ men.

“It was bad, Cash. I mean, really really bad.”

“Bad enough to do this? If Dove had gotten here fast enough?”

“Cash, it was bad enough that I puked when I saw it. Dove couldn’t have fixed it. I’m surprised he was able to fix your eye.” Before Dove had healed it, it was just a wrecked socket of blood and goo — or that’s what it seemed like at the time.

“I remember getting hit in the face, hurt like a sonofabitch. Wait, you puked when you saw my leg? What a whimp!”

“Clara threw up too, you know. But that was after you were all prettied up by her brother. It was when she saw your aura.”

“I made Clara puke?” He groaned, then stayed quiet for a minute. “What happened after I was knocked out? Did someone come help you?”