God Bones

Chapter 2: Needles

Lucy

I've always hated hospitals.

Both of us did.

I doubt anyone likes the sterile smell and the lack of color but I hated these places even more than Sera. Something about long, sharp needles and scalpels made my skin crawl, just a reminder of how fragile my body really was.

Tonight, the hospital was unnaturally quiet. The lights in room had been switched off but the moonlight spilling in through the window provided just  enough light for me to see. The muffled whirring sounds of the machines in the ICU slowly went out of focus and became white noise. And of course there was death. It was always there in hospitals, lurking in the shadows, hiding behind the white curtains. Waiting to collect its due.

Sera wasn't dead. At least, not yet. Even death could be held at bay by a team of dedicated sorcerers hell bent on keeping my sister alive. But despite their reassurances, I wouldn't feel okay until I brought her home. It was so surreal, just yesterday I'd spoken to her on the phone, mere hours before I left to meet Jaime and today she's gone.

Not exactly gone and not exactly dead. The ECG still showed the fluorescent traces of her heartbeats. She could still breathe. A coma would be more appropriate, but I had no doubt this was induced through sorcery. Which means someone had bested Sera with magic.

It was impossible.

Her body was painted with little runes and symbols, most were hidden in her sleeves. They looked like tattoos so I suppose nobody paid to much heed to them but I recognized them for what they were. One of them was in the shape of a flower, it was called sylphium. It's supposed to heal. Sera had used it on me to treat small cuts and bruises from when we were children. Injuries that would take weeks to heal would heal in a few days.

When I was learning how to ride the cycle my arm was full of those runes.

"They're giving her supportive care," my father told me. "The doctors are not sure what to do, and we don't expect them to be of much use either. They think theres a chance for her to wake up tomorrow, but if that doesn't happen, they'll have to insert a catheter and a feeding tube and just wait. There were no signs of any kind of head trauma."

The idea of those plastic tubes winding in and out of my sister's body disturbed me.

"What happened?"

"She was investigating a disappearance. A few human historians have gone missing over the past few weeks. We wouldn't have cared but one of them was a friend of Kiernan's. She was found like this in his office by one of his students, her dog was outside the door barking its head off."

He brushed her hair behind her ear, his eyes misted with tears. "I never thought this could happen to Sera. I was always worried about you, but never her."

Because I'm human. Sera was not only a sorceress but she'd been trained to fight from a very young age. She'd mastered all the martial arts and could take on armies by herself if armed.

I wasn't like her.

I would occasionally give her company but I didn't enjoy fighting and mostly stood on the sidelines and let her and dad do their thing. I used to be jealous of all the extra attention she got, but that was a long time ago.

Later, as we grew up, I started understanding the burden put on her, as the sole child of my father who was born with magic, it was her duty to represent his name, whether she liked it or not.

When we hit our teens, Sera started working with my father as an assassin for the Family. She killed people. She tells me that they're all sorcerers, never humans. I found that to be a dumb excuse.