Ghost Silk (Ghost Perfume, Book 2) | ✔

16 - Heal me - Part 1

Rose (continued)

"What in the realms," someone cried. She choked, grasping her chest.

I twisted anxiously to look at her. "What, what is it?"

The ghost beside her, who I remembered was Lazar Rift, put his arm around her and stared at me, opening his mouth like a fish.

"Hm?" Michael asked, still kneeling before me.

I looked between Michael and the staring ring of revenants. "I don't know. Is there something wrong with your thread?" I asked the one who still coughed and held her chest.

She shook her head.

"The threading I gave you is okay?"

Michael's lips curled in a tiny, mirthless smirk. His gaze had flickered over to where I'd been looking, but now he focused on me. "Forget the dead, love. You have lost a lot of blood and must be in a great deal of pain. Let me heal you now."

"Oh my," Seraphina squeaked, covering her mouth as she stared at Michael.

She peered at Gabriel and Lukas, who was finger-combing his hair where it had flattened from the mask, as if she'd never seen anyone like them in her life.

I see, I thought in annoyance, the Alistairs' good looks can shock even the dead into incoherence.

I swallowed the blood-replenishers Michael gave me and drank from the water bottle he pressed to my lips. The blessed water cleaned the salt from my mouth and cooled my burning throat. Gabriel, bending over me from behind the couch, gently ran water over my face to clean the salt from my skin. Like when you let yourself notice the pounding of the blood in your ears, I became increasingly aware of the pain radiating up and down my body from the wounds of the worm's teeth.

"I have painkillers. But I need to identify and treat your wounds, and I need your sense of pain to tell me whether I'm treating you properly." Michael gripped my knees. "It will only be for a short while and then I will take the pain away."

I nodded.

Gabriel held my shoulder. "You don't have to put on a brave mask."

Said the expert mask-wearer. The only time I ever heard him scream was when he was out of his mind.

Plus, the revenants were still watching, unblinking, like those realistic dolls you sometimes see in gothic movies, arranged in large collections around a bedroom.

I didn't know why anyone would want to be at the center of so very many eyes.

"It's only scratches," I said. I met Jackal's gaze. You're free, why don't you go celebrate?

"We'll give you some space," he said. His tone shifted – formal, grave. "Thank you for upholding our deal, glorious one."

He flew away and the crowd followed him, till the beach house emptied.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

It was funny to think that Jackal acted as their leader for now – Jackal who never passed a chance to sneer at someone, especially his family.

Jane and Ellie came to float through my body, so the gentle chill of their bodies would soothe me.

"A giant worm tried to eat me," I said, testing the words on my tongue.

Lukas smiled unhappily. "What happened exactly?'

Alexander brought a pan of cooled, boiled water, placing it on the floor beside Michael and saying there was more in the kitchen but it was still too warm.