Sisters in Arms

15.

Rilla POV

I was lying, pretending to be asleep, while everyone else really was asleep. Thom was lying closer to me than I would have normally liked, but I was starting not to mind it. Josephine had been getting on my nerves with the whole bridesmaid thing all day, but I reckoned that with the whole episode with the monster and the key I wasn't really in a good place to complain. So I had bottled it, and had to put up with the infernal snarky comments all day. The worst part had been getting out of that ruin, when the whole thing started to collapse on our heads. Trust me to not look where I was going at that time.

I reckoned I would never live down the bridal carrying saga.

I rolled over, digging my teeth in my lip to block out the pain in my leg, and threw a twig at Josephine, to wake her up. I needed this leg fixed now, before I went mad.

"What?" she slurred. I shuffled up into a sitting position and began to drag myself over to her, ignoring the stabbing pains.

"Leg. Fix it, before I go mad."

"Now?" Josephine grumbled, sounding surprised.

"Yes, now!" I hissed impatiently. "I know you can."

"What would you do if I wasn't here?" Josephine sighed, crawling over to my leg as I huffed and rolled my eyes.

"I'd be depressed, that's what. I can't not be mobile, Jo, it'd kill me" I admitted bluntly, moving my injured leg closer to the magical girl with less care than I probably should have.

"Thom would look after you" the tiny girl pointed out wickedly.

"Shut up" I spat, glaring at her. "Just stop being snarky and fix me."

"Not if you're going to speak to me like that, Amaryllis" Josephine chided, sounding worryingly like Mother. "I'm sure Thom would love to care for you" she carried on. "And broken legs do take an awful long time to heal..."

"Josephine, this isn't a joke" I cut in venomously. "Fix me up, now."

The magical girl pouted, and I thought perhaps I'd been a little harsh.

"Please, Jo. I'm done for without you."

That seemed to work.

"Right, Rilla" Josephine smiled, all earlier signs of annoyance gone. She took my hand.

"This'll hurt" she warned.

"More than it already does?" I commented sarcastically.

"Yep" Josephine nodded. "Three, Two, One...Mischammelle."

There was a second of searing pain, and I doubled over, teeth clamped together to muffle the screaming. I heard the crack and the click as bone fused with bone, and then it was done, and I flopped back on the ground, breathing deeply.

"Shame" Josephine muttered. "I was half expecting a scream."

"Well boo hoo for you" I smirked, feeling very proud, sitting up and wriggling my toes experimentally. Foot felt good.

"It's just a shame I had to hold your hand, and not Thom" Josephine added, not to be outdone. But I was feeling really good, so I decided to give her some leeway.

"There's nothing going on, Jo" I tried. She snorted.

"There so is! Even Annabelle can see it!"

"On my side, anyway" I added. That stopped her in her tracks.

"You're kidding" she scoffed disbelievingly, shuffling over to sit by me.

"Well, I don't know" I corrected myself. "It's not like I'm an expert in this."