Witches in Training (#2 in the Witches Trilogy) [rewrites ongoing]

Chapter Forty-Two: A Fairy Promise

VINNI

Kieran pokes his head in. I'm still getting used to his altered appearance. "Is Vera still in the room?" He questions. "Good." He withdraws for a moment. "Vinni, I'm not sure you want to see this, either."

For the second time in fifteen minutes, a body is levitated into the room, only this time I have to look away to stop the bile rising in my throat. In that brief glance I saw all I needed to see. The body is Keane's, but just barely. His previously flawless skin is darkly charred all over-when not burnt off- and pockmarked with burns and blasts so deep it reveals glimpses of bone. His clothes and body is soaked with red. The tangy scent of blood invades my nostrils.

"Can you do something?" Louis asks, impressively calm.

"I can't heal the dead."

I resolutely stare out the window at the bleak plain and ominous sky and leering rock formations. Anything is better than looking back.  I see a familiar white mare-no, unicorn-playing medic with Russell's team. Yes. That's who we need. I reach out to her telepathically. Eliz-the-unicorn raises her head and gallops towards us.

"What's going-" Eliz screams. "What happened?"

"Raelynn." Kieran says grimly, answering our unspoken question and more besides.

"Elizabeth, do you think... you and Kieran together-you could... do something?" Louis doesn't use the word 'heal'. Like Kieran said, the dead can't be healed. His voice drops and I catch the word 'Vera'.

"All right. I'll try." For the petite, sweet girl, I'm amazed she's handling this so calmly. But then she's a healer. She's trained to look at gruesome things.

Louis turns so that he's looking out the window too. "You okay?" He asks, more out of habit than actual need. Obviously, I'm not. I express my sentiments in a monosyllabic answer.

"Me neither."

"I wish I hadn't been so curt."

"You didn't do anything. People always seem more admirable after they die."

"You know someone else?"

"My parents. Sher's." He hesitates. "Sher's brother." He cringes in response to my questioning gaze. "Killed along with her parents."

I swallow. "I wish you wouldn't tell me these things."

"Sometimes you need to know." He glances back. "Eliz and Kieran will do their best. They'll manage it."

"Is this really just to protect Vera?" I ask suspiciously.

He sighs. "No. It's for everyone. What you see is everything." He stares gloomily out the window. "I wish I wasn't stuck here. Yeah, I get Rus' point," he admits when I open my mouth, "but I hate being cooped up here." He traces invisible lines on the glass. "I wonder how Kieran got Keane's body down?"

"He was suspended in the clouds." Kieran's voice interrupts. He's been listening all this while. "I just manipulated the water in the clouds." Louis turns to see how it's going and exhales.

"It's better."

"I'm not looking until it's done."

"Scaredy cat."

"Are you five?"

"I wish I was, sometimes." Louis says seriously. "Young and innocent without having to worry about wars and all this, and I'd have my parents still." Something occurs to him and he frowns. "Hey, you're okay? I mean, your mom..."

My throat constricts. "I haven't really thought much about it. I mean, I haven't exactly been close to her these few years. I saw her maybe once a year, and I didn't exactly see her- you know."