Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Chapter 30

A/N: Just a quick reminder that speech without speech marks is meant to be thought! :/ Sorry, guys, my italics button doesn't work. I'll have to upload my story to another computer at some point and re-post everything ... urgh, the effort.

But enjoy! Remember this part is still a little rusty because I had writer's block for the whole summer so my writing isn't at its best.

Janna

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"What does it look like?" I asked her.

"It's not really on fire," she said. "More like glowing really bright, and ..." She trailed off. "Um, Suz, I think this is it. The hidden Talent thing. I think we need to kinda stay and find out what it ..."

I was about to agree when I remembered Zed. For a second I was torn between taking two minutes to find this new Talent and trying to save Zed, but in the end I shook my head. "There's no time, Jasmine. We'll see about this magical Talent when we get home. If," I added, "we get home."

She doubtful. "But it's meant to -"

"Jasmine," I said, "Zed's dying. Later." I turned back to him, unsure of what to do. Have to stop the blood, I started repeating to myself. Have to stop the blood.

To stop the blood I had to ... to seal the wound. Oh, great plan, I told myself. Seal the wound. That's all. "No, no, wait," I told myself more than anyone else. "To stop the blood loss, I need to seal the wound, and to seal the wound, I have to -" I stopped, having realised what it was I had to do. I had to - physically - close the wound. As if on cue the blood in my head started drumming on my skull. "Close it," I finished in a murmur. Yes, that's what I had to do.

Jasmine was still processing what I had just said. "Close it?" she asked. "Close it?" Then realisation dawned on her face. "You'll kill him!" she exclaimed. "No, you can't do that, Suzanne."

"What else is there to do?" I asked bitterly. "He's losing blood, can't you see that?"

"Yes, but ..."

"No buts," I cut her. "I'm doing it." I bent over him, peering at his wound.

"Fine, fine!" she said. "Just ... be careful." Her lips were quivering. I mumbled something back, not even knowing what I was saying. All I could focus on was that gaping, bloodied wound.

After a silence of uncertainty, Jasmine said, "Suzanne, you can't close it while it's so dirty," she said. "It'll get infected."

"Don't have any water," I answered.

She thought for a second. "I can see it closely with my Talent, you can close it and get light with your Talents ..."

"Is there any way we could, I don't know, fuse them together or something?" I asked.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Unless you had a Talent that allowed you to do that. Which doesn't actually exist." She fell silent, deep in thought.

I didn't press her, because another thought was occupying my thoughts. A clear echo replayed in my head. A special Talent. One that doesn't appear like the others, through the Transformation, but that appears when you need it the most. A special Talent. One that doesn't appear like the others ...

We looked up at the same time.

"The Sign," she said.

"Wait a second," I said. "Wait. The Sign? How does that ... can that ... is that even legal?"

Jasmine looked at me blankly.

"OK, forget that. So, I can, like, fuse Talents together?"

"Only one way to find out, right?"