Fire Scarred

Chapter Nineteen

     When I woke up in a hospital room twenty days ago, I forgot how to breathe. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, but I didn't have to try for me to know. I had a broken arm, broken leg, four crushed ribs, many vitally injured organs, a major concussion, and multiple bruises and scrapes. My eyes were swollen shut, and all I could do was listen to Leo talk to me. His voice was soothing and all I had become to know for the next five days. He never touched me, he never held me or kissed me, he only spoke to me. 

     On day six, I managed to open my eyes. My room was empty, but I wasn't alone. Leo's voice explained everything to me. He told me that Sorrel had died, I had killed him, but there was word some of his followers were searching for me to seek revenge, and to carry out the clan's plan. They had reformed to form the Kismet, a stronger and more powerful kind of clan, with even more followers than before. He told me that Ciris had been taken hold of while I was in the cave with Sorrel, and wasn't able to break free until it was too late. He and the Stone of Zephri were safe. He told me that my friends were home again and that they were safe. Martin and Remy were also safe and here to visit me. He explained that Mom and Dad were worried sick, but Ciris explained everything. Everything should be alright. And as for me, Leo explained to me how I died, and how he made me alive again. 

     I now had the Crave. Leo gave me his soul so I had just enough life in me to live. He promised everything would be okay, that we would find a way for him to have his own life and body back. But for now, we'd have to share mine. 

     Today, I was being wheeled into the kitchen of our cabin by my dad in the hospital issued wheelchair for my welcome back party put together by my mom, Georgia, and Raylynn. Everyone cried. We ate red velvet cake—my favorite—and stayed on light subjects concerning the rebuilding of the cabins and new classes to be offered at Woodland next year. 

     The sun beat down on my bare shoulders. It was going on three months since the incident. I still ached all over, but I no longer wore any of my casts or bandages. It was spring now, and all had been relatively calm. My face was turned upward, and my eyes were open and burning. 

     You're going to blind yourself, Leo reminded me. 

     I repeated the same thing I had said all day. "I don't want to go."

     Mom squeezed my shoulder thinking I was speaking to her. "This is for the best. It'll keep you safe."

     "Ciris is here. He could keep me safe."

     "And if Leo were here in his own body to keep you safe as well, then maybe it'd be a different story. We have to put you in a place no one would think to find you."

     Dad drove our never used station wagon up the path. He shifted the vehicle into park, and climbed out of the driver's seat. "Jean, will you help me get everything in the car please?"

     Mom nodded to him, popped the trunk, and gave me a worried sideways glance as she followed Dad into the house. My eyes still unnerved her. 

     Hands reached around from behind me and obscured my eyesight. Fear gripped me, and my body jerked into an upright and alert position. 

     Calm down. You're okay. 

     "Cool it," Noah laughed repeating Leo's words. "It's just me."

     I smacked his arm, and gave him a stern look. "Don't scare me like that!"

     "I'm sorry," he apologized. With his fingers, he quirked the corners of my lips into a cheesy grin. "You know, it doesn't hurt you to smile every now and then," he mimicked his words from that morning in Little Red's Inn. "It's not like your face will crack."

     "I know that," I muttered, pushing his hands off of me. 

     He frowned. "I'm sorry you have to go."

     "Me too."

     "I'll miss you. Maybe I could come visit you."

     "Maybe."

     Maybe not. 

     Noah's hand cupped my chin, and he kissed me daintily on my cheeks, my forehead, my nose, and lastly my chin. I closed my eyes and waited for him to be done. 

     "Goodbye, Cor." 

     "Goodbye, Noah."

     He disappeared into the trees, only his scent and foot steps in the dusty sand remaining. 

     Ciris approached me next. "I'll be around, kid. Don't try to kill yourself."

     "I won't." No promises, though.

     Cora!

     "I will be looking for ways to get Leo his body back."

     "Thank you."

     "Watch your back."

     "You watch yours, too."

     I didn't tell Ray, Georgia, or Josh about me moving to live with my grandmother in Chicago. I just couldn't. It hurt too much. 

     Climbing into the car was one of the most emotionally painful experiences of my life. Saying goodbye to everyone and everything I knew to live with someone I had never met in a place I had never been before was destroying me. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay home and figure things out in the places I knew with the people I knew. 

     If you stay home, they'll find you, Leo said. 

     I was tired of being told that, but that was all that kept me sane and in line. They were coming after me, and if I didn't stay on my feet, we wouldn't be okay. 

     Most kids play Hide-n-Seek when they're little. When they notice the seeker getting close to their hiding spot, they have the choice to take the risk of staying put or of running and playing it safe. 

     We were playing it safe.

The End of Book One