Burnin' Up | J. Saltzman - Legacies [1]

F O R T Y - T H R E E

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They drive in silence. Stella fiddles with her shoulders, clenching her jaw closed with every spark of pain. Teddy, to his credit, waits until she is ready to talk before bombarding her with questions.

"It's just a graze, I swear," she mutters after the hundredth look she receives.

"Uh-uh, and I'm a unicorn," he replies. "What the hell happened?"

Stella sighs as she rips the bottom of her shirt to create a makeshift sling for her right shoulder. Her left arm rests numbly at her side. "We went to get the school phone. Burr found us. Shot us. I don't know where the third one went, but he got my shoulder before Lizzie could reach me, and Josie jumped in front of Lizzie, therefore in front of me. He got really close to her heart." Her voice cracks. "And she's dying right now if she doesn't get a cure soon."

Teddy nods, glancing at her with sympathy in his gaze. "And you can feel it?"

Inhaling sharply, she nods. "Did you know Mom was hiding something from me?" She asks with a new edge to her tone. "That she and Saltzman knew Josie and I were connected."

Teddy doesn't reply.

"Of course, you knew."

"I wanted to tell you," Teddy says with a whine in his voice. "We all did, but Mom and Dad told Hope and me to wait until they knew more."

"Like how to break the eljun bond." Stella looks down at her feet before forcing herself to look out the window. "Do you know what it is?"

Teddy shakes his head. "Not really. Just that it's extremely dangerous."

"Josie explained what Saltzman told them," Stella says. The car begins to heat up; Teddy opens the windows. "Apparently, we are perfectly compatible in terms of magic. It's like having a soul mate but for power. We feel what happens to the other, and we go insane when one of us is hurt."

"So why am I not a hot dog right now?" Teddy asks. "Last time she was hurt, Hope said you almost lit the forest on fire."

"I'm hurt too," Stella replies. "And now I know what's going on, but that doesn't stop me from losing my breath every few minutes or heating this car involuntarily." Pursing her lips, she looks out the window. "We may have also accepted the bond."

"What?!" Teddy exclaims. "You did what?!"

"We didn't mean to," Stella says. "It just sort of, clicked? I think it happened during the talent show and the slug debacle. But, now that we're, like, full-on bonded together, things are gonna get much more difficult, aren't they?"

Teddy lets loose a deep sigh. "Look, out of the few things Mom and Dad said, the most important part was to make sure you didn't accept it. Now, you need to find an anchor because what you did back there—that magic—I've never seen anything like it."

"Neither have I—" Stella gasps, gripping her left arm. As she takes a deep breath, she smiles, "Josie's ok. She's healed."

"Yeah?" Teddy raises an eyebrow. "And what about your right shoulder?"

Stella runs her fingers over the wound and hisses through her teeth. "Not healed," she says.

Stella's phone dings with a text. As she glances down, she smiles at the words.

From Josie: All healed. Dad used Hope's blood, so when you get to her, just ask for some straight from the source 

From Josie: Wow, your wound hurts. How are you not curled up in a ball? 

From Josie: Be safe ok? Use whatever magic you need