"And then some. It's obvious even after all the drinks I've had. Never seen anything like it."
I didn't exactly know what to make of that, but then the flight attendant returned with a banana, a granola bar, and some ibuprofen. It was a far cry from French toast, but it sounded good on my empty stomach. I consumed it all and then propped a pillow up against the window. Closing my eyes, I rested my head and hoped I could sleep the headache off before we landed. Mercifully, everyone else stayed quiet.
I had drifted off a little when I felt a slight touch on my arm. "Rose?"
Opening my eyes, I peered at Lissa as she sat in Eddie's seat. Those bat-winged shapes flitted behind her, and my head still hurt. In those swirling shadows, I again saw what looked like a face, this time with a wide gaping mouth and eyes like fire. I flinched.
"You're still in pain?" Lissa asked, peering at me. I blinked, and the face was gone.
"Yeah, I - oh no." I realized what she was going to do. "Don't do it. Don't waste it on me."
"It's easy," she said. "It hardly fazes me."
"Yeah, but the more you use it... the more it hurts you in the long run. Even if it's easy now."
"I'll worry about that later. Here."
She clasped my hand between hers and closed her eyes. Through our bond, I felt the magic welling up in her as she drew upon spirit's healing power. To her, magic felt warm and golden. I'd been healed before, and it always came through to me as varying temperatures: hot, then cold, then hot, etc. But this time, when she released the magic and sent it into me, I didn't feel anything except a very faint tingle. Her eyelids fluttered open.
"Wh - what happened?" she asked.
"Nothing," I said. "The headache's still going strong."
"But I..." The confusion and shock on her face mirrored what I sensed in her. "I had it. I felt the magic. It worked."
"I don't know, Liss. It's okay, really. You haven't been off the meds that long, you know."
"Yeah, but I healed Eddie the other day without any problems. And Adrian," she added dryly. He was hanging over the seat again, watching us intently.
"Those were scrapes," I said. "This is a five-alarm migraine we're talking about. Maybe you've got to build back up."
Lissa bit her lower lip. "You don't think the pills permanently hurt my magic, do you?"
"Nah," said Adrian, head tilted to the side. "You lit up like a supernova when you were summoning it. You had magic. I just don't think it had any effect on her."
"Why not?" she demanded.
"Maybe she's got something you can't heal."
"A headache?" I asked in disbelief.
He shrugged. "What do I look like, a doctor? I don't know. Just telling you what I saw."
I sighed and placed a hand on my forehead. "Well, I appreciate the help, Liss, and I appreciate your annoying commentary, Adrian. But I think sleep might be the best thing for now. Maybe it's stress or something." Sure, why not? Stress was the answer to everything lately. Ghosts. Incurable headaches. Weird faces floating in the air. "Probably can't heal that."
"Maybe," she said, sounding as though she took personal offense at me having something she couldn't fix. Inside her mind, though, her accusations were turned toward herself, not me. She worried she wasn't good enough.
"It's okay," I said soothingly. "You're just getting your stride back. Once you're up to full power, I'll go crack a rib or something so we can test it."
She groaned. "The horrible part is that I don't think you're joking." After a quick squeeze of my hand, she stood up. "Sleep well."
She left, and I soon realized Eddie wasn't coming back. He'd taken a new seat so that I'd have more room. Appreciative, I fluffed and repositioned the pillow while stretching my legs out as best I could across the seats. A few more phantom clouds danced across my vision, and then I closed my eyes to sleep.
I woke up later when the plane touched down, the sounds of its engines kicking into reverse startling me out of a deep sleep. To my relief, the headache was gone. So were the weird shapes floating around me.
"Better?" Lissa asked when I stood up and yawned.
I nodded. "Much. Better still if I can get some real food."
"Well," she laughed, "somehow I doubt there's any shortage of food around here."
She was right. Glancing out the windows, I tried to get my first look at our surroundings. We'd made it. We were at the Moroi Royal Court.
Eleven