The Sweetest Burn (Broken Destiny #2)

But as soon as my hands closed around the staff, my mind felt like it emptied of everything that made me Ivy Jenkins. I wasn’t concerned about the water that now swirled to my chin, the screams and howls that echoed down the tunnel from the supernatural death match, my sister, Costa or even Adrian. I didn’t have purpose here. Something else did, and it was so overwhelming, so focused, that nothing else could sway it.

It made me hold the staff vertically, then raise my arms over my head. As soon as I did, power smashed into me with the force of a meteor landing. I would have crumbled beneath it, but that force held my legs as straight as the arms I kept extended over my head. That power grew, building, until it took over everything, even my breath. I was held completely immobile, with no more free will than a power line has over the electricity coursing through it, and as that power reached a crescendo that felt as if it would rip me asunder, I had a moment of complete, out-of-body clarity.

I could see the ruined elevator, the broken exhibit and all the smashed rocks now being pulled back into their original positions. Could feel the water reversing course and returning to the underground lake it had poured out from, then feel the walls of rock beneath it realign into the impenetrable barrier they had been before dynamite had blasted them away.

Then, with another bone-shaking surge of power, I felt that unstoppable, unbelievable energy flare out far beyond the confines of the mine. It expanded and grew, becoming too great for my mind to measure, and through it, I felt the gaps, tears and breaks in the realm walls. Another blast of power shattered my mind, and I felt them all being repaired. But it didn’t stop. It continued to grow, surpassing comparison, until more, then all, the realm wall weaknesses were rebuilt. The gateways slammed shut and were sealed with impenetrable bonds, and though I couldn’t hear them, I felt the screams of countless demons as they realized that they were now trapped within their dark, icy worlds.

Finally, the power began to dissipate, and with its absence, that invisible grip around me loosened. My knees gave way. I would have fallen, except I still had a death grip on the staff. Then it, too, seemed to disappear and I slumped to the stone floor. The water was now gone, but the floor of the mine was wet, and that cold surface seemed to increase the chilliness that had taken residence inside me.

I’d gotten it all wrong, I thought, bemused by the irony. I hadn’t been the one wielding the staff, after all. Instead, the staff had wielded me.

“Ivy!” I heard someone shout, yet the voice sounded so far-off, I didn’t recognize it. Then it said, “Oh God, she isn’t breathing!” and I thought it might have been Jasmine, but I wasn’t sure.

“Do something, she’s dying!” I heard next, and almost smiled. Definitely Jasmine. I’d know that screech anywhere.

“I cannot.” For some reason, Zach’s voice sounded much closer, as if he were speaking right into my ear. “I have been ordered not to heal her or to raise her if she dies.”

Figures, I thought, and would’ve shaken my head if I could move anything. I couldn’t, though, and that revelation was immediately followed by another. I couldn’t feel anything, either. No pain, which was a relief, but the nothingness, the disconnect... Jasmine must be right. I was dying.

I was less depressed by that thought than I would’ve imagined. I mean, I’d spent the past several months worrying that using the staff would kill me, and now that it apparently had, I was oddly okay with it. I’d miss Jasmine, of course. Costa, too, and while my biggest regret was not having more time with Adrian, I felt so lucky, so glad, to have had one perfect, soul-sharing day with him. I love you, Adrian, I thought, slipping further away. Always...

“Bring him here,” Zach said, his voice barely audible now. I thought I heard him say, “Join their hands,” but I couldn’t be sure. I was floating away, and it wasn’t frightening at all. In fact, it felt kind of freeing...

A jolt slipped into me, tiny and yet potent, like a mild electric shock. For the briefest second, it brought the pain and the noise back, and then it was gone. I was relieved by the silence and nothingness again. It was so peaceful here. If Adrian were somehow with me, it would be perfect—

Jolt. Jolt, jolt, jolt, jolt.

Noise crashed into me, along with more pain than I could stand. I tried to run from it but I couldn’t move, even if now, I could feel in full, agonizing acuteness.

Ivy, I felt rather than heard Adrian whisper. Use my strength to heal yourself. Come back to me.

The pain was so intense, I was screaming, and at the same time, I knew I wasn’t making any sound. I was trapped in a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from, and each slow, fluttering beat of my heart sent more merciless, cascading pain through me.

Ivy, Adrian said more urgently. Stop fighting and use my strength!

I didn’t know what he meant, but when he spoke, those jolts sizzled through me with more power. Could that be him, somehow? I wondered. Was I being shocked with a defibrillator? If so, then I was technically dead, but other people had come back from that. Could I?

When the next shock went through me, I stopped trying to run from it. Instead, I braced myself and absorbed it. It brought an avalanche of pain, but beyond that, I could hear Jasmine’s voice again. And Adrian’s, though his still seemed to be whispered into my mind instead of filtered through my ears.

That’s it, Ivy. Take more.

Another shock, and I rode it without bracing this time. Light flashed before my eyes. Not the I-see-a-tunnel kind, but with flashes of faces bent over me and a babble of voices. Then another shock, and another, and I was riding a wave of pain that swept me right into full sound, color and sensation.

“Ivy!” my sister screamed. Then louder, “Costa, she opened her eyes!”

“Stop shouting,” I tried to say, but couldn’t. That’s when I realized I had a large tube shoved down my throat. I couldn’t seem to move anything except my eyes, and when they slid to my right, I saw Adrian in a hospital bed next to me. He also had a breathing tube and multiple machines around him, but his arm was stretched out as if reaching toward me.

That’s when I looked down and saw that his hand was clasped around mine. Tears filled my eyes, overflowing onto my cheeks when I saw him blink once, slowly, and then his dark sapphire gaze met mine.

He couldn’t talk, either, but he smiled, and when he did, I knew that both of us were going to be okay.





CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

IT TOOK THREE doses of manna over three days before I could walk again. Funny; I thought I’d mastered walking around age two, but over a week in a coma will mess your body up, it seemed. Adrian was either taking just as long to recover or he was holding himself back to match my pace out of solidarity.