Page 15

15. Don’t Let Go

Kerry

“You know what to do?” Clem seemed more hopeful than I woulda been in his shoes.

Gemma looked up at the old warden with something like fear. Frowning, I reached down and took her hand in mine, and she turned those worried eyes toward me.

“Whatever you have planned, I won’t let anything hurt you.” I rubbed my thumb over her knuckles. “I’ll keep you safe.”

I didn’t like seeing her upset and I would’ve done nearly anything to smooth out that line between her eyebrows.

“It’s not me I’m worried about.” She shook her head.

“There is a twenty-seven percent chance this won’t work at all,” Travis explained, “and a slightly larger one she won’t survive either way.”

“We don’t have to do this.” She looked at Clem again. “We can find another way.”

“Is she to endure this way until the Rapture, alone in the dark collecting dust?” The old man smiled a little. “No, it’s time to end this, one way or the other.”

“Okay, here’s the biggest stumbling block.” Travis crossed his arms over his chest. “Gemma and I figure we’ll need more power than the two of us can generate. We have some options, though. One, we can siphon power from Tara, Maddy, and John.”

“What does that look like?” Maddy asked.

Travis explained stealing power from another neph would cripple the donor. The body would be under enormous strain, pressured like a deep-sea diver without a suit. Bones might break - or worse. Gemma might not be able to heal everything at once, depending on how much damage was done. And it might take days before the power recharged.

“What’s the second option?” Tara’s eyes were wide in her pale face.

“Use me,” I said.

“Yeah.” Travis nodded. “Use Kerry. He can supply all the power we’ll need. He doesn’t get drained and his pain threshold is higher than anyone else’s.”

“I don’t like this,” John said. “That’s too much on you, Kerry.”

“No. Better one down than three. And there’s no need for all of you to suffer when I can take it. This makes the most sense, although I’m sure Gemma tried to talk Travis out of it.”

Travis smirked and Gemma scowled. I knew her so well.

“I don’t want to hurt you any more than he wanted to hurt Maddy,” she said in a soft voice.

“It’s only pain. It doesn’t matter.” I made a fist with my free hand and thumped my chest twice. “Besides, it won’t hurt as much as it did to have a demon sucked out of my soul.”

“You’ll have to hold Travis’ hand.”

“Whoa. Wait.” My stomach clenched. “What?” “Oh, being tortured and drained doesn’t bother you, but holding my hand does?” Travis asked.

I took a deep breath and squared up my shoulders.

“I can do it.” I wasn’t sure if I was telling them or myself. “Gemma, where will you be?”

“On Travis’ other side. He’ll hold my one hand and I’ll touch Amanda with my other.”

We arranged ourselves as she said and I glared down at Travis.

“Okay, Dragon. Here’s how this will work. Let me take your hand. And don’t squeeze. Or make any sudden moves.”

“Can I breathe?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure.” I shrugged. “Won’t bother me if you breathe.”

Someone chuckled, but I was listening to Gemma explain how Amanda might be unsteady once she was freed. Clem shuffled behind his wife and said he would catch her if she stumbled.

“We should probably do the same for you three.” He pointed to John. “You take Kerry, Tara Gemma, and Maddy Travis. We’ll make sure no one gets concussed hitting the concrete floor.”

My jaw dropped in horror.

“Now John has to touch me, too?”

“Only if you pass out like a pansy.” John came over to stand behind me.

“There’s one thing you have to remember, Kerry.” Travis looked serious. “Do not let go of my hand.”

“Don’t let go. Got it.”

“I mean it,” Travis insisted. “You can cry, scream, fall down, whatever, but don’t let go. If you do, Gemma and I won’t be able to hold the power and it’ll backlash on us.”

“I said I got it!” I started to get irritated. “I won’t let go. No matter what. As long as I’m here, I’ll keep you safe.”

I held Gemma’s eyes and hoped she knew I would die before I failed them. Before I failed her .

“Okay, Gemma.” Travis turned to her. “I’m as ready as I’m going to get.”

“Me, too,” she agreed. “Kerry?”

Everyone’s eyes turned to me and I swallowed hard. Taking a deep breath, I gritted my teeth, reached over, and took the hand Travis held out.

Don’t let go . No matter what. Just like you said. If you do, Gemma will die. You and Travis, too, but he’s not Gemma and you don’t matter.

Backlash from power gone wrong would rebound on its wielder tenfold. It didn’t matter what went wrong; it was the amount of power that counted. And since they were sucking power from me , it would be enough to kill everyone in this room - and probably the surrounding neighborhood.

“Get ready, Kerry,” Travis said. “This is going to hurt.”

“It’s only pain. It doesn’t matter.”

I braced myself as Travis latched onto me like a leech, stabbed into my core, and pulled power from me like a jet-powered vacuum.

In a way, I was prepared. Like I said, it wasn’t as painful as the exorcism. Not by a long shot. It still hurt.

A lot.

Don’t let go. No matter what.

I felt like my intestines were being yanked out through my throat. It was worse than that fight with those twin leeches a few years ago.

“Twin leeches?” I heard John repeat and realized I must have said that out loud. “You’ll have to tell me that story later.”

“She’s almost free!” Travis shouted. “I think another push will do it, Kerry.”

“Don’t say it like that,” Maddy said. “He’s not having a baby!”

All their words jumbled up in the haze of pain, and I didn’t bother to sort them out. Gritting my teeth, I tried to think of snow and ice and anything cold as every muscle lit on fire.

“Kerry?” Ah. Gemma’s sweet voice. “Can you give us a little more?”

More had never been a problem for me. I could hurl power all day long and have plenty of steam left to fight through the night. In fact, I never met a neph who could match me. Letting someone slurp it from me like soda through a straw was a new experience - and a painful one.

I’d been working out like a beast and eating good and everything, but I still wasn’t in the kind of shape I needed to be in for what they wanted. It would be months, maybe another whole year, before I would be able to fuel something like this without it half-killing me.

But she was asking me to. The angel who saved me time and time again. Whatever she needed, I would give her. Whatever she wanted from me, she could take. All of me belonged to her, anyway.

“Do it,” I ground out.

As Travis tore power from me, I felt muscles rip and dropped to my knees with a moan. A rib snapped, and another, and a third - crack! crack! crack! - and my whole body shook.

Don’t let go. No matter what.

“Stop! You’re killing him!” John shouted.

“No!” I squeezed Travis’ hand harder. “Finish it!”

Blood trickled from both nostrils, stars burst in my eyes, my whole rib cage was about to shatter—

And then it was over.

I doubled up, and hands caught me. Knowing it was John and too weak to fight, I let him get me to the floor. Rolling flat on my back, limbs spread eagle and limp, I closed my eyes and tried to remember what breathing was.

“It’s over, Kerry,” he said. “You can let go of Travis now.”

“Gemma?”

“She’s okay. Let go of Travis now, all right?”

I blinked. An eternity later, the words made sense. I relaxed my hand and heard a harsh groan come from nearby.

Sorry, Dragon.

“Kerry?” Gemma’s voice was thick with tears.

Of course it is. My mouth kicked up in a half-smile.

Seconds later, she threw herself on me and I had just enough left in me to block out the torture of her lying on my busted-up chest. It was nothing compared to what I’d just endured.

“My little … crybaby.” Using the very last of my strength, I reached up with one hand and touched her cheek. “Told you … I’d … keep you … safe.”

“You always do, Goofy,” she whispered in my ear.

Those were the last words I heard for a long, long time.

#

Gemma

After knocking Kerry out with waves of healing power, I turned my attention to the others in the room. Kerry had crushed Travis’ hand, so I repaired that, then turned to find Amanda. Clem held her in his arms where she’d fallen.

“William?” Amanda shivered and stared at him. “William?”

“Yes, it’s me,” he admitted. “I wanted to spare you this, but you recognized me too easily.”

“Have I been asleep that long?” She laid one hand on the side of his wrinkled face.

“I’m sorry I’m so old.” He tilted his cheek into her palm. “But I am thankful I’ve lived long enough to see you restored.”

Amanda suddenly gasped and cast her gaze around until her eyes landed on me. A flash of white, and I felt a snap of her power wash over me.

“You’re a healer?” Her face was both anxious and hopeful, and my heart went out to her.

“Yes.” I knelt next to her.

“How long have I been asleep? Do you know?”

I hesitated, but her stern look made me answer.

“Two hundred years.”

“Two hundred …” Her voice faded as she looked up at Clem. “Two hundred years!”

Clem seemed incapable of speech. He brushed her long black hair with his gnarled hand and wept.

“Um, I, ah, took the liberty of checking you over,” I half-whispered. “You’ll want a more thorough evaluation later, I’m sure, but everything looks fine as far as, um… Well, as far as your condition .”

What? It wasn’t easy trying to keep her secret and reassure her at the same time.

“I had feared all was lost.” A single tear slipped down her cheek.

I had to clear my throat.

“Clem’s going to take you to the Sanctuary. You’ll be safe there and you can catch up with him and the rest of the world. I’m sure everything will look and feel quite strange at first. Technology rules the world now, and—”

I broke off, imagining how overwhelmed Amanda would be by the great changes between this world and the Victorian-era one she remembered.

“My dear, I will adjust. I was freed in William’s lifetime. What more could I ask for? I cannot thank you enough. What is your name?”

“Gemma. Gemma Shepherd.”

“And this poor boy you used.” Amanda inclined her head toward Kerry. “He’s a veritable furnace of power, isn’t he?”

“His name’s Kerry,” I said, pride in every word. “Kerry Harker.”

“Is he your beau?” She laughed when heat flashed across my cheeks. “I suppose the glow on your face is answer enough.”