Page 21 of Icy Heart, Empty Chest

F illa’s cool blue eyes regarded me with a measure of ingrained hostility as I dragged my half unconscious cargo into her home. Damien had stopped with one-word answers about halfway through the trip but that harsh labored breathing was still there.

“I’m not sure what you expect me to do with that,” she rebuked me, mildly.

I glared at her before I could stop myself. I had a half dead kelpie slung around my shoulders. He slid and dropped, landing with his head on my shins. I grabbed his arms and tugged backward, barely budging. With a shriek escaping from my lips, I managed to pull him over the threshold.

“I think you know exactly what I want. Where do I put him?”

She lazily flicked a hand to the table. My labors continued as I dragged him back. Giving him possibly the worst wedgie in the history of all fae-kind, I grabbed his belt and the loops and hoisted.

I pushed him to a sitting position before guiding his head down and then rushing to bring his legs up.

“I need you to put it back. Reverse the dekartios spell. His time’s almost up,” I rasped.

She pretended to consider it for a moment.

“Hmm. No. He knew the risks. At this point in time it would be almost futile to put it back in his chest.”

I was trying to keep my cool but kept glancing at his sickly pallor. “What would you want to perform the spell? I got the doctor to give up getting his money back and it’s all yours. What else do you want?”

“Little nymph, it may not be a matter of price.” She glided over to him, assessing. “He may be too far gone to try.”

“Please. I will try anything. I will give you whatever I have,” I pleaded. I was beyond reason at that point. The idea that he was slipping away was unfathomable, insidious.

She regarded me with a frown.

“What is he to you?”

I wrung my hands together. “The last person who cares about me in this world.”

“It’s not enough.”

I threw my arms up, screeching. “What answer are you looking for? My first and last friend. The only one who ever gave a damn. Someone I love more than this life itself.”

Well. I said it out loud.

I knelt at his side, looking at his barely rising chest. “If he dies on this table, you might as well kill me too because I can’t face the remainder of life without him.”

She started to move around the room, grabbing a sheet and putting it around his waist.

She ripped up his shirt, exposing his chest, now a sickly green shade, far from his norm.

“The only reason I’m entertaining this farce is out of respect for your mother and the fact that you’re going to help me, and whatever price I ask, you’ll do.”

I nodded numbly.

“I’ll get the heart, pull out the black spell book on the bottom shelf.”

She dashed from the room.

I pressed a kiss to his forehead and looked to her shelves. There was a small black book with a spine encrusted with topaz. I pulled it out and set it next to him.

His breath was so shallow now.

She walked quickly back into the room and pointed at a cabinet. “The bottom two drawers are crystals. Grab a handful of the biggest you can find.”

I complied and brought back four that would put my largest water bottle to shame. I refused to feel anything else besides obedient.

Filla was the best and she was going to undo it. She had to. She was going to put the heart back in, and we’d be back to the way we used to be.

A nagging part of my brain decided to punch me in the heart.

What if I don’t want to go back to the way we were?

What if I want more than that?

“No daydreaming. Time is precious enough as is,” she ordered. “Put these two crystals down near his feet. They’re going to be a reserve since I have no idea how much power putting a heart this sick back in will cost.”

I rushed to comply.

“Listen to me very closely, Cora,” she said sternly.

“There are two parts to this. The first part you’re not going to like.

I have to get the heart back in. By that I mean, I need to take a knife, divide the skin and muscle layers and cut his sternum.

There is no way to magic the heart in. I have to do it the old-fashioned way.

The second will be a power suck. I’m going to use all my available energy, plus the crystals and yours too, to try to coax the heart to rejoin.

It will not be easy. Think trying to light a fire with wet matches. ”

I swallowed hard. If I had thought healing him that one time was draining, this was going to be like walking on a tightrope of knives.

“I’ll do whatever you ask.” I hated how defeated my voice sounded but it couldn’t be helped.

“Grab onto the crystals near his feet. We’re going to make a conduit. It’ll stop him from dying when I make the first incision. Do not say anything, don’t do anything until I tell you to,” she ordered. I nod helplessly and grab onto the large blue crystals.

I immediately get shocked by the surge in power and my knees almost buckle.

“Careful now, those have a bit of kick to them.” My inside thoughts included the phrase WARN ME EARLIER.

I bit down on my tongue and put my hands back on the crystals.

All I can describe it as was like my own magic but on steroids.

The tingling I normally feel was increased exponentially, zipping across my hands and arms, rolling up and over my shoulders.

Blue lightning bolts appeared over my chest. This is what Damien meant when he said he felt juiced.

The sheer power in these crystals with me combined could have jumpstarted a dealership’s worth of cars, powered a small city, you name it.

Filla flicked her hand in the air and the book opened to her page.

I saw her drag a long and wickedly sharp-looking knife to the table and disappear one room over, returning with another large tool.

“Bolt cutters?” I sputtered. “What are you doing with those?”

Oh right, I was supposed to be quiet.

She glared. “I told you I had to get into his ribs! How else did you think I would do it?”

I had no idea. I just shook my head in terror. I refused to let the nerves get the best of me. I refused to give up on him. I swallowed down the bile that was rising in my mouth.

Corrus was watching me. For once I didn’t mind the bird’s presence. I’d take as much familiarity in this circus as I could get.

“Cora. I’m going to touch my crystals and start the incantation. We’re going to get started now. Are you ready?” Was I ready for this? Absolutely not.

“Yes.” A quiet little croak.

The ceiling went dark. All the doors slammed. Corrus squawked excitedly.

The wind whipped up in the room as Filla placed her hands on the crystals. I looked around, confused.

“Keep your hands on the crystals!” she barked. I jumped. They were still on them but I clamped on tighter—a vice grip.

Filla moved to Damien’s head and started chanting.

It was ancient sounding, guttural, like nothing I’d ever heard before.

This one she seemed to know by heart. I kept watching warily as the wind battered against me, driving stands of blue hair free of my braid.

It was a solid minute of rhythmic chanting before she stopped and looked at me.

“I’m going to let go of the crystals now. You may feel a bit of a power whip.”

She took one hand off and then the other. It nearly drove me to my knees again. The lightning whips before had felt much lighter. This was heavier. I could feel a vacuum sensation.

“Don’t let the crystal absorb your energy, Cora. Push it back,” she ordered.

I summoned my magic and pushed toward my left hand.

“Again!”

I repeated, getting more tired of the suction.

She seemed more satisfied. Filla went off to the side of the room and pulled a cart closer, laying linen down on it.

“Whatever I do, little nymph, do not let go. Right now, you are his heart pump and you are his life.”

No pressure.

I didn’t have a way to express my determination and my absolute terror at the scene that was before me. I saw multiple knives on her cart and vowed to close my eyes when she laid a hand on the bolt cutters. I looked down at him.

Damien’s color had improved between the crystals and my own influence. I had noticed a healthier glow to his skin. It was a small relief. His hair was moving in the air flow and his breath seemed to be deep and even. Could he feel pain? Did he know I was there?

Filla picked up a knife and looked at me. “Brace yourself if you must.”

I could only look on as she put the knife between his clavicles and made a long even cut down his breastbone. She had to go back over it, repeating the slice, cutting the layered tissue away. There was no blood being spilled that I could see.

“The magic keeps the blood inside.” She knew what I was gawking at without taking her eyes off him.

Soon I saw the stark white of bone. I shivered.

I don’t know if it was wind whipping up during the winter months, my cooling sweat or the fact that the person I loved most was in field surgery before me.

She proceeded to start to cut down on the muscle in his upper chest, forming a large triangular.

She grabbed another knife and started to cut into the muscle tissue, cutting down enough to form a large flap.

Once muscle and fat had been sheared from bone, she took hold of the tissues and roughly pinned them back to his chest so that the flap exposed the rib beneath.

I shuddered violently but didn’t let go.

It was a strange thought that I could see his lung moving.

Filla grabbed the bolt cutters and got on the table, straddling him. I let out a tiny squeak of protest.

“Trust me. You will not want to see this. Close your eyes. The sounds are bad enough,” she said roughly.

I could see her slip the blades of the cutters near the white surface. The sickening crack that resulted brought tears to my eyes. My stomach churned, burning with acid. The next few cuts brought more tears out and I gave up on looking at her back.

“Think of good times with him, little one. I can feel you struggling.”