Page 43 of The Spark that Ignites (Shattered Soul #1)

B owing under his friend’s weight, Vesper dragged an unconscious Callias, the toes of his friend’s boots skidding along the floor as his limp legs flailed like a stringless puppet. Fresh blood slathered Vesper’s leather armour, face, and hair like warpaint.

Emmery’s heart lurched as she searched Vesper’s body for the source but found none. Oh gods, was it all Callias’s?

Briar surged forward and grabbed Callias’s arm. “Merciful Deimos! What happened?”

“ Hounds ,” Vesper gasped, panting heavily.

“Hollow hounds. They—” He sucked in a breath.

“They were outside Ellynne. A half dozen of them. He—” Callias groaned as Vesper lay him on the floor, removed his cloak, and peeled off his soiled gloves, tossing them aside.

“The lunatic threw himself in front of a charging hound. You fucking martyr! What were you doing , Cal? I bloody had that one!”

Blood dribbled from Callias’s wounds, his breathing shallow and thinning by the second. From the severity of the bites, it was a miracle his innards weren’t spilling out. Shredded like paper, layered teeth imprinted his leather armour. No normal dog could have done that.

Briar fell to her knees and with a quaking hand, she swept aside the golden hair plastered to Callias’s tanned forehead, her other hand hovering over his battered body. “He’s—he’s lost too much blood. Vesper —” Her voice shook. “Do something .”

“Emmery, I need you to help him.” Vesper’s urgent voice threaded with panic cut through her daze, so different from his usual nonchalance.

Her limbs numbed as she looked between the three of them, finally locking on Vesper’s wide luminescent eyes.

“I need you to heal him. Use your magic,” he pressed.

Emmery blinked at him, her mind a whirling tangle of thoughts and her body merely wouldn’t respond.

“ Now !” Vesper snapped.

Wrenching her free from her shock, Emmery sank to her knees to assess the wounds. She held out her open hand to Vesper and demanded, “Give me your belt.”

Vesper ripped it free with a single hand and Emmery clamped it around Callias’s upper thigh, creating a tourniquet.

The bleeding slowed but only marginally.

Cinching it tighter until it finally ceased, his chest still pumped blood at a rapid pace.

It wasn’t clotting and there wasn’t anything she could do except apply pressure. This was way beyond her training.

Vesper braced his friend’s ribs and blood seeped between the cracks of his fingers at an alarming rate. Callias grew deathly pale, bloodless, his usual tanned glow fading as panic sucked the oxygen from the room.

Briar’s brows drew together, and she spun on Vesper. “What in Deimos’s name are you talking about?”

His gaze slid to her. “She can heal. I’ve seen her do it.”

“ What ? Are you sure?” Briar baulked. “That’s impossible . No one has that kind of magic. It can’t—” Her vigorous shake of her head ripped her bound hair loose.

With Callias’s chest hidden beneath his armour, Emmery couldn’t reach the wound. Her hand slid to her thigh, and she cursed. Her dagger was still in her room. “Get this armour off him,” Emmery ordered.

Vesper unbuckled Callias’s armour, trying not to jostle him but each movement drew a strangled sound from his friend’s throat. “Those fucking hounds,” he hissed. Vesper yanked a knife from his belt and cut the straps of Callias’s armour. “And she does, Bri.”

Briar’s scarlet gaze locked on Emmery, hurt twisting her mouth and swelling in her gaze. Deathly quiet, she whispered, “You didn’t tell me. We could have been training all this time—”

Emmery’s stomach clenched. She didn’t know why she kept it from Briar, but clearly it had been an oversight. This magic ... it felt secret.

“ Not important ,” Vesper snarled. “Emmery, now !” His words clipped short, that princely authority in his voice straightening her spine. “If you don’t, he’ll die!”

Her rounded eyes darted to him. That magical pull was there as it was the day she healed his face, but she didn’t know how to answer it.

It existed inside her fingers, drawing her hands, but something held her back.

Lingered out of reach. Maybe it was the sheer panic raising the hairs on her neck or the cold sweat sliding down her spine. “I—I don’t know how!”

He grabbed her hand, his skin slick with blood, and closed his fingers around hers but his eyes softened fractionally. “You did it before. You can do it again. I know you can.”

Vesper sounded so sure, but she shook her head, her braid whipping her in the face. Distraught, Emmery attempted to pull air into her seizing lungs. Everything inside her screamed, terror battering her from the inside. “That was ... different. It—it was only a cut.”

After dropping her hand, Vesper tore Callias’s armour off and tossed it aside before slicing away the remains of his tunic. His golden skin was barely visible beneath the thick gore, but even a fool could tell it was severe.

Vesper was right. If she didn’t act now, he would die .

Briar sucked in a breath, tears gathering in her eyes.

“Please, Emmery. You have to try. Please . I can’t .

.. without him—” It could have been the way Briar’s voice broke as she pleaded for Callias’s life that spurred Emmery into action or perhaps it was the tiny part of her that craved redemption for a good deed.

If she could even be redeemed at this point.

But it was like the healing she had done across the gate. Just with magic this time. And even though Callias disliked her, she needed to try. For Briar’s sake. For Vesper too.

She wouldn’t let herself consider failure, though fear and doubt drowned her. Callias’s blood and mangled flesh squelched under Emmery’s fingers as she laid them on his chest. Her stomach churned but her eyelids fell shut as she leaned into that pull of her Hollow magic.

Emmery’s silver threads connected, and her breath burst from her lungs as agony blasted through her, pain destroying her from the inside out. Summoning every scrap of strength, she clamped her teeth down on her tongue to keep from screaming.

Was this the cost Briar spoke of? That day she had healed Vesper’s face she recalled a sting, but this agony mirrored Callias’s.

She absorbed his pain.

Each claw mark. Every bite.

The rows of jagged teeth sinking into her skin. Tearing. Ripping. Separating flesh from bone. Hot blood growing cold, spilling free, sticky and metallic. Vision hazy, her world tilted—

Her vestige pulsed, dimming as she threw her magic into the wounds, offering every silver thread to knit the torn flesh.

If this was the cost, she would pay it. She wouldn’t fail.

Briar whispered under her breath, voice full of wonder, “ Impossible .”

Time passed.

Crawled.

Dragged endlessly, as the mind-altering pain ravaged her.

She numbed to it, maybe from shock or her feeble mind failed, but either way, it was only when Vesper clasped her hands that she touched back down to reality, returning from where she vanished into the clouds.

Vesper said in a hushed voice, “That’s enough.”

But she couldn’t pull back. She couldn’t stop.

Emmery’s eyes shot open. There was too much mutilated raw skin to be healed—the overwhelming urge to fix this, to fix him, overtook her as if it was her sole purpose in life.

“You’re going to overextend yourself,” he urged, gripping her shaking hands. She fought against his hold, but all the strength had been sapped from her bones. “You need to stop, Emmery. Stop .”

He yanked her away and relief struck her instantly, knocking into her chest. Her breaths sawed in and out, her vision fraying with each roar of her pulse. She fell back, too weak to keep upright.

Vesper kept one of her hands as he gently swept his thumb along it. Back and forth. Back and forth. Soothing. Leaving a trail in Callias’s blood. She centered on that touch, holding onto it while her body threatened to float away.

“Cal?” Briar cooed still kneeling at his side.

Callias’s eyes shuttered before unbridled shock widened them.

He glanced down at his chest, at Emmery, and then his gaze locked with Briar’s.

That shared look ravaged Emmery’s heart—the undeniable, unfettered love contained within it.

Crimson soaked Briar’s navy hair as she laid her head on his chest and Callias’s eyes fluttered shut.

And for a long moment, they stayed like that, and Emmery tore herself away, unable to watch this tenderness between them.

When Briar finally pulled back, she tracked each of Callias’s laboured breaths as if it were the only thing tethering her to this world.

Vesper rose to a crouch and squeezed Emmery’s hand, drawing her back to him. “You did so well ... thank you .” He bowed his head. “I’m in your debt.”

Carefully slinging Callias’s arm over his shoulder, Vesper stood and hauled him from the room, grunting under the weight of his friend.

Briar grasped Emmery’s bloody hand, growing stickier by the second as it thickened and dried. Though she held her, Briar stared longingly at the doorway Vesper had dragged Callias’s unconscious body through. “Are you alright? Do you need me?”

Emmery shook her head though she barely felt the movement. “No. Go be with him.” The words numbed like her body had as they left her lips. Mechanical. Almost rehearsed.

Though she gave her a reluctant look, Briar left her sitting alone on the blood-soaked floor for some time, staring after them.

Somehow, she had done it and, yet a weight clamped down on her chest. Emmery hugged her knees, willing the heaviness away but .

.. it lingered. Haunted. Seeped inside her like some permanent thing in her veins.

But it was later that night after everyone had gone to bed that she gripped the bathroom sink, swallowing down the bile climbing her throat.

Her trembling fingers were red but not from washing in scalding water for hours.

No, the blood had stained them.

Even the metallic odour remained, fresh in her nostrils.

She had healed people before, but this was different. It was her magic alone that saved him, and it would have been her fault if it failed.

If he ... died.

No stitches or bandages could have stopped that bleeding. For that moment, she held his life in her hands, and she wasn’t worthy to hold such power. At the thought, Emmery’s stomach roiled.

She darted to the toilet, heaving, her belly empty from her untouched dinner. The pain plagued her, that blinding white shock as it struck her all at once. The trauma that didn't belong but now lived in her body. The payment for this burden she carried.

Emmery heaved again, wishing that the emptying of her stomach would provide some relief. That she could purge this feeling from her flesh. From her soul.

And even after hours of scrubbing her skin raw, Emmery could still feel Callias’s phantom blood between her fingers.