* * *
I must have blacked out.
My senses begin to return to my body one by one, making me aware of how much pain is coursing through my head. I can’t open my eyes for some reason. In fact, I can’t move or speak. Panic begins to spread like wildfire through my body. I hear Chris’s anguished voice chastising Lizbeth.
“Why didn’t you protect her? Why did you let her get so close? How did she get shot?”
“I don’t think she was shot, Chris. She must have passed out and hit her head. She’s still breathing. ”
“She shouldn’t have been standing while all that gunfire was flying around.”
“She wasn’t. She was lying on the ground, looking through the brush. She yelled something and passed out. Just give her some time. She’ll come to.”
When I can finally open my eyes, I see Chris bent over me. His eyes reveal his worry. I reach up and grasp his hand.
“How are you?” he asks.
“Better. Help me sit up, please.”
He does so, and I look around at everyone. Some of their mind-blocking abilities need work because I can read their concern about blood dripping out of my ear. I touch my ear and my hand comes away with clotted blood, causing a flashback about the firecracker exploding in middle school and leaving me without my hearing.
However, I can hear just fine at the moment, so I put that fear aside.
Kayla and Ricky are sitting near me on the ground. They have both sustained injuries from the gunshots: Kayla in the calf and Ricky in the shoulder. Both have other teammates applying pressure to the bleeding wounds with their hands. I want so much for them to be whole again, for them to be healed. Their agony and pain pull at my heart, and I wish very much to help them.
Somewhere behind me, I hear Justin arguing with Chris about whether to return to the cave for safety or to try to make it to a town with injured Runners. My focus is still on Kayla and Ricky. I examine Kayla’s leg wound and instinctively reach out toward her. The heat of her wound radiates against my hand, and the lead in her flesh almost calls out to me. Chris and Justin hurry over after Kayla shrieks. Chris kneels down by us. Kayla grabs Chris’s arm and wraps her arm around his while I will the bullet out of her calf muscle with my thoughts. Astonishingly, the dull gray color of the lead becomes visible as it emerges from the wound and falls on the ground. The wound then silently closes.
The hushed amazement of the others tells me this kind of thing doesn’t usually happen. Kayla is still holding onto Chris, but he doesn’t seem to be aware. He’s distracted, watching me. His eyes are wide and his face beams with a different kind of amazement.
I turn to Ricky and reach forward, placing my hand on his shoulder. Again, I locate the hard piece of lead in his flesh. With Ricky, I’m able to sense broken bone fragments in his shoulder.
“Your shoulder is broken,” I tell him.
No one says anything as I work the bullet out of the wound. I place one hand on the back of his shoulder and the other on his collarbone and hold them firmly as the bone knits together under my fingers. I can feel his shoulder heating up between my hands.
“How does it feel?” I ask him.
“A bit like broken glass, except it’s hot and crackles a little.”
I continue working the flesh and bone between my hands.
“Is there any pain?”
“No. I feel great.”
“Good. I think you’re done now.”
I sit back and watch him test his shoulder. He rotates his arm all the way around, raising and lowering it.
“Thank you, Calli!” he says with a broad grin. “You’re better than our Healer.”
Why hadn’t it occurred to me I’d used the healing ability? Where’s Jonas? I have to find him. While searching the crowd, my eyes make contact with Chris’s eyes and I see the joy there. I can tell what he’s thinking without reading his mind: I’m a Healer. His vision will come true, and our lives will eventually intertwine. No time to deal with his grandiose misinformation. I look beyond him for Jonas.
“Who are you looking for?” Chris asks.
“The person I told you about last night.”
“Come with me, Calli.” Chris pulls his arm away from Kayla, takes my hand and leads me away from the group.
I keep trying to locate Jonas.
“Calli, look at me.” His stern tone catches my attention.
He puts his thoughts to the front of his mind. You can’t expect yourself to be able to heal a cancer patient. Healing those bullet wounds was—simply amazing—but Ricky and Kayla knew they were hurt. Jonas isn’t aware he has cancer. What if you tell him and try to heal him and you aren’t successful? Then you’re left with a distraught boy, and you’ll be beating yourself up for not knowing how to help him. We simply don’t have the time to waste trying out your newfound power. Besides, if we don’t reach a town tonight, there will be no healing anybody, ever.
“All right. You’re right, I mean. Okay.”
“But?” he asks.
“No buts. We need to get moving. What about the bodies?”
Chris looks over his shoulder and says, “They’ll have to stay here. We can’t carry them.”
“Shouldn’t we at least cover them up?”
“With what?”
“I don’t know, leaves maybe? They shouldn’t be left like that.”
“They just tried to kill us. Do you think they deserve a burial of sorts?”
I shrug my shoulders.
Chris continues. “The prisoner will go with us.”
“Prisoner?”
“We’ll hand him over to the Mind-Reader’s council for an interrogation. They’ll perform a read to investigate his intentions.”
“I’ve already done that, Chris. I was in his mind. He’s innocent. He was kidnapped and obeyed the Hunters only because they threatened to hurt his family. The other Runner was also an innocent captive. His parents were murdered by the Hunters’ Clan. That’s why he killed the Hunters and then shot himself.” I pause while I review the memory of the Runner’s death in my mind. “I’m confused. When he shot himself in the head, I felt the bullet go through my own head, and I passed out. But I don’t understand why I had blood . . . ” I trail off, “unless the experience of being in someone else’s mind is far more of a physical act than I originally thought.”
“Well, try not to be inside someone’s head when they die.”
“I’ll make a note of that.” I smile at him.
“Release the prisoner,” Chris orders as we return to the group.
“What?” Justin struts over. “Let me guess. Calli jumped into his mind and saw something that justifies setting him free?” His tone of voice mocks and pokes fun at me.
“Let him go,” Chris reiterates, directing his orders to Will and Michael to set him free. “He’s innocent.”
“What’s your name?” I ask the Runner for the sake of the group.
“Azeel,” he says with a rich African accent. He appears to be in his twenties and he stands taller than anyone in the clan.
“Where’s your family, Azeel?”
“In New York. The Hunters told me if I didn’t do exactly as they ordered, my family would be killed.”
“How old were you when you were taken captive?”
“Sixteen. Four years ago, after racing my friends home from school, the men showed up and took me away.”
“Then, you were the one I missed,” Chris states, dropping his chin to his chest. “I’m so sorry.”
All eyes fall on Chris.
“I was given the assignment to pick up a new Runner right after I turned nineteen. Only, when I arrived, I’d missed him. That had to have been you—New York, four years ago.”
“Four years ago, yes.”
Justin has been in the background, pacing, while we questioned Azeel. “We’re burning daylight here,” he says, placing his hands on his hips. “What direction are we heading, Chris?”
“West. We
can make it to a town by nightfall. Azeel, come with us.”
“I must make sure my family is okay.”
“We can do that once we reach the next town. We have to find a place to stop for the night.”
I stop Chris before he starts to run. “The packs. We need the Hunters’ packs. They have enchanted tents and who knows what else that might come in handy.”
Chris agrees.
We run over to the three dead bodies. Ricky, Yang, and Chris open the Hunters’ packs and take a few objects. I don’t pay attention. My eyes and thoughts are on the dead Runner, named Stefan. He was a prisoner, like Azeel. Someone missed picking him up, just like Chris was too late for Azeel.
Chris flips open a thin blanket retrieved from one of the packs and lays it over Stefan. Azeel hurries over to help.
Azeel says, “Thank you. Stefan was a good friend.”
Chris nods to Azeel, respectfully, then looks up at me. I wish I could read his mind.
As we reassemble to start running again, I overhear Justin throw another hushed jab at Chris. “You and I both know why you missed Azeel. Hope you can live with your consequences of your choices.”
Chris whirls on Justin and utters harsh words. He’s definitely bothered over losing Azeel to the Hunters.