Until, suddenly, there was no one left to fight.
Their chests heaving, Tor and Rhess stood in place for one long moment, staring at the mess around them. Rhess shook herself out of it first, moving toward where Kiva and Tipp remained in the corner. Kiva thought she might have heard the slightest of moans from the young boy then, as if he were waking, but just as she turned to him, something caught her eye.
The tattooed man had faked his defeat.
He rose silently behind Tor, unnoticed by her brother or Rhess, both of them looking in Kiva’s direction.
“TOR!” she screamed. “BEHIND YOU!”
Tor whirled too late to mount a defense, the Mirraven already upon him.
But then Zuleeka was there in her Viper mask, appearing from behind the crates and slamming into the burly man just as he thrust his blade toward Torell. The three of them were locked together, their bodies so close that it looked as if they were embracing. A loud gasp of pain met Kiva’s ears and the tattooed man sank to his knees, before he collapsed entirely, with Tor and Zuleeka standing above him.
For a moment, no one moved.
And then Tor was falling.
“Torell!” Rhess cried, reaching him just in time to stop him from slamming onto the hard ground.
Zuleeka was staring at their brother in horror.
As was Kiva.
Because the Mirraven’s blade was lodged in Tor’s chest.
For one terrible second, Kiva couldn’t move, couldn’t think, but then Rhess looked to her and screamed, “HELP HIM!”
And Kiva remembered.
She could help him — she could heal him.
Just like she’d healed Tipp.
Sprinting over to them, Kiva battled back a wave of fear and forced herself to remain calm.
“K-Kiva,” Tor said, his emerald eyes clouded with pain beneath his mask.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” she said, using her most soothing healer’s voice. “But this —” She reached shakily for the hilt of the sword. “This is going to hurt a little. Just a bit of a pinch.”
With no further warning, she ripped the blade from his chest.
Tor’s body buckled, his mouth opening in a soundless, agonized scream, and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
“Tor? Tor!” Rhess yelled. “Wake up! Kiva, wake him up!”
“He’s better off unconscious,” Kiva said, her hands covering the blood spurting from his wound. “Dammit, I think the blade nicked an artery.”
“You have to help him,” Rhess begged, her voice catching. “Kiva — please.”
In the back of her mind, Kiva marveled that the other girl had slain numerous bodies and was coated in bits of each of them, and yet it was the blood pouring from Torell that was her undoing. He was her best friend, she’d said. Kiva couldn’t help wondering if perhaps he was more than that.
“Hold it together, Rhess,” she said quietly. “And give me some space.”
Throughout all of this, Zuleeka continued to look down at them in muted dread, but Kiva didn’t have time to coddle her sister. Instead, she closed her eyes and reached for her magic. Her grandmother was right — she should have spent time learning how to use it, rather than stuffing it away and relying on it in desperate times only. But hindsight wouldn’t help her right now, not when her brother’s lifeblood was gushing through her fingertips.
“Please,” Kiva whispered, having no idea what she was doing but urging her magic to come forth. “Please.”
And then she felt it. The tingling in her fingers, the burning in her hands, the rush of power leaving her as long-buried intuition kicked in, directing the magic to heal the fatal wound. She opened her eyes to see the familiar golden light flooding into Torell, his blood flowing less and less until it stopped completely, his skin sealing shut. His face was pale, his lips nearly blue, the amount of blood he’d lost concerning but not catastrophic. He would recover, Kiva knew, as her magic began to withdraw, the golden light fading. He would live.
A sob left her, and she wasn’t alone in her relief, with Rhess clutching desperately at Torell.
“Is he —”
“He’s fine,” Kiva said weakly, raising a hand to her suddenly dizzy head. “He just needs to sleep it off.”
As did Kiva. She’d felt equally exhausted after healing Tipp, but she’d been in the middle of a prison riot at the time and hadn’t had the luxury of taking a nap.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t in the position to do so now, either, so she pushed past her lightheadedness and raised her eyes to her sister, wanting to reassure Zuleeka that Tor would be all right.