The Autumn Prince

25. A Bend in the Road

Screams diluted by a head full of cotton fought with light that wasn't there for command of my senses as I struggled against a weight across my chest.

"Tom!" someone yelled, or maybe they didn't. Nothing felt real. Pale arms reached out and helped roll aside the weight above me and I sat up, brilliance fading into fog, revealing the ghostly white face of Becca close over mine.

"Are you okay?" I asked, or tried to. Something had happened, something bad, but I couldn't pull the details together. Another scream. It might have been an echo of the first, or a memory, or something else entirely. The fog began to fade as the sound became a ringing in my ears. Becca mouthed words without noise, eyes fixed on my lap and I followed her gaze down.

The next scream was mine.

Katherine lay face up, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, blood trickling from her mouth and nose, as a red bloom spread across her abdomen.

I must have cradled her in my arms and cried, but I don't remember. I don't remember standing up or laying my girlfriend gently down. I don't remember Becca's trembling, terrified embrace, or the talk that immediately followed, or footsteps at the door and raised voices in the hall. I heard about all of that afterward and the information passed for memory, but none of it was ever mine.

I do remember Rachel. She sat limp against the wall, the gun loose in her hand, her eyes as blank as Katherine's, but she didn't have a hole in her belly. And I remember the words that finally clawed their way into my mind and brought back a piece of my sanity.

"Thomas! We must hurry!"

Miss Gold wasn't herself. Deep concern flooded her expression and she looked more human than I'd ever seen her.

"Rachel tried to shoot me." I said, my voice too relaxed in my own ears.

"She would have succeeded had Katherine not placed herself between you," she said quickly, "I have summoned aid, but you must help me now. Where is the Glim?"

Becca ran to the living room and retrieved it from its place beside the sofa.

"Thank you, Rebecca. Lay it on the table. I am no healer, but we will do what can be done." Miss Gold knelt beside Katherine and gestured. The book opened by itself, pages fluttering rapidly.

"She's dead," I said in that horrible, calm voice.

"She soon will be if you do not assist. I cannot both read and attend to her."

I said nothing, unable to take my eyes from the second body I'd seen bleeding on my kitchen floor in two days.

"Thomas!" Miss Gold shouted.

"Ma'am?" Becca spoke up, "Can I help?" She held the hagstone in both hands, waiting for instructions. Miss Gold paused for less than a second.

"Read it aloud."

I don't recall any of the words, but Becca continued to recite, receiving instruction and correction from Miss Gold, while the latter bent over Katherine's body. Several minutes passed and I remained frozen, locked in the cage of inaction I'd built for myself. Finally, Miss Gold sighed and sat upright.

"It is all we can do, thank you, Rebecca."

"It's just Becca, ma'am," she replied quietly.

My godmother stood up, took me by the arm, and led me into the living room while I stumbled along passively. "Thomas, you have no time to mourn."

"Katherine—" I began but I had no words to put after it.

"Her heart beats weakly, but it beats. She needs care I cannot give and herbs I do not have. You are unable help her further now, but the other girl will also die without aid."