Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

The first thing I heard when I woke up was sobbing.

“It's my fault, Jade. It's all my fault!"

“Hush, Ethan. It’s okay. Shhh.”

Being the incredibly brilliant girl I am, I immediately realized it was Ethan and Jade. I realized half a second later that I was in a frankly ridiculous amount of pain. Like someone had dumped me into a giant blender with a metric ton of bricks and made a Henry gravel smoothie.

Or like I'd been run over by a semi-truck.

I opened my eyes, and the familiar sight of Saint Bobo’s Hospital greeted me. Walls so white they hurt my eyes, bed sheets so scratchy you could use them as sandpaper. And, true to my razor-sharp intuition, Ethan and Jade were sitting at the food of my bed. Neither of them had noticed that I’d woken up yet. Ethan—back in human form again—was hunched over with his face in his hands, shaking as he wept. He looked so miserable, so utterly defeated, that for a few seconds I forgot that I felt like King Kong had used me as a stress ball.

“First Mom and Dad,” Ethan said into his hands, “now Henry! And it’s all because I’m such a freaking idiot!”

“Henry is going to be fine,” Jade said soothingly, rubbing her hand up and down his back. “The doctor said she’ll be back on her feet in another day or so!”

Seeing them there, sharing such a tender moment, made my chest flare with jealousy. What gave Jade the right to be so close to Ethan? Was she the one who’d saved his life? Well, yeah, I guess she had. But I’d done it more! Saving Ethan's life was as much a daily chore for me as taking out the garbage every morning!

Ethan reached inside his shirt and pulled out Jade’s necklace.

“Everyone I care about dies,” he said, his voice hoarse. “And it’s always my fault.”

He sat up straight and turned to look at her. She looked back, and their eyes locked with each other.

“What’s going to happen to you, Jade?” he asked softly. “If you get hurt, or worse, and it’s because of me…”

Jade closed her hands around Ethan’s, and his closed around her core, their fingers clasping so tightly that only a few faint beams of its light escaped.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” she promised. “As long as you’ve got my core, I’m going to be with you.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

“I just am, Ethan.”

Their faces began to inch closer to each other.

“IT’S…ALIIIIIVE!” I roared, sitting up in my bed with my arms outstretched Frankenstein-style. Jade and Ethan froze, their lips mere centimeters from touching, and spun to look at me.

“Henry!” they both yelled at the same time.

I grinned at them. “Sorry to disappoint you, bucko, but I’m not dying today. Also, I’m going to lay back down now because that really hurt, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, owww.”

Ethan and Jade leaped to their feet, gently helping to ease me back down onto my back. Guacamole corn chowder, the pain was enough to make my eyes water. But since it had stopped their impromptu little makeout session, it was worth it.

“Henry, how do you feel?” Ethan asked once I was as comfortable as I was going to get.

“I got a booboo, Ethan,” I said. “Can you kiss it and make it better?”

His face turned red, and he looked over at Jade, who was giving me a disapproving scowl.

Ethan knelt down beside my bed and took my hand in both of his. My heart did a backflip, but the look on his face quickly chased away those feelings. He looked like he was about to tell me my dog was dead—and he had killed it.

“Henry, I am so…sooo…sorry,” he said, fresh tears rushing from his eyes. “I was acting like an idiot, and you got hurt because of it. Because of me!”

“Don’t give yourself so much credit,” I said, rolling my eyes. “That ghul is the one who—”

“No, Henry, you don’t understand.” Ethan squeezed my hand tighter. Painfully tighter. “That truck…it was the one that killed my mom and dad! The ghul read my worst fear and used it against me, but you saved me. And…And you got hurt because of it!”

I didn’t reply. Part of me wanted to make a joke, play it all off like it was nothing. Surprisingly, that part of me was in the minority for once. Looking Ethan in the eye, I could see his pain, just as bad as mine but in a different way. There wasn't a single memory more painful for him than the night he'd lost his parents. To have that same truck come back for his best friend…I couldn't imagine what he must have been feeling.

“Well,” I said eventually, “at least you look like you this time. Did you finally learn your lesson about those stupid pills?”

Ethan flushed again. Slowly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the medicine bottle.

“Oh, come on,” I whined. “Couldn’t something good have come out of this?”

“Sorry,” he said. He didn’t put them back in his pocket, though. Instead, he set them on my nightstand, next to another bottle of pills I didn’t recognize—and my inhaler!

“Oh, thank the whoopie cushion in the sky,” I said, grabbing it and holding it to my mouth. I pushed down, and laughter surged through me. I closed my eyes, waiting for it to chase away the pain. Why hadn't they done this while I was asleep? I could have been…

Nothing happened.

The laughter chased away my exhaustion, but that only made me even more aware of the pain that wracked my body. I pressed down on the inhaler again, but nothing came out. I looked at it in confusion. Empty already? One of Grandpa Teddy's inhalers had enough laughter to last an entire week if you were smart about it— which, admittedly, I wasn't. Being the maiam hunter, I usually went through one a day. Emptying one out in a single puff, though? That was unheard of!

"Guys?" I asked, turning to Ethan and Jade. "What's going on?"

They both looked away guiltily.

“Answer me!” I snapped.

"While you were unconscious," Ethan answered in a hushed voice, "the council made a decision."

"They said that if you stayed here until you healed naturally, maybe that would teach you to be more careful," Jade added.

I narrowed my eyes. "Say what now?"

"Every morning, your grandpa brings you a new inhaler," said Ethan. "They have just enough laughter in them to keep you alive until he brings another the next day."

"WHAT?" I yelled, sending a jolt of pain down my spine. "How could they do that to…"

I paused as the rest of what Ethan had said registered in my brain.

I turned to him. "Wait, you said he comes here every morning."

Ethan nodded, and a pit formed in my stomach.

"How long have I been here?"

Ethan and Jade shared a look.

"Almost a week," Jade finally answered.

I sat up, ignoring the pain.

"A week?" I shrieked at the top of my voice. "I've been lying here for a whole freaking week?"

"The doctor said it was a coma." Ethan was talking fast, like hearing the whole broccoli beefing situation at once would make it less painful. "But he also said as long as we kept you supplied with laughter that you'd probably wake up in a week or two, so we didn't need to worry.”

Jade pointed at the pill bottle next to Ethan’s. “Those are painkillers, in case you start to hurt too much.”

“Your grandpa said the council would have someone else fill in as the Hunter until you were better,” Ethan concluded.

I groan-screamed and fell back onto the bed. "Noooo! You guys, McGus isn't in any shape to be out fighting maiams!"

Ethan and Jade shared another look.

"McGus isn't the one filling in for you," Jade said slowly.

The pit in my stomach grew even heavier.

"Who is it, then?"

Ethan bit his lip, a trickle of sweat running down his brow. "It's…"