Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

“Frito chili pie nacho grande cinnamon oatmeal ice cream cake and waffles with syrup!” I yelled. I reached the far wall of my room and spun around, pacing back the way I’d come until I met another wall and turned around again.

“Henry—” Ethan spoke up, but I talked over him.

“Who does that garlic bread sundae think she is?” I ranted, grabbing my hair with both hands and pulling until I nearly went blind from the pain. “If she so much as touches him, I swear to the whoopie cushion in the sky that I’ll mash her into marshmallow paste!”

“Henry!” Ethan jumped to his feet and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Stop it already!”

I pushed him away, sending pain—made even worse from having stormed all the way to the Grand Lark—lancing up and down my arm. I had done what Grandpa Teddy said and gone back to Saint Bobo’s, but if he thought that meant I was going to sit here like a good girl while my brother got murdered, then he didn’t know me at all.

And that’s exactly what I was worried about. He did know me. So if I wanted to get out of here and fix this, that meant I had to do it in the most un-Henryish way possible.

“You need to calm down,” Ethan said, looking me in the eye. “Pacing back and forth until you’ve worn a ditch in the floor isn’t going to solve anything.”

“How am I supposed to calm down knowing that…that…” I tried to think of a food disgusting enough for her, but failed. “…that woman is out there doing my job?”

“Why is this such a big deal?” Ethan asked. “It’s not like you’ve been fired. As soon as you heal and get out of the hospital, things will go back to normal.”

“And that’ll only take longer if you don’t rest,” said Jade, who had been sitting quietly ever since we got back.

I glared at them. “You don’t understand. Neither of you do!”

“Then help us understand!” Ethan insisted.

I opened my mouth to retort, but swallowed the sharp words before they could come out. They didn’t understand. They didn’t know Cousin Gumdrop like I did. But that didn’t mean they deserved for me to take my frustrations out on them.

I stepped away, and Ethan let go of me. I went to my bed and sat down on the edge, hunching over to stare at my knees. Where, oh where, to begin?

“Cousin Gumdrop isn’t like me,” I said a minute later. “Being the Hunter means you’re a protector. We only kill to protect humanity from the worst parts of klaonkind. Cousin Gumdrop kills because she enjoys it.”

I looked up, and Ethan’s face paled a little.

“She doesn’t care who or what she kills,” I went on. “To her, being the Hunter is just an excuse to kill maiams and get paid for it—and with the council’s blessing, too. She’s hated me ever since McGus chose me to be the next Hunter instead of her.”

“But she’s still just killing maiams, right?” Ethan asked.

My stomach did a somersault. “No. She’s taking on all of my responsibilities. That includes hunting down the ghul in Burning Creek.”

Ethan and Jade’s eyes widened in unison.

“Then you mean she’s…” Jade said, her voice trailing off.

I nodded. “She’s going to go after Con. If I don’t do something, she’ll kill my brother! And not because she thinks he’s the one killing people. She couldn’t care less about that.”

“She’ll kill him to get to you,” Ethan whispered.

“Revenge disguised as duty,” I said, rising to my feet. “That’s why I can’t just sit here and wait until I’ve healed. I have to get home. There are enough inhalers there to get me back into fighting shape. Then I have to help my brother.”

Ethan stood up too. “Then let’s get out of here!”

I paused, then smiled. His enthusiasm helped to chase away the overwhelming dread that was suffocating my heart, if only a little. And to think, just a couple months ago he wouldn’t have raised a finger to help Con if it meant putting himself in danger.

“It’s not that easy,” I said with a sigh. “Grandpa Teddy isn’t going to let me just walk out of here. If I wasn’t so messed up, I could fight my way out, but…”

“But if you could fight your way out, you wouldn’t need to fight your way out,” Jade finished for me.

“Exactly. Which means we’re going to have to think of another way.”

The three of us sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking. I studied the window. That was the most obvious way out besides the door, but Grandpa Teddy had been smart enough to put me on the third floor. Maybe Ethan and Jade could go to other rooms, collect bed sheets, and we could make a rope to climb down on. No, that would be way too obvious. Slowly, I scanned the room, searching for anything that we could use to…

My eyes fell on the gem hanging from Ethan’s neck.

I was on my feet in an instant. “Ethan, I need you to make a wish for me!”

He stared blankly at me. “What?”

I pointed at the necklace. “Use Jade! You can wish for me to be healed, and then there’ll be nothing they can do to keep me here!”

“Wha- I don’t…” He raised his hand to hide the gem from me. “No!”

“Please, Ethan!” I clasped my hands and begged him. “This is my brother’s life we’re talking about! All I need is one wish!”

“I can’t do that!” he protested. “If I did, I’d only have one wish left before Jade disappears forever!”

Jade got up and stepped between me and Ethan. “Henry, stop. Don’t go down this road.”

I pushed her away. “Stop being so selfish! You know I’d do it for you!”

“I said no, Henry!” he yelled, his eyes flashing angrily. “Now drop it!”

I glared at him, my cheeks burning blue with anger. After all I’d done for him…giving him a place to live when he had no family…saving his life on a daily basis…never asking for a thing in return…this was how he repaid me when I needed him? He would let Con die just for some stupid wish that he was never going to make anyway?

Before he could react, before even I knew what I was doing, I lunged for the necklace.

Ethan caught my arms as they closed in on his neck, and he did his best to push me back. I was far from in good condition, but I was still the Hunter. I fought him, inching my hands closer and closer to Jade’s core. If he wouldn’t make a wish for me, then I’d make it my—

Jade’s arms wrapped around my stomach, and heaved backwards. I screamed in frustration as she pulled me away from him—and herself—inch by inch. My hands still stretched out for Ethan, fingers scrabbling uselessly for the gem that was completely out of my reach. My body was on fire with pain, but I ignored it.

“Henry, stop it!” Jade yelled. I don’t know if I had ever heard her raise her voice before. I also didn’t care.

“Give it to me!” I screeched like a mad banshee. When Jade refused to let me go, I reached down and grabbed her wrists, prying them away from me. Once I was able to move a little, I spun, crossing Jade’s arms around each other, and shoved with all my might. Jade was sent sprawling on the ground with a cry of pain. A small part of me felt—no, there wasn’t time for guilt. She was a freaking genie! It wasn’t like that was even her real body!

I rounded on Ethan again…

And found myself looking at the crystal spellhammer.

“Cogito et creo,” he said.

I was blasted backwards by a flash of light. For a second, I seemed to hang in midair. Magic! Ethan had just used magic on me! Then I crash landed on my bed, the pillowy soft impact sending even more waves of pain coursing through me. I don’t know how long I laid there on my back, gasping for breath, but slowly the agony faded, and I was able to raise my head.

Ethan and Jade were both standing at the foot of my bed, identical looks of horror on their faces. Ethan still had the spellhammer clutched in a white knuckled grip. Their eyes…looking at them, realization even more painful than my wounds dawned on me. Shame stabbed my heart like an ice cold dagger.

“I…I’m sorry,” I gasped, my head spinning with the knowledge of what I’d just done. My eyes started to sting with tears, and I fought to keep them in.

I lost that fight.

“I’m so sorry!” I cried, tears spilling down my cheeks. I covered my eyes, not even able to look at them anymore. What kind of a friend was I? A little pressure, and I immediately betrayed both of them in the worst way imaginable. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

Then I felt the last thing I was expecting: a hug.

“It’s all right,” Ethan said into my ear as he gently wrapped his arms around me.

Another hug, this one from my other side. “You’re not thinking clearly. We understand.”

The fact that they had already forgiven me should have made me feel better. Instead, it only made things worse. I began to sob, tears spattering noisily on my bed sheets. I have the best friends in the whole world. The whole freaking world!

“We’ll find a way to save Con,” Ethan said. “I promise!”

“And we’ll do it together,” Jade added.

We stayed like that until I was able to get myself under control. When the last of my tears had fallen, and I’d wiped the snot from my nose with the back of my hand, I raised my head and gave my two best friends a weak smile.

“Thank you,” I said in a choked voice. “I…I think I…”

Ethan nodded encouragingly. “Yeah? What is it?”

“I think I…” I took a deep breath. “I think I need another painkiller.”

I stood up with a groan, my body hurting even worse than before. Ethan and Jade went back to the foot of my bed, whispering something to each other that I couldn’t make out. With eyes that were still blurry from tears, I fumbled at my nightstand until I found my pill bottle. I twisted open the lid, shook out a single pill, and popped it into my mouth. A cup of water next to my bed helped me swallow it. Hopefully this wouldn’t make me sleepy or anything. We needed to think of a—

“Henry!” Ethan yelled.

I spun around, my hand reaching for Splatsy, but I couldn’t see anything wrong. Instead, Ethan was looking at me in horror. No, not me. My hand. I followed his gaze…

“Oh, sugar honey iced tea.”

Those weren’t my pills. They were Ethan’s.

A strange, rumbly feeling came from my stomach.