Of Breakable Things (39 page)

She opened one eye first. Clipboards lined the wall outside the doorway, and spirits in white coats scuttled past them. Movement from the far corner of her room caused her to jerk upright. Alex focused her eyes only to find a stranger, a boy clutching the seat so tightly his arms trembled. Alex was about to ask him who he was and why he was in her room when he shot up into the air as though the ceiling were magnetic. He slammed mercilessly like a bug on a windshield before crashing back to the ground.

He scrambled back into his chair and glanced at Alex furtively. Alex thought she could have kissed him. He was the very proof she needed. “Are you all right?” she asked, unable to contain the excitement in her voice.

“Go ahead, you can laugh,” he murmured. “The docs say it’s a mental virus spirits can contract, so maybe you’ll be lucky enough one day to experience how much it sucks.”

Alex made a face and covered her nose with her shirt. Thank goodness this time there was no hospital gown, but her head was covered in bandages.

“They put me in here because space is limited, and you’ve been out cold for a while. They didn’t think I’d bother you, but I guess I did,” he said sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”

“No problem.” Alex watched him grip his chair again. “How often do you … uh?” She pointed from the boy to the ceiling and back down again.

“Every few minutes. Good thing there’s a roof. Who knows how far I’d fly if I was outside.”

“How’d you get here then?”

“I projected myself and ran.” He grimaced. “Really fast.”

Alex couldn’t wipe away her smile. She was still alive, well, dead … whatever. She looked at the boy sympathetically. “Can they fix you?”

“They said they’ll just inject something into my head.” He craned his head to look through the doorway. “Do you want me to go get your nurse?”

Alex shook her head. She still existed in this afterlife, yes, but what about Chase? Why could she feel him if he wasn’t here? “Has anyone been here to see me?” she asked the boy.

“No, but I’ve only been here for a few
boring
hours.” He rested his head against the back of the chair.

Alex began to worry.

“Oh wait; there was one girl who popped in for only a second. She didn’t tell me her name.” He seemed upset by this.

“Was she pretty?”

He looked at his lap. “Well, yeah.”

Alex smiled. “Tall with really long red hair?”

“Yes.”

“Skye Gossamer. That’s her name.”

That meant someone had remembered to pull Skye from the rubble. Jonas must have escaped the battle because besides Chase and Alex, he was the only one who knew where she was hidden.

“A Gossamer, huh? I should have known. I think she said she was going to check on your friend.”

“Do you know which direction she headed?” Alex asked, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed.

“Um, I think that way.” The boy pointed to the right, looking alarmed. “Are you sure you’re okay to get up? From what the nurses were saying, you were pretty much comatose.”

“I feel fine,” Alex assured him. “If the nurse comes while I’m gone, just tell her I didn’t want to catch—” Alex waved her hand at him “—whatever it is you have.”

He might have objected, but instead he rocketed straight up out of his chair again. This time his feet flew up behind him, flipping his body upside down so his toes smacked into the ceiling first and sent him nose-diving back down.

Someone should tie him to the chair
, Alex thought merrily.

She padded down the hallway a bit clumsily, a sailor without land legs. She had a slipper on one foot and a sneaker on the other. Her mind must be all sorts of frazzled. Moments from the battle blazed into her head like flashes of lightning: Kaleb bursting through the glass, Reuben thrusting his arms in the air like an insidious puppeteer, Chase’s face coated in black ash.

Alex desperately needed to find him. In that field, they had both been losing what they had left of life—of that she was sure. She didn’t know what had saved them, what had kept them here, but she wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t. She had succumbed to death in those final moments, allowing her mind to think it was suffocating since her heart could no longer feel him, because she believed that Chase was doing the same and she refused to let him leave without her again.

Alex roamed the hallway, keeping her head down. She turned a corner, and warmth overcame her. She took a few more steps before her mind was completely revived, and suddenly she was encased in Chase’s arms. He tucked her deep into his chest, wrapping himself around her again and lifting her from her feet.

The pain in her mind floated upward like the dried seeds of a dandelion. Wishes she didn’t need any more. “I thought you were gone.”

Alex could feel his chin moving back and forth when he shook his head. “You saved me. I don’t know how. I was there, and then I wasn’t. I was alone. Then a second passed, and everyone came back,” he said. “And the pain returned with them. I heard you scream, and I don’t remember anything after that.”

Alex blinked, surprised. “Me too. How long do you think we’ve been here?”

Chase didn’t get a chance to respond before Alex heard familiar voices echoing against the walls. “They’re awake!”

Alex turned to see Gabe and Kaleb frozen in shock, each with an outstretched arm holding back the other, before slinging into motion, barreling down the hall, shoving visitors and dodging patients in their hurry.

Alex ducked inside the huddle so they could embrace her and Chase together. Kaleb stepped back to beam at them, and Gabe lowered his head to his hands, covering the scars the banshee had tattooed on the projection of his face. “Do you know what you’ve put us through? And it would have been my fault if you guys were gone.”

Kaleb smacked Chase playfully. “You have no idea how horrible it was for me to have to peel your lifeless bodies off one another to carry you here.”

“You carried both of us?” Chase asked.

“You didn’t weigh anything, and besides, Alex was wrapped around you like a koala bear.” He shook his head as if to discard the memory. “But, eventually Jonas took Alex.”

Chase’s eyes narrowed. “Where is Jonas?”

Gabe and Kaleb mirrored identical expressions of reservation.

“What?”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Gabe said, gently pushing them all back down the hallway.

“No,” Chase insisted. “We’ll talk about it now.”

Kaleb began to walk. “Let’s at least head back to your room.”

Chase didn’t budge. “Where is he?”

Kaleb sighed. “He’s gone.”

“What do you mean,
gone
?”

“He took off.” Kaleb shoved his brother into movement. “I’m sure he didn’t want to face the Patrol. We can start looking for him now that you two are okay.”

“I’m sure he didn’t want to face us,” Chase said in a low voice.

Gabe scrunched his brow, and the scar on his forehead bunched together. “What do you mean?”

“It was because of him that we were there in the first place. He admitted that he led me to that field willingly, knowing those newburies would arrive.”

Gabe took a clumsy step back as Chase’s words struck him. Kaleb said nothing but his expression showed no surprise.

“He thought they were taking me, not Alex.”

“No way.” Gabe shook his head adamantly. “He couldn’t have known that.”

“He didn’t deny it,” Alex added gloomily. “He just kept trying to get
me
out of there.”

“Do you know that for sure?”

Alex stared at Gabe wide-eyed, gesturing to the three of them, who had been victims of the “innocent” experiment to give Jonas his own clout. Now who was naïve?

“Maybe he brought you there to join the alliance,” Gabe said softly, but it sounded like he didn’t even believe his own words.

Kaleb pursed his lips skeptically. “Why would he think that after what happened to you, Gabe?”

“Maybe he thought it would protect you.”

“You’re reaching,” Chase said, shaking his head.

Gabe rubbed his finger over one of his scars absently. “The Patrol didn’t take Jonas with the others, though.”

“They came?”

Kaleb smirked. “Yeah, right after you decided to use yourself as a shield.”

Alex couldn’t help but think that the Patrol had absolutely horrible timing. Again, they arrived after damage was already done.

“How long have we been out?” Chase asked.

“A few weeks.”

Alex gasped. How could so much time have passed? Her fatigue implied the battle had happened only yesterday.

“Yeah,” Kaleb grinned at a passing nurse and twisted to watch her leave. “You woke up once. Both of you, on the same day, but neither of you regained complete consciousness, and then at exactly the same time, you both went out again. Some of the doctors went all berserk about it, and others seemed really excited.”

“Why?”

“You were doing everything in synchronism. Kind of like when you were little. If one of you moved, the other one moved. I overhead the doctors saying that your brain waves were identical.” Kaleb stopped in front of a doorway. “Do you remember anything?”

Alex shook her head.

“No,” Chase replied, and she wondered if he was lying too, if, like her, he couldn’t explain the feeling with words.

Gabe’s curls were standing on end. He put a hand on Chase’s shoulder. “I’m going to go see about getting you guys out of here.” He hurried away, but he stopped halfway down the corridor and leaned against the walls, resting his hands on his thighs.

“He always wants to believe the best in people, doesn’t he?” Kaleb said.

“At least the best in Jonas.” Chase held out a hand to indicate that Alex should enter the room first. “Gabe wasn’t the only one.”

Jonas used to joke that Alex’s innocence, though he deemed it stupidity, would be the death of her, not her disease. He’d used it against her.

“I can’t deny what happened there in that field,” Chase said. “Or the look on his face. I know it’s hard to believe. I don’t want to believe it, and I was there.”

Alex stopped at the center of the room, not quite sure where to go. With one strong scoop, Chase swept her up and placed her on the bed. He fluffed the pillows behind her and kept one hand around her arm as if someone might snatch her away.

Kaleb loitered in the doorway, staring at the floor, like he needed permission to interrupt them.

“Sit down, Kay,” said Chase, and chairs appeared by the bedside. “So, how did you know we were in Parrish?”

Kaleb shrugged. “I didn’t know, but I knew someone had used the parapets on the roof. I was told if I got up there, the waves would take me to wherever you were.”

“How did you know that?”

“The Darwins.”

“What?” Chase and Alex exclaimed simultaneously.

Kaleb shook his head and plopped into one of the chairs. “Believe me, I was shocked, too. They found me wandering around wondering where everyone had gone, and I almost told them to shove it, but something about them seemed so genuine it made me stop and listen. They knew what had happened to Gabe, and they said they wanted to warn me about the rest of us.”

“Wait a minute. Do you think that means they were in the league, too?” Alex asked skeptically. “Why else would they know all of that?”

Kaleb shook his head. “They weren’t a part of that. The way they were talking sounded like they were disgusted by the league. You know what I think? I think their family knew, and I think a lot of other people knew what was going on. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got to the Eskers. I thought it was another prank or something but then I saw them attacking you.”

Chase scooped his hand under Alex’s. “If you think the Patrol or whoever knew what would happen, why weren’t they there? Why wouldn’t they stop it?”

“You’re missing my point. I think they
were
there.”

“Watching?”

“Maybe.” Kaleb sat back in his chair, crossing his arms angrily. “Waiting to see how bad it would get.”

“How did the fight end?”

“It ended right after Alex fell on top of you.” He laughed humorlessly. “Do you remember screaming like a damn banshee, Al?”

Alex stared into nothing, tasting the moment of hopelessness again. “Kind of,” she whispered. “But I don’t remember anything after that.”

Kaleb tugged at his ear. “That scream was awful. I knew you had a loud mouth, but that was insane. Your damn yelling was so loud that most of the spirits fighting had to stop and cover themselves. That gave me a clear shot at the newburies who were still jabbing at you. I dove into the air and tackled three at once, and I just started wailing on them.”

“Throwing punches?”

“I was so, so angry. I lost my head. I don’t know what I was thinking, because once your scream ended, I was like a deer surrounded by hunters. I blocked some blows, but most were aimed at my head. I was the new target. And they had those stones.”

“What were those?” Alex asked, remembering the stings and flinching.

“Copper. Thankfully, they split the rock into small pieces, the morons. It wasn’t too powerful. And
then
the Patrol came flying in like a meteor shower. I don’t think you understand how loud you were. Scream isn’t even the right word for it. And they didn’t pin down those newburies until after you stopped.”

“I really don’t remember doing it, so I have no idea if I could ever do it again.”

Kaleb’s hands flew to his ears. “Don’t try it,” he warned her. “I think I have permanent hearing damage. It’s been horrible trying to listen during workshops because it feels like one ear is pressed against the wall.”

He stood. “Brigitta’s been nuts since the fight.” He walked to window, glancing out.

“Everyone knows?” Alex asked in surprise.

“Well the Patrol arrested twenty-five newburies. Someone was bound to notice. People were asking so many questions that some spirits even starting writing gossip columns and positing them electronically in the vestibule. Guess whose picture was on the first copy?”

“Who?”

“Sephi Anovark.”

“No!”

Kaleb nodded. “Cat’s out of the bag. The teachers were pissed, but what could they do? Everyone had already seen it. That first copy really got everyone’s attention. There were all these theories about witchcraft and mind control.”