Eventually, my eyes cracked open again. I was in my bed now, and the blanket was pulled up over my bare torso, all the way to my shoulders. I took in a deep breath to help wake myself up, but that air burned in my lungs like fire. I shot into a sitting position as a cough tore through my chest, trying to get enough air to stop it, but the more I breathed, the more I coughed.
“Easy,” Sevedi said from the foot of the bed, while my mother came to my side with a cup of water. “I healed you, but that was no arrow wound to the shoulder.”
Struggling not to choke, I sipped down as much water as I could, eventually managing to cease the burning. It didn’t calm me though, because the moment I could breathe enough to think, my mind immediately went to Ava. And I panicked.
“Where is she?” I demanded, pushing the blanket off and kicking out of bed. “How long has it been? Is she hurt?”
“Kiena,” my mother scolded, “you’re hurt.”
“You need to rest,” Sevedi agreed.
I got to my feet and stretched, wincing at the ache in my chest. There was a new scar across my ribs, and though the wound had been healed, I was so sore. I staggered to my dresser and grabbed a fresh tunic, pulling it over my head. “Where is she?”
“The infirmary,” Sevedi answered in defeat. “But please,” I was already pacing to the door, and she called after me, “go slowly!”
I made it to the hall and started off in the direction of the infirmary. Word must have spread about what happened, because I got curious and concerned looks from everyone I passed, but I ignored them. I would’ve run if I had the strength, because I had no idea if Ava knew I was still alive, and I could only imagine what this event was doing to her. I’d been so unsure about whether or not she even still cared for me, but after this, I knew. Whether she ever wanted to be with me again or not, she’d never stopped caring. My chest had been exploding with pain, but the sheer anguish I could see on her face had looked far more excruciating than the hot pulse of injury that had been ripping through my flesh. She cared.
When I reached the infirmary, I threw the door open, prepared to console her and assure her that I was alright. She was sitting on the single cot, and her focus snapped to me when I burst in. A wave of relief washed over her face as her eyes filled with tears, but I wasn’t glad for it, because her hands were cuffed in heavy shackles. It angered me. She was as much a victim in this as I was, and she certainly didn’t deserve to be in chains.
“They shackled you?” I asked, hurrying to her and reaching for the metal around her wrists.
She yanked her hands away so I couldn’t take them off, and she finally spoke to me for the first time in six months. “I should be in the dungeon,” she said, a guilty tear cascading down her cheek.
“No,” I muttered. The very idea of it was unthinkable. “I can’t leave you in a cell… not after—”
“Not after what?” she interrupted, an unexpected sharpness to her tone. “Not after I was locked up for six months? Or have you forgotten?” She sat forward on the cot, eyebrows converging with frustration. “Six months, Kiena. I’ll survive another if it means you’re safe from me.”
The fact that she’d do that, that she’d sacrifice her own freedom after just getting it back, it hurt so much that I felt the pang of it over the soreness in my chest. “Ava,” I protested, “I—”
“I almost killed you!” she shouted, and the reminder of it caused her voice to crack. “I almost…” A heavy stream of tears fell from her eyes. “Please,” she begged, “I’m a danger. Don’t give me the chance to do it again. I won’t survive it.” She took in a stuttering breath and buried her face in her hands. “If I kill you too… I won’t… Please.”
“I won’t lock you up,” I said, lowering myself onto the cot next to her. I understood what she meant, but I couldn’t do it. Not wouldn’t. Couldn’t. My conscience couldn’t bear the idea of her being locked up after she’d spent six months in solitude. Just seeing her in chains was enough to make me sick.
The moment I sat down, she pulled her hands away from her face in panic. “Get away from me!” She scrambled to the far edge of the cot. “Don’t touch me. Don’t come close. Just go!”
“Ava, please,” I whispered, my eyes dewing with hurt tears because she’d never yelled at me before.
“Leave!” she hollered. “If you won’t lock me up, then go! Get out!” As much as I wanted her to feel better, it hurt too much to hear her say this, and I stood. “Go away!”
I turned and hurried to the door, unable to keep the tears from slipping down my cheeks and reluctant for her to see it. But when I reached for the handle, I froze. I stood there with my back to her, listening to her sniffling and her frantic heartbeat as the hurt in my chest changed to determination.
“What if I could fix it?” I asked, turning back around to look at her. That magic that allowed Hazlitt to control her was dark magic. I’d been able to manipulate it with the commander. Maybe I could do the same with Ava. “What if I could sever the link to Hazlitt and give you control?”
Her soggy eyes filled with a mild hope. “Could you do that?”
I shrugged, entirely unsure of what my limits were because this power was so new. “I don’t know,” I answered. “But, if you’re willing, I could try.”
She watched me for a silent minute in thought, and then glanced down to stare at her hands. “Only if you promise me one thing,” she said. I gave a curious tilt of my head. “Be on your guard.” I nodded my immediate consent. “Please, Kiena,” she begged, “don’t let me hurt you again.”
“I promise.” Cautiously, in case she’d try to stop me, I inched back over to her and lowered myself onto the cot. She didn’t say anything about it, and so I motioned toward the chains on her wrists. “Will you let me remove those? If not for you, then for me. Please.”
She held them out to me with lingering reluctance. I searched for the pointiest tool I could find in the infirmary, and used it to undo the lock that held the shackles closed. They were easy enough to get off, and while I put them and the tool down on the nearest table, Ava set to rubbing out the already sore indents on her skin.
“Ava,” I asked, “they didn’t hurt you, did they?”
She shook her head, and though it wasn’t entirely convincing, she didn’t appear to have any injuries. If anything, they’d only been a little rough, and if there was one thing I knew about Ava, it was that she wasn’t fragile. I scooted forward on the cot to examine the situation and figure out how I wanted to go about her scar, and she watched me curiously, waiting for instruction. It had been so long since I’d seen the mark on her back, and in order to make sure I did this correctly, I wanted to make myself intimately familiar with it. I wanted to examine it with my new magic, and learn everything I could about what I was manipulating.
“Would you, perhaps,” I began, hesitating because she’d hardly wanted me near her since she’d returned, and I wasn’t sure if this was asking too much. “Can I look at your back?”
Instead of answering, she turned away from me, grabbing the bottom of her tunic and pulling it upward until she’d removed the entire thing and her whole upper body was bare. I set to studying the branded shape of the crow, but I was struggling to locate the magic while it lay dormant. I could sense it, but I couldn’t feel enough of it to know what to do.