CHAPTER 46

JARETT'S POV

For a second nothing happened.

The black vial was empty in her hand. Helena’s throat worked as she swallowed the last of it. The air in the hospital room got heavier, like before a storm.

The IV pump kept beeping, steadily and stupid and normal.

Then she gasped.

Her back arched. The glow from the potion went down her throat and spread under her skin. It moved like liquid light, down her neck, into her chest, into her arms. The bruise on her cheek that I’d been staring at for four days faded right in front of me. The cut on her lip closed and the color came back to her face.

The monitor next to her beeped faster then it steadied. Her heart rate dropped back to normal.

She stood up without the IV and without wobbling.

She rolled her shoulders like she was testing them. She flexed her fingers, took a deep breath and didn’t cough.

“Whoa,” she breathed.

Relief hit me so hard my knees almost gave out. I had to grab the bed rail to stay up.

She was okay....she was really okay. She was going to be on that 5 AM bus. The team had a chance. I hadn’t traded a year of my life for nothing.

Helena crossed to me in two steps. She took my hand without asking. Her fingers were warm now and they felt alive and the second she touched me she saw the black veins.

They started at the cut Maren made in my palm and crawled up my wrist, up my forearm, disappearing under my sleeve.

Thin, dark lines, like ink in water and like something was spreading under my skin that didn’t belong.

“This isn’t normal,” she said quietly. “What did you promise her?”

“Helena—”

“Tell me, Jarett.”

She wasn’t angry, she was scared and that was worse.

I closed my eyes. I could still taste lightning from the shield vial Maren made me drink. “I took a blood oath for one year of service to her. Whenever she call me, I'll go and do anything for her.”

The room went silent except for the monitor.

I waited for her to yell, to hit me or tell me I was an idiot. She didn’t.

She just hugged me tightly with her arms around my neck, and her face pressed into my jacket.

I could smell hospital soap and her shampoo and the faint trace of rosemary from the potion.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered into her hair. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Don’t be,” she said into my jacket. Her voice was muffled. “We’ll figure it out after we win.”

After we win, like it was that simple, like Maren wouldn’t call and ruin everything.

We signed her out AMA. Nurse Alina tried to argue. Helena just smiled and said her pain was gone and she had a game to coach.

We packed her bag in five minutes and left the hospital.

In the car, the black veins itched, still I kept my sleeve pulled down.

“You’re quiet,” Helena said.

“I'm just tired,” I lied to her.

She reached over and took my hand anyway. Her thumb brushed over the black lines. She didn’t say anything.

We got to the arena by 4:45 AM. The bus was already idling in the lot, exhaust curling in the cold air.

Guys were loading gear, laughing, even when they looked half-asleep. The moment they saw Helena get out of the car, the whole parking lot changed.

Dell dropped his bag. “Helena!”

Mason actually ran at her. “You’re alive!”

The coach stood by the bus door. He just pulled her into a hug instead. “Thank God. We’re screwed without your head.”

Helena laughed really loudly. “Then let’s go win one.”

On the bus she moved like she’d never been hurt. She walked down the aisle checking ankles, shoulders, wrists.

She sat next to Mason and flipped open his notebook and redrew the breakout play he’d been messing up. She made Dell re-tape three guys because “that’ll slip in the second period.”

She was back fully and it was because of me and because of what I did with Maren.

********

The game started in a few minutes. The entire place was packed with over 18,000 people, there were cameras everywhere with scouts in the second row with clipboards.

In the first period we were down 1-0 and the team was tight. Helena called a timeout and got in their faces. “Play your game. Stop playing theirs.”

In the second period we tied it. In the third period we pulled ahead.

With two minutes left, I took a stupid penalty. I was hungry and angry and I hadn’t eaten because I was too busy watching Helena.

She looked at me from the bench and mouthed the words: "breathe." To me.

We killed the penalty, scored an empty-netter. 4-2 then the final buzzer sounded.

The arena exploded. Guys piled on each other. The coach was actually grinning. Helena was in the middle of it with the clipboard still in her hand, getting hugged by three defensemen at once.

I stood on the ice and watched her. It was worth it. Whatever Maren asked for. It was worth it.

I moved silently to the locker room, there was still music playing. The air tasted of victory and the Gatorade someone had dumped on Coach.

Helena was sitting on the bench, laughing with Dell, already talking about tape for next practice.

“His ankle is gonna blow if we don’t—”

She looked up and saw me. Her smile softened. “Hey.”

“Hey,” I said back.

My phone buzzed in my bag. I almost ignored it. Then it buzzed again.

A message from an unknown number, "I need you to come at midnight to the old bridge. Come alone, your debt is due. From Maren."

How the hell had she gotten my number?!

Right, she was a witch, that was not impossible for her.

I let out a huge sigh and deleted her message before sliding the phone back into my bag like it hadn’t happened. My heart was pounding.

Six hours...I had six hours until midnight. Six hours until I had to walk away from this and go pay a witch.