Tragic Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #5)(7)

“Oli, I can't heal someone who’s already died. I would do anything I can for you, but that’s… impossible,” Felix says, and I open my mouth right as the door opens again, another man in a white coat walking through.

I recognize him from around the Sanctuary, but it's only when Gryphon's body fills with tension that I know that he isn’t somebody we want in the room during this moment.

“You can't just transport into the medical center. There’s a protocol that should be followed,” he snaps. Gryphon rises up onto his feet, stepping over Nox to plant himself between the man and the rest of the room.

There’s no one that can get past him when he’s like this, and I feel a swell of pride for my Bonded, the strength and determination to take up for us all and to lead when it’s required.

North doesn’t move away from the wall.

He’s as empty as the void eyes we share.

Both of Gryphon’s hands flex into fists at his sides, and I know he’s teetering on the edge of control. He’s not someone who wants to talk shit out with people. If he gives a command, he expects it to be followed without question. Politics is not his strong suit and having to do it now, with Nox dead at his feet… this man might not make it out of here alive.

“Get out of here, Payne. You don’t make the decisions around here, and this is a private matter.”

As much as I’d like to, I don't have time to listen to watch Gryphon deal with this man.

I turn back to Nox’s body and let my hand hover over his chest, careful to not make contact but still feeling the chill that’s taken over his body.

I want to scream, but my voice stays level as I murmur, “Felix, I need you to listen to me. I need you to heal him. I can’t explain how or the specifics but… please.”

Sage comes around Nox’s body to sit at my side, careful not to touch either of us but staying close as she mirrors Atlas’ pose as he flanks my other side. Both of them are offering me what comfort they can right now, which is admittedly very little.

I appreciate it anyway.

Felix kneels down at Nox’s other side, looking over his body with the sort of detached calculation that a Healer has to have even when staring at somebody they considered their friend. The type where he’s separated himself entirely so that he can be objective about this and run the numbers.

It occurs to me that I don't actually know if these two have ever exchanged words.

Nox had once said that he trusted him, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they’d had a good rapport or had even really spoken to each other. All of this is useless information that doesn't matter at the moment, but my brain just can't stop filtering through the facts and stats of things I know, focusing on things that it can process and conceptualize.

My Bonded being dead is not one of those things.

Felix shakes his head, his eyes still scanning Nox’s body. “I can't heal a corpse. I know that already, and Oli… I also know my Gift won't even attempt to heal a corpse, so I can’t just… try it for you. I’m so sorry.”

I want to vomit.

I want to empty what little is in my stomach at his blunt but gentle words, but my bond seems to think it's possible, and I can’t ignore it. I can’t, even if I wanted to, because Nox’s life might just depend on it.

I have to push.

I eye Felix for a minute and make a quick decision. He’s always kept my secrets, even before we’d known that he was Sage’s Bond. He’d healed me a dozen times before anybody knew what my Gift was or about the bond that lives inside of me. He knew the depths of my powers and what was growing inside of me long before anyone else, and he’d never said a word to anyone.

I take a deep breath and then I make the leap to trust him to act the way that he always has before, to trust that he’s going to believe me no matter how freaking insane this all is. I reach out and take his hand, ignoring the way that every eye in the room shifts to us both. Felix frowns at me for a moment, especially when my grip tightens, but when I nod at him encouragingly, his eyes flash white and his Gift floods me.

My bond is relieved to finally have him in our presence and happily shows him the way to our secret cargo, lighting up like a beacon to take him all the way into the depths of my stomach where Nox’s soul is hiding, safe and secure.

Felix's hand snatches away from mine as he gasps, his eyes still white. When I open mine back up, I stare back at him, my eyes a complete juxtaposition of his where they’ve voided out.

Then, without hesitation, he leans over to shove Nox’s shirt up his body.

I want to cry with relief, squeezing my eyes shut as I feel Felix’s Gift leave my body and force its way inside of Nox’s empty shell.

I’m the only one who seems to feel that way.

“You can't heal a corpse, Davenport! Stop that right now, or I’ll have your medical license taken off of you,” Payne screeches, and my bond rears up furiously in my chest, so close to reaching out and destroying him.

But Felix snaps back before it has to, “It's not a corpse, it's a vessel,” and shoves his hands against Nox's clammy, white, dead skin a little harder like he’s trying to get the heart beating again through a massage or something.

I still don’t like him being touched like this.

“Vessel? What the fuck does that even mean?” Atlas snaps, and my bond turns my head to stare him down.